It's THERE!

Okay, so our paperwork is officially in Ethiopia, with the people it needs to be with. Now, I believe that if it is translated and approved by the courts by May 9, we only travel once. Of course, no one is certain on that, so we may not know if we're traveling once or twice until mid-late May or until our court date is set. Still, knowing that the paperwork is there makes me feel so much better.

Now what? I guess we just wait to hear when our court date is. Many families working with our agency received good court news today. Some received court dates in May and others found out they already passed--one family passed just 6-7 weeks after receiving their referral. I don't know how fast this will go for us, but it can go very quickly and it can take a lot longer than predicted...really no rhyme or reason. I keep telling people we'll have her home sometime between August and November. Of course, if we have to go twice, it'll probably make things take longer, but we'll get there! At least, I'm feeling positive about it today. Ask me again tomorrow...this is such a roller coaster.

Shopping!

Well, no good news on the paperwork...it is IN Ethiopia, but FedEx won't deliver it to where it needs to get by tomorrow (well, it's actually already Friday in Ethiopia). I have no idea why they won't deliver it, but they won't. So our agency is trying to figure out how to get it where it needs to be. We're still praying!

Onto more positive things...A few Christmases ago, my family decided that we'd just buy gifts for kids and that the adults would pool their money and give it to a specific charity. This past Christmas, I got to choose where the money was spent. Chris and I decided that we'd buy stuff to take with us to our daughter's care center in Ethiopia when we finally got to go. Well, tonight I went on the first of many shopping trips to gather some of the needed items. I spent $80 and got:

40 sippy cups
48 rolls of fly paper (they asked for it!)
6 tubes of anti-fungal cream
10 tshirts 5T and up
3 wooden puzzles
5 bottle brushes
70 plastic spoons
10 yards of fabric to sew 4 baby slings
1 package of building blocks
I took Gavin with me and he had a good time picking things out for mommy & daddy to take with them for the other kids that are staying with our Kayla. It was nice to have my mind occupied with something adoption-positive for a little while.

Today...

Today has been a depressing day and an encouraging day all rolled into one. At the start of the day, two other families working with our agency announced that their paperwork had made it to Ethiopia. I assumed that this meant I'd probably get an email stating the same thing about our paperwork...not so. There has been "some problem" with the delivery of our paperwork--and a couple of other sets--our agency will work on tracking it tomorrow, but our window of opportunity to only travel once is closing really quickly. So, I've kind of been in a funk for most of the day.

About an hour ago, I decided it's really out of my control so there's no sense letting it consume me. Sure, it's annoying and upsetting, but I can't do anything different now and I couldn't have done anything differently along the way to make this turn out better, so I'm doing my best not to let it get me down (for now anyway). God will make a way...either it'll get there in time or the funds will be provided for us to go twice. If you know me, you know I'm already working on a plan for that anyway. It wouldn't be ideal, but we'd make it work. God has been so faithful to me for nearly 32 years, I can't imagine that would stop now! So, while I'd still LOVE to hear that our paperwork has made it and I'll be checking my email every 5 minutes for the next two days to see if we have that news, I am at peace with either outcome.

Now, to the good stuff...our MOPS group brought in a photographer to do old fashioned pictures of our kiddos this month. For a $10 sitting fee, you could get a 10x13. I went in today to view the pictures KNOWING that I absolutely could not spend the $120-$300 for a package and that I would only take the free portrait. Of course, the pictures of my boys were gorgeous and it was very hard not to purchase them, but we're putting every extra penny into this adoption, so I did walk away. A few of my wonderful friends could tell how much I loved the photos AND they loved them, too, so they got together and purchased some for me. In addition, another friend dropped off a seriously sweet and encouraging note reminding me about the good parts of being in the ministry and put some cash in it to help us out. Her timing could not have been better.

See, God is faithful even in the little things--like me feeling a little discouraged. I just know He'll take care of this big one for us, too.

Adoption Creed

"Not flesh of my flesh, nor bone of my bone, but still so miraculously my own. You grew not under my heart, but in it."

I had this saying hanging in my bedroom when I was a kid--from my mom, of course. The same saying is in our daughter's room--just waiting for her to get here. I hope it means as much to her as it meant to me when I was growing up.

Love you, mom!

Our Baby Girl

One of the things our agency asks us to do is put together a photo book to send to Ethiopia. So, today we put together a photo book to send to our baby girl while we all wait to be together. She is just over 5 months old now and her name will be Kayla once we get her home--in case you don't know, that is the name of my parents first little girl who passed away at the age of two. That is what led to my parents adopting me, so I have always known that we would use her name for the first little girl we had.

No news on the adoption--last we heard, our paperwork was stuck in transit due to the volcano in Iceland. Supposedly, it's somewhere in Europe right now. In order for us to only travel to Ethiopia once it needs to arrive in Ethiopia, be translated, authenticated and approved in court BEFORE May 9th. Only a miracle will pull that off, but we believe in a great God, so we're praying for that miracle. Of course, if it doesn't happen, we'll just have to travel twice and we know that God will provide for that, if necessary.

Here are a few of the photos we're sending our little one. It seems silly to send pictures to a 5-month-old, but I'm guessing it's more for the peace of mind of her caregivers than for her and it'll be a keepsake as she gets older.

Our home

Big brothers...ready and waiting

Her room

The family (minus one, for now)

April (Easter)

I got one picture of the Easter egg hunt before the camera battery died. They had fun anyway.
Reily (3 1/2) & Gavin (almost 5)

March

My grandma celebrated a birthday, but because I love her I won't tell you which one. It was a good celebration.

Chris celebrated a birthday, too. He's 31!

Reily lovin' on Pax. This is the first time he has shown ANY interest in a baby. Paxton loved the attention.

February (Family photos)

Our mission trip to El Salvador wasn't the only thing we did in February... One cool dude!
Sledding

The Spam Museum, yep, there is one and Chris' sister lives near it, so we took the kids. It was...something to do!

Adoption

I'm sure that by now you know we are adopting. Chris and I have always wanted to adopt and when the adoption of Roth and Dera fell threw, we decided that when we were ready, we would pursue an international adoption of a girl under the age of two. As Chris was finishing up his nursing degree, we decided it was time to pursue adoption. After a lot of research and prayer, we finally settled on adopting from Ethiopia. We picked a great agency, a fantastic social worker and got working on all the loads of paperwork in May, 2009. Our homestudy was completed in just a handful of weeks and we were put on the waiting list with our Agency in August, 2009. Shortly after getting on the waiting list for an Ethiopian girl under the age of two, our agency added several months to the wait time, making it more like 2 - 2 1/2 years before we would get our little girl home. In February of this year, Chris and I went to El Salvador for a mission trip and our interest in pursuing a position in foreign missions was renewed, so we decided it would be best to speed up this adoption if at all possible and we began researching agencies that were working a bit faster than ours. We finally settled on Holt, International, which oddly enough was the agency my parents attempted to use to adopt internationally before finding out about me! Anyway, we started the paperwork to switch agencies in February and were added to their waiting list on April 2. On April 6, I got one of the most amazing phone calls of my life. They had a little girl for us. I hardly remember all that was said, but shortly after that, I was emailed her information and the most beautiful photo. She is just a few days shy of 5 months old and while we didn't think we would get a child this young, we could not be more in love. Unfortunately, we are not able to post her photo here until she's legally ours, but hopefully that won't be too long--less than 6 months.

While waiting to hold her and see her is tough, it is a bit easier knowing who she is and that she will be ours. Right now, we're waiting to find out if we'll have to travel to Ethiopia once or twice--we'll know early May. Of course, we're hoping for once since it is a rather expensive trip, but God will provide if we need to go twice.

I'll keep this blog updated with new adoption news as we receive it. The next big piece of information will be that our documents have made it to Ethiopia. Then, we wait for a court date and then a travel date. Of course, there are a few smaller steps in between that could throw everything off, but we're hopeful that this will all go smoothly and quickly.

February (El Salvador trip)

My dad playing dentist

Me, playing eye doctor

The trapeze

My sister, Charity, and me

Visiting the orphanage

Medical care for prisoners

January

These pictures are really from the very end of December, but I don't have any from January! Oops...

December

Christmas morning

Gavin was Joseph in the preschool play

Minneapolis fun

November

Reily turns 3...

So did Kacey!

Our friend's baby, Paxton, is Gavin's new favorite little guy. Oddly enough, he is 10 days younger than the little girl waiting for us in Ethiopia.

October

Halloween gingerbread house. Mmmm...

A visit to the fire station with preschool.

Pictures from July-September are on a different computer. I don't know if I'll get around to posting them or not, but you can enjoy October on up for now.