Court Date

Okay so I know that I said I was going to try and do a better job of updating this and I haven't! Well here goes another attempt. As most of you already know we are waiting for a court date which is the next step. We were figuring on traveling twice due to new laws that have been made in Ethiopia. The cut off for the new law starting to take effect was May 9th (Mother's Day). Wouldn't you know we got a call of May 7th from our social worker stating that we would not have to travel twice because they applied for our court date!!!!!! Wow, we were 1 day away from traveling twice!!! Our God is truly amazing!!! I also found out from our social worker last week that our court date is scheduled for June 9th. Once they go to court and it passes they apply for our baby's birth certificate and passport and then they schedule an Embassy date which is what we will have to be present for and then we get to bring our baby home!!! Sometimes it might take a couple tries to pass court so I will try and keep you updated if we pass or not. Thanks again for all the prayers and thoughts - they have truly kept me from falling apart in this entire process.

Referral Day

Yesterday, a phone call was received at work from Josh stating that it was urgent and could I please call him back right away! As soon as I hear this relayed message my heart begins to race...what happened? To him? To a family member? So I quickly called him back and realized after he started speaking exactly what was going on....WE GOT OUR REFERRAL!!!!!! Words could not even describe the emotions that started soaring through me! I started crying, I started giggling, I started trying to close my mouth and the smile would just not go away. I made arrangements to leave work early so Josh and I could go and meet with the social worker - when we got there she met us both with a hug! We met at her church and she couldn't have pulled the papers out of her briefcase fast enough! She held the BEAUTIFUL picture of our baby in her hands! Yes at this point we are aware of the gender but we would like to keep this a secret until we bring our baby home! Our child was born on January 19, 2010! So what happens next? I am sure most of you are wondering...I send in the paperwork accepting the referral. Once it is received they do more paperwork in Ethiopia and apply for a court date. If a court date is applied for and attended before May 9th we will not have to travel twice, but if the court date is not applied for and attended we will have to travel to Ethiopia for our first court date and leave our child and come home until we travel for the second time to take our baby home. The estimated time frame for us to bring our baby home is approximately 4 months from now! At this time we want to thank each and everyone of you for your thoughts, words, and prayers! It has been a long road of many ups and downs. We still have a little ways to go so please continue to pray but at least now we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. - Psalm 100:5

Patience

I know that I haven't been doing a very good job of keeping this blog updated...so I thought I better inform my followers as to what is going on. We have officially been on the waiting list as of October 1, 2009! The waiting list for an infant 3 months to 2 years old is approx. 12 - 18 months long. So from here on out we will wait until we get a referral which could be any where from now until 18 months from October 1st. Once we get and accept a referral it will take about 2 - 4 months until we travel to Ethiopia to get our child. We will be in Ethiopia for about 6 - 8 days. Please continue to pray for patience for us as we have definitely felt the prayers that have been offered up and are currently being offered. This has turned out to be a very long process, but with the prayers of our friends and family it has not seemed to be a very long process at all! Thanks again for all of your support and when I hear anything I will post an update! (Hopefully sooner than later!!!!!!!!!)

GREAT NEWS!!!!

Just wanted to give everyone a brief update. I spoke with our social worker on Saturday.....Bethany Christian Services officially mailed all of our paperwork off to Ethiopia on Friday of this past week. Things are really started to move. Once the paperwork is received in Ethiopia they have to translate it and whatever else they do there but once they receive it - we are officially on the waiting list!!!!! This day has seemed so far away but it is here and hard to believe. It still doesn't seem real - but there is progress being made. Praise the Lord!

6 YEARS

Today Josh and I celebrate 6 years of marriage. Who would have ever thought that a baby-lover like me would be waiting this long to start a family. Obviously, the timing thing was not by choice. Just when you think you got your life figured out God gently gives us a reminder that our timing is not our own but His. I received a nice reminder of this from a friend last week - it said - God has already chosen your family. You are not late or behind, instead you are EXACTLY where you should be. Trust His timing, it's perfect! We all need those reminds from time to time. Josh has asked me a few times how I think our life will change when we get our child and I told him I don't think about it because normally everything you think is going to happen rarely ever happens. All we can do is wait and pray because we know when the time is right it will happen!

Timeline

Just wanted to give you a time frame so you understand the process a little more. Josh and I began the process approximately 1 year ago! Our final documents were received in the Indy office on August 13, 2009! The Bethany office has sent our documents to the headquarters in Michigan which are currently (hopefully) being approved. Once they approve our documents they send them out to Ethiopia and then we begin our wait for a referral. The estimated time for a referral is 12 - 18 months :(! The reason for the length of time is because they have to translate all of our documents and also since we have request an infant (0 - 2 years) it usually takes a little longer. For those of you that have never been through this process before I would just like to inform you that even though it doesn't seen that way the wait is the EASY part! Now I feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. There is nothing hanging over my shoulders anymore! I am going to try and keep a pretty accurate update on here as things become available to me. In the meanwhile I am going to start posting some videos other people have put up of their adoption experience to Ethiopia because I think that these videos have really helped me get a sense of what lies ahead.

This video I found through someone's blog and I think it is a great video!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtsYlsQHV4Q

it is from http://boydfamilyadoption.blogspot.com/

The Waiting Game

Today we wait and we pray. We know each and everyday that the Lord has something good in store for us, but we must patiently wait for His good and perfect timing!