We are home :)

We are so grateful to be home with our precious little guy. He is pure joy!! His name is Terefe (pronounced Tah-Rah (roll the "r")-Fah) Levi, and most people here are calling him Levi. I was able to meet his birth mother - AMAZING experience - and she told me why she named him Terefe which means "He saves". It was a very powerful story, and that is why we have chosen to keep this name. Right now, the 5 kids, no sleep thing is kicking my booty, but I know that it is only for a short time. Please enjoy the pictures

Travel!!

Okay, so we leave Atlanta on Friday, and our little guy should be in our arms on Sunday. We are SO excited!!! Our Embassy appointment will be Monday, and we will have a few more days to soak in the culture before leaving on Thursday night. We should be back in Atlanta on Friday night and home to our house Saturday. It will be a whirlwind, but I could not be happier!! Please pray for our travels as well as the 4 kiddos that we will be leaving at home. The next time I post you will FINALLY get to see our handsome little guy.

P.S. Laura, I promise to change my background very soon :)

We Passed Court!!

Hooray! We are thrilled to share that we passed court! If our paperwork moves along quickly, we may be able to travel at the end of June for our Embassy date. Thank you for all of your prayers and encouragement! To God be the glory!!

Court Date

Yay!!! We finally have a court date! I received the phone call on Monday afternoon, and we are scheduled for Monday, May 31st. Our caseworker has told us that we only have a 50/50 shot of passing the first time, but I am trying to be optimistic. In order for us to pass, we need to have a letter in our file from the Ministry of Women's Affairs (MOWA) in Ethiopia. Our agency has NO control over this, so we just say lots of prayers. Also, the bio mom has to make the journey and be present in court. Again, this is a source fo much prayer. Please join our family in praying that all these things are in place, and we are able to pass the first time. Thank you!!

outblessed

Two of our friends are adopting from Ghana right now. They were having a huge yard sale today to help raise money for their adoptions. I decided that it would be fun to go to the yard sale and buy a few little things to help them raise funds. When we got there, my friend Kristie said that she wanted us to have these t -shirts. She wanted to bless us since we are all on this journey together. How sweet is that!?! My son took a picture of us in our new t-shirts although you can't really see the design. You can go to their blog to purchase your own fromGodtoGhana.blogspot.com The t-shirts are adorable, and the family is precious, too!

P.S. We are still waiting on our court date and would love your prayers!

Not much

Dear Sweet one,
I do not have much to report on your adoption. We are waiting to receive a court date for you, and I am praying that it will be this month! We turned all of our paperwork in within 24 hours of receiving it, so we ARE trying! As a matter of fact, your daddy stopped the UPS
truck in the middle of his route to get our packet :). I am suppose to be creating two photo albums (one for you at the orphanage and one for your bio mother). Also, I am working on a letter for her. These are a pretty big deal, and I am very open to suggestions! We can not WAIT to meet you in person! You are prayed for and talked about much in our home!! Missing you so much -
XOXO
Mommy

P.S. Has anyone tried snapfish to make albums?

The Call !!!

Oh, how I have longed to write this post! So, here goes -
I had a call in to Julie (our case manager) on Tuesday about an adoption question. Normally, it takes a day or two for the case managers to respond. So yesterday at 5:30 when my phone rang, and I saw the 971 area code, I was at Dollywood. Not only was I at Dollywood, but I was responsible for 10 children while there. Everybody was waiting for me at the gate to leave the park. I saw the number on my screen, and OF COURSE, I answered. Julie said, "Hi, I got your message, and I am calling you back. But, I also have something else to talk to you about. Is now a good time?". Me - little sob - "Sure, now would be great!". I ran over to the benches where all the kids were waiting for me, explained that it was the referral call, and put someone in charge of Gigi (my 2 1/2 year. old). Julie started telling me about little man, and I had nothing to write with etc., but I completely did not care. I just listened to what she could tell me, kowing the whole time that this little guy is EXACTLY who we have
been waiting for!! I had been praying the other day, and telling the Lord my "perfect case scenario" for the details on our little guy. When Julie started telling me details about him, those details exceeded even my "perfect scenario" (Ephesians 3:20). So, finally we HAD to leave the park because I had to get everybody to church; but, I was still talking to Julie. She just got to hear the tram operator in the background and the crowds of other people. We finally made it to the car, loaded everybody in, and started the 1 hour ride home. I kept checking my phone for Julie's email, and finally received it in the drive-thru line at Taco Bell. The first time I ever laid eyes on our precious one, I was in the middle of ordering 16 burritos ;). We are beyond thrilled and covet prayers for a quick court date, and the Lord's favor to pass court the first time.

2 Weeks

We have been sitting at the #1 spot for the last two weeks. I really did not think that it would take this long!! All that I can say is that this is really H A R D! It does not matter how much I pray, whine, cry etc. the wait does not seem to get any easier. In some ways, the wait is easier when you are number 10 or something because you are not constantly waiting for the phone to ring. Friends who have been through this before said that I just need to make myself busy. Okay, that is worth a try - maybe I will go find a project to do. But more likely, I will sit around and stare at my phone :) Please pray that our call comes soon - thank you!

Hope in the Dark Event

Last night, my husband and I got to be a part of an incredible event called Hope in the Dark. It was amazing!! Mike and Beth Hamilton (he is the athletic director at UT) brought home 3 children from Ethiopia last year. During their journey, they felt the Lord prompting them to do more. So, they started a foundation - the Kalugrace - to "get the word out". For the event, they had the Watoto African children's choir (orphan children from Uganda), speakers from a clinic in Kenya, a film about Blood:Water Mission, and Steven Curtis and Mary Beth Chapman. Yes, you read that right - the Chapmans were there to talk about their organization called Show Hope. I just sat in my chair with tears running down my face half the night. Apparently, I was not the only one moved, because they raised $270,000. And, there was an AGCI family there who received $15,000 towards their adoption - holy cow!! So cool to watch the Lord at work!

It was such a blessing to be able to go and see all the people with hearts for Africa. Not to mention, we got to see a lot of friends from the adoption community (shout out to Lindsey). My heart feels full!!

Update

Okay, so for anyone who is following along, here is the update - nothing. Yep, we have spent a week at the #1 spot, and now I am ready to pass it along to the Keyser family. We were out of town last week at a conference, and I was just sure that we would get the call since it would have been very difficult to begin working on all of the referral/acceptance details; but alas, that was not the case. So, this week we are home with not much going on, and I am READY! Did you hear that, Lord? Now would be a good time :) It is the strangest feeling to know that when the next little guy who falls into our age range arrives at Hannah's Hope, we will get our call. My husband said yesterday that he still does not feel pregnant - HUH?? He said that once he sees our little guy's face it will become real to him. Well, I feel like I have been carrying this baby since late last summer, so I am more than ready. Little man, we have been praying for you and thinking about you, and now we would LOVE to see you!! Praying that we won't have to spend much more time at the #1 spot. We would be overjoyed to pass it to the Keysers. Now come on phone, ring!!

Unofficially #1

Oh My Word!! We are unofficially #1. I am such a big baby that I started crying when I found out the news. The family in front of us got a referral on a little boy Monday night (congrats "M" family -thrilled for you!!). So, that means that we are up next -aggh! I will probably duct tape my phone to my body. I just pray that we are not like the family that sat at #1 for 6 weeks. Y'all would have to come visit me in the looney bin. I promise that I will post all the details of "the call" once we get it. Just wondering, have any AGCI families gotten new numbers yet this month?

Cuckoo

Yep, that's me. I am going a little (okay, a lot) crazy waiting for our new numbers. Today is the 6th, so I am just wondering, what's with the delay? Don't our case workers know that we anxiously await these updates. It does not change when we will get our referral, but it makes us feel better :) Sure, they have a few other things to do with their time (give out referrals, schedule court dates, help with travel ...); but some of us get a little nutty during the wait. Oh well, maybe tomorrow. I know that we are getting closer to seeing that little brown face, and I am SO EXCITED!!

Rollercoaster ride = Adoption

Well, my last post was about two trips; but this week, there is a *rumor* that the law requiring the additional trip has been postponed. Hmm?? We shall see . . . I was just warming up to the idea of getting to spend several days with my hubby learning about the fabulous country. When we go for pick-up, there will not be much time or opportunity for sight-seeing etc. My husband asked me why I thought this new change had occurred, and I laughed and responded that it was because we are "in line". The last time we adopted, I can not even tell you the changes in process that took place WHILE we were adopting. Let's see - second DNA test, birth certificate to come through central authority, country SHUT down ... I hope that I don't sound jaded or bitter - I actually have a big smile on my face as I type this because I know that in the end, we will have a new little one to love. It will ALL be worth it! Just look at this cuteness if you doubt me

Two Trips

This week has been a busy one for Ethiopian adoptions. The country announced that they will now require two trips to complete the adoption. Obviously, the second trip is for "pick-up", and no one is entirely sure when the first trip will occur. We do know that it will be post-referral, and we will get to meet our little one. Having made several visit trips during our adoption from Guatemala, I look forward to this. Sure, it means more time and money; but, on the "up" side, it gives us another opporunity to experience the culture. And, best of all, we will have the blessing of putting our hands on our little guy that much sooner! It helps make the whole process more real in my heart that much earlier.
On another note -
Apparently, my math was a little fuzzy on my last post. While our official number is still #7, I think that our unofficial # is only 6. That's okay, because if there is one thing that I learned from our process with Gigi - you can't rush these things. God has the EXACT child picked out for us, and he will be placed into our arms on the EXACT day at the EXACT hour. Amen?!?

March On!

Okay, I know that my lack of posts is just pitiful. So, for the sake of our next child (and Stacy and Laura), I am writing this update. We have had a ton going on, and we were not really sure which direction the Lord was leading us (do we EVER know??), so I have not posted. But, there has finally been some pretty good movement with our agency, and I want to document it. We got our "numbers" phone call yesterday, and we were told #7 for boys, #21 for girls, and #10 for siblings. In the meantime, we received an email update from our agency that includes referrals that they have given that are not reflected in our numbers. According to this email, we are now #4 for boy. Aggh! This means that there are only 3 people in front of us for a boy. Now, our case manager told me that it might take until June for us to receive a referral, but that seems kinda hard to believe with this few people in front of us. She did say that the closer you get to the bottom of the list, the longer it can take because the referral has to match your parameters. For us, our home study says that we can take a boy, or girl, or siblings up to age 20 months (agency rule, not ours). So, those are pretty broad parameters which increases our chances. We are getting excited!!

Closer to You

We got our January numbers, and we are creeping closer to you. I am ready to crank up the pace, so I am praying for lots of referrals this month. In other news, we are all moved into the farm house, so you will have LOTS more room to run and play. Also, we have a new kitten, but Gigi thinks she is hers, so you might have to wrestle her for a turn.

BOY 15
GIRL 29
SIBLINGS 12

We can't wait to see your precious face - maybe in April or May.