Families traveling

Three BCS families got their embassy dates for January 21st. Two of them are leaving on the 15th and one on the 18th. The crazy thing is that they only found out a few days ago. The two families who are leaving on the 15th found out 8 days before they are leaving. It happens so fast!! I am very excited for them all!! Pray for them to have safe travels.

We could be next. . .

End of 2010?

We emailed Bethany to see if there was any sort update. This is the response we got:

Two families who submitted dossiers to Ethiopia last August and September, received referrals the end of September, so it is taking about a year for a young child in good health. We are telling people the wait for the referral of a young child in good health - or a young sibling group in good health could be 18 months. I am hoping it won't be quite that long and that you will bring a child(ren) home by the end of 2010.

A little disheartening. . . but God knows. It's been 4 months since our dossier was sent. I suppose we need to prepare ourselves for 14 more months of waiting. I just pray we can celebrate Christmas of 2010 with our new little baby. That's our year to spend Christmas in Seattle and so far both our boys have spent their first Christmas there. I know this may not be our baby's "first" Christmas but it would be their first on with our family.

Please pray for us as this is long and we have moments of sadness thinking they may be born already and we don't know where they are and if they're safe and healthy.

News about the Ethiopian Courts

This is info we got from our agency's blog.

On August 28, 2009, the courts in Ethiopia closed for recess. They were initially scheduled to re-open on September 28, 2009. However, after a two-week delay, the courts are finally set to re-open on October 12, 2009.

Sigh . . Yeah, so we still wait. Once the courts open up again Dossiers will start to move. We have no idea what the status of ours is right now. We like hearing about all the families we've traveled to pick up their children and just assume that means we are getting closer. Please continue to pray for us that we will be faithfully patient and trust in the Lord's timing. Thanks!

Exciting but tough news

So, there's a blog I've been following for awhile. I was given the link by a friend so we don't personal know this family. They came home from Ethiopia with their little boy in Aug. of 2008. They've just announced that an other referral has come in for another little boy, 2 1/2 years old. It's very exciting but makes my heart sad for my self. We started our journey 1 year ago on June 24th which we passed a little over a week ago. So, within our year this family brought home their first baby and got a referral for their second. And that most likely means they will be coming home with their second baby before we get our referral. I am not sure when they started the process to adopt the second one so who knows if it actually moved more quickly then for us. All I know is that we continue to wait.

All in God's hands and timing.

6 weeks

We sent our dossier off to the Bethany Iowa branch 6 weeks ago. A couple days ago they informed us that it was sent to WA DC for authentication. There was a couple things that had to be re-done due to things changing on the agency's end but most of this time we've spent waiting and wondering what the status of our dossier is. So, after all this time it's still not in Ethiopia. There's nothing we can do but patience is wearing thin.

The last we heard 55 couples working with BCS were waiting for children from Ethiopia. Today we received an email that was good to hear.

What a month June has been! 13 (16 children) families will have or already had court dates. We're thankful for a smooth court process this month for so many families. Three families are already home, and five more are due to travel. With successful court dates, additional travel dates should be coming.

Families waiting the longest had their dossiers sent in July 2008, with these families having a preference for younger, female children.

Info from Bethany Christian Services blog

This past week two cases have come out of court approved, four families have returned home with five children, and six children were matched with five families!

Bethany has about 55 families with dossiers in Ethiopia. Families with dossiers sent in late July 2008 are waiting the longest. About one fourth of these families are open to or only wanting a sibling group, about one fourth of the families have a preference for a female children as young as possible. Other families who are waiting are open to either gender in various age ranges.

We are thankful for all of the families who are preparing their heart and home for their children for Ethiopia.

I have to admit that reading this kind of made me a little sad. There are families waiting since last July! With a fourth of the families wanting a girl it makes me feel fairly confident we will have a boy. :-) I am SOO ok with that.

Pacing the excitement

I remember our social worker asking me during my one on one interview if I was excited (about the adoption, obviously). Of course I said 'yes'. She then proceeded to tell me to pace myself. Right now a lot of the time line is in our hands. We're working on the Home Study training. We are doing a 8 to 10 hour online course and have finished maybe 20 minutes of it. It's tough because Dave's taking correspondence classes to get his Masters and it's hard for me to ask him to set aside that home work to do the adoption home work. So, I just don't know how long it'll take to finish. But then we also have a couple in person classes we have to take. We need a total of 24 hours. I don't know if that'll be in town or in Denver. Who knows. Anyway, my point it that right now we have a little control. Kendra reminded me that once the dossier (all the paper work) is sent to Ethiopia then it's out of our hands and only God knows how long we'll have to wait. So, I must pace myself. I want to keep posting on this blog but I just don't have any news. I must keep my head above water or I might go crazy.

An update on my heart condition

I don't have any news. As I shared the home study starts next week. That's exciting. I just have been struggling a bit with my emotions. We decided not to share the news with Dave's family until we can do it face to face which will be in December. I imagined a huge announcement and a million friends and family over joyed with us about this whole adoption. It's been anticlimactic to say the least. A lot of people know but not everyone. I think we'll start to share with our small group and my ladies Bible study as now we're getting into where we'll need prayer. But I am reluctant for some reason. God laid adoption on our hearts and most people don't have the same passion about it that we do. I am trying to prepare myself for a lot of "whys" and a lack of enthusiasm. I am praying that somewhere through out this journey we'll run into someone who is SO stinkin' excited for us that they read this blog religiously and ask us about the journey on a regular basis. May God bless my heart with that. I have been feeling a little lonely in this whole thing for some reason. Don't get me wrong, Dave is super excited about it but I am doing everything. I make the phone calls, fill out the paper work etc etc. He's working full time and taking correspondence classes. He has no time to dedicate to the adoption stuff right now. Which is ok, cause I can get it done. But I find myself thinking about it all the time knowing Dave (and everyone else in my life) has other things consuming their thoughts.

Anyway, there's my heart right now. Please pray for me.

Nothing new

I just thought I would drop in for a quick second. We are still waiting on a reference to get sent back before Bonnie can send everything to the local social worker. After that we can start the home study. I hope this is within the next couple weeks. I'm anxious.