s.e.v.e.n

Seven months have passed since we sent off that fat stack of papers to Ethiopia. I honestly can't believe it. We have steadily moved up the list in waiting for our referral with our agency giving out 20 referrals in March! That is amazing! We are hopeful that April is going to be our month.

On Friday there was a great deal of activity with the families of America World and seeing our names move up the list hit me hard; like freaking out! I felt such a wave of excitement that was more intense then anything I've experienced thus far. I truly believe that the Lord has been protecting my heart and mind through this journey and helped me to just be in the moment with our family now, while hoping for the days to come. But that really changed for me on Friday. I am feeling the weight of what's to come in a whole new way. I am excited, scared, overwhelmed, hopeful, and eager. It's a wonderful place to be and I praise the Lord that He's waited til this point in our journey to let me experience all of this. I couldn't have handled feeling like this for the last 7 months!

And now for a few details...we are really hopeful that we'll receive our referral by this time next month. Once we accept our referral we will have a court date set which will be approximately 2 months later (June perhaps) and we will travel a few weeks after we pass court. We have already begun praying that we will pass court our first time around and would ask you to do the same. Our best guess is that we will travel in July to bring that baby home. We are eagerly awaiting that day!

-kate-

Six months and five pairs of shoes

We have been DTE for six months. Six months! When we submitted our dossier the wait time was 5-7 months so we seriously thought that we could have our referral by now. But we don't; and we're okay with that. As it stands right now, our best guess is that we are somewhere in the early teens on the boy wait list and in the later teens for a girl. Honestly there is no way of knowing how it will all work out. We are continually having to rest in the promise that the Lord is in control and knows exactly where our baby is and when we will be together. Easier said then done some days!

I was thrown for a bit of a loop this week when, for the first time in my knowledge, a family who had requested an infant of either gender got a girl referral! That hasn't happened in our agency before! I was blown away that this happened and started to wonder if that could happen to us. I don't think it will, but if it did then who would wear these sweet little shoes I've been accumulating? I resisted buying anything for our baby for so long, but the last two months have found the pull too strong (and the deals too good!). And that's why there are five little shoes lined up in his closet waiting for him. Waiting for little brown feet to fill them. Ready to carry chubby legs around as his big sister chases him from room to room.

We're ready to see his face, ready to hug and kiss his cheeks, ready to make him part of us, forever. We're ready to be a family of four. But it's not time yet. Soon, but not yet.

Lord, give us patience and fill us with joy as we wait!

-kate-