Holy Referrals Batman!

WOW! This week our agency has had referrals coming in like crazy. It looks like we have already moved up a few spots on the wait list. I'm still trying to figure out how to keep track and I haven't been able to reach our coordinator due to the foot and half of snow we got yesterday. But I believe we have moved up to number 11. I can't tell you the feeling of seeing all these beautiful children getting placed with families that have been waiting for them for months. I know that often families can wait years for a child through international adoption, so the fact that we might have our child before the end of the year is just plain astounding! Moving up the wait list this quickly gets your heart a thumpin'. I start thinking about all the things that technically haven't happened for us yet. Our dossier is still in the hands of our agency due to a small paper error that we have just corrected. Our immigration paperwork is still being processed. We haven't yet made it to any of our parenting classes. Soooo....breathe....
Congratulations to all IAN families who have received referrals and to all the families that are moving up! God is obviously doing a great work through IAN and we are so thankful to be a part of it!

DONE!

Dossier....DONE!
I-600A....DONE!

Oh man, I love it when things are DONE!!!!

Now I truly am very excited to be on our way towards getting our baby girl! I have had moments of frustration, but overall have been very impressed with how easy the process actually is. I have had more stress with say...buying our first house.

One of the questions I am often asked is if we know when we will get our baby. First we have to get a referral, which means we have been matched with a child. Before that however, the child must have been brought into the orphanage. This means that not too long before we receive our referral a terrible tragedy has occurred. Our baby has lost her family. There are so many unknowns. I don't know if right now her mother is sick, scared, dying, hungry, in trouble, lonely, sad...or maybe our baby hasn't even been conceived yet. It's possible that right now our daughter's fearfully and wonderfully made form is secretly being knitted together in her mother's womb. Maybe her mother has just figured out she is pregnant and is joyfully or fearfully sharing the news with the father. Sadly, it doesn't take much imagination to see all of the dark roads that will lead her mother to abandon her child. I can't help but think of those last moments our child will have with her family.

I am reminded of Moses. What could his mother been thinking as she set her tiny baby son adrift in the crocodile infested Nile river? What caused the Egyptian princess to take in the cursed baby of a dirty slave? Did she even consider the origin of his birth or was she simply responding to his soft baby cries? What if she had decided that such a child deserved to drown in the river? What if the color of his skin or shape of his eyes had caused her to look the other way? Obviously, God had a plan for Moses to have a special life set apart from those he would someday set free. Perhaps each baby adopted out of Ethiopia will have the same desire to someday return and bring God's grace and hope to their birth nation. I so glad that the end of the story is redemption, hope and love.

Capable

So, I haven't updated this blog with any information as to how we are proceeding with our adoption. I guess that is because I am a "completed project" kind of person. To me the journey is long and laborious and often very messy. I am a self made perfectionist and might be described as organized. But I have to balance that with a tendency to be lazy, shy and easily overwhelmed. I see a project and have to look at it several times before I can actually absorb it. Like my son, I am a "slow to warm" learner. I feel much better dealing with someone face to face rather than over the phone. I have a life long phone phobia. I don't always ask questions and get very agreeable before people that I just assume are smarter than me. I deal with things mostly with the attitude of "it is what it is" as opposed to "what should it be, what can I make it be". With that in mind, please be patient with me. The purpose of this blog is to keep my readers (mainly people who know me, and love me anyway) updated.
To date we have:
-Applied with our agency and were accepted.
-Completed the policy paperwork for our agency.
-Completed the homestudy paperwork for our homestudy.
-Completed our homestudy.
-Turned in 99.9% of our dossier paperwork.
-Have been put on the waitlist as #14 for an infant girl.

This last hurdle should be a huge success but as you probably noticed there are still a smidgen of stuff to complete before we can be officially done with our dossier. Okay I am totally excited to be on the waitlist! I am just trying to psyche myself up for the rest of the journey. It is going to be a long one, but well worth the wait!

Aria

Aria

Aria has always been one of the most beautiful little girls I have ever seen. Her birth was such a miracle day as she was breach and the doctor on call that day said "well, Momma, let's just see what you can do". Elijah came first, his giant melon head paving the way and then when the doctor was preparing to do an ultrasound to see if she had flipped to come out head first someone said..."uh, I see a foot". Aria was coming out her own way, feet first and she was coming fast. One push later and a tiny 5lb2oz girl came into this world without a sound. She was perfectly fine, just taking everything in. She gazed at us with huge blue eyes that seemed to say, "hmmm, so this is what this world is like, okay, bring it on". She dropped to 4lb11oz before we left the hospital and I was told to feed her every two hours at the most. She had long feet and fingers that she used to make dramatic "jazz hands". She ate like a champ and seemed to be going very strong, until we discovered that she had one little flaw. She hadn't any hip sockets. Because she was squished into an awkward position in utero her legs weren't sitting where they should be to create the socket for her hips. This is called hip dysplasia and is actually very common. She was fitted with a terrible cloth brace and had to be kept in an uncomfortable frog position for several months. I believe more than anything that her start in life is what gives her her amazing attitude. What we know about Aria so far:

1. If Aria wants to learn it, do it, conquer it or ride it...she will!

2. Don't ever try to force her to submit to any unpleasant medical procedures

(it takes three nurses to give her a strep test).

3. Reality is optional.

4. She is totally unaware of how amazingly beautiful she is.

5. She is loving, gentle, caring and precious but also strong, very bright, competitive and deliciously motivated.

6. She loves her twin and absolutely has him wrapped around her little finger.

Wouldn't you be?