Family Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas! Last year we wrote at Christmas about how God was teaching us to better understand the theology of adoption. As you will remember, at this time last year we were on the waitlist to adopt a child from Ethiopia.
This year, our daughter is home! This year, God has shown us mercy, healing and redemption. In March we got “the call” for a beautiful nine week old baby girl. We had thought all along we would probably be matched with a boy because we had always been closer on the boy waitlist, but God had a different plan. On March 9 we discovered that we were #1 on both the girl and boy waitlist. God DOES have a sense a humor, and also wanted us to know that He is ultimately in control. It was a joyous shock on March 10th when our agency called and said “there is a little girl I would like to talk to you about.” We always knew that call would change our lives, but we never knew just how much. Suddenly, we had hope. We had a daughter.
What followed can only be described as the longest, hardest, best, most joyful year of our lives. It has been a year filled with heartache and grief, blessings and indescribable joy. In May we flew to Ethiopia for our court appointment and to meet Aerin for the first time. It was a sweet time, but at the end of the week we had to leave our daughter in Ethiopia and fly back to the U.S. to wait on the U.S. Embassy to approve our adoption. It was the longest six weeks of our lives as we awaited our approval. Finally on July 21st we received our approval and our dates that we could go get our daughter. On July 30th we boarded a plane to become parents.
Our first five months home with our daughter have been a blast! She has gone from rolling around to talking and walking. She is bursting with personality and a strong will. She is the most passionately happy person we’ve ever known. She loves her Daddy and dogs. Bryan is still teaching English and coaching basketball at Mansfield High School. Amory is still working at the bank. We’ve both had an interesting time trying to balance work and being good parents, but we’re figuring it out. We’re so blessed to have friends and family that have helped make the transition a little easier for us.
“Once our eyes are opened we cannot pretend we do not know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls knows we know and holds us responsible to act” (Proverbs 24:12). This verse is fitting for the year we’ve had. We’ve seen toddlers, yes, toddlers fighting for survival on dirty third-world streets. We’ve seen an infant experience terror and grief. God has opened our eyes to this fallen world. Yet, in the midst of that we have witnessed healing that only God’s perfect plan can bring. We have seen children whose eyes were once dull become bright and full of life. We have had the privilege of witnessing redemption. That is what Christmas is about to us this year. Not the presents or tinsel and tidings. The fact that God sent his perfect, sinless Son to be adopted and raised by a sinful man so that He, Jesus Christ, could redeem this fallen, broken world, is what speaks to us this Christmas. Join us this year in celebrating the healing power of God’s redeeming love.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come; Let earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare Him room, and heaven and nature sing. Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns; Let men their songs employ; while fields and floods, rocks hills and plains, repeat the sounding joy. No more let sin and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow, far as the curse is found.

Orphan Sunday/Happy 10 months old!!

I feel like it is fitting that our daughter turns 10 months old on Orphan Sunday. She is now an orphan no more and it makes this day more poignant to have her in our arms. We didn't seek to adopt to fulfill some great scriptural calling to defend the orphans (though it is a GREAT calling). We simply wanted to be parents and experience the joy of raising a child. We wanted to follow God's leading as to how that would look and God lead us to adopt from Ethiopia. HOWEVER, ignorant as we were when we began our journey, God has opened our eyes. HE DID call us to defend the orphan (which is a commandment that God gives over and over again in scripture to ALL of us), He just had another way of leading us to that. Now I'm not saying that it's God's will for everyone to adopt to save the orphans, and if that's the only reason you want to adopt...please, re-evaluate your motifs. But, it's clear that God does want us to defend the widow and the orphan, so I ask; how is that fulfilled in your life? For us, God used our desire to become parents to turn this

(first picture we saw of Aerin)

into this.

-amory

September wrap-up

I realize I haven't posted very much...and still haven't finished my posts from Africa, but I guess I should at least give an update on our progress so far.

I have tried to write down the dates for everything new that A has done and, while looking back at that list, I noticed that I don't really have anything written down for August. A started army crawling a couple weeks before we brought her home, so that wasn't new. She already waved. All I can think of that she did in August was start crawling more as her main transportation mode and rolling around less. Oh, and her first signed word, but that's all. I think August was a month for adjusting to her new life with us, without all of her friends around and with three new pets. And then there was September.

Oh my, I ran out of room on my piece of paper to write things down. It seemed like everyday there was something new and big that she was doing. It was such a BUSY month developmentally. Here's an abbreviated list of some of her milestones in September:

FOUR teeth came in, all at once, now she has SIX!!
Clapping
Crawling on hands and knees (when it behooves her)
Pulling up
Clucking her tongue
Dancing
Waved hi
And as her final touch on the month...her FIRST WORD!!


Yep, you read that correctly, she just last week said her first word. She had said it a couple times, but I thought it a fluke and possibly just babble, until this weekend when she waved hi back at me for the first time. I was so excited and explaining to Bryan how she waved at me when I said hi (yes, she's been waving a while, she just hadn't put it together yet) and was showing him when she said it, "HI", in front of Bryan. Turns out that it wasn't just babble. Tonight we were at bible study and I was in a different room from her when one of our friends yells to me "did she just say HI to me?" It felt nice to know that I'm not crazy, my kid really did say her first word.


All I can say is...thank you Hannah's Hope. I don't think September would have been possible with out the special care she received there. Hannah's Hope is why we adopted through AGCI. We knew that their setup would allow our child to have the most individual attention possible and give her the best opportunity to develop normally and boy, did it ever!


Being a mother has been so much fun. It would be fun even if all of these things hadn't happened, but it has been so special to get to see so many "firsts" all at once. One of the hardest things about waiting was knowing my child was growing up without me in Ethiopia. I constantly thought of all of the firsts that I was missing out on. What a blessing it has been for God to show me that, while I did miss out on a few things, He has a TON of firsts that I get to be a part of.

Transition

I've had many people ask how our transition is going since we came home with Aerin. I don't bring it up on my own, and I have yet to post about it because, honestly, I feel a bit guilty about it. I like to say that God knew we were first time parents that would struggle with figuring it all out. So, He gave us an idiot proof baby. She is so easy most of the time that it blows my mind. I prepared myself for our daughter to be up every couple hours and barely eat or have some developmental delay or birth condition that we would have to adjust to. God has BLOWN us away by giving us a daughter that is developmentally advanced, fit as a fiddle (not even a parasite), eats like a pig and sleeps all night. I want to lay it out there because, it will come out eventually as I continue to blog. My post today though is not to brag, but to be real. I don't want someone that is looking at blogs trying to decide to adopt to see my comments and think that this is easy. It's not. We know that it won't always be this easy. Well, it's already not always that easy. This morning my daughter screamed for 30 or 45 minutes, a heartbreaking scream of fear, as I laid her down for her morning nap. She would go to sleep, I would lay her down, and she would wake up screaming..over..and over. That's her easy nap time. She has slept in that same crib for her naps so...so many times. Yet for some unknown reason this morning, she was terrified of me leaving her. I had to hold her until she had been asleep a long time before putting her in her crib. This happens every now and then, hopefully less and less. But, this is a small part of the hard stuff that comes with adoption, even with a young infant as easy as our daughter. That an infant can have a fear of being left amazes me, but emotional scars start very young.

I grieved for our daughter's loss almost continually before we brought her home. It's so easy to forget now that she is home and so sweet, fun and happy. It's moments like this morning that I grieve again for her. I grieve that our daughter has to have already, at less than 7 months old, suffer the loss of 2 mothers, her birth mother and the special mother that took care of her at HH. She's in her forever family now, and we're not going anywhere, but I know that she will always have to deal with her loss. That loss will be evident as show grows up and wants to know why she looks different from us and who she looks like. It won't always be as easy...adoption never is, but it is oh so worth it.

-amory

-here's a post of encouragement for any of you that are struggling with your adoption transition.

http://jenhatmaker.com/blog/2011/09/06/after-the-airport

8 Months Old!

Happy eighth month birthday sweet girl! Every other month we have longed to celebrate with our daughter her monthly birthday milestone. Last month we were able to celebrate it by getting on a plane and flying home. This month we celebrated it by Aerin's first trip to the zoo!! It is so much fun to be able to
have these moments with the daughter we prayed for
so long to have. It was even better to be able to have family with us. Aerin went to the zoo with her cousins M and H and Aunt L.

She was reserved at first but by the end of the day decided that she LOVES koi fish and mandrills. Aerin learned to clap this week and started clapping and laughing while we fed the koi. She also had her first ride on a carousel. She decide

d to ride the ostrich but wasn't too sure she had made the right decision once the carousel started. As always, Aerin was a trooper and made it through the ride and was bouncing once it was over for more.

So, happy eighth month birthday baby girl...it was a blast!

-amory

**Please, no comments on my pastiness that is made evident by my latte daughter being next to me. I also would not normally have a band quite that wide on her head, but I was trying to hide her hairline from the sun as much as possible.**

One Month Ago

One month ago today, we became parents. One month ago today, we, as a family of three, walked out of the black gates that kept our daughter at Hannah's Hope. August 1st, 2011 is our Gotcha Day. We already loved the little girl in the pictures and the little girl that we played with in May, but one month ago today we learned to love the little girl that also screamed, cried and refused to take a bottle from us. One month ago today we fell head over heals, crazy in love with our daughter.
We waited over two years for that moment, and I can still hardly believe that right now my daughter is sleeping downstairs. It's hard to believe how far we have come in just one month. God has entrusted us with a ridiculously sweet natured, loving, silly little girl that gives the sweetest, yet ickiest, slobbery kisses.
The song that helped start it all is still a perfect description of this adoption process for us.
"Everyone needs compassion,Love that's never failing;Let mercy fall on me. Everyone needs forgiveness,The kindness of a Saviour;The Hope of nations. Saviour, He can move the mountains,My God is Mighty to save,He is Mighty to save." Christian lyrics - MIGHTY TO SAVE LYRICS - HILLSONG AUSTRALIA
Our God is and has been Mighty to save. He has shown us compassion that we didn't deserve, love that never failed and His mercy has unceasingly rained down on us. He moved mountains and bureaucracies to bring our daughter home. HE IS MIGHTY AND TO HIM BE ALL GLORY AND HONOR AND PRAISE!!

Home

I know you all have been waiting for an update, but my time is now dictated by a 7 month old!
We've been getting settled and trying to figure out what our routine is. I can say that it has been wonderful! We are enjoying every minute of having Aerin home with us...yes, even the poopy diapers, because they remind us of the hard parts that we wanted for so long. Hopefully I'll get a chance to update you all in the next couple days on what happened while we were in Ethiopia, but for now I'll leave you with a few pictures of our sweet, silly girl. By the way, we knew it when we saw her at our court appointment, but we have had confirmed that this girl is NOT camera shy. She can be fussy, see the camera flash, pep right up and start posing. Yes, I do mean posing. If I didn't already know how shady the modeling industry was, she would be a photographers dream baby model.

Heading home SOON!

It's a little ironic that, having just moved this week, I've had at times less internet access than Bryan and Amory have in Ethiopia:) But yesterday I got to video skype with them, and see sweet Tarikua! She was babbling away, looking at her strange new family member on the computer screen, chewing on her rattle . . . generally being her cute chunky self. Speaking of chunky . . . she's close to 20lb and Amory is getting the arm work out of a lifetime. She's eating great (bottles and oatmeal!), sleeping well, and adjusting better each day. Today (Friday) they were going back to Hannah's Hope for a last goodbye. Saturday night they head to the airport for the long journey back to Texas. Keep praying!

SJP

Embassy? Check

Bryan and Amory had a successful embassy appointment today! Their first night with Tarikua (Monday) was tough--as expected for a little one just removed from a familiar environment, she cried and cried. But a bath and bottle and love from her new mama and daddy eventually comforted her and she ended up sleeping a 5 hour stretch that night! Since then she's done well-some hard hours, obviously, but altogether wonderful considering. Amory sent this photo of their beautiful, sweet, happy, baby--THEIR baby. How awesome is this?! Pray for their next few days as they continue to seek to bond with Aerin, comfort her, encourage each other, and travel from Ethiopia back to Texas!

At Last

I have it on good authority that Bryan, Amory, and Aerin are all together, at their hotel!!!

Please pray for B&A as they navigate this crash course in how to parent a 7m old, for Aerin as her world just totally changed and all that was secure is gone, for her precious caretakers who are sad (yet happy) over her leaving, and of course for her birth family.

I'll keep you posted when I hear more!

SJP

DC? Check

Bryan and Amory made it to DC, not without an eventful journey though! Here's the update from Amory this evening:

We got the the airport this morning and this time, being veterans, we knew to go to the scale first. It's a good thing because one of our duffles was...50.3 lbs. I had to move one pair of shoes, ha! The U****d attendants were just as friendly as ever. I expected they would not check them through to Ethiopian, so I wasn't even going down that road, but last time they still tagged them through so I thought that's what they would have to do this time. It apparently just happened because of having to pay the extra fees last time. When I asked the lady if they would be tagged to show Ethiopian, I proceeded to get YET ANOTHER lecture on how it's not U****d's policy because it's an over night stay in DC. I then told the lady, yes, we're aware of U****dd's policy on holding luggage overnight to check to the final destination, that's not what I'm asking about and I don't even want to go down that road, yet I know that every other U****d counter but Dallas will do it because there were families with longer layovers than us in DC who traveled the same day we did and United did it for them. But, we understand that this is not U****d's "policy", we're ok with that, and we don't want to discuss it. I then get ANOTHER speech on it. I think I had to say "it's ok, we don't care about that, we're not going down that road today" about 5 times before the lady finally quit talking. I wasn't even looking for it to be an issue this time and STILL ended up leaving the counter upset about it. Argh. She also failed to tell us, apparently because of her rant, that she didn't give us a seat assignment. I found out by our names being called over the loud speaker to come up to the desk at the gate. TOTALLY freaked me out, just because that one lady couldn't even tell us basic knowledge on our ticketing and what we needed to do. It has all cemented in my mind that all U****d workers receive "customer service" training to learn how to be as unhelpful as possible.

We did get on the plane though, and were happily flying along when a call came over the loud speaker for any doctor, nurse, or EMT worker to come to the front of the plane. There was a 90 year old man on the plane that couldn't breathe and his blood pressure had shot up, so we had to land in Cincinnati so he could get medical treatment. It delayed our getting to DC about 45-50 minutes, which was no biggie to us, but I kid you not, EVERYONE else on the plane had tight connecting flights. When we got to baggage claim, there were only about 5 people there to claim bags, the rest of the plane connected. I felt bad for all of the other families, but what can you do? The guy's life was much more important.

This time, being the veteran that I am now, I called the hotel for a shuttle the moment we picked out our bags. Of course, the delayed flight made us just miss the shuttle and they said the next one wouldn't be there until 1:30. No biggie..just 30 minutes and again, I felt prepared this time so we're still doing good. Well, at 1:37 I called the hotel again. The said he was on his way, but had to drop people off that were departing that day. Finally, about 1:50 the shuttle shows up. Now, we haven't really eaten breakfast, or lunch, so we're starving. We get to the hotel (this time it's Embassy Suites), check in, I have a long conversation with the clerk on the restaurant and whether or not Ethiopian comped our meals (which, of course, she had no clue about), take our luggage up to the room, and go straight down to eat. But, the restaurant is closed. They closed at 2, of course. ARGH! So we ended up walking a couple blocks away in nearly 100 degree weather to eat at McDonalds, who, of course, gets our order wrong. But WE WILL NOT BE DISCOURAGED!! Bryan prayed before we ate our chicken nuggets that we would have sweet dispositions the rest of the day..it was cute. We smiled through it all this time and don't feel frazzled like last time.

Have a good night. Tomorrow is a new day and tomorrow....we REALLY DO become real deal parents.

One last post

I figure that I should get in one last post before Sara completely takes over. It's hard to believe that in just a few days we will be on a plane to bring our daughter home. I have said throughout this adoption process that I never really felt like it would actually happen. It started to seem like actually being able to raise a child was just too good to be true for us. It was always just out of reach - like a steak dangling in front of a hungry dog. Something we wanted so much, but just couldn't quite get. After our month long Embassy escapade it felt even more like that. But here we are with just a few more days until we board a plane and, this time, come back parents. I will admit that I don't think it will fully sink in until I step on the Ethiopian Airlines flight in D.C..
For now there's still so much to do, so many items on my excel spreadsheet checklist still to be marked off...but every now and then, I am hit by waves of humility, awe and joy. I am humbled that our Heavenly Father has been so gracious (adj. \'gra shes: giving a gift that is not deserved) as to bless us with what we, at many times, did not think was possible. His faithfulness towards us is something that makes me marvel. We have not always acted so toward God. We've doubted, been angry, hurt, pleaded and given God the silent treatment. But God...His faithfulness has never wavered. He has carried us through EVERY single day of the last 3 1/2 years and has always gently guided us through the muck. His faithfulness has continued through to the very end. I would say today more than ever, but that's bad theology; I just can see it more now than before. I realize now that it was not a steak dangling in front of a hungry dog, though that's how we often acted. It was an Author writing a beautiful story, and I just wasn't able to skip to the back page and read the end. Now we're on that last page, and the story was so good I'd like to read it again...well, after a few years that is. Although, it's really just the last page of book one...book two is to come, in just a few days, and I CAN'T wait to see what God has in store!

-amory

Taking Over

Hi all! This is Sara, Amory's (& Bryan's) cousin. I was tired of checking for new posts with no new posts showing up:( But, in their defense, they've had a crazy couple of weeks. After a VERY long, VERY frustrating process to get an embassy appointment so they could go back to get sweet baby A.F.T, they are finally GOING. Yes, they leave this weekend! So please do keep them in your prayers as there are a lot of details to wrap up at home, with Amory's work, house preparations, packing, etc. And it's not emotionally draining at all:)

I'll be attempting to post for them while they are gone on this trip as well--we'll see if I do any better!

SJP

Day Two, Part Two

We finally arrived at the hotel and were excited to take naps and get clean. Bryan and I took our showers first while S opted to sleep. I went down to get more water, which is supposed to help with altitude sickness, while Bryan started his nap. Now we had only been at the hotel for about 45 minutes, so imagine my surprise when I heard someone behind me ask if I was with AGCI while I was paying. I turned around and saw the driver that I recognized from a picture our agency had sent to us. He asked if I wanted to go right then to Hannah's Hope to meet my daughter and I, of course, said YES! I ran back to our room and burst open the door while screaming for Bryan and S to get up and get dressed fast. We were going to meet our daughter! A few minutes later we were all stepping onto the bus, Bryan and myself exhausted, S feeling a little grungy, but we didn't care. We were on our way to HH. A short, incredibly bumpy ride later, we pulled up to those famous black gates that we had seen in so many pictures of people that had gone before us. This was really happening. Bryan and I were really going to meet our daughter.
The rest of the story is told from a daddy's perspective...

My wife and I had dreamed of that first moment when we would be able to hold our daughter for the first time for longer than we cared to think about. In our minds that moment would involve a sweet smile from her, a tear or two from us, and a moment that would endure forever. For Amory, the latter part was definitely accurate.

Entering the room at Hannah’s Hope for the first time without having slept in over 19 hours, we were deliriously tired and deliriously excited. Of course, we had seen pictures of A from other families who had sent us pictures, but nothing would prepare us for this moment. A was absolutely precious as she slept in a small crib on the far side of the room, but Amory could not wait to see her with her eyes open. As A woke up, Amory gathered A in her arms and picked her up. From over Amory’s shoulder I saw a beautiful little girl with big brown eyes, full lips, and a mini Mohawk of hair.

While I smiled at A from a distance, she coughed a little bit. Amory, who had been coughing through the flight hours before, bounced A in her arms saying, “We can just cough together.” At that moment A gave Amory the perfect moment we would never forget, spitting up not once, not twice, but three times all over Amory’s shirt and arms. I laughed as the special mother helped clean up A and Amory went to clean up herself.

Since Amory was getting cleaned up, I finally got to hold A for the first time. I held her close to me in amazement that I was finally at Hannah’s Hope with my daughter. I still did not feel like a father. I kept thinking two things” 1: Don’t drop her and 2: I hope she does not throw up on me. She kept coughing every now and then and Amory and the special mothers' laughed as I kept moving her away from me with each cough. Then, she looked right up at me and smiled. I felt myself well up, but I figured I did not want to be that guy who cries before his wife. Later, watching the video, I discovered Amory had cried as she held A for the first time, so I was in the clear. Still, I could not believe I was a father.

As most of you could have guessed Amory took little A from me as soon as she could. Throughout the next hour Amory gave her a bath, fed her a bottle, and held her close. We watched her smile at the other kids, roll over from side to side and try as hard as she could to hold her head up while lying on her stomach. As she was rolling, her eyes started to slowly close. Mine started to close as well as I lay beside her. I reached out and she took my index finger in her hand. As we both drifted to sleep, I thought, “I really am a father. I really am A’s father.” So, although our first moments might not have been exactly what we thought they would be, Amory and I both got memorable moments from our first visit with A. I am just happy Amory’s moment is the one that had to be cleaned up.

Travel-Day Two Part One

We all got up early Monday morning after a somewhat restful night, repacked our carry-ons and went down to breakfast. Bryan has been taking seminary classes for the last few years during the summer breaks. This has worked very well every other year, but this year our trip to Ethiopia has made it a little harder to get his work done. While S and I got eat breakfast in peace, Bryan had works on school things. Thank goodness for wifi at hotels or none of his school work would've been done. After breakfast we got on our shuttle with all 14 bags again and head back to the airport.

Now, what I didn't mention before is that we had been told that Ethiopian Airlines might not take our rocking chair box if United didn't check it through. This was the cause for most of my freaking out on Sunday and we were definetely concerned that we might have to leave the rocker in D.C. ,hoping we could get ahold of friends in D.C. to pick it up for us. I prayed heading up to the ticket counter that we wouldn't have a problem and this time our ticket lady was MUCH nicer and actually helpful. We can't say enough kuddos about Ethiopian Airlines. They even gave us tape and scissors to try and reinforce the now falling apart box as best as possible. The attendant even offered to switch our seats around so we could all sit together (didn't even know we would be sitting apart). Finally all of the bags were out of our hands and we wouldn't have to worry about them again until Ethiopia. GREAT feeling.

We had some more time to kill at the airport so we went to our terminal, found a bagel shop (GOOD bagels) and took a load off. Our plane boarded perfectly on time with us on it and off we went to Ethiopia to become parents.

Nearly 13 hours later we arrived in Addis Ababa. Flying into the country was beautiful. The farmland outside of Addis reminded me of a beautiful patchwork quilt, very unlike our perfect squares and circles in the U.S. We flew past cloud covered mountains as we approached the airport and I was immediately drawn to the beauty of the countryside.

We were very happy that we had S with us on this trip as she navigated the Bolle Airport like a pro. In no time we were waiting in the visa line to enter the country. S already had her visa, so she went ahead of us to get all of the luggage. Good luck S! She amazingly wrangled all of the luggage onto 2 luggage carts by the time we made it out of the visa office and so we headed to the front to try and find our ride.

Yet again, we missed our ride to the hotel and ended up having to call the hotel to come and get us, but it was all ok, we were finally in Ethiopia, with ALL of our luggage. Yes, even the poor rocker made it. We were too tired at this point to be much good and were thankful when we arrived at the hotel and find out that we had a couple hours to take showers and nap before heading to Hannah's Hope. In just a couple hours we would meet our daugher...or so we thought.

Travel-Day One

The morning started early and in my usual rushed fashion. As noted in the last post, the boys quickly had everything loaded in the car and off we went to the airport. That was the only quick and easy part of the day. To say it was a long day would be an understatement.


We flew a flight plan that nearly EVERY other adopting family flies to Ethiopia. Fly to D.C., stay overnight, fly out the next morning to Ethiopia. I also happen to know that EVERY other adopting family that has flown this has had no problems with the connecting airline not checking their baggage through to the next day flight on Ethiopian. Every other family, but us. I won 't say the name of the airline..but it starts with a U and rhymes with delighted, which it was NOT! The check-in lady was not rude, but never attempted to be even slightly helpful. She refused to check our baggage through, which meant we had to pick up ALL 8 pieces of luggage in D.C., take them to the hotel and then back to the airport the next morning. Counting our carry-ons that meant we three were wrestling with 14 bags in D.C., on of which was a wet cardboard box, but you'll hear more on that in a bit.

So we get all of our baggage finally checked with U***** and still have some leisure time before we had to board, which meant we HAD to find a Starbucks. Now I was a "bit" frazzled at this point and definitely needed some calm down time before getting on a plane.


We flew to Chicago, made it to our gate, only for a hail storm to hit minutes before we were supposed to board. Needless to say, that didn't happen on time. I think we were VERY lucky that we were already in Chicago when the storm hit, because one of our other adopting families was now and they missed their flights on Ethiopian because of it. As we sit and wait to board, we see our luggage being loaded. I say a quick prayer as I see our cardboard box containing a rocking chair get close to the airplane door as it looked like it wasn't going to fit. Did I mention that it was still raining and all of our luggage was getting wet? Hence the wet cardboard in D.C.



An hour and a half later (most of that sitting on the runway) we finally take off to D.C. Then the fun started! We walk up to the baggage claim and the first thing we see is one of the donation duffles in a very large plastic bag with it's contents spewn everywhere. Luckily, the zipper wasn't broken, it must have just popped open, but that was a SCARY sight. Thoughts of duct tape were definitely involved. After we finally get the baggage together and delicately place our wet, falling apart box (the feet of the rocker were pointing out of the corners) on top of it all we went outside to find our hotel shuttle that was supposed to be waiting.

I immediately see the shuttle start to run up to the driver to tell him we need on, but he turns away, says something about another one coming soon, and drives off. 45 minutes later we decided to call the hotel. Once we got to the hotel they were AWESOME!! They let us keep our cart of luggage downstairs in the lobby so we didn't have to drag it up and then back downstairs. The little restaurant stayed open later so we could eat dinner and we all felt a little better after getting some rest.

Thus ends day one. Travel day two to come!


-amory

A Note on Adoption Etiquette

Now that our daughter is nearly home, we feel it is important to remind our family and friends of a few important adoption etiquette guidelines.
1) Our daughter's story of her life before she came to us is just that, HER story. When SHE is ready to share that story, she is free to share it with whomever she wishes, but please remember that it is not our story to tell, it's hers. This means we will respect that and not be sharing those details with anyone.
2)You are free to ask us questions about our adoption and our daughter, however we might have to respectfully say that the answer is none of your business. Our role now is to protect our daughter both physically and emotionally and therefore we may not be able to answer your specific question. Please, don't be offended, it's hard for us too to keep our mouths shut sometimes (if you know me, you know I love to talk about everything), but it is the right thing to do for our daughter.
3)Our intent is for NO family or friends to know more about our daughter and her background than she does. Please keep this in mind when you want to know something about her background.
4) The fifth commandment in scripture is to honor your father and mother. Now, it doesn't specify birth or adoptive here, but considering that God was the birth father of Jesus and gave up his Son in adoption, but still had to be honored, we're going to assume God means both birth and adoptive. It is our responsibility as parents to raise our daughter using scripture as our guide, so we will be raising her to honor her birth family as well. That's about all you'll get to know about them for a long time, and we ask that you remember this if you feel the need to make a comment about birth families.
5) Yes, we will teach our daughter about her birth culture and yes, this is the right thing to do. It is human nature to question your identity and where you came from. It is our job as parents to fill in those questions just like any other parent would do with their bio kids. Ethiopia will always be a part of that answer.
6) You are free to love on little A all you want!! But, one important thing to remember is that she will be searching for someone that will take care of her basic needs. She needs to learn to trust Bryan and I to do that so we will be the ONLY people taking care of her basic life needs. i.e. feeding, changing, sleeping.

WHEW! I'm glad that's done with! Now let's get this baby home so we can ALL do some lovin' on her!

Prep Day

Saturday, May 21st was our do or die day for packing. Bryan had gone out of town on Wednesday, so it was up to me. Thankfully he had already set aside the clothes he wanted to take with us, so I just had to do *sigh* the rest of the packing and house preparations. This doesn't really sound like that big of a deal, until you see what my living room looked like. It was FILLED with donations.

When we first started collecting donations to take with us, I was scared that we wouldn't have anything. Boy was I wrong!! We are still in awe of how much God moved in people's hearts to provide. My work friends donated and got their friends to donate; our church accepted donations for us two Sundays in a row; my home church collected donations; my family collected donations and got their friends to donate, and my Aunt's church in Mississippi collected donations for us. They even managed to get a state department head to drive them to us (well, that's a bit of an exaggeration, it was a stop on her way, but that's what it felt like). I hope I didn't leave anyone out in my list there. Needless to say, it was really cool! A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who contributed something. If you had any doubts about whether God cares about the "little things" in people's lives, let me assure you that we have seen proof that God provides for even the seemingly smallest needs.

The only problem with ALL of the donations is....they had to be packed up and I am only one person, so reinforcements were called in. Cousin J came with her babies (love those kids) to help pack and cousin B answered the call too along with cousin S who went to Ethiopia with us. The packing was nothing short of a miracle. We all thought that we would be up ALL night trying to get everything packed, weighed and repacked (everything had to be under 50 pounds). S and B went to town on the those donations and within 2 hours everything that would fit was packed away. I think they had some Alice in Wonderland cakes involved because magically nearly everything fit into 4 duffles and 2 suitcases. So nearly all of that pictured above, turned into this below. By the end of the night we had also enlisted K and J, our friends from Oklahoma, and M, one of Bryan's friends who also had to get up early the next morning to drive us to the airport (THANKS M!!).

Somehow S and I still managed to stay up until 3 am. I am still not quite sure how that happened. It's all a blur. Oh, and I forgot to mention that S had flown in that afternoon from Arizona to help pack and fly out with us Sunday, and Bryan didn't get home until Saturday afternoon too. It was a crazy week for everyone.

A few short hours later we were up and ready to load M's car with all of our luggage. Again, miraculously, it all fit. And off we went to the airport to start our journey to meet A!!

I Hear You

I have gotten MANY calls...texts...emails..FB messages...that I need to update the blog. I HEAR YOU!! Now, being mentally capable of comprehending what I'm hearing..well that's been a more difficult task this last week. We arrived back home this last Monday at 4:30 am from Ethiopia. It was a VERY LONG trip home from Africa that left us beyond exhausted. Bryan and I both had a day this week in which we slept 14 hours or more. A big contributing factor was us catching something nasty at the end of our time in Ethiopia. BUT, we had a WONDERFUL time in Ethiopia and greatly miss eating shiro and injera (my new favorite food).

But, you all don't really care about that....you want to know what happened while we were there. WE PASSED COURT!! We are officially parents of a beautiful 5 month old daughter. We traveled with 5 other families who had court appointments with us and we ALL passed court. Now, you might not understand just how big a deal this is. Let me explain. If you read a few posts back you'll see that right before we received our referral for our daughter, MOWA , an Ethiopian governmental dept that has to approve the match in order to pass court, made an announcement that they were going to reduce the # of cases they review by up to 90%. This is supposed to be in effect for all adoptions submitted for court after March 9th. If you remember, we received our referral on March 10th. Our group of adopting families was the first group for our adoption agency to be governed by this new rule. NOBODY new what to expect, but we had all decided that we would be ok if our letter of approval from MOWA wasn't present at court, but everything else was approved. It was a HUGE shock to all six families to hear the judge say "the children are yours". We are incredibly blessed and so thankful that God allowed us to pass court right away.

So what does this mean now? We are now waiting on the U.S. Embassy to approve everything and set a visa appointment before we can bring our daughter home. Our timing on that is hopefully within 6-8 weeks of our court date. Please pray that everything goes smoothly in the Embassy review process and that they don't request any additional information.

Oh, by the way, we are IN LOVE! Our A is amazing. She's a sweet, happy baby with lots of crazy faces and sweet smiles to give. She giggles when you kiss her neck and is ticklish. We can't wait to have her home. In the meantime, we need to store up some much needed sleep, which I need to do right now.

I know you're probably feeling like there's so much more that you want to know. Don't worry...I won't let you down. The day by day of our journey is coming soon...I just have to get my thinker fully processing again before writing those posts (they might be long).

Until then I'll leave you with a picture of our sweet girl. We can't post her face until she's home with us...so this is just a teaser.

-amory

Conflicting Emotions

Tonight, as we sleep sound in our big soft beds, our daughter's birthmother will be appearing in court to relinquish her parental rights to her daughter. This is a HUGE step in us becoming her parents and we will be incredibly excited to have this step behind us, but we need to be careful to not think of this as just another check mark in the process.

As we sleep a mother has to make a decision no mother ever hopes to make. I grieve for her that she has to go through this. I don't think I could ever fathom what making a decision like this would be like and thank God that I will never have to. For me to become a mother, another woman has to give up her daughter. This is a price that I would never have wanted to ask for to become a mother, but for some reason God, in his perfect sovereignty, has ordained this to happen this way. I have comfort, and pray that she is comforted to, in knowing that this was always God's plan. I thank God that He picked us to be this little girl's forever family. I am honored to be the woman who she will grow up calling mother. I just hope I never forget this moment and the price A's birthmother had to pay for me to be her mother. I pray that I will always be able to honor the sacrifice that will be made tonight.

Please pray with me for our daughter's birth mother. Pray that she makes it safely to court and that God gives her overwhelming peace and assurance that letting us become A's parents is the right thing to do.

Happy 4 months old

Our sweet girl turned 4 months old today. This weekend is one year since we were placed on a wait list and in ONLY 2 WEEKS we leave to meet our beautiful daughter. God is good and we are SOOO blessed.

Court Date!!

We got the call this morning that we are going to meet our daughter!! It has been yet another emotional God clinging week that has ended in big blessings. To God be ALL the glory! So what happens now? Now we book airfare, finish the nursery, register, collect donations, pack, finish the honey-do list (that's a couple years coming), pray pray pray and FLY TO ETHIOPIA to meet our little girl and legally become her parents. We don't get to bring her home yet, but this is a HUGE step to getting her home. Yes, now calling for diapers and formula, kids clothes and toys. We posted a list of donation needs for the orphanages and Hannah's Hope a couple posts back. If you would like to help, send me a message and I'll tell you how to get stuff to me. Thank you again to all who have prayed for us to get a court date. It's exciting to see God working. Please keep praying for our little girl's health. She's still healing from pneumonia and we pray that she is all better soon. Now...I've got to get to list making. So many things to do, so little time.

UP and then down....the story of our lives

So when we received our referral for our daughter on March 10th, 3 other families had received their referrals on March 9th. We are the first group of adopting families with our agency that received referrals after the MOWA announcement about reducing adoption cases reviewed, so we've been pretty anxious just wandering how in the world the changes might affect us. One possible options is that court dates would be delayed. We were very excited on Monday when the families that were referred on the 9th received their court dates. Our call didn't come, and even though I was glued to my phone yesterday, it didn't come then either (guess a watched phone never rings). But, we did get a call today. I did start freaking out today when I was driving home from work and I heard my phone ring and saw it was our caseworker. It was NOT the call we were hoping for. Nope, we still have no court date, but our sweet little A has pneumonia. She's being well taken care of and we have complete confidence in her special mothers and the pediatrician that visits HH often, but we would still really appreciate any prayers for quick healing for our little girl. While this sort of thing is pretty common in orphanage type settings, it still can be dangerous for babies and we want our little girl to be happy and HEALTHY! Please pray with us for A to get healthy quickly and for us to get a court date soon so we can GO SEE HER.

Happy 3 Months

Happy 3 month birthday baby girl. We can't wait until we have you home and can love on you and kiss you when we tell you happy monthly birthday. Love, Mommy

donations needed

Many of you have been asking what you can contribute to our pending trip to Ethiopia. Well, it is time to start gathering supplies! The way that our agency's transition home stays stocked, as well as the orphanages that our agency partners with, is through donations. Below is a list of some of the current needs. If anyone wants to help out, let me know by emailing me or sending a message on here. -amory · Oral anti-fungal medications · Ethnic hair care products for older children’s hair (shampoos, conditioners, hair lotion such as coconut oil, olive oil, and shea butter) · Cotton balls · NG-Tubes (nasogastric feeding tubes) · Scrubs (medium size, pants and tops) and Crocs (women’s sizes 7-9) for the Special Mothers · Clothing and shoes for older children (preferably new or very gently used with no stains, holes, etc.) · Formula (Soy formula is always in great need as it is more difficult to get in Ethiopia.) preferably Similac · Baby wipes · Air freshener spray (preferably that does not cause harm to infants) · Digital scale · Digital cameras (video and still-shot)

Due to some laws and our appreciation of those laws intended to protect our daughter, we can not post her birth name or any identifying pictures anywhere public, (facebook, blog...). We really do feel this is in her best interest, yet I still want to be able to share a piece of what we get to see with everyone, so I'm just going to share my favorite part. My favorite thing on a baby is when they have "screwed on" hands and feet. You know, when they have that precious baby fat ring on their wrist and ankles that makes it look like their feet and hands were just plopped on. I was fully prepared to get our referral picture and our baby to be oh so tiny and skinny, but much to my surprise, little A has the sweetest chunky dumpling legs you ever did see. So, it may seem weird, but my favorite part of her, other than a smile that could melt anyone's heart (which I can not share with you yet) , is her sweet chunky legs. So here you go!

The Call-daddy's version

(warning..may be longer than mommy's version)
I woke up to a pounding headache at about 5:30 Thursday morning due in part because I had been forced to sleep on the floor at the suite I was sharing with some other coaches. I stood in the shower for what seemed like only minutes, but from all the other coaches’ chidings must have been closer to an hour. I grabbed a cup of coffee from the kitchen, some breakfast from the dining hall downstairs and a couple of Advils from the lady at the front desk, which she fished out of her personal stash in her purse.
A few hours later we headed to the state basketball games we planned to watch in Austin. Right before we entered our junior varsity coach got a call from his wife. The baby was coming, and he needed to get back home as soon as possible. So, as soon as we had gotten out of the car on Red River, we were hopping right back in to get him back to the hotel. It was chaotic, and we all seemed excited for him.
I pause here to focus on the word seemed. My choice here is simple. I smiled and acted excited, but in my heart I was so emotionally low from my difficulties that I was probably not as excited as I should have been for my friend and colleague. My difficulties came from a complicated adoption process. My wife and I had been trying to adopt a child from Ethiopia for longer than I cared to remember. I was tired. I was frustrated, and I was on the verge of being completely broken after hearing that the government was trying to change the laws in a way that would make our adoption timeframe grow exponentially. Just the night before I had told the guys about this situation and informed them that I did not want to really talk about it for the rest of the weekend. Of course, when a person feels like s/he is about to break that is the precise moment that God does something awesome. And that is exactly what he did.
After our junior varsity coach left in his vehicle, which had been at the hotel, we drove back in Coach S’s car and settled in for the first game of the tournament. We arrived just in time for the start of the second half game. By the fourth quarter the game was dragging along with fouls coming on every possession. My phone vibrated in my pocket. It was my wife, Amory. I did not really hear the words she said, but I could tell from the excitement in her voice that something big had happened. We had been matched. We did not know if it was a boy or a girl. We did not know anything other than I needed to get to a computer, so we could have a conference call in order to find out just what it meant to be matched.
I would love to say that I jumped up and screamed, but in truth I sat there like the jumping frog from calaveras county. I could have sworn that I was filled with lead up to the neck. Finally, I simply asked Coach S. for his keys and when pressed whispered we just got matched. He promptly gave me his keys, and a huge smile shot across his face. He stuck out a hand and I shook it. I am quite certain he was about to ask a lot of questions, but I was so distracted that I walked off with his keys without a word of where I was going or when I might return.
After taking the conference call from the hotel in front of a computer at the back of the dining hall, I looked down at my phone to see the first of what would be a staggering number of text messages. Coach S. had just one question: “Whats going on?” The answer was simple enough: we had been matched with a 9-week-old little girl. I promptly started calling my closest friends and family. Then, I sent out a text to let everyone else know what had happened. That is when the texts really started coming in.
The first was from the junior varsity coach, who had just made it back home and was headed to the hospital. Wow!!!!!!! Congrats man. What do you do now???? It was a good question, and I had no answer, so I didn’t.
As one might imagine, there were many more texts. There were tons of comments like “Awesome!” and “Congratulations” although some got more creative like my friend from Bible study who simply typed “Suuuweeeeet!” or the guy from the college class I teach who wrote “Woooooohoooooo.” He promptly followed that text with another: “I mean Ew a girl?”
Though he was joking, it was a question many people had since we had been so much closer on the boy list than the girl list when we had started. Other people wanted to know what the plan was now, and many people thought the process was finished. One of the trainers from the school asked “ When do yall leave?” I typed back, “No clue,” which was the truth. A few days before, I would have given him a timeframe, but with the changes in the process, I now really did not even want to think about how long it could be until I held my daughter for the first time.
Possibly my favorite text was from an old high school buddy who works out with me at 24 Hour Fitness and loves to talk Rangers. Referencing Juan Gonzalez and his difficulty with the English language he typed, “In the words of the great juando, I’m very happy cited for you !” And it seemed as though everyone was joyous as they heard the news we had waited on for so long. The texts kept coming throughout the night and into Friday morning.
That morning I woke up in an actual bed, due to the fact that the junior varsity coach had gone home. I woke up without a headache. And I woke up with a smile on my face. There was one text in particular that I kept reading over and over again. It simply said, “Congratulations Daddy” and was from my friend who had just recently moved into the technology age. In fact it was the first text message that he had ever sent me. As I lay there looking at those two words, I realized, for the first time in my life, I was finally Daddy.

The Call

From a mother's perspective, the daddy's still to come. (this is long)

I had just found out on Wednesday night that we were number one on both the boy and the girl list. Now you have to remember that our original waitlist numbers were 38 on the boy list and 55 on the girl list. We were just sure that we would be referred a boy. I mean, numbers don’t lie, right? Well, God had different plans.
Every year Bryan goes to Austin for the state high school basketball tournament. As we watched people finally getting referrals after a long dry spell of no referrals Bryan said, “watch, we’re going to get our call while I’m in Austin”. At that point it still felt like a referral call was never going to happen so, bad timing as that might be, I didn’t ever entertain the thought that it could happen that way. I wished Bryan a safe trip as he left for work Wednesday morning and went on about my day. After work I went home and decided to look at the listserve. One family had received a referral. Great for them, now we’re number … on the list. I went about getting dinner for myself and calling some cousins that I’ve been meaning to call. While talking to S I pulled up the listserve again and looked at the unofficial list that came out the previous Friday. Wait, it says we’re lower on the list than I think we should be. Hmm…must investigate. So I break out my trusty list of every name that is on the list before us and start marking off and counting…wait…it’s right, we are #3 on the girl and the boy list. How exciting. Then I notice a couple new posts to the listserve of referral calls. I go back to marking people off of the list and discover that we are number one on both the boy and the girl list. There was much dancing around the living room (Bryan wasn’t around to point and laugh) and I did actually step outside and scream “we’re number one” into the night. It’s a good thing none of neighbors decided to call the cops on me since it was 10:00 at night.
The next morning (Thursday, March 10) I went to work and announced at our morning meeting that we were number one and that at 10:00 when our agency opened (they’re on pacific coast time) to expect me to be a complete basketcase. However, God grants peace when you need it. It was the most focused day at work I’ve had in a very long time and I was just baffled by how calm I was. The work day was coming to a close and I was helping a customer with an issue they had on their debit card when I heard my phone ring. It was the ringtone I had set for every adoption coordinator at AGCI, “Mighty to Save”. All of a sudden there was a panic that came over me as I told the man I was helping (as he was mid-sentence talking to me) “I’m sorry, but I have to take this, I really have to take this call.” The poor guy didn’t get it and kept trying to talk to me. As I continued to say “I have to take this call” and I reached for my phone, one of my co-workers stepped in and explained to the man why I really couldn’t help him anymore. I answered my phone and T said hello. I sat back down in my chair because I didn’t think I could stand. Meanwhile my co-worker was standing in front of me staring at me saying “is this it”. T continued to say that they were checking on the families to see how we are all handling the uncertainty with the recent Ethiopian Ministry of Women Affairs announcement to decrease adoptions. “Really”, I thought, “you’re really going to call the #1 family to just CHECK ON US?” I slumped back in my chair and waived off my co-worker as I said under my breath that they were just checking on us. Then T continued to say that though there was uncertainty, good things were still happening in the process and there was a child (she did just use the word child) that fit our parameters that she would like to talk to us about. I nervously asked if I needed to get Bryan on the phone and she said “sure, let’s conference him in” to which I (while shrieking) said “he’s in Austin, I have to find him, I’ll call you back”.
45 minutes later I have found Bryan and navigated him by phone through Austin back to his hotel so he could be near a computer. I told Bryan that I’m going to call T back and we’ll conference him in, then I dialed T. All I got was her voicemail. “WHAT!” I thought. So I tried just hanging up and calling back, three times. I decided it might not be appropriate to blow up your adoption case manager’s phone so I just sat and stared at my phone for 15 minutes. Well, it wasn’t patient sitting. There was much complaining about not being able to find out who my child was while I sat and stared. Finally I decide that the bank is closed and Bryan has been navigated to his hotel so there is no reason for me to still be at work. I called the agency main line and asked how long our case manager was going to be. They told me she was on a long call and I probably have time to drive home. I called Bryan back to tell him that it would be a while before T was going to call us back so I was going to go home. As soon as I finished that sentence I heard another call beeping in, I looked down and it was T. I’m sure I yelled in Bryan’s ear as I told him it was time, she was calling. I clicked over, we conferenced Bryan in, and then she said “there is a little GIRL I would like to talk to you about”. Now, I am a note taker. I cannot listen to something without writing and I haven’t mentioned that at this point both of my managers and my co-worker were all crowded in the room taking pictures and recording me on the call. When I wrote down girl in HUGE letters they all started screaming, followed by me motioning for them to be quiet while I tried to keep from smiling and shaking. Then T said the second best thing I’ve ever heard, “she’s nine weeks old”. I have prayed for years to be involved in my child’s life as early as possible and she is only nine weeks old. God has already answered so many prayers in my life, and even though this adoption journey has been hard and long, even the timing of our referral call was not what I had hoped it would be, God’s timing is always perfect and now we have a nine week old daughter. I’m finally a mother. I finally have a face and a name to my daughter that I have prayed to have for so many years. And then I thanked God for Aerin Faith, the daughter I prayed for since I was 14 years old.

How He Loves

This song by the David Crowder Band expresses well how I feel right now.

He is jealous for me. Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree

Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.

When all of a sudden I am unaware of these afflictions

Eclipsed by glory and I realize just how beautiful You are

and how great Your affections are for me.

Oh, how He loves us, oh, oh how He loves us all.

And we are His portion and He is our prize

Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes

If His grace is an ocean we're all sinking.

And heaven meets earth like an unforseen kiss

And my heart turns violently inside of my chest

I don't have time to maintain these regrets

When I think about they way

Oh, how He loves us, of

Oh, how He loves us, how He loves us all

How He loves us.

This verse is very special to me today:

Isaiah 61:3-To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heavines; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.

FINALLY

AND

I have waited ONE year EIGHT months one week and 4 days to post that we are NUMBER ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But, NEVER did I think that I would post that we were #1 on BOTH the GIRL and BOY list!! I realize that there are A LOT of capital letters and exclamation points but I am FREAKING OUT RIGHT NOW!!
It has been a completely crazy 48 hours. This morning my eyes still hurt from so much crying yesterday after the MOWA announcement. All day I have been in a not so good mood and completely distracted as I prayed non-stop for God to move to protect the children of Ethiopia and change the hearts of the MOWA officials that have made the decision to reduce inter-country adoptions. (yes, I realize my english teacher hubby will be completely ashamed of my sentence structure here, but oh well) While that is still an issue that hasn't changed and completely breaks my heart and terrifies me for what lays ahead of us...I have been DANCING around my house for the last 2 hours on the high of being #1. God is so merciful to give us encouragement in the midst of difficult times. As I have said before, we are so blessed that He continues to remind us in such visible ways that He is IN CONTROL of ALL things. Even when it seems like the world is crashing down around us God comforts us and shelters us from the storm.
Keep watching for what happens next...

-amory
p.s. if you have not yet GO SIGN THE PETITION!!!!! See the link from a couple posts back to find it.

"Children Of God" - Official Music Video

Here is the new video by Third Day for their song "Children of God". It's great.
**Mom, turn off the music at the very bottom of the page before watching the video.**

We are the saints. We are the children. We've been redeemed. We've been forgiven. We are the sons and daughters of our God.

AMEN

OR SO WE THOUGHT (read last post to get this title)

The Ethiopian Ministry of Women Affairs has just announced that they are trying to reduce the number of international adoptions by 90%. They plan to reduce the number of cases they review from 40-50 per day to 5 per day. Please join us in praying that this does not happen. If this were to happen it would take YEARS for us to become parents. My heart is breaking. We seemed so close just to have our dream blown away now. Please go to the link attached and sign the petition that the Joint Council on International Children Services (JCICS) is going to send to the Ethiopian government asking them not to do this. After you've signed the petition please send it to everyone you know. God is still on His throne and we know He is still at work but we're not meant to sit by and watch and do nothing. We are the hands and feet of the church so let's get moving!

http://betheanswerforchildren.wordpress.com/

So Close

I thought that I would go ahead and post an update because I'm not sure how the next "official" monthly update will go.
It has been an interesting month for us and the other families waiting with us to adopt from Ethiopia through our agency. As you know, at the beginning of the month we found out that we had actually moved BACK a place on the waitlist. It was a difficult blow to feel like we had lost a couple months of progress on the wait. Yet, even still we know that God is ALWAYS faithful and His timing is perfect. We trust that God has ordained this moment for us and that in the wait He is constantly drawing us back to Him. I wish it didn't always have to take a difficult situation to make us cling to God. We've learned over the last couple years that God is our ONLY source of strength. God has used many things to show us that. At some moments it was because we (Bryan and I individually) really didn't have anyone else to turn to but God.
This crazy, emotional, God-dependant rollercoaster has become our comfort zone. It has been all we know for the last couple years. As strange as it might sound, it has been wonderful going through the hard times, being constantly pushed to our very limits, because it has forced us to go to God for everything. We've had no choice but to trust in God and put our faith in Him to...complete our family, provide financially, work on the hearts of the few that doubt us, allow us to just get out of bed some mornings. It's scary to be pushed out of your comfort zone. Will we be able to depend so completely on God when we have our child and things are going well? Will we have the same zeal for our faith when we have what we want, to be parents? While we are ready and excited for the next chapter of our lives, it's also kind of a scary thing.
This is all being said because right now we are unofficially #3 on the boy list and #7 on the girl list. We are so close to meeting our child. We are so close to our hopes and dreams being realized. We would both honestly say that there are many times, maybe most of the time, that it just didn't feel like this would ever happen. Like having our own child to love was just something too good that was unattainable for us. We know in our heads that's not true, but in the long...long wait it feels like that's all you'll ever do, wait. But now we are so close to not ever having to wait again to know our first child.

-amory

February #s

For February we are officially 8 on the boy list and 12 on the girl list. No, that is not a mistype. I did say 8 on the boy list. Yes, we moved back a place this month. Why? Well I don't really have an answer for that. It could be caused by a couple different things. Here is an excerpt from the email we received with our updated numbers.
1)Families may return to the waitlist at anytime due to extenuating circumstances including the difficult situation of losing a referral. (There was a failed adoption last month and it is possible that family was put back on the wait list but don't know that they were).
2)Families ahead of you on the waitlist may alter their parameters at anytime assuming they have the approval of their social worker as well as our social services department. (someone ahead of us on the girl list could have decided to get on the boy list too).

It was not disclosed to us the exact reason why our number went up on the list, so we just have to cling to the fact that God is still on his throne and is sovereignly in control of this process. That being said, it doesn't mean that we don't still get frustrated. It still hurts to every day come home to a childless home and an empty nursery. There are still days that we just want to scream because it's so frustrating that there is NOTHING we can do to speed things up. We are still completely in love with a child on the other side of the world and are just dying to find out what our child looks like. But as much as it hurts to wait, I also know that I shouldn't want this to go any faster than God intends it to. I know that for me to become a mother, another mother must lose her beloved child, and our child must lose his/her first mother. I don't wish that kind of grief on anyone, even if it means I can be a mother. I know that it is inevitable that my child will have to experience this grief and I WANT to be there to comfort my child when that time comes, but I don't want my child to experience that grief a second before he/she has to. So we wait. We trust that God's timing is perfect and that we must be obedient and WAIT ON HIM, however difficult that wait might be.
-amory

Eric Ludy - Depraved Indifference

AMEN!

Read this!

This is an awesome, humbling article. Please click on the link below and read it with me (past page 1) and when you're done reading it please pray with me for all of the children of the world to have a home, a safe place to be. Pray that these children would be adopted into God's family. Pray that the silent would be silent no more and be able to cry out loud Abba Father!


Abba Changes Everything Christianity Today A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

New Look, Same great taste..errr...I mean blog

You are in the right spot. I needed some more space to work with and had to change the format of the blog. Things were getting a bit crowded. I thought I would share really quick my new favorite thing. This necklace was my birthday present from Bryan. Don't you just love it! He got it from JunkPosse who makes adoption jewelry. You can check out her store link on my sidebar. I also have been busy making shirts while J was here setting up the nursery. She is my crafty mastermind so I had to wait for her to visit to make these. I do love my new favorite things.

-amory

January Excitement

So far January is turning out to be a fun month! We have received our January updated numbers. We are now #7 on the boy list and #13 on the girl list. In December the U.S. Embassy announced that they are conducting orphan investigations on every adoption from Ethiopia. This could mean some slowdowns in the process. For the families that were supposed to travel in December for the embassy appointment it meant cancelling their flights 2 days before they were supposed to leave just to find out a week later that they had to book flights for the next day. The good news is that they were able to travel to bring home their children and a couple more families are traveling this weekend so there will be open space at Hannah's Hope (our agencies transition home). We're hoping that this will bring more referrals of children in January.

This weekend we were visited by my cousin J and her 3 kiddos (nearly 4 yr old, 19 mo old, and 3 mo old). Our house has been bustling to say the least. Now the fun part is that J and her AMAZING friend MJ made the decorations for our nursery. It has all been a big secret to me up to this point. I knew the theme they were doing but artistic liberty was completely given over to them (and for those of you that know me that was a BIG deal as I am WAY type A). Saturday morning J and MJ set up the nursery and did a big reveal of their design. It is GEORGEOUS! I told them my theme was "elegant jungle" which they renamed "safari chic`". They did a beautiful job of turning theme idea into reality. There are still a few finishing touches to be done, but it would be great just as it is. Enjoy the pictures below.

Isn't the hippo cute! MJ made him from scratch!! (well she made everything from scratch)