Joy in the Journey

We started this journey over two years ago now. God, put it on our hearts when our youngest was only six months old. I had no idea what this was going to look like. I had no idea that it would be such a long hard road. I had no clue all the lessons God was going to teach me through the process of adoption. It has been painful and stretching and awesome all at the same time.

Today, I am overwhelmed with thankfulness. This process has brought me to my knees over and over again. It has strengthened my trust  and renewed my faith beyond my imagination. This journey has brought me closer to my husband and made me cherish my children even more. Through it all our friends have loved us, encouraged us, supported us, cheered with us, and cried with us. I am so blessed beyond measure! God is so good to me.

I was looking on Adopttogether this afternoon. I love seeing other families with a passion for orphan care. This journey is not easy, but there is comfort in knowing that God is in it every step of the way. I am just so thankful that He has set our family on this path, and I can't wait to see what He has ahead for us.

Perfect

My favorite number has always been seven. It is the perfect number. Growing up it was how many kids I wanted. It was always my "lucky" number if you will. Well, today must be good luck because are unofficially #7!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today, we moved up a spot and there is a family who is assumed to have a referral also. That means we move up 2 spots in one day. I'd say that is  more than luck. That is a blessing. God is faithful even when we are faithless. He has proved this to us over and over again, and yet I still need the reminder.

We are praying that by some miracle our baby girl is home this year. Please pray with us that the adoption process in Ethiopia will continue to move, and that many precious children are placed with their forever families soon. Thank you for all your prayers!

Wait time

Today we got an email from our family coordinator. It said that the wait time for both boys and girls is increasing again. This time is it is going up to 18-24 months. This was a pretty significant jump. Before that it was at 14-18 months. When we started, the wait time for a female infant was 7-11 months. Needless to say, this process is taking much longer than expected.  The other thing the email said was that times are probably going to continue to increase.

This is for sure discouraging. However, we are still trusting that God has perfect timing for our family. We still feel that this is where God has us. Please keep us in prayer. Also, please keep praying for Ethiopia and adoption process. We are so thankful for all the prayers and support we are receiving along the way.

Top Ten, BABY!

Well, there have been a steady stream of referrals coming lately. Not every week, but much more than there had been. This weekend there was a referral which moved us up to the #10!!!!!!!!!!!! We are so excited to be getting closer. We love seeing the movement. Each referral to puts another child with their forever family which we love! Plus, that means we move up a space on the wait list.

Also, we are finishing up all of our renewal paperwork. I had a doctor's appointment today. I started up on some vaccinations. 1 Hep A and 1 Hep B down. Lots more to go. We had a visit from a new social worker last week to update our safety audit. All is well there. We should be sending out all our paperwork tomorrow to have the home study updated. Then we will send that off to update our I-171h. Hopefully, this should all be quick and we will be up to date and ready when our turn for a referral comes up.

We so appreciate your prayers as we continue down this journey. We are praying the movement continues and we are able to have our daughter in our arms in the near future.

Things are starting to move...

Hello, all, Daniel here hacking my wife's computer.  Thought I might take the opportunity to let you in on the good news that just about got me knocked down the stairs, potentially breaking both of my ankles and shattering a rib or two.  Well, maybe that's a little bit of an over-exaggeration, but you get the idea.  SO ANYWAY, we've been spending the evening cleaning the basement sorting through and throwing away toys.  It's been quite an evening, as the boys have done more playing than cleaning, although hearing them get excited about bringing toys from the garage that have been in hibernation for the past six months has been exciting.

Asher: "Oh my goodness, you got the lincoln logs back out!"
Me: "Asher, you're standing on the box, and that has been out the whole time."
Asher: "oh, yeah."

Abby and I had gone upstairs to make out for a minute to put some toys aside to go back out to the garage, and she gets a text from Tami.  As I'm halfway down the cluttered stairs (toys are literally everywhere in the basement right now), I hear massive amounts of squealing, "we moved up, get out of the way!" and start getting shoved to the bottom of the stairs.  Seriously, it's a good thing I have the ridiculous agility of a cat otherwise I would have, well, you already read that part.  Abby runs to the computer, because things really aren't true until she sees them for herself, even if told by a trusted friend (or maybe I'm still bitter over getting shoved down the stairs, forcing me to dodge miniature pirates and OUR CHILDREN PLAYING WITH THEM).  Lo and behold, Tami wasn't pulling her leg.

CONGRATULATIONS, WE'RE UP TO #12 ON THE WAIT LIST!  God has been so good in bringing us to this point, and we know that He will continue to carry us through the rest of the process.  After months of stillness, we're starting to make some headway, which is so encouraging.  Hang on, Amelia, we're coming for you!

Check out our new fundraising site and help us out!  We couldn't do it without all of your support!  And, THANK YOU for your continued donations and prayers!

Fingerprints

Yesterday morning we headed down to Cinci to get fingerprinted again. Ah, the joy of renewing adoption paperwork. It was nice that we were in and out very quickly. We had all three boys with us. God is good and every one was happy and cooperative! Now we just wait for our updated I 171H.

Next up, I need to schedule doctor appointments. In order to update our homestudy we must update our physicals. I'm hoping we can all go in together and get every one done at once. We'll see how that goes.

Another exciting thing is that there was another referral today! Actually our agency had two referrals, but one of them was for a three month old girl! Meaning we move up a spot. We are now number fourteen on our unofficial list. Can I get a WHAT WHAT! I'm a little excited. It has been an eventful week for adoption news.

In other exciting news we are now officially a family on Adopttogether. We heard about this site through a friend, and we are so excited to see how God uses it to help bring home our baby girl. It is a non profit organization that allows you to donate to our adoption. You can check out our profile if you like and we'd love your help if you are able to give.

I think that is it for now. I am so excited to be seeing some movement in the adoption world. It has been much to quiet for too long. Hopefully, I will have more to update soon.

Something to talk about

I'll be honest. I haven't written on our blog in so long because there just hasn't been much happening. Each month passes and we reach another milestone. We will be at 14 months on 1/19. However, there is so little going on I'm just not excited to post. Sorry, but it's true.

However, we have hit a milestone worth writing about (I guess). It is time to start renewing paperwork! WOOOO HOOO. Ok, so that may be a little sarcastic. We have gone far past what we had anticipated our wait being. So far in fact we get to renew our homestudy. We go down to Cinci next week to redo our finger prints for our I-171H (a form we have to fill out for the USCIS).  Praise the Lord we get one free renewal because that one form is expensive.

What I didn't realize is that renewing our home study would be so involved. We have to renew our physical, background checks, fingerprints  (yep, 2 sets) and a handful of other stuff. Plus, this is an additional expense.  Boo.

All that being said I am strangely happy to have SOMETHING to do. It was almost nice when we were paper chasing because there was some kind of movement. So again it isn't just sitting and waiting and praying for a flood of referrals (even though that hasn't changed). Now I have stuff to get done. I love a checklist. So, here it goes. Paper chase round 2 here we come.