SURPRISE!!! Everything is Changing...Again

[This is what we were thinking in April as we found out that our adoption journey had turned yet another corner...]

So, I am writing this on May 9th knowing that I will not publish it until after we announce (God willing soon!!!) that we have accepted a referral from ETHIOPIA!  Yup- Ethiopia.  Even as I sit here I can barely believe that is a very real possibility at this moment.  You see, we just recently found out that there are children in our age range and gender preference AT THE HOME in Ethiopia!  They arrived very recently and unexpectedly (to us), but oh what a welcome surprise that news has been =)  Right now the children are getting medical exams and final paperwork translated so the staff can match them with families!!!  They will be looking at all the "details" and then praying about what child should be matched with what family- talk about amazing!  Needless to say we are praying a whole lot for wisdom and discernment for our agency staff right now...

It was exactly 3 months ago today that we were told that Ethiopia no longer looked like an option for our first adoption.  We were devastated, but since it was beyond our control we knew we had to seek the Lord for direction.  We haven't talked about it on this blog, but after much research, discussion, and prayer we felt we should start down the path with domestic infant adoption. 

The night/ day differences between international Ethiopia adoption and US infant adoption nearly drove me batty!  Preparation of the heart and mind (not to mention the stuff you need!) is so different that I struggled to reconcile the transition in my heart.  Even still we began working on updating our homestudy to include domestic adoption...and more paperwork.  I will say (patting myself on the back a teeny bit) that Trace and I have become VERY good at gathering paperwork over the past 2 years!  We owned it and often had each "stage" of paperwork complete in 2-3 days.  After 15 months it actually felt good to be DOING something other than just waiting!  Once the paperwork was complete we reached the final {dreaded} stage of putting together a profile book.  This book threatened to push me over the edge!  How do you convey...in a book...who you are and what is important to you in hopes that a potential birthmother will choose you to parent her precious baby?!?  This book took much longer to compile than any paperwork ever could.  It was personal, honest and heartfelt.  We got some feedback and the consensus was that it did indeed reflect us- so we got 4 copies of it printed.  As of today 3 of those copies reside with two different domestic adoption agencies waiting to be shown to potential birthmothers (we kept one for ourselves).  As soon as we have our referral call we will contact both agencies and ask them to take us off their waiting list. 

Even today as we wait with expectation (and a surprising amount of patience!) we talk and pray about "meeting" our son when we see his first pictures and hear about his story.  We hope it will be a matter of days and not long weeks or months before we are able to share our happy news!