We have officially been on the "waiting for a referral" list for four weeks and found out today that we are #5!
(High fives all around!)
We moved up two places in two weeks, not that this is in any indication of how things will go from here. We're still in the same place as before: "The call could come any day now, or it could be a couple of months from now"....but progress is progress.
We are scheduled for our biometrics (fingerprinting) appointment with USCIS in about two weeks. This is a big step and involves the immigration paperwork for our little one.
On another happy note, we also received word that our dossier made it to Ethiopia today. We're still pretty sure that we'll have to make the two trips to ET, but this is very good news. The dossier arriving in ET is another big milestone since it has to arrive in ET and be translated before we can even get in line for a court date...but we can't get in line until we have a referral.
My birthday and Mother's Day is in a couple of weeks. Guess what I would LOVE as a present!?
As I'm sure everyone knows, there is a volcano erupting in Iceland, and the ash plume is creating a lot of problems for airlines and travelers. When watching the news stories, I prayed for the families who are in Ethiopia right now picking up their children. Although, fairly minor, the volcano is affecting us as well. We got an email from our agency today saying that our dossier has made it through the Washington DC leg of it's journey and is on it's way to ET...but we don't know where it is or when it will arrive. It's with FedEx somewhere caught up in the mess.
In order to avoid the new two trip requirement from the ET government (and only have to travel once), we'd have to have our dossier in ET and a referral of a child by May 1st. We knew that we'd be cutting it close anyway, but this snag certainly doesn't help. It's not really a big deal for us, because we probably wouldn't have gotten a referral before then anyway, but I am saying extra prayers for the families that have been matched and are trying to beat the deadline.
We're lucky number 7 on the list of families waiting for a referral...and a few of those ahead of us are approved to request girls. Our agency only allows families to request girls if they do not have any other female children in their household. Not all agencies have this rule, and in general, there are a lot of families requesting girls...and consequently a lot of little boys needing homes. All of this means, that if a little boy comes into care, they will obviously skip over the families requesting girls and go to one requesting a boy or either gender. So, if you think of it that way, we may be less than #7.
This may all seem like useless information since I can't tell you what this means for our time line, but I can tell you that it is not unusual for families to get THE CALL at this point on the wait list. It could come tomorrow, it could come a few months from now. Please keep us in your prayers that God brings us the little one He has always meant for us to have.
I finally finished my niece's baby blanket, which is good considering she's a year old now. Now it's time to start one for our baby. This will be a good thing since I can't bring myself to buy any baby stuff yet. Buying baby stuff now seems like buying a wedding dress when you're not even engaged. I think I need to wait until after the referral. At least then we'll know the gender and age. That will make it seem more real.I'm playing it safe and making a white one.
Having just celebrated the Easter season, I thought it a good time to write a little bit about obedience. I certainly don't intend this blog to be my personal pulpit, but our faith is a huge part of who we are and how we came to be on this journey...and I think it is important to share.
I mention in our Adoption Story how we very much feel called and led by God to adopt a child from Ethiopia, and it occurred to me that even people of faith may not truly understand what I'm talking about. God doesn't always speak to us in a clear audible voice. He uses the Holy Spirit, the little, tiny voice inside of us. Call it your inner voice, your conscience, that reoccurring thought, the feeling that won't go away. That's how He spoke to me, a small feeling, that turned into a thought, that turned into a desire, that turned into a need.
A lot of times, we find ourselves praying for things to happen the way we have it planned out. I was certainly guilty of this. In the begining I was praying for a pregnancy. I was saying to God, "I want a family, and this is how I want you to make it happen". I began to realize how childish this was and began praying that God would open our hearts and our minds, that He would show us His will, that we would understand it and have the strength and courage to follow it.
This has certainly been a journey for us, even up to this point. We've grown so much in our faith and our love for God and each other. I am so thankful that He has chosen us for such and amazing blessing and that he continues to mold and shape us into the people He intended. Very few times in life do you get to pause, look back, and say, "I understand why all those things happened. It was to bring me here."
So this past Good Friday, I had a new perspective on Jesus' sacrifice and His obedience to the Father. It's one thing to know God's will, it's another thing to do it.
I'm not saying that it has been easy. We've had a lot of heartbreak. Many times I have cried out to God in anguish. And when I couldn't find the words, I prayed, "Lord you know my heart. I can't take it anymore. Please help me." Not surprisingly, as soon as we decided to adopt, our burdens were lifted, and I have never felt more at peace.
Here's an amazing song by Patty Griffin "Up to the Mountain (MLK song)"
Although we've been trying/waiting to start a family for two years, yesterday (3/31), we got news that we are officially on the wait list for our first child. I got an email from Holt International (our agency) saying that our dossier (big stack of papers that represents us to the Ethiopian government) has been reviewed and there are no changes/corrections needed. This was a big relief because there were a lot of documents and very specific instructions for each of them.
We are requesting one child 0-12 months, either gender. Holt says the wait for a "referral" (child match) is 3-4 months. Typically, the wait for a girl is on the longer end of that scale. However, there were a ton of referrals a couple of weeks ago after a log jam of paperwork was released. Even if we get a referral soon, it will be several months before we can travel to Ethiopia, but at least I can shop in the mean time!
In celebration of out first major milestone in the adoption process, please enjoy this happy, inspirational song. The Playing for Change Band is made of musicians from different cultures uniting together for the common purpose of peace through music. They believe music is the universal language of peace. They travel all over the world and record individual musicians' parts and then mix them all together.
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