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/