GOOD NEWS

HALLELUJAH!!!  We finally got the news we have been waiting for!!  We found out yesterday that we received the final signature required in order to bring our kids home!!  Tears of joy flowed freely!!!!

Ryan was out when he got the call so he rushed home and shared the news immediately.  It was a huge surprise because we have been hearing "not today" regularly around 10am each day for several weeks.   (Ethiopia is ahead of us by 7 hours so if we didn't hear good news by 10, we knew it wasn't happening that day.)  However, for whatever reason, our caseworker called around 3:15, shocking us all.  I had just picked up the kids from an overnight time with their Nana and Papa so thankfully the kids were home too.   It was perfect timing that we were all together!  (We were grateful to all be together when we received the referral call as well.)

We will find out Monday (hopefully) when our court date is.  At this point, we are hoping we can make one trip, staying in country and bring the kids home after about two weeks.

Our hearts are overjoyed.  Praising God that our prayers were answered!

March Update

Typing the word "March" feels surreal - especially since I'm writing it without having the kids home or even having a travel date set for our family.  We've had three 'due dates' now, all of which were supposed to be dates that we would get a letter of consent.

Last week was especially difficult for me.  Our agency was extremely hopeful that we would get this last signature.  Day after day we waited on pins and needles, hopeful, only to have our hopes dashed each day by another day of 'no signature'.  It has now been over a year since we were referred these two children.  We wonder why we've hit so many roadblocks.  We wonder why we've been passed by other people in our program time and again, who have sailed through with no hiccups.  We wonder why these kids are spending unnecessary time in an orphanage when we already love them and are ready to take care of them (if only we had the ability to bring them home).

I've been asking many questions to God of 'why?', but I know I won't get an answer any time soon.  I believe that some day it will all make sense, but for now, I'm doing my best to hang on to hope.  It's not easy when we've been disappointed every single day for over a year.  But --- we know that He is faithful and we believe that His plans are greater than our own.  I just need to remind myself of that every minute of every day.

1 Thessalonians 5:24 "The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it."

New Court Date

Sorry I've been delinquent in keeping this blog updated.  I'm sure if we received some positive news I would write immediately.  However, I feel like a broken record as I say yet again, "we are waiting for a signature".

So, summarized update for the day:

Our court date did not happen on January 14 and we did not get the signature we needed.

Our new court date and "deadline goal" for the signature is now tomorrow, February 3.  We are fairly confident the court date will happen this time but we don't have much hope for the signature.  Our guess is that the government will say (again) that they didn't have time and re-schedule a deadline for somewhere around February 18.  Then we think that date will also pass and we will be re-scheduled for another date around March 5.  We are hoping after being rescheduled a few times they will eventually sign the document we need.

January January January

January is a big month for us. . . or potentially so, I should say.

January 11 - Our son turns four in Ethiopia.  This is such an enormous bummer for us.  We never anticipated in a million years that we would miss this birthday.  In our original time lines, he would have been home with us for six months when we celebrated this birthday together.

January 14 - Our first court date - this is the day we are hoping we get the MOWCYA signature as well.  There hasn't been consistency in this particular signature for other cases so we really don't know what to expect.  At this point, we are so grateful to at least have the court date scheduled and are filled with hopeful anticipation that we will also get the required signature.  IF this happens, we could FINALLY be traveling within 2-3 weeks.

January 22 - This is the day we first heard about these two precious children.  My friend Carrie told me over and over and over "You will NOT be expecting it when you get the referral phone call".  And I always told her that was impossible - after 18 months waiting for a referral, every single day I would anticipate, "What if it happens today?"  I had thought through every possible scenario - What if I'm in the car.  What if I'm at home with the kids.  Will we be eating a meal?  Will I be on a walk?  Will I fall on the ground? Scream? Yell? Cry?

I know it sounds a little crazy but I'm not exaggerating - even if I had an appointment or was at the library or any location other than my home - I would consciously think about having my phone where I could hear it and think to myself, "What if I get the phone call here?"

Carrie was right.  The day we got the phone call I was not anticipating it one iota.  Not a bit.

Because the length of the process had taken so long, we had to re-do our home study.  This required an interview by a caseworker with our entire family.  It was a Wednesday and Ryan was home from work in order to meet the caseworker at our house.  It was 10:30 in the morning.

The caseworker was asking us questions about why we wanted to adopt, asking our kids how the process has been for them, etc.  Ryan's phone was sitting on our coffee table, face up.  (He kept it out in case he heard from work.)

Suddenly, it rang.

We were both angled right over it while we were leaning in, talking to the caseworker.  The caller ID was the name of our agency.  They never call us.  I had talked to our primary caseworker A LOT through emails or if I would call her with questions,  but never was there a situation where she called us.

So we both looked at the phone.
Then we looked at each other.
We looked at the caseworker and told her it was our agency.
We looked at each other again.  "Why would they be calling us?"
And then after three rings or so, I may have firmly said, "Answer it!!!"

And so, our entire family (and our home study caseworker) sat around the phone on speaker, as our caseworker told us about these two kids.  Originally, we had given age parameters for 0-3 years old and these two children were 3 and 4, slightly outside that age range.  She was calling to see if we would be open to considering them.  They were siblings which is something we had really hoped and prayed for.

I think I always imagined I would be sobbing tears of joy or screaming like a crazy woman once the call came.  Surprisingly, we were all pretty calm and simply finished the homestudy interview.   Overall, our family was incredibly excited but so caught off guard at the phone call while we were updating our home study.  Also, since the kids were older than what we originally planned/anticipated, and for a few details we needed more information on, we really felt like we needed to think, pray and talk to our family about it.

Later that day we got pictures of them, called our parents and a told a couple friends, asking them to pray for us.  There were a few details of information that were incomplete that we needed to wait for. So for three weeks we prayed and prayed, asking God to make it clear to us.  By February 13 we knew and called our agency to officially accept the referral.  We told our kids on Valentines Day the following day.  That's another story. :)

January 22 will be forever burned in our minds as the first day they entered our hearts.