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One or Two???

We had our meeting with our Agency on Monday and all went well. We will continue to have meetings on average once per month. We found out that at this point, we must decide if we will put a referral in for one or two children. We thought that we would be able to put in for either and whichever came first, is how it will be. Not so. So, we've been praying. Neither of us are certain. We have our physicals this week, and then we'll send the remainder of our paperwork to our agency. At that point, our homestudy should be complete and sent to our other agency in Oregon. Then, we must sign an official contract with our agency in Oregon and they will send us another packet of paperwork. This paperwork is called the Dossier, and this is what will be sent to Ethiopia. When this arrives in Ethiopia after being approved here in the US, we will begin our wait for our baby or babies. It is on average a 4-6 month wait for your referral to go through. When we get the referral, our agency will call us and let us know the referral has arrived. We will receive pictures and any information they have on the child or children. At this point, the child is not our child. We must go through court to adopt our child(ren). We will travel to Ethiopia to pick up our child(ren) and go to court there. We will also readopt our child here in the US. Many people have asked "Why Ethiopia?" Here's my best attempt to explain: Gabriel, as some of you know, was the little boy in Guatemala, who God clearly led us to. We prayed for him for about 8 months. In July of last year, his parents came to get him. Yes, were disappointed but mostly we were overjoyed. This doesn't happen often that parents actually come back to an orphanage to get their children. During this time of praying for Gabriel, God did some amazing things in our hearts. God showed us His heart for caring for orphans and adoption. It became so clear how both are part of His plan for us as followers of Jesus. While I don't think everyone is called to adopt, I do think that all are called to care for orphans...along with the poor and widows. So, we started praying for a specific country. I, at first, was drawn to China, especially cleft palate babies, which is quite prevalent there. For a healthy child in China, the wait right now is 3 years. Jim was drawn to Haiti, but the process in Haiti is quite difficult, and I really didn't feel drawn there at all. I had Ethiopia in the back of my mind and when Jim mentioned Haiti, I knew he was open to adopting a child who is black, so I asked about Ethiopia. We prayed about it, and it became clear that we would adopt from there. The specifics of that are fairly long, so won't go into that. When I first prayed and Gabriel Jonathan's name came to me, I saw a little curly, haired boy, about the age of 9 months to a year old. When we saw Gabriel of Guatemala, I knew it wasn't the same face I saw during prayer. However, I knew that their skin was the same, so I figured perhaps my connections :-) were off. As I look at the boys and girls of Ethiopia, it could be that this is the little boy I saw. Along with Gabriel's name, there was another name that I received, too. It was Anna/Ana. I've prayed about it for a long time. I thought maybe she was Gabriel's mom, or a a girl in Guatemala. When I asked someone at the orphanage about an Anna, she said there are a lot of Annas there. So, is Ana our daughter? Not sure, but her middle name is Grace.

Well, that's a lot of information, but I think it covers most of the questions we're being asked.

Blessings~
Ang

80s Party in the Works!!!

Just a head's up for all you 80s fans. We are planning to have an 80s party in late spring to benefit our adoption. There may be a few bands performing. We are planning to have it here at our house. Grab your hairspray, ladies and guys,...start growing those mullets. Mark Alexander claims he's already on his way to having one. (Side note: We were reading about Martin Luther King, Jr. in class the other day, and one of my boys came up later and asked to borrow the Michael Jackson book. I had NO idea what he was talking about until he said it was the one we were reading earlier. Can you imagine his parents' surprise when he tells them he was learning about Michael Jackson in class?! :-)

Meeting Scheduled

Our Meeting with Dove has been scheduled for Monday, January 19 at 4:00. :-)

Yeah...we are scheduling our meeting!

I seriously cannot imagine how excited parents must be when they get their referral call. We received an email today telling us our agency would like to schedule our interview. They are based out of Oregon, so it will be a phone conference. We have completed our home study with our agency in Williamsport, and hopefully it has been or will be soon sent off to Oregon to our agency doing the international portion of the adoption. This interview will basically get the ball rolling for the next steps to bring our baby or babies home. If all goes well with the phone interview, which I expect it will, we will start preparing more paperwork to be sent to Ethiopia. Yeah!!!

Watoto...Wow!

Our family had the pure joy and honor of hosting a gentleman and two boys from the Watoto Children's Choir last evening. I honestly can say, the experience was amazing. There were surreal moments, when I thought, "this can't be real". It just seemed too good to be true. We started by going to see them at a church in West Milton last evening. Jim and I had a difficult time holding it together throughout the concert. Julia usually stares at me when I cry, which is a lot, so I tend to hold it in a bit. The choir spoke so loudly of what has been on my heart for over a year, but I feel as though I had no way to express it. They expressed it loudly and clearly. I could not get over how beautiful they were...inside and out. They said please and thank you to everything. They are THANKFUL to go to school, have shoes, a warm bed, and a mom who cares for them. They know what their lives were like before Jesus rescued them, and their not afraid to tell about it. They asked "Uncle Brian", their chaperone who stayed with us, if they could play downstairs. They asked if they could watch tv. They were simply amazing. Brian was such a kind soul. He mentioned that he helps to lead worship in his church in Uganda, which has approximately 20,000 people...yes, I wrote the number correctly. Can you imagine?! He said there are satellite churches (I forget exactly what he called them.), so they're not all in one building. But, he said there are 2,000 people who will come to one church in one day over a period of hours. Jim handed him my guitar after he told us that he plays during worship. He made the guitar sound beautifully. I guess I can't blame it on the guitar any more...and He likes Jennifer Knapp...one of my favorite singers. He said that they use the same music that our praise band uses, which surprised me. Brian led us in some worship songs..."Majesty", "You Are My Strength"...He was such a humble, yet courageous soul. Words simply can not express my gratitude to the Lord for allowing our family to participate in such an awesome experience! In James 1:27, God tells us to visit orphans...I guess the Lord even rejoices in having orphans visit us :-)