So Proud

 

My love, Colin, got his official job offer last Friday!!

 

I am so excited for him, and for us as a family. I have been wanting to move for quite some time, and feel so lucky that God chose NOW as the time. The circumstances are perfectly lined up--only God could have arranged for all of our blessings to happen all at once.

 

Colin will start his new employment on July 15th. Please pray for his transition.

 

Colin will be living with my parents on and off for at least two weeks, and likely even longer. This will be temporary, but is necessary until we buy a house and close on it.

 

It will be difficult living alone for this time. I love alone time, but I love Colin more! Way more! He is my best friend, and it will be sad to not sleep next to him every night.

 

He will be spending his days off with me when two or more line up...maybe it will feel like we are dating all over again! :)

A Few Great Updates

 

 

 

Life has been full.

 

The beginning of the year was difficult for me....I was feeling lonely being 3+ hours away from family, friends, a church cooking class, a lovely farmer's market, a coffee shop with live music, a city that thrives with their music and arts scene, and so much more. I had a lack of joy for life.

 

We have lived in this city for almost 3 years. Moving here, we never knew if it would become a permanent home or a temporary home. I quickly realized it was temporary. I have really missed the people and activities I once was involved with, and never found replacements. There are several very sweet friends I have found here that will remain life-long friends, I hope.

 

Colin and I started discussing a possible move. When our adoption was moving at a good pace, we thought a move was not an option due to needing our home study completely updated, among other things. But since there has been a huge slowdown, God told us it was time.

 

It has not been made official yet, but Colin has received a conditional offer of employment at a police department less than an hour from my family, and only 5 minutes from the above said cooking class, farmer's market, music scene, etc. A dream.

 

The department is finishing up his background check hopefully this week or next and we will know really soon if he has received an official offer. We would both appreciate your prayers!

 

We have been looking at buying our very first house, and are excited to prayerfully find just the right one to raise our children in. This has been very important to me, as I just could not see us bringing a baby home to our apartment, for many annoying and distracting reasons, including several neighbors. :)

 

God has been so good to us. We are so grateful for His many blessings!

 

I promise to be back really soon with more!



Seven Months Dreaming

 

 

We have been on the waitlist to adopt for 7 months yesterday!

 

Wow, seven months is starting to seem like a long time. That's well over 200 days. To think that this adoption could take 3 1/2-4+ years...well, that's roughly 1200-1500 days.

 

Yes, that is quite a lot of days.

 

BUT, that is QUITE a lot of days of prayer for our little girl! We pray nightly for her and often throughout the day as well. We pray for her birthfamily, Hannah's Hope, Ethiopia, Africa, AGCI staff, etc.

 

She is constantly on our minds!

 

God is refining our hearts through prayer. We are so thankful to Him for so, so much!

May Numbers?

 

I would love to be able to announce that we received our May waitlist numbers from AGCI.

 

However, there will be no more numbers.

 

Towards the end of May we received a long e-mail from AGCI informing us of a lot of changes that have been going on and will be taking place in Ethiopian adoptions.

 

Here are some key points that were made in the letter:

 

*Ethiopia continues to value adoption for their many orphans and there are NO plans to close adoption in Ethiopia.

 

*MOWA (Ministry of Women's Affairs) in Ethiopia is in the process of removing the corruption involved in adoptions, child buying, and other unethical practices that are unfortunately taking place.

 

*Ethical adoption time frames are slowing down because of this, but there is hope of stabilization.

 

*Currently, families are waiting approximately 2.5 years to receive a referral, but we are told to prepare for 3.5 years or more, depending on how open our age/gender/health parameters are.

 

*As of June 1st, the Ethiopia program has been capped.

 

*Families have been given the choice to let their home study expire until approximately 6 months before an estimated referral date. This would reduce the overall cost of the adoption because of all of the updates required to keep it current. However, if a family chooses to do this, they would move appropriately on the list, but they would not be eligible for a referral. At this time, Colin and I are choosing to keep our home study current and are in the process of doing our yearly updates.

 

*Monthly waitlist numbers have been discontinued due to their inaccuracy (if a family is open to an older child with special needs at number 75, they could receive a referral at that number because no family closer to number 1 is open to those parameters). Most agencies do not give waitlist numbers for this reason.

 

*AGCI will continue to give monthly e-mail updates and will inform us of referrals. Ex. A toddler boy was referred to a family with a dossier date of February 2011. Our dossier date is November 2012, so we will be on the lookout for when referrals go out to families with dates near ours.

 

Colin and I remain confident in AGCI's choice in being committed to adoptions that only occur in an ethical manner. We have heard through other AGCI mommas that there have been 3 infant girl referrals in the last 2 weeks! We remain hopeful and in love with our little Ethiopian in our hearts and prayers every single day.

 

I read on the website Incourage, that there is so much comfort in living life knowing that you are in the care of the One who knows the roads like no one else! NO bumps take Him by surprise. Those unexpected ruts and potholes EXIST on His road map! He knows exactly what lies around each corner.

 

So we move forward in peaceful confidence, knowing that God knows.

may letters to Africa

Last week, we sent our May letters to Dominic, Eyouel, and Mugwaneza!

 

We shared with our children about July 4th--Independence Day.

 

We used a printout we found on www.elephantgrace.com . It is bright and colorful and let us share what Independence Day is and how it is celebrated by us.

 

We included coloring sheets with both the flag of the United States of America and of their own countries (Kenya, Ethiopia, and Rwanda).

 

Also enclosed in their envelopes were stickers! We found adorable star stickers at a Christian bookstore that I thought went perfect with our theme of holiday celebration. The stars say 'Shine for Jesus!' and 'I am God's light!'.

 

It is fun thinking about them opening their letters and little gifts. Unfortunately, we are limited on what we can send them, but we hope they find joy in our ideas.

 

If you have any resources or ideas of your own for letter writing and gift giving, please do share!

Blessed With Mother's Day Mail

 

 

When a holiday hurts because of empty, aching arms, the sweet + uplifting words of other adoptive mamas heals some of the pain.

 

When most people we know either can't think of any words to say to mothers-in-waiting, or don't think of recognizing us at all yet...those that do speak words of wisdom and those that do recognize us...they help. They know. They feel with us.

 

I was so blessed last week to receive four beautiful cards from four beautiful women. I have not met these women--I only know them from a Facebook adoption group. But, they made me smile this last Mother's Day weekend--with gratitude for connections and hope for motherhood.

 

To know I am being prayed for is so comforting. And to know my children and their birth families are being prayed for--wow. It leaves me speechless. And so thankful.

 

Lovely Scripture these women wrote out for me:

 

He settles the childless woman in her home as a happy mother of children. Praise the Lord.

~Psalm 113:9

 

Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

~2 Corinthians 1:3-4

 

I am counting on the Lord; yes, I am counting on Him. I have put my hope in His word."

~Psalm 130:5

approved-a-versary

 

 

Yesterday, May 8th, is the 1 year anniversary of when we learned we were approved into the All God's Children Ethiopia program!

 

In last year's post Approved!, I said that the three emotions I was feeling were:

 

THRILLED

GRATEFUL

ECSTATIC

 

Now? Still very thrilled. Still very grateful. Still very ecstatic!

 

We wonder why God chose us.

 

He chose to bring together a small-town farmer's daughter from Wisconsin and a baker's son from Washington. He chose for us to endure infertility. He chose for us to adopt from Ethiopia. He chose for us to be mommy and daddy to at least one little baby from Africa.

 

Sometimes this feels like a very difficult route. It is!

 

But this route requires us to trust Jesus in faith. Without faith, there would only be despair for us. All that would be left would be longing, sadness, and impatience. Faith is everything.

 

Jesus is everything.

 

So we wait in the Presence of Jesus. We hold His hand and give Him thanks and praise for being the God who gives and takes away.

 

He is our Strength.

He is our Shield.

He is our Hope.

Six Months Dreaming

 

We have been on the waitlist to adopt for 6 months today!

 

We are...probably not even 1/8th of the way to our referral.

 

We are...sad that just 6 months into this process our girl number did not move at all and our sibling number went up 3--the opposite way.

 

**This happens when families ahead of us on the list expand their parameters from boy list only to include girl list or sibling list as well. Instead of being placed at the end of the list, they are placed based on the date they joined their initial list/s. Also, some families are placed on hold due to a concurrent adoption or pregnancy, and then added back on at a certain time.**

 

We are also...in awe of God's timing. Sometimes we think 'now' is better. But it is not! God surely knows what is best for us and for His plan for the greater picture.

 

But, most of all,

 

We are...blessed.

 

It is really that simple.

 

When we slow down and walk hand-in-hand with our Creator, He is truly all that matters!

 

I have memorized this verse, and it has become very useful in squashing fears, like a hammer!

 

He will have no fear of bad news;

His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.

~Psalm 112:7