Leaping for joy!

I tell you -

nothing makes me more happy then 

when a family 

finds their child/ren!

And this week has been very emotional!

 Remember Z in Ethiopia?

He met his parents this past week,

they passed court 

and have returned to the US,

waiting and praying their Embassy appointment

comes quickly and they can

return to their son,

and bring him home!
Ohhhh - what a roller coaster ride this has
been for ALL of them -
but soon they will be safe in each others arms
FOREVER!

Ohhh this is just a beautiful photo!

And then,

Lucky!

What a handsome guy!

His family found him this week!

He will age out of the China system in August!

His family needs to get all their

paperwork together 

and travel by his 14th birthday 

in order to adopt him. 

Please add these 2 beautiful families to your prayer lists! 

and...

if you didn't notice -

we added a pay pal account for our 

fund raising for our sweet Gus! 

(friends have requested the pay pal as it does make it 

easier on everyone)

Thank you for keeping us and Gus in your prayers too!  

"Adoption Pending"

"Adoption Pending"

and
"Matched"

Beautiful words! 

Psalms 68: 4-6a

"Sing to God, sing in praise of his name,

extol him who rides on the clouds:

rejoice before him -

his name is the LORD.

A father to the fatherless,  

a defender of widows,

is God in his holy dwelling.

God sets the lonely in families..."

And through turmoil 

God's plans have been made 

the world beautiful again -

Z has a family!

He will be loved forever and ever!

He will be a brother,

and son.

He will learn to trust,

and know what unconditional love really means.

We are sooo excited for this entire family! 

Please pray for them as they

finish their paperwork 

and rush to him ASAP!

And please remember our auction for
T,L and Z!
To see these three beautiful families blessed by
this auction just brings tears to my eyes! 

My heart is in Ethiopia: Part VI

The worries have become larger and larger -

 I have prayed and prayed for God to show himself 

to us and to take a way this burden -

But, for now -

Z still waits.

Hubby says "no, not now."

(I don't understand but I tell you this not to dis my hubby -

but I know there are other spouse's out there

feeling the same way about a specific child or 

just over adoption in general,

and I want to you to know that your not alone.)

I have to trust the fact that 

God loves my Z!

He loves Z more then I will ever comprehend.

Like I said at the beginning for this saga -

"It doesn't end the way I want it to."

But as I have been praying for God to show me 

the role I am to play in Z's life.

I know what I want,

I want Z to be my son,

I want to show him the love of a family,

I want him to feel secure,

I want him to learn to trust,

and love.

But I have to wait on the Lord
and what HE WANTS

 for now,

I have been honored with the role of 

 advocating for him. 

I want the best for Z!

and
I want to serve my God!

Please pray with me for Z!

Are you his mommy or daddy?

Please take the first step and pray!

If you'd like to hear more about Z,

I'd love to tell you more about sweet Z!

Ohhh how I wish I could show y'all a photo of him!

My Heart is in Ethiopia: Part V

Really -
when I began this story, 
I didn't think it was going to be this long.
But now, I'm sure you will agree,
this has been a long roller coaster ride!

~

As I looked back at my emails I was amazed to realize 

that the day I knew this other family would begin 

the adoption process,
and the next phone call I receivedfrom them

was only 10 days.

10 days! 

Wow! 

It seemed like months!
So many emotions, so much praying,
heartache but rejoicing that Z had a family.

The phone call I received from this special family
was them wanting to let us know that they would have
to slow down on their adoption process for Z.

They wanted to let us know that 

this special boy is their highest priority,

they would be honored and blessed to bring him home,

but because they are unable to get to him soon,

they wanted to let us know.

I cried for them.

They are having to let go of him -

like we had too. 

And again,
we wondered is this God telling us he is yours -
 "go get him!"

~

But we were still 23 days away from being able to 

begin our paperwork for another adoption.

And 116 days to be able to be matched with this sweetie. 

More praying and searching for what God wants us to do,

and what part does God want us to play in this little guys life.

~

Within the next 23 days we had our 3 month post placement
with our social worker.
We were able to ask her about the idea of us adopting Z.
In her wonderful, supportive true form -
she reminded us of the trials of bringing home an older child,
adding a child out of birth order,
and
adding another child to our very busy family!

But she was willing to support us whatever our decision would be.

After the 3 month wait,
we also spoke to our agency -
we really didn't want to begin paperwork if by the time we were able to
be "matched" with Z,
he may be "matched" with someone else.
Right now, we really aren't looking to adopt all 163 million orphans,
just Z.

A few weeks later,
our agency came back to tell us -
that they would be willing to "match" us in office with Z.
Kinda an unofficial match-
but no one else could be matched with him.

This is a huge blessing!

Let's get the paper work rolling

So we thought -
then the worries began to set in...

8 kids,
new vehicle,
daily expenses,
time for each child...

What should we do with these worries?
Are they legitimate concerns,
or Satan getting in the way?

My heart is in Ethiopia: Part IV

Sorry for the roller coaster of blog posts but really -

do you think I would tell you the whole story -

in one lump sum? 

Come on - it's been months of roller coasters for us! 

(Tee! Hee!)

~~~

Bryan and I knew that even if we wanted to begin the
adoption process for Z

we would have to wait.
Our agencies policy for second adoptions is that we would have to wait

 3 months (122 days) until we meet with our social worker
for our 3 month post-adoption visit for Donovan and Elijah,
before we could even begin a home study for Z.

And that would all depend on how our new family is bonding.

And did Donovan and Elijah even like this other kiddo?

And then we would have to wait 6 months
to be officially matched with Z.

At 54 days of being home,

I received an email from an adoptive family.

They had a friend who had questions about our agencies waiting children,

and wondered if I would be willing to share with them what I knew about 

all three boys!

Of course!!! 

I would love to talk about these boys!

Anyone who knows me in RL(real life) knows that I love 

to talk about these boys!

Well, this family didn't want to hear anything about two of the boys,

just the one that we had already felt led to...

Z

My heart sank a little,
okay if we are being honest here -
my heart sank A LOT!
You see I'm selfish like that!

While I chatted on the phone with this nice momma,

who has a beautiful heart for the orphan,

and has been so touched by the photos that I was able to take 

of precious Z,
we were strangers who laughed, cried and found a new friendship
in each other through our love for this sweet boy.

Honestly I wanted to discourage this family from
adopting this boy,
not because she isn't awesome
but because that I wanted to bring him home,
and sometimes too often I think it's all about me.

Thankfully God took control of my tongue -
and I shared everything wonderful about this boy.

This sweet family fell in love with him too.
A few days later I received an email from them saying that they
were going to proceed with his adoption.
I was honestly sooooo happy for everyone!
I was happy Z -
he would finally have a family of his own!
A family who dearly loved him,
and this family would be so blessed to call this sweetie - "son".

But,
my evil self was also very sad.
I really thought he was to be our son!
I couldn't wait to begin paperwork for him!
I couldn't imagine life without him.
After a few days of pouting,
and praying,
I was able to be happy and at peace with God's plan.

O'course,
We then wondered, prayed, searched for what God wanted us to do.
What about the other two boys who wait
at the same orphanage...


But, we didn't feel that God is asking us to bring them home.

If this one boy isn't our son -
what does God want?
I know God isn't finished with us!

My Heart is in Ethiopia:Part III

We had been home for a few weeks with Donovan and Elijah -

the transition was going so well -

we felt so blessed! 

This transition can be very difficult,

adding 2 new kids to the schedule,

2 new personalities to the family,

and 

respecting their emotions -

their fears,

their insecurities

but really God showed up every day 

reinforcing to us that His plan is perfect!

We were so thankful,

and with every moment and day that we bonded,

and attached with our boys

and they attached with us -

we couldn't get Z off our minds. 

You would think "out of sight out of mind"

but this was not the case with Z.

Z has 2 friends who have also been on the waiting child list for

over a year.
They all needed someone to advocate for them.

To share what wonderful boys these three are!
I was more then willing to speak for their boys and share what I knew.
Donovan was able to give us a lot of insight too!
Some funny stories and some heart wrenching stories.
With each story we grew closer and closer to Z.

Until the day I received a phone call from our agency.

The three boys were "on hold".

"On hold" meaning if anyone asked about them they would have to 

wait to see their files.
An investigation on their paperwork had to be completed. .

Our agency had become aware that some of the birth families
from the region these boys are from didn't understand

that "relinquishing" their children meant forever 

and could mean international adoption.

We were looking at three options for the boys -

1) biological families would take them back home!

which would be wonderful!

2) foster care in Ethiopia - and we would search for sponsors for the boys.

3) they would be available for international adoption.

Though the investigation only took 11 days -

it felt like forever.

The boys were available again for International Adoption.

We began advocating again,

and praying again as to what God's plans were for us

in the lives of these boys 

and especially Z.

My heart is in Ethiopia: Part II

Returning home from Ethiopia was soooo very hard.

We just wanted to bring Donovan and Elijah home with us then and there.

But, that's not how Ethiopian adoptions are set up -

sooooo,

we came home to wait for Embassy clearance and travel dates 

as to when we could return for our boys. 

The only good part about not taking Donovan and Elijah then,

was that I knew I would be back to see Z
and love on him a bit more.

This sweetie who kissed me on the cheek the day we left,

and told me he loved me. 

This sweet, older boy who had waited so long for someone
 to pay extra attention to him.

And I'd get to go back and 

love on him again!

~~~

A week or so after we were home,

the family who had wanted to begin the adoption process Z,

believed that God was telling them,

"No, not now,  but his parents will show up soon!"

I got chills,

was that us? 

I want that to be us -
but is that what God wants for us?
Why has this boy hit my heart so hard,
what is my role in his life?

Seven weeks later I and my brother, Uncle JB, were on the plane to bring 

Donovan and Elijah home! 

But, I knew how hard it would be to walk away again.

And this time with no promise of ever getting back to him.

My heart is in Ethiopia: Part I

This is our story for the last 6 months -
though I wish with all my heart that it
ended in a different way -
infact, I'm not sure how I am going to end this story -
God is still working on that.
I feel that I need to share our story and our
roller coaster ride of adoption.

~

If anyone had told me 6 months ago about
the emotional roller coaster ride we were about to get on,

I would have laughed in their face! 

So it's a good thing no one told me!

I want to share our entire God story with y'all.

There have been many hills, valleys and bumps 

that we never saw coming,

but thankfully God had us strapped in and 

though sometimes we rode with our hands grasp tightly,

trying to peddle backwards -

He was at the helm 

and we finally threw our arms up 

and decided to enjoy the ride He put us on. 

On April, 24, 2011 we met our beautiful boys for the first time!

We were so happy to finally hold them 

and love on them -
 even if it was for a short one week trip to Ethiopia.

Not only did we meet our boys,

and fall madly in love with them.

We also fell in love with another little boy.
I say "little" boy but he is really 10 yrs old.

We didn't know anything about him,

but that first day at the orphanage -

we fell in love! 

He has a quiet spirit, 

he didn't push and shove,

he waited his turn for us to come to him.

He just has these incredible eyes filled with many, many stories.

We call him "Z".

Early in the week we learned that another adoptive family,
who were also in Ethiopia that week for court
for their two boys but at a different orphanage,
were interested in meeting Z and 

came to visit this special guy,
after they met him

they made calls to our agency to begin paperwork for him
 ASAP!

We were excited for all of them! 

Though there was an ache in our hearts for him.

Throughout the week we played with him,

and our boys,

and the other kids at the orphanage.

Getting to know all of them.

At the end of the week we were heartbroken
to have to leave Donovan and Elijah
and this sweet boy too.