Update

We are still flying high one month after our referral. We are extremely excited about the possibility if welcoming this little boy into our home.


What have we been doing to prepare for the arrival of our little boy?

We have both been looking at completing some projects around the house, but Hilary has been preparing his room. If you remember from a previous post, Hilary was incredibly creative in her painting of a country scene on one of the walls, and then decorating it with butterfly decals. We felt that butterfly's might not be the most appropriate for a boy, so Hilary has painted a tree in the room, and some little animals on the wall.

We have also removed the bunk bed and put the mattresses on the floor. We are unsure of what he will be used to, so we will play it by ear when we finally meet him as to his sleeping preferences.


Also, yesterday we received news of one more step, and in many ways, it now feels as though we are further along in the process than we were before. We received a court file number. This may not seem like a big deal, but it is one more step.

Now we wait until we actually receive our own court date. With some of the new changes that are in place in the process, we don't expect to hear of a court date until mid to late April, so this may be a period of time again of no news. But we will continue to be patient. It's getting closer!

Hello Little One!!

After what has been a whirlwind couple months, We officially received a referral on Friday.  As most, if not all of you reading this blog know, we have been trying to adopt from Ethiopia.  This process has had many ups and downs, and 2 months ago, we had one of those downs.  Our adoption dream was halted due to some decisions made in Ethiopia.  We made a decision at that time, that we would be interested in getting back into the process, and maybe we could get a referral relatively quickly.

On Friday afternoon, WE RECEIVED THAT CALL!!!!

WE RECEIVED A REFERRAL FOR A BEAUTIFUL 20 MONTH OLD BOY!!!

The obvious questions are why only one child, and what does this mean for a potential travel date to Ethiopia.  We received an update from our agency (sent to all families) that basically stated that there were relatively few siblings available to be referred.  When we submitted our file, what feels like many years ago, we said that we would accept one or two children.  We are ecstatic that we may be so close to being able to parent a little boy, and are now anxiously waiting for a court date.  We have no idea how long it will take to get a court date, but our guess would be that the earliest we could be travelling would be mid March, but that all depends on how things move.  As was evidenced in the previous situation, nothing ever seems to happen exactly how we would expect it to.  Only God knows when this date will be.

Please pray for us as we begin waiting in earnest once again, and for this little boy as the orphanage prepares him for a very different life.  Please pray for the entire situation, that it would work out much quicker, and better than it did the last time, and that the end would be positive.  Please also continue to pray for the girls that we were not able to adopt, and whatever situation they are in.  Even though we have moved on in looking towards a new referral, we will NEVER forget these two girls.

We thank you ALL for the support, encouragement and prayers that all of you have been to both of us, and once again, we look forward to showing off our boy to the world.  (as an aside, we will not be sharing current pictures, and the story of his life, so please respect our wishes here)