We Are Still Here

I know, I am a terrible blogger! Well, we are still here, I promise. We are still waiting as well.... We know that we are getting closer to receiving our referral. We did receive the update that our agency is giving referrals of infants now to families who have been waiting since June 2008, and that is us. We are mid-June. So, it is nice to know they are giving referrals for families in our month. So, we hope that we will be called soon. We will definitely post once we hear something or other updates that we receive. Thank you to those who do check up on us every once in a while. We hope to have some exciting news to share soon! Hope everyone is well and getting excited about the holiday season coming up!

21!!!

Well, 21 referrals were given last week! We were amazed that it was another significant number, and we are excited to know that children that need permanent, loving families are being matched with their families. This next week, we will be anxious to see if any families in June receive their referrals.

Well, we have been doing some extreme nesting, and we are fortunately coming to the end of that. We are finishing up our kitchen this weekend, so we are ready to be done with the extreme nesting. My friend, Elizabeth, who I visited in the Persian Gulf last fall will be here next week with her husband, Curt. We are excited to see them, but the house definitely has to be back in order before they arrive.

Well, we will keep you updated! Thank you for continuing to read our posts!

More Good News

Hello all, we received an e-mail on Wednesday of this last week letting us know that the courts in Ethiopia, which usually close for the months of August and September, are staying open for August this year. They were not really sure what that meant for September or other months the rest of this year, but everyone is very excited to hear they will be open for August. It just means that more children will be joined with their forever families!!! They also mentioned that they are seeing an increased number in referrals due to a region in the Southern part of the country gaining more access to the adoption system. So, more children are having the opportunity to find permanent, loving homes!!!! So, we are anxiously waiting to see how this will affect our current timeline. We had been told that we could expect to find out about our baby at the end of the summer or early fall, so we will see if it might be a little bit earlier. I am anxious to see the update for this last week, which will come out on Monday. We will let you know!

29!!!!!

So, we received our weekly update today from our adoption agency. Well, it actually didn't come via e-mail the way it has the last few weeks, but I called the hotline to receive the information. So, as I listend intently to the information, I heard the voice say that 29 referrals were given last week. Obviously, that couldn't have been accurate, but I have called the hotline two more times and confirmed that they really did say 29!!!!!! That is a whole lot of referrals for one week! We were so excited. So, we continue to wait with great excitement and anticipation. It was really nice to receive such good news today!

Wellington Orphanage and Updates on the Adoption

We haven't written about our sweet children at the Wellington Orphanage in some time. Everytime I open our blog a smile comes to my face as I see their sweet eyes and smiles. We do love and care for these children so much, and we are very anxious to see them again. We were just talking about if this would be a possibility before our adoption, but it doesn't appear at this time that it will be possible. As you have read on here before, they are so amazing, and you just can't help but want to be around them all the time. We are so blessed and have been forever impacted by these children and what God has done, is doing and will do with and through these children. It is really exciting because a friend of ours, Amy, who we met on our trip in November moved to Sierra Leone in June, and she plans to stay through the end of this year. She is specifically working with the children on their education. She is providing tutoring on their lessons and challenging them beyond their lessons, so they can receive the best education possible. We are so excited for her and for the kids. We have received a couple of updates from her and things are going well. The kids are already beginning to learn some really great things like reading, adding, etc. She is such a cool gal with an unbelievable testimony.

We are able to correspond with Bintu, the young girl we sponsor, as teams come back and forth. Most recently, she made me this beautiful cross necklace, which I love. She is a precious young lady that has such strong faith in the Father. As I write about these children even now, tears come to my eyes and I am extremely humbled on so many levels.

Another great thing is that 4Him continually takes trips to Sierra Leone to the orphanage. I totally challenge anyone to consider this. You can always check out their website at www.4-Him.net. Also, on the current trips, someone is blogging about the trip, and I have included that link as well. You should totally check out this blog: http://pushingbackdarkness.com

Well, things are still moving along with the adoption. We get weekly update e-mails on Mondays, which I thoroughly enjoy! The last two weeks 15 referrals have been given and several families have passed through court and have traveled to receive their children. We are doing a phone conference today with the agency to get some more updates, so that will be good. We are anxious to see what the end of the summer/beginning of the fall shall bring! Just FYI: After we receive our referral and officially accept the referral, then we will wait for them to assign our court date, which could take a couple of months, especially since we will be receiving our referral while the courts are closed. Once we have our court date and hopefully pass through court the first time, then our baby will officially be our child. They will actually send us a birth certificate even before we travel!! After we pass through court, then they will give us permission to travel and assign us a travel date. That should just be a few weeks after court. We're so excited, and we are so ready to meet this little person!

Well, I think that is all for now. Thank you so much for continuing to read.

Just Reporting In

Well, nothing too new to report. We're just hanging out and continuing to wait. I did just make my first book purchase for our baby, which was pretty fun! I love the website Amharic Kids, but it does get me into a lot of trouble! So, our child now has their first coloring book and children's book about Ethiopia. I'm pretty excited about them, and I promised Kevin that I would space out my book purchases to maybe just one a month, we'll see. They do have a really cute one on sale right now that is called "I Love my Hair", so I may have to go ahead and break that promise.

I don't know if I mentioned that we have already bought our child's first stuffed animal as well. Once we find out who our baby is, then we will be able to send them a care package with pictures, a stuffed animal, clothes, blanket, etc. We get to fill a one-gallon freezer bag to be sent to Ethiopia, so we will fill it as full as we can! So, we have purchased the cutest little stuffed monkey. I'll put the pic below. We actually went ahead and bought two, so we can send one and take one with us to Ethiopia. We're pretty fond of the monkeys.



I got to see my brothers, sister-in-law and newphews a couple of weeks ago, and it was fabulous! We had great time, and we were able to celebrate Nyle's first birthday! The boy loved his cake, well, the icing!



So, we are just working on house projects, planning some quick, fun trips and just trying to use our time waiting as wisely as possible.

Hope everyone is doing well and having a good summer thus far.

We are Still Here!

Wow, I am behind on blogging, aren't I!! Thank you for checking out our blog and being interested in what is going on; we appreciate the time that you take to do that. I am sorry that I have not done a very good job the last couple of months updating things.

So, in April, I had my birthday, which was really fun because I received some really cool gifts that had a wonderful theme: Adopting from Ethiopia!!!! Kevin gave me a charm called "Chosen Hand: The Gift of Adoption." It is the sweetest charm that I can wear as a necklace. My friend, Melodie, had received one for her birthday, so I found out about it from her. You can check out www.sterlinggrace.net for your very own charm. It comes with the sweetest poem, which is written below.

For a child you prayed
He heard the request
And that of the birth Mother
who wanted the best
The prayers of each other
He merged together
Directing our paths
He broughts us together
From His own hand into yours
God created me
Then you chose to take me
A parents love birth deep
in your heart
Our lives are now blessed
thanks be to God
for knowing what's best.

My sweet friend, Melodie, also bought me a beautiful charm that means "mother" in Amharic, which is the official language in Ethiopia. She found it at www.dosbesitos.etsy.com. I LOVE IT!!! Then, my precious mother-in-law, Karen, got me a t-shirt online that has Ethiopia spelled out in the colors of the nation's flag. I love getting to wear all of this because they are a constant reminder of the precious child that God has chosen for us. It was a great birthday!

As far as timing on our referral, there have been some changes. In March, things were looking really good for us to receive our referral in June; however, since that time there has been a continual slowing for several reasons that I have listed below.

- it is taking longer for all the appropriate paperwork regarding the child's orphan status to be processed prior to them being eligible for adoption
- an increasing number of agencies are beginning to work in Ethioipia, so that, combined with several other country's adoption programs closing and having significantly increased wait times means a larger number of families adopting from Ethiopia
- Our agency just started adopting with their second orphanage, but there is an authority change occuring for this orphanage within Ethiopia, so that has held up referrals from that orphanage. They hope that this will be resolved soon and more referrals will begin to be processed from that orphanage.
- Now, this final reason is a wonderful reason that we are very pleased with and excited about. More family and child welfare aid is becoming available, so more families have the option of choosing to parent in Ethiopia!!!! That is awesome and an answer to prayer!

So, with all of this going on, then they are anticipating that we will receive our referral towards the end of the summer or later. Yes, on the one hand we are definitely disappointed. It feels as though the closer we get, then the further our referral gets. On the other hand, we can't be disappointed if more children have the ability to stay with their birth families in their birth countries! Now, we definitely know that there are MILLIONS (144 million to be exact) of children who need homes, so we know that God has a child ordained for our family, so we are doing the best that we can to wait patiently on Him. I guess what I am trying to say is that is difficult to be completely disappointed and impatient if we know that some things are actually being done to help children be able to stay with their birth parents. Now, the important thing and the challenge is ensuring that these families have what they need to appropriately and successfully raise their children throughout their lives. Most importantly, we are prayerful that believers will be supporters of such endeavors and active in going and sending others so that the world may know HIM.

Now, I am not going to kid you or myself and pretend that the waiting is not excrutiating at times. It definitely has it moments and its days, and I definitely struggle with will this ever happen or is this just a distant dream. The study of Esther by Beth Moore is being offered at my place of employment during lunch on a weekly basis. So, this week she talked about waiting on the Lord and not on the event. She talked about how waiting on the actual event will drain you and exhaust you, but that waiting upon the Lord will renew our strength. I thought it was an amazing distinction to make. All this time, I kept telling myself to wait upon the Lord, but I have been waiting on our referral. Now, I don't know what it completely looks like to wait upon the Lord in this particular situation, but I am asking the Lord to help me. He and I have had several conversations that He will have to teach me how to trust Him through this. Wow, what a journey!

Well, thank you for enduring all of this information; it is probably more than you bargained for, but that is the update at this point. I will do better at blogging more often, so the entries aren't so long! Oh yes, on a fun note, my brother and his family returned from Eastern Europe last week from their service. So, it is so nice to have them back home, and I will get to see them soon. I can't wait to squeeze my little newphews!!!!

Good News!

The last few weeks have brought good reports from the land of Ethiopia, which we are very thankful for! After we received the update that the courts were still running a little behind in February, our adoption specialist from our agency notified us that things were running well, and they were seeing referrals coming in at 12 months for families, which is what they have been expecting and telling us for several months now. We have been officially waiting for 9 months, and hopefully we only have 3 more months to wait, if that long. It also did report that families are traveling to pick up their child closer to 4 months rather than 2 or 3 months. Prior to this report, we had already been preparing ourselves that we may not be able to bring our baby home until the fall. We are just prayerful that we will have our baby home by the holidays.

Then, last Friday, 3/13, we received an update that showed statistics of referrals over the last several months, and it reported that no family had waited more than 12 months for their referral that were within the same age range as we are requesting. So, we were really excited about that. They also reported that our agency is starting to adopt with another orphanage in Ethiopia. So, they will be adopting with two different orphanages, which will provide homes for so many more children in need. We felt really good about the report we received, and we were very encouraged. So, we are very excited to see what the next couple of months bring.

Well, we are working to get the nursery ready and get projects at the house completed while trying to keep up on our reading and research. Thank you for your continued prayers and being on this journey with us!

Our niece, our anniversary and update on our adoption

On February 5, Kevin and I became an aunt and uncle again to our sweet little niece, Claire! She was born a little after 8:00 am that morning, and she weighed 7 lbs. and 4 oz. She was 20 and 1/2 inches long. She has a sweet little head of hair, and it is light brown right now. She is so sweet. She is our first niece, and we are really excited to be a part of her life.



Also this month, we celebrated our 7th anniversary! Wow, we can't believe that we have been married for 7 years. It has gone by so fast, and we have had so much fun together. We have had the opportunity to experience so many amazing things, and we are so thankful for that. I am so blessed to have Kevin as my husband. I could have never asked for a more perfect husband. It is amazing to see how God put us together for very specific reasons and how He knew exactly what I needed, even when I didn't have a clue. He is so selfless and giving. He sacrifices for me everyday, and he is going to make an amazing father. He found roses for me that had purple baby's breath, which was perfect because our wedding colors were red and purple. He did very well!


Finally, we have received a couple of tidbits of information from our adoption agency. 1) The courts in Ethiopia are still running behind due to an increased number of cases to work through and the need for increased legislative staff. So, from what we understand, the country is working to hire more federal judges, so they will have the staff they need to effectively manage all of the adoption cases. So, we are praying that they will be able to hire the judges they need quickly, and they will be able to assume their positions quickly. 2) As June gets closer, the agency will set a cut off date for referrals due to the yearly court closure in August. So, as the spring gets closer, then we will know what date we would need to receive our referral by to be able to travel before August and bring our baby home. If we do not make that cut off date, then we will travel to Ethiopia in the fall. So, we are praying that we make the earlier date. We know that God has the perfect timing, and we are trusting Him for that. We do covet and appreciate your prayers.

Excited for My Youngest Brother

Last Thursday my youngest brother, Aaron, appeared on Grey's Anatomy as an extra! It was really cool, and we are all very exicted for him. He moved to LA in August to explore the acting industry, and he has been able to work as an extra on several sets. It was really great to anticipate and then actually see him on the show. He appears at the very end of last week's show. He is sitting on the front row on the far left observing the execution that takes place on the show. He did a fabulous job. Way to go, Aaron!

Saying Goodbye

Well, January has been full of goodbyes. Andrea's younger brother and family moved to Eastern Europe and Kevin's younger brother moved to Southeast Asia and both will be in their respective places for a few years doing different types of work. We are very excited for them, but it was really difficult to see them go. They are doing well, and we have been able to communicate fairly frequently, so that has been really good. Thank goodness for Skype. If you have family that lives out of town or overseas, you should totally check out Skype. You can just download it online, and it is free if your family or friend has Skype as well. It really is awesome! So, I get to see my nephews on a weekly basis. It's not the same as hugging their little necks, but it is a great option! We are so thankful for our families and the ways they are serving. Please remember them in your prayers as you think of them.

Christmas and Nephews!

You can sum up Christmas with one word: Nephews! We were able to see all three of our nephews this Christmas, and it was great! We had a great Christmas and especially a lot of fun with the boys!

Caleb played Santa this year and passed out everyone's gifts. He did a great job and got them all in the right place. He just turned two, and he is going to be a big brother to his sister, Claire, on February 5! We are very anxious for her arrival.

Nic and Nyle are 3 and 6 months. We had a great time at Christmas with them, and we were able to watch Wall-E with Nic a couple of times. They are moving to Hungary this week, so we are obviously extremely sad to see them go. We are very thankful we were able to spend a few days with them over the holidays.


No new updates on our adoption at this time. We are just still anxiously and patiently waiting! Our current timeframe is finding out who our baby is around June. We are very prayerful and hopeful that next Christmas we will get to add pictures of our baby with his/her cousins. :)