Brothers!!!

So - as promised I am going to tell you all why my Mom was in Ethiopia and able to buy me all sorts of cool stuff for the nursery.

The answer: BROTHERS!!!

Ok so here's how it all happened. Back in May I started really praying for one of the waiting children with AGCI. I can't really say I was "considering" him because I knew the situation wasn't realistic but my heart was very burdened for him to the point where I kept having dreams about him. I was telling my Mom how much my heart hurt for this little boy and how I wish so badly that he had a family. I secretly e-mailed our case worker to ask what the oldest age we could adopt was. After a couple days I heard back - 5 years old was the oldest. Now this boy was 2 and 1/2 times that in years. Since I knew a ten year age gap between parent and child wasn't "appropriate" I hadn't actually been considering pursuing his adoption but if AGCI hadn't said 5 yrs. old I might have really tried! I shared this information with my Mom. Meanwhile she was thinking maybe God was calling she and my Dad to adopt this little boy. I was thrilled! They prayed about it for a long time. There are currently 5 of us kids. I am the oldest and the youngest is 15. They obviously had a lot to consider. One morning they shared with me that they had finally decided that God was calling them to adopt this waiting child that had been on my heart and theirs for so long.

The next business day my Mom called AGCI back to let them know they had finally decided to officially pursue adopting this boy. What happened next was heartbreaking. AGCI's social services department had never had a parent and child pursue an adoption at the same time and when made aware of the situation did not agree. They were worried about the effects on the adoptive children and did not feel our family was capable of being 100% excited and invested into both adoptions at one time. They were also concerned that there would be negative effects on Brian and I if and when my parents traveled and completed their adoption before us. Despite arguments to the contrary, AGCI told my parents they must postpone their adoption until ours had been finalized for a year. Absolute heartbreak ensued. Was this God closing the door? How could they have such peace about something that was so wrong? This was not a quick decision but something that had been lifted up in prayer for months. One night my Dad told my Mom "maybe our son just isn't at HH." Not knowing what he had said, I told my Mom the same thing the next morning. My sister who was in Ethiopia at the time had e-mailed my Mom about the same time telling her maybe they should just pursue a different agency. The final decision was if they were making the wrong decision God would have to slam a door because they still thought this was the right decision.

Although my sister was in Ethiopia at the time, that was just for a short layover on her way to Burundi. She was planning on going back to Ethiopia for all of 2009 though and suggested my parents look into the organization that she was planning on working with. What they found out quickly confirmed God's plan. At an orphanage in a very rural part of Ethiopia there were 150 boys ranging in age from 3-15. The organization sponsoring the orphanage experienced some turmoil which led to the 150 children being supported by the adoption agency who was having trouble finding families for older boys and having a hard time financially supporting such a large facility. Somewhere along the way 1 boy turned to 2 boys :) and the paperchasing began. Through a secure site for adopting families my parents were able to see photos and some bios on the 150 boys. How would they choose only 2? The director of the adoption agency was going over to Ethiopia for business and asked my Mom what she wanted to know from the children they were considering. My Mom explained that picking your children from photos was difficult and she just wanted to know their personalities. The director semi-jokingly said "well you should come with me then." We had assumed all along that no one could travel until the adoption was finalized. We quickly found out this was not an Ethiopia rule just an agency specific one. After a phone call to my Dad my Mom was on the phone with a travel agent buying a ticket to Ethiopia and departing 3 days later.

She flew to Addis and was there for 12 days. In the middle of the trip they made the 14 hour trek to the orphanage that my brothers were at. She spent a few days there with the children and made the decision of which boys would be added to our family. This was a very difficult decision as we can all imagine. She said there were many we would have been blessed to welcome into our family. Her stories and photos of Ethiopia were wonderful to see. The best part though was learning about the two soon-to-be additions to the family. We think they are about 8 and 10.

Soon the paperwork will be at the courts and we will all be closer to bringing the newest boys in our family home! We can't think of a more wonderful experience for our baby than to have 2 uncles who can tell him all about Ethiopia.