BIG news!

So if you read our last post from April, you would understand that our hearts were pretty sad. After the infertility battle and then so many changes with the adoption, it felt like we would never get good news! We knew in our hearts though that God had something so much greater for us as a family, and that good news had to be right around the bend!

Truth is, when I wrote that post, God was already working on something. He had started working on our hearts several weeks before and was asking us to do something big! We were just in the middle of praying and struggling - we wanted to make the right decision and not an emotional decision. The possibility was exciting and terrifying all at the same time! Were we to put the infant adoption (that seemed to get further and further away)on hold and pursue this new path of becoming parents?

In the end of March, we got an email from our adoption agency encouraging all families to take a look at the waiting children list. This list is password protected and holds pictures and bios of children who are older and less likely to be adopted. Shane and I were in different rooms when we got the email and looked at the list. We would later that day discover that God had tugged at both of our hearts with a certain picture/bio. I had immediately fallen in love, and asked God to please give them a good family right away if they weren't supposed to be a part of our family. I wanted more info, but was scared and confused at the prospect of changing our adoption from infant to older child. We decided we would pray and have our parents to pray with us for wisdom. We felt Him push us to take the next step. It took four weeks to get the info because our agency had some holes in their info and wanted to make sure everything was entire and accurate. They were at the mercy of the staff in Africa to get the updated information, and it took like what seemed an eternity! Once we got the information, we spent time pouring over it and having a doctor look at it. We spent more time in prayer and asking questions... and then we officially accepted the referral for two beautiful boys...elementary age, biological brothers,beautiful.

The week after we accepted the referral, our family coordinator sent us an email. She said that the boys had been sat down and told about us, and that they were "ecstatic". They took our pictures that had been cut out of our paperwork, and ran around the transition home showing everyone their new mommy and daddy! She said that they had waited so long. I'm sure they had had friends come and go with their new families, and wondered when it was their turn. Thank you Lord for setting the lonely in families! Thank you for choosing us to be their parents!

We couldn't be happier! My heart is so full, sometimes I feel like it could explode. Our days are spent now getting together a care package to send to our sons filled with outfits and 'Cars' flip flops and pictures and toys :) We are looking for bunk beds, and painting a room, and trying to figure what to do for school next year. Shane is on a Disney movie kick, making sure our boys have the movies that are out before "they go back in the vault"! :)We have soccer balls and nerf guns...but most of all we have SO MUCH love to give. We get to be parents...Praise the Lord.

I can't get a particular song out of my head by Laura Story. Some of the lyrics are as follows:
"We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise"

Amen.

Pray for us as we are waiting for a court date! Also pray that we will be able to raise the extra funds necessary to fly two boys home from Africa (estimated extra cost above what God has provided over the last year is $7,500). Pray that our boys will be safe and healthy, and that we will be able to bond quickly, even through our care package. We unfortunately cannot post names or pictures until we pass court, but we will keep everyone updated on travel, etc. through this blog.

Thank you for your prayers and support! We love you all!

Monday, May 9th



(today) Saturday, May 14th

Several weeks ago at the end of a Sunday morning service, Pastor Danny annointed us with oil and prayed over us. People close to us laid hands on us and prayed as he prayed. He prayed that God would give us a child soon - whether through our adoption going through quickly, or through a pregnancy. Well, since then several other couples in our church have gotten pregnant... but not us. We also have heard no new news on the adoption. Tough stuff to understand. I heard God whisper to my heart this morning, "I have something better for you". Wow. Not that what He has for us is better than anyone else, just better for us as a couple.
God, I know your ways are better than my ways, and your plans are better than my plans. Help us as we try to be happy for everyone else, and wait on what you have for us, because we want what you want. Amen *tears

Hope

Since my last post (where I had planted sunflowers and they were destroyed in a storm), we have planted a full garden. It is extremely therapeutic! I would encourage anyone who is going through something emotionally difficult to plant something. There is something about planting a tiny seedling and seeing a green sprout pop through the soil that puts a smile in your heart. Shane built an above ground garden bed and then we planted together tomatoes, squash, peppers, cucumbers, cilantro, and basil. I had already re-planted some sunflowers in little pots and then transplanted them to the front of our house when they got too big for the pots.












Many of you have asked us if we have gotten any new news yet. Right now our agency is telling us that we will just have to see how things play out over the next couple of months. (Blah) Referrals are still being given and families are passing court, but they just don't know yet if wait times are going to increase for those of us without referrals yet. Keep praying!
Our garden is growing, and with that our hope.

So, my sunflower plants were completely washed away in a horrible storm while we were out of town last week, and then symbolically with that my hope was washed away today when we read this:

Ethiopia
April 5, 2011
Notice: Significant delays remain likely for cases presented
to Ethiopia's Ministry of Women, Children and Youth
Affairs after March 8, 2011
"The Government of Ethiopia's Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs (MOWYCA)
told the American Embassy officials that adoption cases presented to the Federal Court of First
Instance prior to March 8, 2011 will be processed expeditiously. However, cases presented to the
Court after March 8 will be processed in a more deliberate manner to allow greater scrutiny and
oversight. Based on their March 8 announcement the American Embassy anticipates that
MOWYCA will process these cases at a rate of approximately 5 per day.
It is unclear whether there will be an official announcement from the Government of Ethiopia
regarding the plan to reduce the number of cases adjudicated daily.
Prospective adoptive parents who did not reach the court summons stage before March 8, 2011,
should expect significant delays in the progression of their paperwork through the Government
of Ethiopia. Prospective adoptive parents should be in close touch with their adoption service
providers to confirm the status of their cases.
The U.S. Embassy continues to work with Ethiopian government officials and adoption agencies
to gain a clearer understanding of these procedures, and will continue to post information as it
becomes available.
The Embassy's Adoptions Unit can be reached at consadoptionaddis@state.gov.
Please continue to monitor http://adoption.state.gov for updated information as it becomes
available."

Please pray for our hearts...how much hurt can one take? We have been through this cycle of hurt-pain-hope, hurt-pain-hope over and over in the last 2-3 years.

Re-planted my sunflowers yesterday, and praying that as they grow, so does our hope.

We are now 3 months post DTE day! The typical referral wait (before the proposed changes in Ethiopia) was 5-8 months for a baby boy. We are excited that three months have passed already, but we are really trying to enjoy our time together to the fullest. We want to hold our baby boy so badly, but we don't want to wish the remainder of our "just the two of us" time away. I have taken up scrapbooking - something I never thought I would enjoy or be good at! I'm not very crafty, which is odd because my mom is super-crafty! I am working on our "While We Waited For You" scrapbook, which will chronicle all the stuff we did in the wait.
Here are two of the pages I have done so far of our trip to Chicago:





I also planted some sunflower seeds two days ago. I love sunflowers! Once they grow out of their tiny pots, I am going to transplant them by our back fence. They will be a beautiful reminder later of our wait and how far we have come. I am amazed by God and how He makes things grow - in just two days, my little plants have already sprouted! Reminds me of the hope He keeps planting in my heart and allowing to grow. God is so good, and His mercies are new every morning!

Update

We're so sorry it has taken us several weeks to post on here about the changes in Ethiopia. At first it was just painful to think about or talk about for us. More recently, it has just been because of lack of information! Basically, on March 10th (Shane's birthday), the Ministry of Women's and Children Affairs (MOWA) in Ethiopia announced that they were cutting the amount of approval letters they write (which a family has to have in order to pass court and bring your child home) by 90%. When I first heard the news, this basically translated in my mind as "you will not bring your son home for years". We were shocked at this sudden and drastic change, and felt like our dreams of meeting our son this year had been crushed. We were also extremely saddened at how this would effect all of the orphans in Ethiopia who would, in essence, stay orphans for longer. We have not heard a whole lot of information over the last couple of weeks, but what little we have heard has seemed positive and encouraging. There are a lot of people working on behalf of the orphans and waiting families, and we firmly believe that God is going to turn this situation around. He loves orphans way more than any of us do, and "He sets the lonely in families". Continue to pray with us as we trust and wait. To stay updated on the situation, or to find out more information about the situation in general, you can follow posts on http://www.jointcouncil.org/, and for updates specific to our adoption agency, follow their blog at http://adoptedbydesign.typepad.com/.

A lot of people have asked us if any of this changes our plan to continue to adopt from Ethiopia... ABSOLUTELY NOT. God asked us to adopt from Ethiopia, we love our child/ren in Ethiopia, and our lives would be impoverished without them. We are yet to be all that God has created us to be as a family, and the effort it takes to move forward is worth it. "Well, you'll get pregnant now- everyone who plans to adopt ends up getting pregnant!" One, that's not true. Not everyone who adopts ends up getting pregnant and having biological children. Two, whereas obviously we would be overjoyed with a pregnancy, we would still adopt children from Ethiopia. Our adoption was not a back-up plan or a whim, but a choice and an anwswer to God's calling on our lives. Thank you for following this (crazy) journey with us!