Amazed

I want to write this post, just so I remember how amazed I am today, but I'm so in awe that I honestly don't even know the words to write.

We needed $6,500 by today to pay our agency for our dossier submission fees. Keep in mind that we just paid an outrageous amount of money in early February for our initial agency fees, another huge sum that was due on April 3rd when we accepted our referral and now...we need an additional $6,500 and we were given the due date of Friday by midnight to pay online. If we couldn't pay at that time, it would delay our dossier going to Ethiopia. Ugh.

Adopting again so soon after bringing Kad home was not in our financial plan. For his adoption, we had saved and saved, knowing that we would have nearly two years to pay for his adoption in full. For "Y", that's simply not the case.

"Y" is very literally waiting for us at this point. Her file is ready to be submitted to court, but our dossier needs to be there and translated before we can move forward as a family and get assigned a court date. The thought of ANY delays made us feel sick, but we also didn't have the entire $6500 to send tonight. We feel strongly that we shouldn't enter into debt to pay for this adoption, so we've just been praying that somehow, God would provide this enormous sum of money. I think our exact prayer was, "Lord, please just let money show up in our mailbox without any effort or inquiry on our part."

Well...he did it.

Today, we got a check in the mail for exactly $6,500! The full amount we need TONIGHT to submit our dossier.

We've never been the recipients of such incredible generosity, and it just affirms to us that although we have at times thought about how crazy it is that we're adopting again so soon, we're right where we're supposed to be and doing exactly what we are supposed to be doing.

We've always been told that "God funds what he favors", and this is the first time we've experienced that so personally.

To the donors of this incredible gift....your love for our family and for our little girl is overwhelming and so, so humbling. We can't thank you enough for so tangibly helping us bring "Y" home!

Out of Our Hands

I can't begin to tell you how excited we are to say that our dossier (the mountain of paperwork we had to compile and send to Ethiopia) is out of our hands and on its way to our agency in Virginia. Once they look it all over one last time, it will be couriered to Washington DC for authentication by the Department of State and the Ethiopian Embassy.

Then...it will be on its way to Ethiopia! Our official DTE date ("Dossier to Ethiopia") will be May 11th.

When it arrives, it will be translated and registered with the government office there and then our file will be joined with "Y"s and submitted to the Ethiopian courts. We're so hoping to get a court date before they close for the rainy season in August. We know its a long shot, but God has made this adoption process move at record pace so far and we're praying He choses to get us a court date with the same speed!

Today, we're celebrating this HUGE milestone of submitting our dossier and being one step closer to meeting our little girl!

REFERRAL!!

What?!?!?

That's right, Michael and I are THRILLED to announce that our little family is growing, and Kad is soon to be a little brother.

What?!?!?

Yes...LITTLE brother. We just accepted the referral of the most beautiful eleven year old girl we've ever seen. We've spent months trying to work out the details, and just when we thought there was no way it was going to happen, God worked it all out in a way only He could orchestrate. We're so amazed and humbled that He has chosen us to parent this sweet little girl.

To fill you all in on the story to this point, remember a few posts ago when I was telling you about my friend Mary meeting her kids for the first time. (if not, please take a minute and read it here) Well...her oldest daughter's best friend. The one who thought she would never have a family.

She does now!

It has been an amazing journey that should have never worked out the way that it has, but God obviously intends for her to be our daughter.

We first heard about "Y" on January 18th. Our hearts broke for this little girl, and we began praying for a family to be open to adopting her. Well...just five days later, Mike said (completely out of the blue), "Is it crazy if I think I'm supposed to be "Y"s dad?"

Ummmm....YES! But, crazy works for us!

So, we began praying specifically that if God intends for "Y" to be our daughter, that He would make the path to her clear and open.

First, we had to find "Y" an agency that would comfirm if she truly was "adoptable" and accept her into their program. There are very few American agencies that work with her orphanage, but we found a great Chrsitan agency who agreed. Ironically, just two weeks before we heard "Y"s story for the first time, we had already sent off for an information packet from them. The agency is America World Adoption based in Virginia, and they are WONDERFUL!

Next, we had to get accepted into their Ethiopia program, pay a TON of agency fees and complete a homestudy. At the same time, our agency would be working to complete "Y"s file so that she was eligible for adoption. The chances of our home study and her file coming together at the exact same time were slim to none. Its a good thing God does his best work with "slim to none" odds :)

"Y"s file came together in three weeks, and we got our home study done just two days later. And last week, on April 3rd at 8:12 am, we got the official referral call!

"Y" will soon become our daughter!

I'm so excited to tell her one day how desperately she's wanted, how fiercely we've fought for her, and how faithful God has been to all of us as we worked to become a family.

Adopting an eleven year old wasn't anywhere in our plans, but we're so grateful that God's plans are always so much better than our own!

We still have a lot of hurdles to jump as we complete our dossier and wait for a court date, but we're so excited to be one step closer to bringing "Y" home to her forever family!

You're getting your miracle, little Ms. "Y", and we're so blessed to be getting ours too!

Something BIG

God is up to something BIG.

I can't fill you in yet on the details, but stay tuned

...you aren't going to want to miss this!!

"Older"

I've been really struggling to come up with the words to write about a subject that has been on my heart since leaving Ethiopia. Its something that not a lot of people in our adoption circle talk much about and something that I was honestly a little clueless of until I saw it with my own eyes.

Older kids.

As young as twelve.

On the streets.

No family.

No hope.

No future.

I knew in my head that there were older orphaned kids in every country, but I just didn't reconcile the "knoweldge" of that fact with the "reality" of it. While I was living at Kad's orphanage, I had the blessing of interacting with the older kids there.

{Side Note: By older kids, I'm not talking sixteen, seventeen, or eighteen year olds. In orphanage terms, "older" means twelve to fourteen year olds. The very fact that being twelve years old classifies you as "old" is a tragedy in iteself.}

I would spend days singing with these kids, painting their fingernails, playing soccer with them. They had names -- "B" and "A" and "H" and so many others. They were sweet and smart, funny and outgoing. They would have me laughing so hard that I would forget the lack of sleep and stress of caring for a baby alone in Ethiopia. They loved Kad and would tell me stories about praying for him all night when he was sick and how one "older" girl, "B" (an eight year old) would actually go with him to the hospital so he wouldn't be alone. They are caring, wonderful, amazging kids.

...but they don't have families.

In fact, for three of them that I loved dearly, they never will.

How do I know this? Because I watched them age out of the orphanage while I was there. The big metal gates opened, and they walked out without the hope of a family or a future.

It sounds harsh, and it is. But, it isn't the orphanage's fault that this age-out process exists. Its mine. And yours. And everyone else who doesn't welcome one of these "older" kids into our home because they're afraid. Or because they wait and wait for a cute, cuddly baby.

I don't say this to condem anyone. Keep in mind that Mike and I waited eight long months for Kad's referral. I get sick to my stomach every time I think now about how many older kids walked out of those gates during that time. Please don't misunderstand, I know that babies deserve families too...trust me...I have one sleeping in the room next to me right now. And, when families pray about the child that God has planned for their family, I know that some times He directs them to check the "healthy infant" box on the agency application. I know that. But, I also know that sometimes He nudges our heart to stretch a little more than what we're comfortable with, and that can be a very scary thing to acknowledge and act on.

Our friends Mary and Bob are the first couple that made that fact so real to me. They started their adoption process intending to adopt one little girl with special needs under the age of three. God had drastically different plans. And, through their obedience, they are soon to be the proud parents of three kids from Ethiopia -- a three year old boy, a six year old girl & a nine year old girl! To say that their faithfulness is inspiring would be the understatement of the year. It has been such a blessing to watch their family story unfold.

While I was talking to Mary last week on skype (yes...that two hour conversation on Mike's birthday), she was telling me about meeting her kids for the first time. I cried as she described her girls running through the courtyeard and throwing themselves into her arms, showering them with hugs and kisses. These "older" girls, who waited for YEARS, dreading the next birthday that put them one year closer to the other side of those gates, just met their MOM and DAD.

And then, Mary told me about their oldest daughter's friend who watched from the sidelines all week, in tears, knowing that families for kids her age are few and far between. She was witnessing her fairy-tale moment...only unless she gets a miracle, there will be no happily-ever-after for her.

No body to run to across the courtyard.

No arms to fling her little body into.

No kisses & hugs.

No, "I love you so much" whispered in her ear.

It will never be her turn.

I don't know what the Lord is doing stiring this up in my heart all over again, but I know that He intends for us to pray for these kids, to advocate for them, to make others aware that they exist. That they, just like the cute cuddly babies, deserve a family.

We're not all called to adopt, but we are ALL called to love and care for orphans...of ALL ages. Please pray along with me about what our role is in loving these kids!

Happy Birthday Dada!

Today is Michael's birthday. Typically we would have maybe gone away for a long weekend or at least gone out to a nice dinner...but having a little one around makes celebrating birthdays a little more low-key. We spent the day at the zoo and then went out for a quick dinner before we had to put the Little Man to bed.

Oh, and then wife of the year here, spent the next two hours skyping with her friend Mary who just got back from Ethiopia visiting her three kids.

Someday we'll be back to long weekends away and nice dinners, but for now...moments like this make it all worth while!

Happy Birthday, to the best dada on the planet! I love you more and more every single day!

Melkam Gana

Today is January 7th, with is the date that Ethiopians observe "Gana" or Christmas. Yes, it is celebrating the exact same thing as traditional Christmas...the birth of Christ...its just observed on a different day.

What I love about Gana, is that it truly is a religious holiday. The entire day is spent celebrating at church and worshiping the true miracle of the virgin birth of Christ. Everyone wears white robes or traditional clothing, symbolizing the purity that comes with our new birth in the Lord, and after church they spend time feasting with their familiy and friends.

We're so blessed that our family is so deeply intertwined with the Ethiopian culture and community, and we will be celebrating Gana each and every year.

This year, our adoption play group in the midwest had a huge Gana celebration. Since our house sold in Indiana and closing just happens to be the first week of January, Kad and I were able to make the trip to Ohio to attend.

This was the first time I was able to introduce Kad to the group of families who have supported us and prayed for us as we journeyed through the adoption process together. It was such a sweet time of celebration for so many reasons!

Kad is his traditional Ethiopian outfit (a gift from his Aunt Birtukan):

All of the Ethiopian kiddos (this was a tough group to photograph!):

Melkam Gana (Merry Christmas) to all of our friends and family in Ethiopia!