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.

Snow and new numbers

We woke up to about 2 inches of snow yesterday - practically a blizzard here in the south LOL - so the kids headed outside to play. They managed to attach a sled to the back of a four wheeler using a tow rope, and they had a blast! I only got a couple of pictures of Daddy and Gigi ready to head outside and then playing on the trampoline.

There was not a lot of movement for our adoption numbers this month - boy #17, girl #35, and siblings #14.

Numbers

Oh man, I am so bad about giving updates. But, since this will be a part of Gary's baby book, I will try to do better. We received our I171H in the mail about two weeks ago, so that is one more step out of the way. We got this one much faster than the first time around with Gigi. Also, our agency - AGCI - gave us our waitlist numbers. We are #18 for a boy, #40 for a girl, and #14 for siblings. They told us that the referral for a boy would be the quickest - maybe 5 or 6 months; about 8-12 months for a girl; and, they don't give time frames for siblings because it is so hard to determine. We will get new numbers the first week of December, but I don't expect to move too much as this is a slow time of year for referrals.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Garys

During our last adoption, we called the baby a silly little name when we talked about her until we knew that she was really going to be ours. I realize that this sounds crazy, but early in our last process, we received a referral, flew to Guatemala and visited her, named her, prayed for her, loved her . . . Well, her birth mother returned to the orphanage for her, so little Caroline never came to live with us. Once we accepted another referral, we did not really "name" Gigi until much further into the process. This was a small way of protecting our hearts. Fast forward to this adoption, and we have been calling this child "Gary". Only, we are not sure if we will adopt a boy or a girl, so sometimes the kids refer to the child as "Garina". Lately, we feel like the Lord might have siblings for us (??), so this morning one of my kids decided to simplify things and just prayed for "The Garys". Little one(s), whoever you are, we are excited about you and are praying for you (all)!