#8

YIPEE!!!! Suzi's rumors were correct - there was a referral of an infant boy this past week making us unofficially number...

As the much more optimistic Brian added, "This means we are a third of the way there." I didn't know who was in the #1 spot for a little boy so I knew there was at least a small possibility that we could move up a spot and not find out for sure until our e-mail update. We get e-mail updates every 2 weeks (from which we can speculate) and official calls once a month to tell us where we are in line. I am so glad we "unofficially" moved because I was starting to loath the #9. In other news the estimated wait time for a referral has moved from 4-6 months to 6-8 months. Yuck.

Here's to hoping for a much shorter wait... (however, if it does turn out to be that long I might need a few glasses to get me through it)

10 Weeks

It has been 10 weeks of waiting on the wait list. So far the movement has been extremely discouraging. To date we have moved three spots in 2 and 1/2 months. Not exactly what we had been anticipating. When we first got on the list it was after a couple months of 6-7 referrals every month. We were very optimistic that we could have a referral by this point. The fact that we don't might be a bit easier to swallow if we were closer than #9. Now #9 really doesn't sound THAT bad. At least we are in the single digits. Unfortunately, our current track record points to another very LONG 7 and 1/2 months before a referral. Now do I really think it will take that long? NO! And it better not since we were quoted a wait time of 2-4 months. Unfortunately, as certain as I am that we will not be waiting until February 2009 for a referral that is exactly the rate at which we are moving so I have no real reason to believe otherwise.

At first I was optimistic that going on the wait list the first week of April meant a shot at a baby before the courts close (August). After a while of no movement at all, I started telling myself we will have a baby in October or November. Lately, I have been feeling very frustrated and am wondering if we will even become parents in 2008!

This is one of those life situations where my heart and mind are in battle with one another. My head says it will happen in God's time. My head said there is a reason for the wait even though it might be hard to decipher what that is. My head says we have to wait for the perfect fit for our family. Meanwhile, my heart doesn't understand why it is taking so long. What could possibly be the point of no movement? Why, why, why? We came to the decision we were ready to be parents and decided to adopt. Once we came to this conclusion it was kind of like "we are ready NOW!" So what's the hold up? I know there is no lack of children who need families.

While this inner struggle continues on, I find myself constantly thinking about our little boy even though he is a stranger to me. Brian will ask me what I am thinking and often my answer is, "about our baby." I picture him in my mind. Chocolate skin, big brown sparkling eyes, a toothless drooling smile (hmm, maybe not, maybe a tooth or two), dimples, tight black curls (although for some reason I picture him being bald in our referral picture). Of course I really have no idea what our son will look like but it is still fun to think about.

All this to say the wait is getting really lame and it would be very nice to see some movement.

Christians In Ethiopia

This cover story in WORLD magazine (CLICK HERE TO READ) speaks to the reality of life in Ethiopia and the importance of Christian ministries in that country. Ministries like the Fistula Hospital (which some travel groups of AGCI get to visit), Project Mercy, Mission to the World, CURE International, and Selam Children's Village are all mentioned as organizations who are changing the reality in Ethiopia. It also gives some suggestions of how evangelical Christians can help the Ethiopian people.

#9

So after my phone call today hearing we were officially #10, Christy e-mailed me to tell me that the one "pending" referral was accepted and we are offically #
I thought it was really nice of her to go out of her way and give me a new update after we had just talked a couple hours ago. Thanks, Christy!

Our Wait List Journey

We are officially #

So far our waitlist journey has been different than what we expected. Right before we got on the list there were 6 or 7 referrals every two weeks. I thought this was normal but apparently it was abnormal, so my expectations of the waitlist movement have not been met. We are making progress in our movement down the list. It has just been a bit slower than we anticipated. Here's what our journey has looked like thus far:

We started at #

And stayed put at #12 for quite some time...

We then very quickly moved unofficially to #
Then due to some unexpected circumstances one of these referrals was not officially accepted which meant we moved three steps forward and one step back - to #
Since then, there has been a referral but the accpetance is not official. Meaning we are officially #10 but unofficially #
And that's our wait list journey thus far...

7 Weeks

Today marks 7 weeks of officially waiting. At this point I think we are about #9 or #10 in line for a little boy. We will find out sometime this week what our new official wait list numbers are. The last 7 weeks have gone by fairly quickly and seemingly pretty typical. I have been busy with school and work while Brian stays busy with church stuff and now soccer. On Sunday we went out to dinner and I was thinking about our baby and picturing how so many things will change for us once we have our little guy at home. I asked Brian if it felt like we were expecting a child. His reponse was "NO!" We were talking about how this might feel more like a reality if we were watching my stomach grow. Instead of watching tummies grow we are just counting the days that have passed with no idea how much longer we will be counting. There is no sense of getting any closer just a sense of many question marks in our future. We both thought the wait list would bring a huge sense of the reality to the situation very quickly, but it hasn't. Yes I know we are in the process of adopting but since we are at the waiting stage now and not feeling like we are actively making progress it still seems so far off. I am afraid that this entire process is going to seem somewhat like a 9 month long day dream and then BAM! we are in Ethiopia and taking a child back to our hotel room and we aren't just babysitting and won't be giving him back. Maybe when we see a picture this will seem so much more real and we can have a couple months to mentally prepare for becoming parents! In the meantime, we will just keep counting (like counting makes a difference when you don't know what day you are counting toward...) and hope reality sets in at some point before we travel.