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FIRST COURT DATE WAS TODAY!

Today was our first court date in Ethiopia. We didn't have to be at this hearing, but it was basically the MoWCY(the people in Ethiopia regulating the orphans being matched with families) confirming whether or not, that there is enough information to determine that baby Michael is indeed orphaned and he can legally be adopted into another family. 

Unfortunately, there are power outages going on in Ethiopia right now, so our agency has still not heard about what happened during court. Our status is still pending until we hear back from them.

Hopefully we will hear good news tomorrow morning that we passed court, and yes, we can adopt baby Michael, and our second court date (the one we are traveling to go to) will remain the same and on schedule!

PLEASE PRAY that all of this happens. Pray that our court date is not moved and pray that we receive word before we get on the plane on Wednesday. We still trust in God's sovereignty and timing through all of this, no matter what that may be, and we know He is working for our good.

We still have hope, so, in the meantime I will get back to ALL of my packing!

Mother's Day

2 years ago, Jordan and my kids gave me the best Mother's Day present I could have asked for. 2 years ago, we were taking the first step of our adoption journey by filling out our application to work with CWA, our wonderful agency that has led us through our entire process. Now, we are leaving in just 3 days! In 3 days Jordan and I will be stepping onto a plane that will be heading to Frankfurt, Germany, and then to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to go and meet our son. My head is still spinning and everything still feels so surreal!

We have greatly appreciated everyone's prayers, support, encouraging messages and words. It's as if every single word that has come our way, came at just the perfect moment when we needed to hear it! Jordan and I were discussing the other day comments that have been made about us "doing a good job" or "us deserving this." Here is the thing, we didn't do any of this and we definitely don't deserve any of it. There is nothing that we have "done" to qualify us to embark on this journey. We are completely unworthy of being able to live this story out that God has written for our lives and the only way that we got through this entire process  and the only way we are living out God's plan for us is with Him leading us every single solitary step of the way. Apart from Him, we have nothing. We bring nothing to the table. But with Him, we have everything that we need. Hallelujah, that we don't have to be qualified to live out His plan. Praise God, that He uses ordinary people to live out his extraordinary ways. Thank you, God, that I am made whole and made righteous through YOU and what you sent your son to do for me. And, that is the only qualification that is needed. This whole thing has truly been as simple as, we felt the call from God to embark on this journey and we said YES. We have clung to His promise of Him being with us always, giving us what we need, and never leaving us, and that is why we are where we are today. It hasn't been an easy road. It has probably been the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. But, He has kept His promise through it all. And, by saying yes and walking with Him daily, He is getting all the glory and we are getting this amazing blessing in the form of a little one-year-old boy that has the biggest brown eyes I have ever seen.

To all my prayer warriors that want specific things to pray about, we need you to rise up and intervene for us! 

-Pray that God protects us and provides for us the rest of the way. 

-Pray for our health. Satan has been at work in that department the last 2 weeks!

-Pray for our safe travel and that we have a smooth trip with no hold ups.

-Pray for Stella and Max and my in-laws, since they will be staying with them while we are gone!

-Pray for our court dates, May 14 and May 22. 

-Pray for the judge and all the other people involved with our case.

-Pray for our sweet baby boy. Pray for his health and his heart as he is about to meet his momma and daddy and has no clue who we are! (Scary for a little one)

We truly appreciate and feel all of your prayers.

We made our boy a little book of pictures of our home and family so that he will be able to look at them and get familiar with us. Here a couple of pictures from the book. :)

Happy 1st Birthday, Precious Boy!

Today has been 4 weeks since we got our referral for our sweet baby boy. The time has flown by it feels like as we are busy preparing for our first trip. It is extremely overwhelming trying to plan for an international trip that is coming very soon and we don't even have specific dates yet. All we know is that it is soon. We should be hearing of our court date any day now (I am hoping for tomorrow)!

When most people plan a trip, the first things would be to book a hotel, plane tickets, and then start packing and writing an agenda. Well, we are doing it all backwards. Like I have said before, the adoption road is a curvy, crazy road! Booking our flights and guest home will be the last thing that we do. We do have our itinerary for our court trip which will consist of 4 days.  The first 3 days we will be able to go and visit our son for 2 hours a day and get to take in everything and anything we can. (i.e. what he eats, how he sleeps, his daily routine, what he likes, what he doesn't like, etc.) All of the things that you figure out as a parent in your child's first year of life. The rest of our time will be filled with immersing ourselves in our new adopted culture and exploring the beautiful country of Ethiopia. The fourth day we will go to Ethiopian court and there, the judge will hopefully consent to our adoption of our baby boy. We will leave to come home from there and then after that, MORE WAITING! It never ends in the adoption world. We will be waiting to hear from the courts to tell us that baby boy is a Michael and that we can come and pick him up to COME HOME. 

If meeting your son face to face for the very first time isn't overwhelming enough, we also are preparing our bodies, minds, and hearts for visiting a third-world country. A country that has become a part of me. A country that I cannot wait to go and see and take in. So what have we done so far? Jordan and I have been vaccinated (6 shots each, ouch!) and educated about all the potential health risk of traveling to Ethiopia. We have been re-fingerprinted through the FBI to update our boy's visa approval. We have been busy gathering donations that we will take to our son's orphanage and also putting together a couple of gifts for baby boy to leave with him while he is waiting to come home. We have been researching Ethiopia and all of the things we want to see and guest homes that we are looking into staying at. We have started making a packing list that consists of bug spray, flashlights, and yes, toilet paper! And, we have also decided to throw in another garage sale before we go to offset some of the embassy and visa fees. Like we didn't have enough on our plates already. Anything to make the time go by faster.

In between all of that, I can't help but think of my boy every waking minute of the day. The other day I read this verse and it spoke so much truth and validation into my life right now. This is what God has in store for me and my life, right now, at this very moment.

"May the God of hope fill you with all the joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13

 

Now that I have all the things done that I can possibly do for now, I find myself having idle time, so I made a list of things that I CAN do in the meantime, as we wait and wait some more.....

I can pray for my son.

I can pray for his birth family and their situation.

I can pray for the nannies at the orphanage that are caring for our boy while we can't.

I can pray for the courts and everyone involved with our case.

I can pray for our transition.

I can love my little guys that I have right here in front me.

I can talk with them about what it is going to be like when baby brother arrives.

I can prepare our home.

I can advocate for other orphans to find a forever family.

I can use our story to encourage others to walk in faith.

I can show more grace and mercy to the people God has put in my life at this moment.

I can fundraise.

I can enjoy the last months of being a family of 4.

I can lean on my husband and friends and family for support when the waiting gets too hard.

I can grow more in Christ.

I can let the hope of God overflow out of me and onto others.

I can....

Today is our sweet boy's first birthday. Even though he wasn't with us, we decided to celebrate from afar and make some memories for him.

Happy Birthday, sweet baby boy! How we wish you could be here blowing out your own candle today, but we will settle for, at least, being under the same sky. We long to embrace you and kiss your sweet face and will be coming to you soon. We pray that God pours out his love on you, and he gives you hope that your family is coming for you.

 Love, your momma.

"A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families." Psalm 68:5-6

Can't Get Enough of Those Big Brown Eyes

I can't believe that we have our referral. I serve such a faithful and loving God. So honored to be His and to travel down this adoption road that he told us to go down 2 years ago. I have actual pictures of a beautiful baby boy that will hopefully soon be ours! My head is still spinning from last Tuesday morning when we got the phone call.

I was at home with the kids in the morning before I went to work, and I looked at my phone and saw a missed call from Christian World Adoption. I called our fantastic case worker back immediately and then she dropped the good news that we were the next waiting family on the list. She said that there was a little boy for us and wanted to know if we wanted to see his referral papers. I immediately called Jordan at work and could barely get out the words, "babe, we got our referral!" Sweet Stella came up to me and said, "mommy are you ok? Why are you crying?" Then I got to share the news with her that we get to see pictures of her baby brother right now. Jordan and I decided that we would wait to look at the pictures together when we got home from work that evening, but I couldn't help myself. I had been waiting for 13 months to see this sweet baby's face and I couldn't wait a second more knowing the email was sitting in my inbox. So, I opened the email and me and the kids looked at the pictures. (and for the record, Jordan was not upset!)They were both smiling from ear to ear. Stella said she just wanted to pinch his cheeks and kiss all over him and Max came up and said, "Awwww, who's that? He's cute!" I called Jordan and fessed up and then sent him the email. He opened it while he was still on the phone with me and we got to share that moment of pure joy together. It was such an amazing day, and I swear, I stared at the pictures every free second I had. It was great when we were all home together and celebrated the referral of our newest addition as a family. In my adoption community a lot of the parents I had talked to said that you will know that the child is yours when you see him. You will have a feeling. I have to admit, I had a small amount of fear thinking, what if I see pictures of this baby and I just don't feel it. It was not the case at all. I saw those beautiful big brown eyes staring back at me, and I knew that he was ours. I asked Jordan that night, if he had a feeling that he wasn't the one. He responded,"not even for a second. He is ours."

So, what's next......

We accepted the referral of our sweet baby boy and have completed all the paperwork to get the ball rolling on getting a court date. In the next couple of weeks, we will hopefully hear from the Ethiopian courts giving us a court date. Once we get the court date, we will start making arrangements for our first trip to Ethiopia to attend our court hearing. We are looking at late May, early June for our first trip, approximately, Maybe even sooner. We will be there for a few days. The first trip we will be able to go to the orphanage and meet our little guy in person for the first time. Yes, I will finally be able to hold that sweet little guy and give him so much lovin' that I have been longing to give him for so long now. I get teary eyed just thinking about it! We will attend court and if all goes well, the judge will allow us to be his parents. We will have to then leave our sweet boy and wait for word from the courts as to when we can come and pick him up.(usually around 4 weeks in between our 2 trips.)

We still have a ways to go before he is home. There is still a possibility that someone can come for our boy out of his family to care for him and he won't be ours. It is EXTREMELY hard not getting attached to this baby boy. What the heck am I saying? I already am attached to him. Please join us in praying in the rest of our journey. Prayer for our sweet little boy who is across the world from us, who at this moment is sleeping in his crib hopefully having sweet dreams of a momma and daddy coming to get home and bring him home. Pray for his birth family and their situation. Pray that we hear about a court date soon and that we will be approved without any humps along the way (that is practically impossible with international adoption, but hey, my God does miracles!) Pray for Jordan, the kids, and I as we try to orchestrate all of this not be overwhelmed and to completely put our trust in God. Also, continue to pray for financial provision for the crazy expenses of 2 international trips back-to-back that are very last minute, making it very expensive. He has provided thus far and I know He will not leave or forsake us now!

It has been such an unbelievable blessing to hear all of our loved ones giving us so much support and sharing in our joy. We honestly could not have gotten through any of this without your love, prayers, and support. They are so encouraging!!! LET'S GET OUR BOY HOME NOW, FOR REAL!!!!!!

I love being a sheep.

It's been 12 months since we sent our paperwork to Ethiopia. Every month of waiting has been a little different. As each month goes by, I not only feel more confident in my ability to be an adoptive mother, but the more my heart beats for the orphans in the world, and what, we as a people can simply do to reach out to them.

There has been no phone call, YET, from our agency. We are still waiting, hoping we are close to the top of the waiting list. I'm afraid that I have hit a wall in our waiting journey. I have grown so weary and it hurts to wait now. Knowing that my little boy is across the world from me, and he doesn't even know that his momma is here under the same sky as him. He doesn't know I am coming for him, and the most painful of all is he has no clue that I love him more than anything in this world. This very thought makes my heart ache. It brings me to tears, knowing that I am powerless in this battle right now to bringing home my son. That there is nothing that I can do right now to bring him home. I will be going along about my day, and then all of a sudden I have this feeling of sadness come over me that I can't be the one right now feeding him, bathing him, rocking him to sleep, bonding with him. It is just another day that we don't get together. I find myself stopping at that very moment, no matter what I am doing and pray that God just makes him feel the depth of my love for him at that very moment and that God gives him this overwhelming sense of hope. And, every time, before I can even say amen, I feel God answering back that, HE pursues ME in the same sense. That when HE sees ME hopeless, He grieves for me to know the depth of HIS love for me as well.

There are always seasons in life, and they come and then they go. No matter how many seasons we go through or whatever season you are in right now, only one thing remains the same, and that is God. The creator of all things, the God that perfectly knit you together in your mother's womb, the sovereign God who created you because He loves you and laid out a plan for your life before you were even a face on this Earth. He knew that you were going to go through the season you are in. And, one of the most beautiful things that I love so much about my God, is that I don't have to come to him so that he can provide comfort, it's  HIM meeting ME where I am in the midst of my suffering.

My opening statement of my prayer, every morning, is proclaiming to God that He is sovereign and that I trust in that. And even though it's hard to believe and I don't understand at times, the place he has brought me to, I trust, that He will reveal to me, in these amazing little details of my life, his loving kindness that, every time, makes me run back into His arms, trusting him and him alone, that He will get me through this season of struggle, once again. HE NEVER LEAVES, no matter what I do or don't do.

I know I am not the only one that is going through stuff right now, so I hope that these words fill you up and encourage you on your own personal journey like they have for me:

"I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land... I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak. I will shepherd the flock with justice...You my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are people, and I am your God, declares the sovereign Lord." 

Ezekiel 34:11-13,16,31

You are the Light of the World

This long wait that has 11 months so far, has given me a lot of time to reflect on myself, in I believe, preparation for what is to come with our son and our adoption process. I have been thinking a lot about the purpose of all of this. The journey that my family has taken, and all of the lessons we have learned along the way. And, I think that at the beginning, I didn't know the purpose of it. In fact, there were only two certainties that I knew at the beginning: one,I knew in my heart, without a doubt, that God was calling us to adopt, and two, that He was undefeatable.

I wonder a lot about WHY God placed me here, where I am right now. God intentionally placed you where you are right now, no matter where that place is. That thought completely blows my mind. Why did he choose to give me this life, when he could have just as easily given me a life across the world in famine, despair,and poverty? What part do I play in this lifetime and what part have I been playing all along? When I put everything into His perspective, I start seeing what he has taught me through my past, the things I have learned, all the things that He has given to me not earned by my own merit, all the places He has taken me to, and all the people that He made me cross paths with, have brought me to this place, right here, and made me the person that I am for such a time as this. I think one of the most beautiful things about the body of Christ is that we are all different. He has put us all in different places and perfectly knit each one of us in a completely unique way that is not like any other, and yet, we have all been called to the same purpose. Jesus says we are the salt of the earth. We are the light of the world, and a city on a hill cannot be hidden.

So, this is where I stand as of the beginning of 2012. I am currently reading the book "Kisses from Katie" and I think that Katie says it perfectly, "My candle is lit, I am on fire for God, for this place, for these people. My purpose here is to spread His light. One candle can light up my entire room. Jesus can light up this entire nation, and my flame can be a part of that. I am blown away that my God, who could do this all by himself, would choose to let me be a little part of it."

We are expecting any day now, a referral from our agency, and soon after that (usually a few weeks) we will finally fly to Ethiopia and meet, for the first time, our son. WE ARE VERY EXCITED and cannot wait.

For all my wonderful friends who have constantly been praying for us, please pray for God's love to just overflow and for us to constantly be reminded that He is sufficient.