Lack of Posts

I apologize for the lack of posts lately.
I am thankful that we are in the month of February, the month of our court date.
I am hopeful that we will get some new pictures of our little guy soon.
I am believing that God's timing is perfect and we will get to travel soon.
I am appreciative of the love and support you all offer are family.
Thanks for stopping by:)

Growing...Yeah!

We have an update on our little guy and it is good news!! He is now 12 weeks old and weighs 9 lbs 4 oz and is about 21 inches long! Although it is not the size of a typical American child, he is growing.
We were so happy to get this report because today is Christmas in Ethiopia. Merry Christmas little one, we hope to see you soon!

New Understanding

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6

Thank you God for a court date.

I have a new perspective! Isn't it great that God has patience to teach us lessons over and over and over again... We have moved a step closer to bringing our little guy home and if things all go well it looks like we may be traveling with a pretty large group of people who all live in the area. What a great opportunity:)

Please pray that we ALL pass court the first time.

Court Date!

I remind myself and re-read a post that I made just a few days ago. Adoption has many lows, when we are reminded that our strength is in Him alone. Today we found out our court date. This time should be a big high in adoption, but the date is set for February 25! I am not sure why it is so far away and I don't want to seem ungrateful for a date. I just want my baby home! God will use me in the next two months and I know that He has a plan. Right now it is just hard...

Blessed

It is not the New Year yet, but Brandon and I cannot help but reflect on this year. God has allowed us the opportunity to experience so many emotional highs that confirmed our journey in adoption and yet lows that reminded us our strength and trust is in Him alone. Each prayer of thanks lately, seems to bring me to the verge of tears as we continue to be blessed. Our extended family surprised us with an amazing Christmas donation toward the adoption (thank you!) and a person from Brandon's work has offered to do our trust before we travel at no cost!
I continue to pray for strength and health for our little one. I continue to pray for a court date. I continue to praise God and give Him the glory for the things he has done.
We are blessed.

Baby night!

Gavin had a sleep over last night with his friends from day care (thank you Deanna). Brandon and I went to a friends house to play cards. When we arrived their daughter was "babysitting" for a little 8 week old boy. I say "babysitting" because the daughter was getting her hair cut and colored and wasn't even home! Sooo, the only thing I could possibly do in this situation was hold the baby, feed the baby, rock the baby to sleep right?!?! It was such an awesome night. I forgot how great it is to care for something so tiny and dependent on you for everything. I just kept thinking, I want my baby home! For now though, last night was a wonderful little taste of what our life will be like.

6 months 2 weeks

What does 6 months 2 weeks mean? The amount of time that we waited for a referral because... yesterday we got a referral!!! Yep, we have a little, tiny baby boy. We cannot share too much information on the blog, but I can tell you about how it happened.

I have to start with the fact that yesterday was my husband's birthday. He had to work and cannot have his cell phone. He turned off his phone at 10 am, but thought "wouldn't it be cool if today was the day."

At 10:27 my phone rang in my purse, in my file cabinet, in my classroom but I wasn't there to answer it! Brandon's phone rang at 10:37, but he had already shut his phone off for the day! I was team teaching with another teacher and typically people have a hard time figuring out where I am during the day and need to just leave a message on my voice mail. For some strange reason (divine intervention) the phone rang in the classroom it was during a lecture from the other teacher. I answered the phone, "Hello, Mrs. O's room."
"Is Julie there?"
"Yes, this is her," I was completely bewildered how someone made an outside call to this room for me!
"Julie, this is Chandra do you have a minute?"
"Um, Hi, well yes I do but I cannot really talk from this phone. Can I call you back?" I was scrambling for a piece of paper and pen.
I looked at the other teacher and said, "I need to take this call."
I literally ran to the conference room and called Chandra back. It couldn't possibly be a referral so I just asked, "so what's up?"
"Julie, this is the "call"!"
"Are you sure because I didn't know where I was on the list?"
"It doesn't matter where you were on the list because this is the call, would you like to hear about your son?"

The rest is history. I called Brandon and we agreed to meet before looking at the actual pictures of our little guy. We spent the rest of the day showing him off to family. Oh and we still had to celebrate Brandon's birthday too.

I cannot even begin to express how we feel as a family right now, but the feeling is good!