The BEST picture I have seen this week...

This is the notation they put on the "Waiting Child Photo listing" photos once the children listed have been matched with a family! I can't post a picture of them, but they are SO stinking cute and I can't WAIT to get (hopefully) some updated photos that shows them looking like they feel a little better. 

Gun shy

After having been through two committee dates, hints of phone call resolutions, emails etc over the past 6 weeks... I don't quite know what to expect for today.

10:30 Pacific time there will be a conference call between 4 women who have the power to approve us for our waiting sibling group... or not.

I don't know what to expect after this phone call.

I would love to think that today will be the end of this part of our journey and the beginning of the next.
I would love to think that we will find out today if we are approved for our adopting the babies we love so much.
I just don't know.

I have asked my social worker to call me after the call to let me know... no offense to anyone at Holt, but if its not a favorable conclusion, I just don't want to lose it on the phone with them just yet.

Hope.

I got an email today from our home study social worker's boss.
Basically, she has contacted Holt about the delay and the director she spoke with at the agency agreed to try to contact the committee member who is out of town to try to get the questions answered before two weeks go by! 

I am over-the-moon thrilled to hear this! It would make me so happy to get those questions answered before the 1/21 committee date! 

We would appreciate prayers... 

prayers that the questions would be ones our h.s. agency can easily, quickly answer...  

prayers that Holt would see that these are OUR kids and we desperately want them home sooner rather than later and we don't want to delay more than absolutely necessary...

Prayers that they would understand that we have already waited over a month since we fell in love with them and decided to move forward with their adoption...


prayers that our kids are safe, getting healthier and stronger, and that the workers at this home are Godly women who will love them in the interim.


Blessings... I will update as soon as I know anything!

Committee.

Well, we didn't hear "no", but we didn't hear "yes" either.
Long story shortened, one lady out of the committee still feels that she has some unanswered questions and doesn't feel comfortable approving us. Everyone else was comfortable, just this one lady was not.
So... of course, she is going to be out of town for 2 weeks now - starting after work yesterday. Whatever.
Hopefully she is going on vacation. Or maybe she will travel to Ethiopia to visit the care center and see the faces of the kids who wait. I believe she may have forgotten her chief job description is to place children into their forever families.
So, we have two more weeks. Hopefully we can get our dossier almost all the way done by then, I would love it if it were totally done, but that's a tall order (especially since I still dont have the official file from Holt with the dossier requirements).
I have a snow day today, so maybe I can get something accomplished from home.
Thanks for the prayers, they are still greatly appreciated and needed.
I am going to contact Holt today and ask if they would consent to just putting my kids on "hold" until the next committee date since they "tabled" the discussion for two weeks.
FR-US-TR-ATED!
Thanks everyone...
I guess advocating for my kids starts before they are even mine.

Immanuel

Isaiah 7:14 - Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
Matthew 1:28 - "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" which means, "God with us."

One of those tricks they teach you in Bible school (world's oldest college student speaking... Religion major at LU) is to read a verse or phrase putting the emphasis on each different word to get the full effect.
I LOVE what happens when you do that!

GOD with us. (God, THE God... I AM... is with us.)
God WITH us. (WITH us... seriously, togetherness/with us.)
God with US! (US... really? Knowing US He still chooses to be with US??)

Today, I know God is in a meeting room in Oregon, in Ethiopia holding three precious babies, and keeping me from picking up my phone and trying to call and interrupt the meeting to find out of they have discussed our case yet. He is with ALL of us today... even as I try to be patient... checking my phone to make sure it is on... checking the clock on the computer... checking my phone again... glancing at the clock again... cursing the slow passage of time as I wait another hour to find out the verdict...

18 hours...

So all those who have gone before me, and all those farther ahead of me in this adoption process...
They are laughing at me right now!
That's ok...
Because in a few hours a group of women will gather to discuss the options for some children who wait in an orphanage. They will discuss our family as though they know us. They will talk about our ability to be parents.

They will try to make the best possible decision for three babies I hope to call my own.

If they do not choose us, I have faith that there is somewhere out there a family who will be better suited to care for them. Some other Mommy will be waiting to to kiss those cheeks and wipe noses and tears.

If they do choose us, this will be a day to circle on the calendar for the rest of our lives! This will be the day that I can say WE were chosen! We were deemed the best choice for this group of children! This will be the moment I will remember, that moment that will help get me through the next several months of paperwork, postage and patience. I will have faces to put with my waiting! I will beg families who travel for some tiny piece of information and for a moment of their precious time to give my three a hug and whisper "Mommy and Daddy are coming for you!" This is the beginning.

Regardless... it's a big day for us as a family!
I hope I do not have false confidence... but I do feel confident that we will be chosen.
I will be so depressed (and embarrassed) if we are not chosen.
Please pray for that meeting - for wisdom and discernment and most of all - faith in us as a family of 9!