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.