Okay...so we are now #24 on the waiting list. I am starting to get excited! I am imagining the moment that we get to meet our daughter for the first time and I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to even stand up with the immense feelings that will come.
We painted the baby's room and have enough clothes for the first three years! (thanks to my older sis and her two girls) I am imagining a different sort of Christmas next year. One where the tree has to be small and up out of little finger's reach and all sorts of noisey toys given, and family members fighting over who gets to hold and rock the baby. Pictures of Tony and the baby and sweet moments between the two of them. I think he is just as excited about getting a little sister as we are.

As snow is falling here, I am wondering where our child's birth family is and if they are safe? Sick, hungry...? Will they celebrate Christmas? Merry Christmas to our daughter and her birth family, wherever you are! The saviour is born for us all!

Waiting List...finally!

Okay, we have now finally moved to the waiting stage of our adoption. We are number 44 on the list and are very excited to hurry up and wait. There is a lot of anticipation in our house as to when and whom we will come home with! We will be gettin the spare room ready soon and that will add to the anticipation as we pass by it every day and look in.
So....we wait and pray and wait and pray.....

Pain...

I am now in the process of rehabilitating my knee. Very painful. Bending it is quite a chore and at this point I wouold rather keep it straight, but that won't get me behind the wheel of a vehicel any sooner, so we must press on. Last night I was very discouraged by my progess, being a "doer" and still not able to "do". I was thinking about the pain and my family was praying for me. I said it is not so much that the pain exists, but the it reminds me that things are still not right. (I tend to labor under a belief that one morning soon I will awake and be back to 100% and just move on with the "doing".) Anyway, it dawned on me that our hearts/ spirits work the same way. When we have been wounded, hurt or are just dysfunctional in our relationship with God and/or others we would just love to move on and keep "doing". The pain stops us though. That's God's grace. It reminds us that things still "aren't right". We still need healing, time, rehabilitaion from the Maker of the Universe. The pain isn't so much the problem, but the reminder that we can be whole, we just aren't there yet and were not made to operate or pretend that we are. We are fragile beings, born of dirt and dust with the breath of God breathed into us. So, I can have no problem with pain today (I am no CS Lewis), because I know that it means I am in need of more rehabilitation. It's a reminder that He is still making me whole, breathing into my fragile body His life-giving breath.

Laid-up 'follower'

I recently had an accident. I slipped in my garage and dislocated my knee-cap. At this stage in the recovery I am mostly in bed. This has allowed me to do a lot of reading... (let me interject that we are still waiting for our caseworker to finish writing our home-study before we can send on a completed dossier, so we are waiting...) ....okay, the reading.
I have read a book about a woman who has taken in hundreds of AIDS orphans in Ethiopia. Some children are simply orphaned by AIDS because both parents died of the disease, but the child is not positive, and some are actually inflicted with the disease and were orphaned, abandoned, or just shunned by their families. She started her home by just taking one at a time, with no financial assistance and a desire to take in the undesirable. I was humbled by how big of a difference one person can make and asked myself if my offering to the poor, the widowed, the orphaned and the downcast is anywhere near what God is asking of each one of us.
I have also been reading "Irresistible Revolution" by a young man from East Tennessee who now lives in Philly amongst the poorest of society. He and his friends share whatever they own with anyone who is in need in their community, feeling a deep commitment to walk with the poor as 'followers' of Jesus and not just 'believers'.
I was struck by the absolute enormous amount of people in Ethiopia, especially, that have just been forgotten. Forgotten by a government who showed the inability to deal with the years of war, famine and disease. Forgotten by the afflunet nations who haven't fulfilled their promises to send aid, our country being one that has fallen short of its' monetary commitment. Now there are somewhere around 4 million orphans in Africa. Not to mention the millions of people that have died of starvation or AIDS. The drugs that have been so effective in our country at giving people with HIV a shot at life, weren't available in Africa until just a few years ago. From what I understand, that is because the company that made the drug didn't want to give up their patent to allow generic versions to be sold at such a low cost, even to these destitute countries.
So, when people ask why Chris and I have chosen to adopt from Ethiopia, I guess it's obvious. Ethiopia has the largest population of orphans of any country in the world. How could we not? One in four kids attend school, and the prospects seem even grimmer for girls. I pray that this is just the beginning of our connection to Ethiopia.
And laying here affords me the opportunity to now reflect. When was the last time I checked on the 80 year-old widow next door? When was the last time I fed a poor person?
We have been teaching Tony the two greatest commandments that Jesus spoke of. Am I 'following' them or just 'believing' them? Will he 'catch' Jesus from me or just learn about Him? Is praying for the orphaned, the widowed and the poor enough?

"God, break our hearts for the things that break yours!"

So, I am anxious to get healthy again, that is, to be able to stand, drive and walk around easily. When I am, I want to be found 'following' Jesus and not just 'believing' Him. I will continue to pray. To pray for all those who haven't been shown Jesus....pray that we as followers can get to them and show them Jesus by meeting their needs... a meal, a conversation or a place to call home. That is what He asks of us. Let it be.

Home-study home-stretch

Okay, it seems that we are in the home-stretch with the home-study. Our worker is on vacation this week and when she comes back we expect her to work 24/7 on our home-study :) But, really, at this point it is in her hands. She has to write it and submit it. Then we send in the Dossier and move on from there. Move on to wait........ We are getting really excited. It seems there are a few things that have changed in Ethiopian law and the agencies have to wait to get some families adoptions moved through court. This will probably affect everyone, and might ultimately put us back a few weeks, months, who knows? It's all about waiting anyway. No problem, that just means more time alone with the soon-to-be-big-brother!

Just the Beginning

We are really in the beginning stages of this adoption. We are just getting our home-study done and getting to work on the dossier (fancy word for "insane amount of paperwork that all has to be notarized"). Really the home-study is not that new to us, since we have been state foster/adopt parents, but there are a few more requirements for an international adoption. To date we have mailed off one enormous check and are just saving and praying (not necessarily in that order) for the funds for the next installment. We are using an agency by the name of All God's CHildren International. The Ethiopian adoption process is currently taking between 12 and 16 months, after you get in your dossier. Okay, that's a long time, but really, we are used to all of this waiting. We have been married for nine years this May and just adopted (officially) our first last May. I don't mind the wait....at least not now. Ask me after we have actually been matched with a child and have to wait 2-6 months to actually travel to get them. Meanwhile, watching them change through photos and emails. Sometimes when I hold Tony, I feel a profound loss for the years of his life (5 1/2) that I didn't get to hold him. That's why I am glad that at 7 years old he only weighs 50 lbs., because I have lots of holding to make-up for.

Okay, so to recap...we are just at the beginning, but this is the time when we do all of the work. I pray for speedy government agency work in returning all of our documents. Also, I pray that someone in the legislature extends the doption tax credit, it sunsets in 2010 and this will have a devastating effect on adoptions in our country. The credit is a maximum of 12K....that is a real blessing when you are spending between 20-30K on your adoption.

Coming Home- our adoption story

Following our Ethiopian adoption journey. This is the story of how we are continuing to build our family through adoption and how everything that is involved in making sure that our next child is "coming home".