A little discouraged

Today I have been a little discouraged. I talked to my case worker and found out that I am #13 on the waitlist which is good because it means I've moved up. But I also found out that the #1 person on the waitlist has been waiting 8 months. Which means it could take 8 months for our referral. Which is a really REALLY long time! I just feel a little overwhelmed at that thought. I want to stay positive and upbeat but sometimes I dont know what to do with the emotions I feel. The anxiousness and longing in my heart seems unbearable sometimes. Another woman who is adopting reminded me that sometimes these feelings are good because it keeps us fighting for our child. It challenged me to keep fighting for my child in prayer. It's the one thing I can do for her right now.
So with that said, please keep me in your prayers. Pray that I wouldn't give in to discouragement, but that I would learn to go to the Lord and pray. My daughter needs someone to fight for her and I want to step up. After all that the Lord has done to part the seas and make this adoption possible, why should satan steal my joy. Instead I want to praise God for all He has done.

1 month down...

Well, we've had our paperwork in Ethiopia for over a month now. We figure our estimated due date is March 5th. That would be exactly 6 months. :) The waiting has actually been easier for me since we turned it in. I feel better knowing the ball is in their court now. I've done my part.
We started the babies room but it's been pretty slow moving. I'm still taking all the other stuff out. So, once we get anything exciting done I'll post a picture.
Other than that please continue to pray for our baby. Your prayers mean the world to us!

Fun Stories

So we are going to have probably 6 months of no new news on the adoption. So I probably wont post as often in the coming months. We are still praying that God will provide the rest of the means for us to bring our baby home. We took a brief break from our efforts but I started regaining focus again. But I thought I'd share a couple stories that encouraged me.
My mom was at the dentist yesterday and she was telling the lady all about the adoption. After her appointment the lady gave her ten dollars and told her to give it to us towards bringing home our baby. I was so blessed. I am continually amazed how many people support us. Even perfect strangers. Ten bucks is a drop in the bucket as far as the grand total needed. But it made my heart overflow with gratitude. And reminded me once again that God's hand is in this.
Another cool thing happened too. Months ago I shared that my brother made a committment to wear our adoption shirt everyday for 8 weeks to raise awareness. Well last week that commitment was ending and he thought it hadn't really done any good. Then the very last day he was giving a piano lesson to one of his students. The mom asked him if he was wearing his shirt. He showed her that it was under his sweatshirt. And the mom said she wanted to bless us and gave us one hundred dollars! I was SO blessed! God is good. ALL the time.

The "Official Wait" has begun.

I found out today that our dossier arrived in Addis on Sept. 5th. So the official wait has begun. They are currently translating our document and there's no reason it shouldn't be done in time. SO now we wait for "the call". There are 16 people in front of us on the wait list. And it's estimated to take 6 months.

It occured to me the other day that if we are going to receive a referral in about 6 months and she will be at least 2 months old then she has to be alive now. She might not be born yet, but she is alive. My baby girl is somewhere in Ethiopia.

So here are some things you can pray for:
-For her safety, that no harm will come to her physical body
-That she will receive the nourishment that she needs
-That her birthmother will come to know Christ if she doesn't already
-That she will attach emotionally to someone
-For the caretakers in the Orphanage that she will be at at somepoint if not already, that they will have the strength/patience/love/provisions that they need.

On it's way to Ethiopia

Our Dossier was mailed to Ethiopia on September 2nd. It takes about 5 days to get there. I am so excited to be in this phase. It seemed like a long time getting here and yet not that long ago that we started this whole process! God has been so amazingly faithful! And I have been so overwhelmed by the amount of love and support we have received from our family, friends, and sometimes perfect strangers. Now that our paperwork is out I'm going to get started on my thank you notes to all of you guys!
I have also started to prepare the babies room! I am so excited about this! I bought a baby bedding set and went and picked up my sisters crib. I now have a crib in my house that my baby will someday sleep in!!! Isn't that awesome! Getting the room ready will keep me busy and excited for a while, then the holiday season will come, then Melanie's wedding...before i know it these six months will pass! I can't even explain how excited I am.

DOSSIER DAY!

Today I was talking on the phone when I pulled into my drive way. I looked at the house and yelled "There's an envelope on my porch!" I ran up and it was indeed the last two forms I needed in order to mail in my official dossier. So I went to the bank and got the money orders I needed. Figured out how to go about mailing all the stuff and got everything ready. Then Sam and I went to the FedEx place and officially mailed our dossier! It wont go out until tomorrow morning but it's out of our hands. Which means its in the hands of some minimum wage fedex/kinko's employee at the moment...that's a little scary! Here's the picture I made the fedex guy take of us holding our dossier getting ready to mail it. (yes he did look at us like we were crazy, as did Sam when I told him what the camera was for)

Garage Sale

Our garage sale this weekend was very successful. We made more than twice what I expected! Praise the LORD! I know it was God pouring His blessing on us that made it so successful. A lot of people were praying about it and he answered our prayers, and blessed us beyond our expectations. I want to thank everyone who helped or donated or prayed for us. I can't tell you how much it means to us to have people come alongside of us and support us.
Well we are getting closer and closer. We heard from CWA and they said our dossier is complete and accurate. So as soon as we get the 2 papers from them we can send it to Washington DC. I'm not sure how long the turn around time is in Washington but we'll keep you posted each step of the way!
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves."
Ephesians 1:3-6