Watching God Move Mountains

Ahhhh. This is a glorious post. After waiting for so long, feeling defeated for so long, I am now watching God move mountains. God has been moving mountains, but until now, it all was behind the scenes so to speak. Just over a month ago, we received an email from our family coordinator stating that the Kilil clearance (5th level of clearance for Ethiopia's southern region) has put into effect a way to process clearances for children from this region. They were unsure how long it would take for us to see them process clearances, but it was up and running. About 2 weeks ago, referrals started to be issued. It has been what seems like eternity since we have seen any referrals other than those from the waiting children's list. The 1st 3 referrals were for baby girls. These families have been waiting the longest and was such a blessing for them. Although our list didn't budge, it was so reassuring to see movement. On Tuesday we received 2 emails from our family coordinator. The 1st email stated that they were increasing the wait time for males to 14-18months from DTE. At 1st I was miffed that I was being reminded of how slow things are moving, but then I was overcome with peace. This might have been partly due to me opening up God's word and not just hiding behind the Bible Studies I was working on. Anyways, the increase in wait time really meant nothing and this was the 1st time it was increased, but we stayed within the range. Every other time the wait time increased, we were pushed further from the range or removed from the range. Not this time. Although we are at the start of the range, we are still in the range (14.5 months). For this, I am rejoicing. The second email stated that our home study has expired and that our I-171H is about to expire. My 1st thoughts were those of inconvenience, but quickly began to seem like no big deal. We needed to update these anyways to allow us to adopt an infant. Because our original request was for a 1-3 year old, we are not approved to bring a boy under 1 into the US. I don't anticipate these updates to be a big deal and contacting our social worker is on my to do list today. We have decided to ask our social worker to approve us for as many kids of both gender and of as big of an age range as she will allow. This is something we wish we had done from the start. It will be interesting to see what she sees fit for us. Once the home study is updated, we will send it to USCIS and they will issue us a new I-171H with our new request on it. This does not change our request with the agency. I believe we will leave that at one boy 0-12 months; however, if we should change our minds again, the approval will already be there. Yesterday, there was all sorts of good news.
#1, a fellow adoptive family asked there family coordinator about the kilil clearances. This was the response they received:
"America World has received a clearance for a child from the southern region and
are aware of others that have been issued. We anticipate receiving more
clearances in the near future and therefore hope to see more referrals issued
over the next couple of weeks. For confidentiality reasons, we will not note if
children are referred from the Southern region but we can share with families
the rate at which we see clearances being issued. We hope to have more
information to share by the time we have our February conference call."

Sounds good to me :)

#2 On the yahoo group, an encouraging note. It is so easy to get wrapped up in the DTE list seeing our number stay the same or worse yet, get bigger. Many of us waiting don't view the needs at a glance list, which stated families court dates, embassy dates, etc. This parent pointed out that on the NAG list, families of 24 or more children have been submitted to embassy and will soon be taking their children home. This frees up space in the transition home for 24 more children who need to be referred. WooHoo!

Finally, #3 A families referral for a 4 month old baby BOY! This puts us at number 10! We are finally in the top 10!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My heart is rejoicing. I am so hopeful (which I really needed) that things are going to move really fast now. This is the flood so many of us were waiting for. I know this is dumb, but I just can't help myself. My new guess is that we will have our referral in 2 months. We shall see.

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Happenings

I know I don't post a lot lately, but there really has not been much to post and most days, I do my best to put the adoption in the back of my mind to keep sane. It is very hard to anticipate things progressing day after day and see nothing. Yes, I know it is in God's timing. Reminding me of this makes it no easier and to be honest, I feel like I am getting spit on when someone says that to me. I have a close relationship with God and communicate with Him often. I don't need anyone telling me His truths. I already know them. All I want is people to listen and pretend like they understand how hard this journey is. For this I am very grateful for our agencies yahoo group. We may not have met each other in person, but we understand what each other are going through, pray for each other, shed tears for each other, and rejoice together. I know God enjoys seeing His children loving each other in this way. A while past, the southern region of Ethiopia added a clearance children needed to go through to be paper ready. Although this other step was added, there was something preventing them from being able to process this clearance. I'm not really sure of all the details. Last week, we received an email from our family coordinator stating that this other office (?) is now up and running. WooHoo. The agency did not know how fast they would process clearances or how long things would take. Obviously I would like to know details, but am very happy for a big glimmer of hope. This was good news number one. Good news #2 is that a family who was trying to get an expedited visa to bring their daughter home, was just granted one. YAY!!!! They will be able to leave Ethiopia Wedn or Thurs night and get her to a hospital in the states to have tests done. Praying big for this family that they get answers and treatment so their little girl gets well. The last good news to report is that a family in line for a little girl got a referral yesterday. Praise God! They have been DTE since the end of Aug. 2010. I am very happy that they can see their daughters precious face. Well, that's about it for now. We are still hoping that the flood gates open and the referrals pour out..... soon. We are still number 11, but will post as soon as that changes. Bye for now.

A great day

Today is going to be a good day. This has nothing to do with events that may or may not happen, but about how I make it in my mind. I could choose to look at all the difficult circumstances or I could choose to look at all my blessings. I am grateful for the Lord and for everything He is. The peace that I receive through Him surpasses any temporary gratification that the world can provide. It's easy to keep up with routines and forget about Satan's influence on the world, but when you step back and pay attention, it is so real. Satan doesn't want what is best for us like God does. Instead he feeds us with lies to steer us away from God and His peace. While these lies seem small and harmless, they add up and steer us further from our creator and protector. Today is going to be good because I am aware of Satan and his schemes and I will conquer his lies with God's truth. When I see greed and selfishness creep in, I will go to my Father for strength and humbleness. It is not about us! We are all better off loving others as ourselves and putting others first.

11 month anniversary

Happy, or not so happy, 11 month anniversary to us since being DTE. Courts are now open, but there have been no referrals lately. It has been tough not seeing progression and not understanding why. The agency is still estimating wait times for an infant boy to be between 10 and 16 months, but is expecting the wait times to increase. I guess we are just along for the ride. I am so blessed to have an awesome group of friends in my accountability group who listens, prays, and encourages me. Last week I shared that I've been having pity parties with the whole adoption. They are encouraging me to stay away from the yahoo group, only checking it once a week at most. While this is hard, it's better that way. It has consumed me, as I check it nonstop throughout each day thinking there has to be someone stating that they have received a referral. It's always a big let down. To end on a positive note, even though I am trying not to buy anything for our son until we receive his referral, I got a great deal on a car seat. Since I am a planner, I have known for sometime now the car seat I wanted to get. It just so happened that my friend had that car seat and is selling it because her son has outgrown it. It's in great condition and is only costing me $50. instead of $225 for buying it new. Woohoo. Well, that is it for now.

Referrals in the air and court opening

On Friday last week, two families received referrals. I am hoping this is the beginning of many more to come. Since one of the referrals was for an infant boy, we were able to move up in line. Now we are:

Also, we got an email from our family coordinator saying that court will reopen Wednesday October 12. My hope is that while courts were closed, MOWCYA got caught up on their backlog of cases and was able to work out some of their kinks.