number 6 and number 1

The last couple of weeks have seemed especially hard for me. For the longest time I have prided myself on handling God's timing well and my unusual patience with the process. At the end of January, I was very giddy to see many referrals come in, one of them moving us up from number 7 to number 6. The following week, one of the families who was requesting an infant and DTE a couple weeks before us decided to expand their age range, overlapping us somewhat in the toddler range. This moved us back down to number 7. Not to lie, I was a little bummed. In Feb. the referrals have been very slow coming. Spoiled by the rapid pace at the end of January, it was hard on me to see that stop. This week there was one referral that didn't impact our wait in any way, in fact, they were DTE later than us. I am happy to see anyone get a referral, but the selfish side of me is getting awfully impatient. Friday rolled around and I checked the yahoo group many times with much anticipation that I would see families posting that they received their referral, but nothing. With a big sigh, I chalked up to waiting until next week. After Brian's race this morning, I decided to check the yahoo group just for fun. I can't believe it!!!!!! There is a families name with referral next to it. Very giddy, I told Brian that another family received their referral. All 4 of us were sitting at the table so excited. I pulled up their post that said their referral was for a toddler boy. Wow! Now my heart is really racing and I am more excited than ever. Brian says great, now we are number 6 again. Now the fun part. We pull up the spread sheet with the names and their requests on it. I almost lost it when I saw that they were the only family in front of us that was requesting all of our age range. We are still number 6 for the toddler boy list, but now we are next in line, that's right number one, for a toddler boy between 25-30 months. All of the other requests ahead of us do not exceed 24 months. Now when I say any day now, I am being a lot more realistic. So, after a couple of hard weeks, the Lord came in to sweep me off of my feet again. Woo Hoo, thank you Jesus! As for Brian's race, I am so proud of him. He had a 10k this morning that he was hoping to break 7 min miles on and he did. Not only did he get his PR and break his goal, he far exceeded it by having a 6:42 pace for the race. My man rocks! He placed 6th for his age group. Well, I have to go. We are off to go strawberry picking with a bunch of friends from church and then trying out a new amish restaurant. Will try to post pictures later.

moving on up

This week there have been 4 referrals. Praise God!!!!! One of them came from the toddler boy group, making us number 6. Mountains are being moved.

Ethiopian adoption teleconference

Yesterday I spent a good amount of time on a government run teleconference addressing Ethiopian adoption. The call ran from 9-3 and was open to the public. Many of the speakers were government officials (US embassy, USCIS, etc) and others included a social worker, an international specialist pediatrician, and more. Going into the call I was a bit anxious, fearing what the government was going to say and worst of all, would they push to shut down adoptions. You just never know what people are thinking. I was pleasantly surprised that most of what they said was very positive and no they don't want to shut down Ethiopian adoption. Many statistics were given and most of the speakers said they wished to build on adoption and the great things happening with it, while making orphanages less horrific and reducing risks of fraud and corruption. They discussed humanitarian aid and educating the Ethiopian people of ways to provide for their families without necessarily rushing to give their children up for adoption. All in all I agreed with most of what was said and was encouraged to see how many people were working to improve things in Ethiopia, while making adoption safer and more efficient. After the call was over, I learned that the US embassy in Addis Ababa has now made appointments more readily available (every Wedn. vs. every other) and made some other changes which should reduce our wait time between court and embassy by as much as 2 weeks. Great News! Finally, I noticed on AWAA's blog that there have been 8 Ethiopian referrals so far in January and the referral for the toddler boy was 4 months after DTE. We just passed the 2 month mark. I am in awe of how fast things are moving. In the mean time, I will do some more blog stalking, praying, chatting on the wonderful yahoo group, and looking into baby sign language. I would be happy to hear any suggestions on a good book or site for this. One of our friends who adopted many years past mentioned how great baby sign language was, especially for toddlers. Frustration grows when we can't communicate. Basic sign language is easy to learn and can be used until our son learns English so he can communicate with us his basic needs and wants. Have a great day and don't forget to take time to enjoy God and all of his glory.

2 mths DTE

Today is our 2 month anniversary of being DTE. While I anxiously wait for referrals to happen and see us move up on the list, I have surprisingly been less anxious than normal with the slow down in Ethiopia. I am trusting that God will bring on the referral flood soon. In the meantime we will wait, pray, and prepare. I lift up the families who have been waiting much longer than us. I can only imagine what it would be like knowing our time is near and yet being let down each week with a lack of movement. God's got a big and awesome plan that I can't wait to see in the near future.

Why Ethiopia?

I have had a few people ask why Ethiopia and not the United States. I would love to see ALL orphans have a home and family regardless of race, ethnicity, location, etc. I just love to see people adding to their family through adoption. James 1:27 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." Knowing that so many of God's precious children are without homes is just heartbreaking to me. Since God does not rank his children on race, ethnicity, location, etc. I was not about to let those factors influence me. There were so many factors that led us to Ethiopia, but one of the biggest factors for me were the statistics. I have posted these on the right side of my blog. In addition, I have included an incredibly eye opening video about a dump in Addis Ababa where so many live. I agree that there is need in the US, but these statistics show that there is a much greater need in Ethiopia. Hopefully this will help some understand our decision. Do you have room to add one of God's children to your home? Psalm 127:3 "Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children are a reward from him."

The Village of Korah - A short documentary

I just love how eye opening this video is. What is absolutely remarkable to me is the joy on these precious people's faces as they know that any food they find will help their chance of survival another day. When was the last time I had joy like this? I feel ashamed to say that many times I feel entitled to things that I want, not need. Enjoy!

Happy New Year!

This is the year we will hopefully be adding our new precious son to our family. There is no progress as of yet to report. Referrals have slowed down quite a bit, but will hopefully pick up soon. There were only 4 referrals in Nov., 3 in Dec. and none yet in Jan. This follows 15 referrals in October. Selfishly I would love to get a phone call now from our family coordinator saying we have a son, but I am taking great comfort knowing that our almighty creator has perfect timing and is guiding every detail in this whole process. In the meantime, I am excited about the spiritual goals I have made for myself to begin this year. I am going to make an effort to start listening to more sermon's (in the car) to stay focused on different aspects of my spiritual walk throughout the day. This is in addition to my morning quiet time with God and small talks with him throughout the day. I also am bringing out the family veggie tales devotional in an attempt to help the children with their spiritual walk. Stay tuned for more later.....

Anna