I wish I was a blanket!

In the bottom right corner of this suitcase, you will recognize the blanket that I made for our sweet baby boy! It is packed and ready to go to Ethiopia Friday. Wish I was going too!! Thank you so much, Sharon!

AGCI picnic

Yesterday we went to a picnic hosted by our adoption agency, All God's Children. Heather Radu, the founder of AGCI flew from Oregon to attend the picnic and briefly spoke to us. She spoke to us about the vision of AGCI, which I think is just amazing, and why we chose them as an agency. This is their vision statment, and should be the vision of all believers: "God has called us to passionately serve the world's forgotten children by creating hope through life-changing ministries." Wow!!

I have to admit, it was a little hard to be among all the adoptive families knowing that we have a son we can't bring home for another few months. People kept asking us where Grace Caroline and Drew were from!!

Not our son... he belongs to some friends.

This is our friend Dan and his son Sam. They have been waiting for their daughter to come home from Guatemala for almost a year -- it was really hard for him to be there yesterday.

If it seems slow, be patient!

But these things I plan won't happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, be patient! For it will surely take place. It will not be late by a single day." Habakkuk 2:3 This verse has been cropping up all around me today!

Patience. What does that mean? My dad's favorite dicionary, Funk and Wagnall's (now encorporated into Microsoft's Encarta), defines patience in this way:

capacity for waiting: the ability to endure waiting, delay, or provocation without becoming annoyed or upset, or to persevere calmly when faced with difficulties

Those of you who know me well know that this has always been a struggle for me. I do not endure waiting or delay well (I think I'm a little better at provocation). So many times in my life I have prayed for patience, and it seems that each time the Lord gives me a delay of some sort. My prayer this time is that I will truly persevere calmly, albeit with incredible sadness.

I rest in the promise that "...it will surely take place. It will not be late by one single day."

Trusting

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5

This is the verse the Lord gave me last night as I was reading before bed. I am so thankful I have Someon I can trust and that I don't have to lean on my own understanding. Waiting stinks, and I don't understand it. I am really sad. But I know it's okay, because I trust that the Lord is Good, Sovereign, and that He loves me and wants what is best for me, my family, and my sweet baby boy.

So last night I went home and made our baby a blanket. Total nesting therapy. Here is the finished product:

I'm pretty proud of it! A family who is travelling next week is going to give it to him for me. We're hoping they'll be able to get us more pictures of him as well. That is the only way between now and our travel to get pictures. I think that will be the hardest thing for me -- not knowing how he is doing, growing, changing, etc. for 4-5 months!

On the bright side, this delay increases our chances of being able to travel with our friends who are also adopting. So now we're praying for that.

Secret-keeping

Drew really enjoying the fourth! He fell asleep on the boat, then slept through lunch!

We received our referral on July 1, and we spent an entire weekend at the lake with my family over the fourth. It was terribly hard to keep the secret with so many people asking questions, as they all knew the monthly calls would be coming soon. But we managed to keep the secret through the weekend until we made our final decision Monday. Here are a few pictures of us secret-keeping!

Enjoying some time by the lake

True to Grace Caroline form, no smiles for the matching cousin picture (again)

Just a' swingin'

Emotional rollercoaster.

I feel like I am on an emotional rollercoaster. For the past week, I have been overjoyed with the prospect of seeing our new baby next month. But today that hope came crashing down. We received an e-mail from our case manager saying that our application did not make it out of MOWA (Ministry of women's affairs) before the deadline for the courts. So now it will be October before they begin processing our adoption through the courts. That means October or November before we travel. I know the Lord's timing is perfect, but I am really having a hard time with this right now. I long to hold him, kiss him, know him. Please pray for us and the other families in our situation as we wait.

REFERRAL!!!!!

What is it about woman's intuition? About 15 minutes after I wrote the last blog posting, my phone rang. It was Julie, our case manager from All God's Children. "I've got a little boy to tell you about!" I was at work, but I made it to the hall outside my office, so I don't think my squeal of glee disturbed too many people.
So on the evening of July 7, we accepted the referral of a 1 month old healthy baby boy. He was born June2, 2008. We don't have birth weight, but he weighed a little over 8 pounds at 10 days. What little other information we have, we are not sharing. Matt and I have agreed that his history is truly that -- his. So please don't ask us about his birth history, why he is an orphan, etc. When he is old enough to know, he can decide what he wants to share, and with whom.
We are so very excited to have a new son!! Grace Caroline was the first to know after us (and Dr. Staat, the international pediatrician), and she is very excited to have a new baby brother. Her comment about his picture was "He's cute." When we showed Drew his picture and told him that it was his baby brother James, he said "No, jeep." So who knows what Drew thinks! He's still very much a Mama's boy and still tries to trip me everwhere we go by getting in front of my legs and shouting "No, up, no, up" We'll see how he does....
Thanks to all for your support and prayers. I am unable to post pictures due to Ethiopian regulations. Sorry!

Pins and Needles

No news, but I totally feel like I'm sitting on pins and needles. I can't get past the feeling that we will be getting our referral any day now. I really feel like it will be in the next two weeks. Matt totally makes fun of me because I am carrying my cell phone with me EVERYWHERE so I don't miss "the call." Being the practical man he is, he warns me not to get my hopes up too much so that I'm not disappointed if THE call doesn't come by the time I think it should.
It's like when you apply for college/medical school/residency, and you're waiting to hear and you check your e-mail every 5 seconds and double check your phone to make sure you didn't miss that call in the 2 minutes you went to the bathroom. I know I'm totally being ridiculous, and that we will get the call in the Lord's time. I'm just really getting excited now.
I also have to send out 2 big PRAISES!!
1. I mentioned in my previous post that our friends Dan and Amy finally got their paperwork in Guatemala processed and get to bring their precious baby girl home soon. They posted pictures of their son picking out outfits for her to wear out of the clothes we gave them and it really struck a cord in my heart. THEY ARE BRINGING THEIR BABY HOME!!!!!
2. One of the orphanages that fed into Hannah's Hope Ethiopia in the past has been under investigation, and 2 of the families with our agency have been "on hold" pending investigation. I just learned this morning that their paperwork went through without a court date and that the gentleman from the ministry of women's affairs (the government office that overseas adoptions) personally walked their files to the courts!! What a testament to the work All God's Children does in Ethiopia!

We should be receiving our monthly call with our "number" soon. I will post again as soon as I learn (unless we're at the lake). When we get our referral, I will have to make this private so I can post a picture of sweet baby James.