Pumpkin Patch

In between the rainy days, we have had absolutely gorgeous weather here in South Texas. This weekend was beautiful, so we thought we would venture out to a pumpkin patch. Paige had a great time. Here are some of the fun things she got to do...

Run through the hay bale maze,

ride in the tractor pulled train,

race rubber ducks with water pumps,

get her face painted...

like a kitty cat,

paint pumpkins,

and of course, pose for the camera in all the pumpkins!

Next year, we will have two little pumpkins to take to the pumpkin patch. We can't wait!!

Powerful Message

We have been praying a lot lately, for guidance throughout this whole process; and although we have always felt that this is what God has been asking us to do, we have never gotten as clear of a message as we did this past Sunday morning.


We are very fortunate, because Max Lucado is our preacher at church. Sunday morning his message was titled "The Have-Nots", and it was about the people in the world who are less fortunate then we are. He began to tell a story about a family in Ethiopia, who along with so many other families, are struggling to survive on a daily basis. He then began to discuss the children in Ethiopia, who are at such a disadvantage simply because of where they were born.

As you can imagine, I was crying the entire sermon. I was crying for the people of Ethiopia and the rest of the world who live in these conditions. I was crying for our little boy who has had to struggle so much of his short life, and will continue to live in unfavorable conditions until we are able to go get him. I was crying f0r his family who had to make the decision to give him up for adoption so that he could survive, a decision that I cannot even fathom. But mainly, I was crying because I was overwhelmed at the message God was sending us. We are doing exactly what He has been asking us to do for so long. Why have we waited so long? Why have I let my fears and worries get in the way of a precious innocent life who deserves so much more. You see, we were given a golden ticket, just because of where we were born, and yet we take so much of it for granted, because we have no idea of what it means to truly struggle everyday.

Thank you God for sending us this message! I can see a lot more clearly now, and I hope that through this whole experience, we can help relay Your message to as many people as we possibly can.

What a Difference a Week Makes

So, the last time I posted, I was disappointed because there hadn't been any little boy referrals in six weeks. Little did I know what God had in store for us the following Monday... OUR REFERRAL!!!

It was Monday, October 5th, I had just dropped Paige off at school (she goes to afternoon Pre-K), and I was getting some lunch when the phone rang. I saw the Colorado area code and knew that it was Allison calling. I answered the phone...

"Hello"
'Hi Amanda, How are you?"
"I'm good, how are you?"
"I'm good. I just have a quick question for you. I know you said that you want as young as possible, but what would be the oldest age you would accept?"
"What do you mean? Are you talking about in our 0-24 month range?" We will accept anything in that range."
"So you will consider a one year old little boy?"
"Of course we will"
"Well, I may have some good news for you this afternoon."

As soon as I got off the phone, I called Robbie to tell him. He couldn't believe it, and he told me to patch him in as soon as she called back. After about an hour of waiting (which seemed like a lifetime), she called back, and as soon as I had Robbie on the phone, she told us the good news.

We have a referral of a beautiful one year old little boy, and as soon as we saw his precious face, it was love at first sight. I think we were both surprised at how quickly we fell in love with him. Although we wanted to accept the referral immediately, we had been advised to have his medical records reviewed before we rushed into a decision. So, Tuesday morning I emailed his records to our International Adoption Pediatric Specialist, at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. Unfortunately, they could not schedule a phone consultation until Friday morning, so we had to wait four days to make it official, but as of Friday afternoon, it is!!!!

Now, the wait begins again. This time, for a court date. We are expecting this to be a while, perhaps 8 weeks, because the courts have been closed for almost two months for the rainy season. In fact, they just opened today, so they will probably be backlogged for awhile. The court appointment will be when he legally becomes our child. We will not travel to Ethiopia for that, we have someone there who will take care of it on our behalf. Once we pass court, it will probably be another 8 weeks before we can get the immigration paperwork to bring him back to the United States, so we are probably looking at another 4 months before we can travel to get him. Now that we know what his little face looks like, it is going to be so hard to wait. The mommy and daddy in us makes us want to leave everything here and go over there now, but unfortunately that is not an option. In the meantime, we will continue to stare at his precious face and pray for him, as often as we can.

A Little Disappointed

I guess I am a little disappointed, because September ended with no baby boy referrals, and we are still sitting at #2. I was hoping that we would be #1 by now, and that we would be getting our referral by the end of this month; and although this could still definitely happen, it is just not happening on my schedule, and that requires patience. I really shouldn't be complaining though, because it also means that fewer baby boys have had to lose their biological mothers this month. That is actually something to rejoice about!

I have been doing a lot of praying lately, because I just feel like we are getting really close, and I know big changes are in the works for our family as well as for him and his biological family. I will let you know as soon as I hear. I actually spoke to the lady that is #1 on the list, and she assured me that she would let me know as soon as she hears something as well.

Ethiopia Updates

The following message was posted on IAN's website yesterday...

"We just received word from our facilitator in Ethiopia that the courts will be opening back up on October 7, 2009. This means that we will not be assigned new court dates until after the 7th."

The date was actually changed to the 12th today, but this does not affect us either way, because we are still waiting for our referral. However, it went on to say...

"Also- our staff in Ethiopia has confirmed that the US Embassy is now requiring all documents to be submitted 2 weeks prior to an Embassy Date. This means that travel will now be a minimum of 8 weeks after passing court as it takes six weeks to collect all necessary documents for the embassy appointment."

The wait had previously been between 4 and 6 weeks, so this will definitely push us back on traveling. As hard as the wait is now, I hear that the wait between referral and traveling is much harder, so this is a little bit of a disappointment. However, I know that everything happens for a reason, and it is all in God's timing. I am trying to be at peace with that.

Networking

In June, I stumbled across a local families blog, and coincidentally they were in Ethiopia getting their beautiful daughter at the time. This lady is an incredible Christian, and has the most beautiful way with words. I found myself completely immersed in her blog, and couldn't put it down until I had read every post. I was so anxious to meet her, that I found her email and asked if we could meet for lunch one day. Fortunately, we were finally able to get together last week. It was such a pleasure getting to visit with her and ask her a million questions that were on my mind. She has an older daughter that they took with them to Ethiopia, so of course I wanted to pick her brain about taking Paige with us. The best part of all, was that she brought their little 8 month old daughter along. She is so incredibly precious that it made me all the more anxious to bring home our little one. If you get the chance to visit her blog, it is http://www.adoptingaria.blogspot.com/. It is truly inspirational and will not disappoint.

This week, I met with another lady who is also adopting from International Adoption Net. They are # 9 on the baby girl list. It is so awesome to have the opportunity to visit with someone who is going through the exact same experience that we are, and to know that our Ethiopian children will have friends to play with, with similar backgrounds. Thank You God for putting these new friends into our lives.

Finally!

Guess what finally came in the mail today? You got it, our I-171H. This was the last piece we needed before we could get a referral. So you can imagine the smile on my face when I saw it in the mailbox! Now, I just have to call Allison and let her know, and I guess we can expect a referral at anytime. I am getting so excited!