praying for news!

We are praying for news about a court date! We are longing to be in the next step! It is so crazy how you wait and wait for that referral call...only to wait some more!! It is blissful torture!
Even Tyler is praying...tonight as I was getting ready to put him to bed, his little head that was laying on my shoulder, popped up as I said "Let's say our prayers"...and he said "CICAH!" (which is how he says Micah) It's like he was reminding me to pray for him! :) Too sweet.
We are hoping to hear early this week that our court date is 2 weeks away or less! That seems crazy, but I know our God is bigger than any paperwork trail or international goverment court system! He knows we desire to hold our son and play with him and snuggle with him and hopefully laugh and smile with him! If our court date is in the next 2 weeks, we have a good chance at going to Ethiopia by early March, which is my hope!
My new BFF Cristie (you know #1) has her court date for their Evan on this Wed. night (our time)...so we are praying for them and hope the timing works out so get to meet our sweet boys on the same day since we learned about them on the same day!
I love knowing that my hope is in God...I can rely on Him and don't need to worry about all the many, little things that need to happen in order for our court date to be successful and travel to happen soon....He knows our desires and longs to be gracious to us! Thank you Lord! :D
We will post news as soon as we get it!!!

answered prayers...

So we were waiting for Micah's last HIV test to come back...they called us about him on Jan 5th and with each passing day I grew more and more discouraged when no news would come. We couldn't move forward until we knew the results because lots of changes to our paperwork would have to be done if it had come back positive. Our case worker was wonderful and kept us informed alot. First their wasn't enough blood samples to run the test...then the lab ran out of supplies and got backed up! During those 2 weeks God taught me a hard lesson but a necessary one:

Only HE can satisfy!

No lab result, no speedy process, no hourly updates...non of that can satisfy me, there will always be worldly things that I long for...but if my satisfaction is not in HIM ALONE...then I will never truly know HIM!

So by the morning of Jan 20th....I was wiped out. I began to sob to God on my way home from work that morning..."God I know only you can satisfy me, only YOU... and I trust your timing...as hard as is it right now...it is sooo hard...sooo hard...every day that passes with no news is one less day that he's not home with us"...it was a long hard pill to swallow but I was able to say "I really trust you Lord and I am satisfied with whatever and whenever the news comes"....to say it and REALLY believe it was wonderful though hard.

I went to bed at 9am feeling refreshed...by 11; 15am our case worker called...Micah results were in and his test was negative!!!!

I sprang out of bed and asked her to alert the Ethiopia staff, the press, whoever needed to know, that we were READY TO MOVE FORWARD!!!!!!
Later that same day, Cristie (the #1 family who we received our referral with) got the news that they had a court date set already! It is set for Feb 4th!!! That is so close!!! I am so excited for them and it gives us hope that we too might get a court date a few days after that! We actually found out that all the families (about 6) who received referrals around the time we did have already been given dates...so it shouldn't be long until we do too!!
It is hard not to be frustrated that our wait was extended, because we too could already be assigned a court date, but I know God has his perfect reasons and will give us the court date we need! He is bigger than any hold up or detour and "works out everything in conformity to the purpose of his will!" (Eph 1:11)

Our prayer is that we will hear of a court date soon, that it will be by Feb 8th so we can make it into the early March travel group and on the perfect day for everything that has to happen in order for us to pass the first time. (Birth mom has to be present with correct identification, documents from other gov. agencies have to be at the court by that date too).
God is in control and I am praying against any of Satan's attempts to cause us fear or anxiety....
Thank you all for praying with us too!!!
Hope to have more updates and answered prayers to share soon!!
To God be the glory!!

The big brother :)

I haven't posted many pictures lately but here you go....
Enjoy :)

Fighting Impatience

So I feel like I am waiting for the referral call all over again...but this time, thank the Lord, I have a sweet face to stare at as I wait.
It is no suprise to those who know me that I am IMPATIENT! I get irritated easily over things that mess up my "flow"(whatever that may be! ha!). So what does our God, who has a great sense of humor I might add, ask me to do? ADOPT! One of the things in this life that requires more patience than anything else I know of! He planted that desire in me years ago, and this last year really reved it up and here we are following in obedience (though it can be painful) smack dab in the adoption "process". We waited what seemed like eternity for our BIG CALL...it came just last week and I was READY! Ready to get the paper work signed, notarized, shipped, make phone calls, print pictures, bring it on! But what now has the Lord asked us to do???
WAIT SOME MORE!!! HOLY COW!!!! So....here we are....waiting for the last of Micah's blood tests to come back before we can even send off the paperwork I was so eager to finish and make it official!

I am re-reading "Future Grace" by John Piper, but skipped back a few chapters to one that I really needed to re-read again!!
Faith in Future Grace vs. Impatience
Lots of you who read this are waiting yourselves and so I hope this encourages you as it does me and reminds you of how good our God is!

"~Impatience is a form of unbelief. It's what we begin to feel when we start to doubt the wisdom of God's timing or the goodness of God's guidance....
~Patience is the capacity to "wait and endure" without murmuring and disillusionment- to wait in the unplanned place and endure the unplanned pace ...
~Patience is the evidence of an inner strength. Impatient people are weak, and therefore dependent on external supports- like schedules that go just right and circumstances that support their fragile hearts. Their outcomes of oaths and threats and harsh criticisms of the culprits who crossed their plans do not sound weak. But that noise is all a camouflage of weakness. Patience demands tremendous inner strength...
~the glorious might of God (referred to in Colossi ans 1:11) that we need to see and trust is the power of God to turn all our detours and obstacles into glorious outcomes...
~The key to patience is faith in the future grace of God's "glorious might" to transform all our interruptions into rewards."

So this may be a detour and interruption in my mind, but by faith in my God, I know that this wait will only bring about a glorious outcome!
Thank you God for strengthening us as we wait and for bringing about a glorious outcome, even when we can't see it...my faith is in You!

Prayer request

So it has been a full week since our big day last week when we got to see the sweet face of our Micah T.
The sad thing is, we haven't been able to officially say "yes, we want to be his parents!...yes, get our paperwork movin'! yes! yes! yes!" Though that is EXACTLY how I feel!!
See, he has one last blood test to be done....and our agency wants us to have ALL the information possible before we make it official. WELL the lab is out of the supplies they need to run this test so here we are waiting again!
I am asking all of you who care enough to even look at our little family's blog, to please pray that the lab gets their supplies, runs the test, and gets the results to our agency QUICK! The mommy in me wants to fly over there, scoop him up and say "who cares about labs....he is ours!!"
It doesn't quite work that way though, so I am clinging to my God and resting in his Truth....

"In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him WHO WORKS OUT EVERYTHING IN CONFORMITY WITH THE PURPOSE OF HIS WILL, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the PRAISE OF HIS GLORY"
Ephesians 1:11-12

I know in the big scheme of things, God is working this out...conforming it to the purpose of His will and it will all be for His glory!!!
Maybe if it weren't for this hold up, we would be given a court date where his birth mom couldn't make it or other important papers wouldn't have had time to arrive....

Yes Lord I trust you, please strengthen us as we wait. May the blood work come at the perfect time and with the perfect results!!!

waiting to exhale....

These pictures aren't even recent but they describe how I feel the best...plus Tyler is just super cute in them!

Since receiving our referral on Tuesday, we have been in a whirlwind of phone calls with our agency, paperwork, and printing Micah's pictures so they can be all over the house!

I think about him and his precious birth mom (who gave him life and us the chance to love him and provide for him and most importantly share with him our love of Jesus) all the time!

I am picturing how much messier this house will be, how much more wet the bathroom floor will be at bath time and just how much louder it will be with a two year old plus a one year old by the time we are home! It will be crazy bliss!

We are almost ready to turn in everything to make our referral acceptance official and then we wait for news of a court date...then the court date...hopefully pass first time...wait for travel dates...then get on a plane and get our sweet Micah!! While I'm on cloud nine, we are really just holding our breath while the rest of this process unfolds....waiting to exhale :)

I can't thank God enough for allowing me and Cristie C. to go through this together...it has definitely made this whole thing even more wonderful!

Cristie~ I hope to be on the plane heading home with you and with our boys asleep in our arms looking at each other with huge smiles on our faces....still high! ;)

Our REFERRAL story...

Here is our day in pictures...below I explain it all........

Posing with Cristie after we laugh and cry over sharing this day together...

At Cristie's rushing out the door after our call came....Cristie you held that pose the whole time!

On the phone with our agency learning about our new son, are we excited or what!?

Daddy is in AWE!

Wishing I could kiss the real thing!!

WOW! So today the call ACTUALLY came!!!! WHAT A DAY!!!!

I will try to start from the beginning....

So many of you know that the family who was #1 lives here in town and me and her (Cristie) started chatting and giving each other support over this looooong wait until we saw our sweet son's faces.....WELL today we had planned for me and Tyler to go to her house and actually meet for the first time - imagine my surprise when she calls me at 1:30pm to say "we got our call!!" So I still went over at 3pm and got to jump up and down screaming and rejoicing at seeing the pictures of her precious son.

I knew then I was now #1!! I hoped that our call would come in the next few days........

When a friend of Cristie's came over to see her baby too, we went back to the computer to drool over his precious face and my phone rings....

Now remember we were also expecting to get a call from our agency with our monthly update so I look at Cristie and say "it's the agency!!! BUT it's probably just our update"

I
WAS
WRONG!!!!

Our case manager starts with small talk asking about our Christmas... and then lays it on me "Well I have good news!!"

Me: "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!"

This woman who I just met now sees me jumping up and down and screaming in her house like a wild monkey! It was amazing!

I tell our case worker that I am not far from home and my husband is there so I will call her right back .....I then scramble for my things and another one of Cristie's friends shows up and takes a few pictures for me and we are off to the house - only a few blocks away!!!!!

A friend of Matt's had stopped by to see him and so we left him to keep Tyler occupied while we took the phone call!

He is the most adorable little 9 month old and I can just tell he will fit in perfectly here! Him and Tyler will be so close!

We can't share his Ethiopian name which we are keeping as his middle name, but we will name him Micah! His initials will be M.T.W. just like his daddy's! :)

Family poured into our house to see our newest edition and later we got to go back to Cristie's so she could see our son.....God is amazing isn't he!?

Next we have to complete some referral paperwork which will take a few days...then we turn that in and our paperwork goes to Ethiopia. Then we wait to hear about a court hearing that will take place in Ethiopia and declare Micah officially ours....after that court date is when we wait to hear about the Embassy appointment where we get the clearance to leave the country with him and that is when we pick him up!!! Hopefully by March we will be holding him, but that may be pushing it!! I am praying we will get him before he turns one and Tyler turns two!!! April will be one big month of celebration!!!!

Now I am off to process this crazy, wonderful, amazing day!

Lamentations Ch 3 and mini-update

"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions NEVER FAIL. They are new every morning; GREAT is your FAITHFULNESS. I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him".
Lamentations 3: 22-24

Our pastor read a part of this on Sunday morning and oh what sweet words to my soul they are!
This wait until we see our son has been hard, and though each day I pray "please let today be the day we see his face," God isn't answering my prayer directly, but He is giving us the grace to endure the wait. And since I know God is love, then I know all that He does comes out of his love and so though this wait is agonizing at times, I choose to believe that it is for our best and only out of love. (He IS love so how can he NOT act out of love!?) So I am not consumed by the enemies attempts to cause me to doubt this whole process though he has tried many times to lead me to do so. I cling to this verse knowing God has compassion on me and knows what it is to wait for his Son to return to Him... and his compassion will never fail! His faithfulness is new every morning! It is the Lord who gives me my portion....He is everything I need and will always give me everything I need....so here I am with the grace to endure the wait...and I will wait for him.

The only news I really have on the adoption, is that the transition home Hannah's Hope where our future son will be until we can get to him has moved to the new location and they seemed settled in last week! I hope this means that if our son is not already there, then they are now ready and able to take him in and many other children waiting for their families. Between the holidays, the transition home's move and the back up from the court closure in the fall, things have been soooo slow, but I hope now everyone is reved up and ready to get more babies home!!! Praying that this week my new sweet friend Cristie, who is #1 and just a few blocks away recieves her phone call and then we are next! We also should be getting our monthly update from our case manager in a day or two...I will have to keep myself from thinking it is our referral call when I see her number come up on the phone!!

And for your enjoyment, a picture of my little cowboy.........

( I have been playing with my camera and finally got my first decent picture on the completely manual setting!)