Let God's Peace Rule

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also

you were called in one body; & be thankful!

Col. 3:15

My wonderful little sister, Cayla (my flower girl, little sister at heart, & best friend), heard this verse this week while she was on a mission trip to NYC & reminded me of it. So, this is what I'm going to focus on for myself & pray for the others that I'm sharing this journey with.

Not good

Wow. I'm at loss for words right now. I just learned that 2 of my blog buddies have received news from AGCI that their adoptions have been suspended. I am so sad for both of these families & for their children who are in Ethiopia waiting for them. Honestly, this scares the breath out of me. After all the ups & downs of a Vietnam adoption, I have revelled in the peace of not having to worry about the stability of Ethiopia's adoption program. Earlier today I was realizing that our daughter would probably not be home with us until after the new year (b/c things are moving much slower in the program & courts close in ET in August & September) & now this. Please pray for these 2 families! How heartbreaking!

Prayers Answered

Kate just called to let us know that a family has accepted the referral for the sweet baby girl we mentioned last week. Praise the Lord! God is so good to provide an amazing family for an amazing little girl! God has huge things in store for her...I just know it...He has already used her in a huge way in our life! What a blessing she will be to her family!

Tie-Dye Fun

The boys have been wanting to tie-dye shirts, so we decided to do the shirts in the colors of the Ethiopian flag. They said they want to wear them when our baby sister comes home, but they are hoping they don't out grow them before her arrival...isn't that the truth!

Celebrating

What a wonderful time the past few days have been for our family. After a VERY tough week, it has been such a blessing to be together & have some good times. We feel like we have had an Abraham experience. For nearly 36 hours, we felt a huge calling to a baby girl at Hannah's Hope that has severe special needs. There were several God things that pointed us to walk through the toughest decision we've ever faced. Shortly before we heard of the little girl, we were at C & R's preschool program. I noticed a young girl with Down's Syndrome &, in my mind, was immediately taken back to our pregnacy with L when we were told of the probability that he would have Down's. I heard God saying, "Would you chose a child like that if that's was My will for your adoption?. When we arrived home from the program we saw the email from AGCI about her. As we learned more about her, we realized that her name is the actual name of the girl on L's baseball team which he mistaken for Oliva. The conversation where he mentioned her name & got us talking about this new name was the same day that this baby was born in Ethiopia. It was evident that God wanted us to walk with Him & consider the referral. However, as we walked with God & sought His will. He began showing us many things about what it means to follow His will, but He ultimately showed us that she was not the child He had for our family. So, after a very tough week, filled with lots of tears & heartache, it has been such a relief to celebrate His goodness & love, as well as the beginning of summer & N's birthday! Thursday night we relaxed in the cul-de-sac with our neighbors & snow cones! Friday we went to N's parents' house for the weekend. We had a bonfire Friday night, spent Saturday enjoying God's wonderful creation, & Saturday evening N & I had the best date night we've had in years! Now it is officially N's birthday (what better occasion is there for a blog appearance!?). I am so thankful that God gave N to me. I am blessed to have him for a husband & the boys are blessed to have him for a Daddy! God is so good!

Saddness & Prayers

My heart if filled with so much sadness today. The tragic death of Steven Curtis Chapman's youngest daughter from China is so heartbreaking. I just keep praying for this sweet family who is such an example of God's love for orphans. I'm also sad b/c today marks the end of the last week of school for the boys. I have cried & cried my eyes out. We have been so blessed this year. All three of the boys had just the right teacher for their personalities & just thrived in their classes. I'm so sad to see this school year pass by, but I am just so thankful for all the sweet blessings that it gave to us! Also, I have learned that Hannah's Hope (our agency's orphanage in Ethiopia) is experiencing an outbreak of Chicken Pox. My heart goes out to the children & to their caregivers. Additionally, I'm sad b/c there is a sweet baby girl at HH that has special needs that we feel are too much for our family. We learned about her 2 days ago & what a journey these two days have been. Although, at this point, we do not feel that she is the child God has for us, I have such a heart for her. I know that God has just the right family for her. Please pray for her, as well as that family. I am also so thankful for God allowing us to walk through these last two days. I know the days were God ordained & part of His plan for us. We have learned so much about following Him. We are so blessed to be living life in Him, with Him, & for Him! I will share more on this soon. For now, please pray for the Chapman family and all the children & caregivers at HH (especially the baby girl I mentioned).

Moving On Up

Two AGCI families have received referrals this week! Both were on the girl list, so we've already moved up 2 spots (I think only one had parameters for a toddler though)!!! We are pretty pumped considering we were on the Vietnam list for almost 3 months & never moved a spot! God, please let the referrals keep coming!

Toddler Number

Another number to report...we are #15 on the girl list for a toddler...sounding better & better. Now, come on referrals...bring it on!

Girl List Number

We just found out that we are #32 on the girl list. This number includes families who are open to any range of the same age parameters as we are (could be 0-12 months, 1-3 years, etc.~~quite a few are probably only waiting for an infant). We still have not heard back as far as how many families ahead of us are open to a toddler. For now, we're ready for the waiting game. We have several grants that we are ready to apply for now that we have our updated homestudy, so that is next on the to-do-list while we wait. This past weekend we went to a picnic for families in our part of the state who have adopted from Ethiopia. The picture is of L with our friend's baby boy. It was fun to meet some new faces & hear everyone's adoption story. There were several babies & several toddlers...made me very curious to know what we'll end up with! It's so funny b/c when you're waiting for a number, you feel like you'll be so content once you know your number. Then, as soon as you get that number, you're ready to know the answer to the next waiting game. I guess that's always how life goes!

52!!!

The moment we have been waiting for has finally arrived! Our entire dossier is complete & at AGCI, & we are officially on the waiting list. We are #52 overall! Woohoo! Kate is working on more detailed calculations as far as where we are considering our specified parameters (girl ages 0-36 months). Will post more when we hear! We are just thrilled to be officially waiting for a referral from Ethiopia!! Kate is sending our completed dossier off to be authenticated today!

Thank You, World

The boys received this book as a part of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library for kids in Tennessee. They know that it's my favorite book to read to them. It's very basic & simple, but the story & pictures illustrate how all the children in the world are the same even though they have different cultures, homes, beds, etc. It has been a great tool to use to help introduce basic cultural diversity to them. As we were reading it last night, the part that really jumped out at us was the pages that show homes from each of the countries & how they all look very different but they are all under the same starry sky. Recently, C& R have been talking a lot about how the sun seems to follow us everywhere we go & they realized through the book that the same stars that are above us every night are also above our little sister while she waits for us in Africa!

No number yet!

We still haven't got our waiting list number from AGCI. I'm guessing it's b/c they don't have the paper copies of our updated homestudy yet. The approval came via emailing drafts back & forth. Oh, well! Once our homestudy socialworker gives us the word that they have all the copies notarized & ready to go, I'll go pick them up & overnight it out to AGCI. Hopefully soon...

Blessed Assurance

In church today we sang the old hymn, "Blessed Assurance". It's a hymn that I sang in church growing up, but I never knew the story behind the person who wrote it. Fanny Crosby was blind, but she managed to write 8000 hymns in her lifetime. She said that she felt God had allowed her to be blind, so that she would not be distracted. What a woman of God! I so want to be like her...focused on God's sweet love for me...not distracted by the things of the world or even the things that I feel God has called me to. I want to see my shortcomings & losses as part of God's plan to draw me closer to Himself & to use me for His purposes. I want to spend every minute of every day lost in His love! Of course, the song also reminded me of this time of waiting that we are in with our adoption, I am so a peace right now...just waiting on Him. I know that in His timing, our daughter will be brought to us. In the meantime, I don't want to waste my days waiting for that moment....I want to live every day to it's fullest for Him & in Him.

"Perfect submission, all is at rest; I in my Savior am happy and blest, watching and waiting, looking above, filled with his goodness, lost in his love."

Homestudy Approved

We just got word from AGCI that our homestudy is approved! That was the last thing we were waiting on! Now we're ready to move on to the next stage of waiting...for our referral!!!!!