So what's the hold up?

As mentioned in the last blog, there has been a major slow down in Ethiopian adoptions in the past months. We have been assured that the issues are very close to being resolved. In fact, they gave 3 referrals in March so we moved up 3 spots on the wait list on April 1st!!! The major issue yet to be resolved is which local governmental office will sign the paper that officially states that a child is indeed an orphan and that there are absolutely no in-counrty options for this child to be cared for. At this point the child can be referred to a family such as ours for adoption. Both offices feel that this is the responsibility of the other office and so here is our hold up. The orphanages and adoption agencies in Ethiopia have been pressing the government to come to a solution for this as the orphanages are getting too full with no adoptions going through. Thus, a meeting is set for tomorrow to hopefully resolve the issue.

Please pray with us that the meeting tomorrow is successful. Meaning that whatever is best for these children will be established as the best procedure so that those who truely need a home will be placed with their forever familys soon.

In other baby news, I am now almost 12 weeks along with the child within. :) We heard the heart beat for the first time yesterday! We are all healthy and doing well!

Double Pregnant

That's what I call it...... 1. Paper pregnant - We are still eagerly anticipating our adoption from Ethiopia! 2. We are very excited to say that I am 9 weeks pregnant! We feel very blessed to be sharing this news! Moses is begging me to have a boy, although I have tried to explain to him that its already been decided and I am not the one who decides! Grace was so excited that she wore her "Big Sister" shirt for 3 days and even slept in it! I finally had to insist on washing it.

We do not anticipate this to change anything with the adoption. There are two things the adoption agency considers when a client becomes pregnant. 1. That there be a minimum of 6 months between birth of child and accepting a referral. We are estimated to receive our referral around April 2015 and bio baby will be 6 mo old by then so we are clear on this one. 2. They prefer all the children in the home to be at least 6 mo apart in age so they would most likely refer us a child who is 12-24 months old. After we receive our referral it will still be 6 months before we take the 1st of our two trips to Ethiopia so bio baby will be at least 1 year old by then. In the end, we trust Gods timing with everything!

There has been some delays with adoptions in Ethiopia in the past 6 months but Ethiopia is not closed. Some new policies and procedures were implemented in Ethiopia this past November that have slowed things down but have also made the adoptions more "legit" so to speak. These new procedures have also increased the wait time between the 1st and 2nd trips we will take to Ethiopia upon receiving our referral. The increased wait times can seem discouraging to us at times but we do not lose hope because we know that God asked us to do this and His plan will succeed in His timing. Whoever and wherever our child is we continue to pray for him/her daily and believe God will bring him/her into our home soon!

Patiently Waiting

               "For if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently." 
                                                                      Romans 8:25

August has been an exciting month for us. We moved up 16 slots on the waiting list making us #80!!! I couldn't believe it when I read the e-mail! We have spent the month of August specifically praying in 2 ways and ask that you would join with us. First, we have felt lead to pray specifically for our child's safety at this time. Second, for God's leading and provision for the remaining financial needs of the adoption. (we estimate that we need $15,000 more)

We have the opportunity to have another garage sale at the same great location we have used before, where God has really blessed us. It will be Thursday, Sept. 26th and Friday, Sept. 27th. Again, all the items at the garage sale are donated and 100% of the proceeds go toward our adoption expenses. If you have any items to donate please contact Nate or I and we will be glad to pick them up. Furniture and children's clothes and toys go really well however, we are very thankful to receive ANY items you might have to donate. Our garage is already half full of donated items to sell this time around so we are eager to see what God will do!!!

#96

We received our July wait list # today. I was pleasantly surprised to see it is #96!!! Last month we were #105 so moving 9 slots in one month is exciting! Our agency placed 10 children with their forever families in June, yet it seems like it will be FOREVER before we are one of those families!

In case you had not heard yet, the garage sale in May was a huge success! We were so blessed and thankful for 16 different families who donated items and by the favor of God we raised $1600!!! And, people are still giving us items to sell so it looks like we may have another sale again in August.

That is all the news we have for now. Please continue to pray for us and our child as we wait to be united.

Calling all spring cleaners!!!

I know it doesn't feel much like spring yet but the fact remains that it is indeed spring time and if your like me this means its time to clean, clean, clean and purge, purge, purge! While this is NOT Nate's favorite thing to do, I usually try to clean out the cupboards, closets and garage once a year and get rid of the stuff we either didn't need or never even touched since the previous years purging extravaganza. This activity is exceedingly enjoyable and rewarding for me! (I can hear some of you groaning right now-heehee) This year I started with Nate's closet........seriously, how many t-shirts does one man need! I think I saw one from his 5th grade band in there!!! :) I wish I had taken a before picture to show you so you could see how he used plastic tubs to store his clothes! Anyways, here is my after shot which still gives me goose bumps when I see it in all its organized glory! Yes, the clothes are organized by color and I got rid of the plastic tubs!


In adoption news, we will be having another fund raising garage sale this year. It will be May 10th and 11th at the Rothe's house again. That's just 3 weeks away so, if this has inspired you to do some cleaning and purging yourself and you find yourself with items you would like to donate somewhere please consider giving us a holler and we will come pick it up! Last year we raised $1000 entirely on donated items! It was such a blessing! Furniture and children's items went really well but we would be grateful for anything anyone would like to donate!

# 111

We are officially on the waiting list with our adoption agency in Ethiopia! We are family #111 this month. Each month we will receive an e-mail with our updated wait number. I don't really know what number I was expecting.....but 111 sounds good, I guess. At least it's not 1111! Our agency matched 5 children in Ethiopia to forever families last month but they say each month is different so there could be only 2 matches one month and then 12 the next. Also, the 110 families in front of us are not all waiting for an infant. Some may be waiting for a sibling group or special needs child so the reality is that we could get matched before some of the other families.

Right now, today, the wait is killing me.....

Our agency recently sent us the information about a new movie on adoption called Stuck. The trailer for the movie was more than I could bear because my heart longs to get these children un-stuck. Everything inside me wants to get on a plane TODAY and go get my child......whoever he/she is. But, instead we wait..................and pray, and hope, and pray, and hope, and pray that God will open doors and move on behalf of these orphans in their distress. Take a minute and watch the trailer.

Stuck Trailer

So little yet so BIG.

I just love God's little reminders to me that He has not forgotten us and our child in Ethiopia. See one little action or word can be a BIG faith builder for us.

This past weekend at church the sweetest little 6 year old girl came up to me while I was talking and I felt her little finger tap me on the leg. I said hello to her and she immediately reached her little hand into her pocket and pulled out a hand full of change. Then she stretched out her hand and said, 

"This is for your baby." 

I was overcome with emotion and reached out to thank her with a big hug. She put the money in my hand and walked away with the biggest smile on her face. It was so precious, I am melting into a puddle right now just thinking about it again.

The next morning while Nate and I were talking about this sweet child and the faith she built in us, Nate said, "I believe that God is going to multiply Ellie's 24 cents into $24,000!"