Where we are now...

I guess it's time to do it.  Time to start the obligatory adoption blog as we count down our days until the boys come home.  :)  I had started one over two years ago now, but discouragement in the process led me to abandon that blog as time ticked on with little progress.  But now we are on our way, and it seems like we have things that we want to say about this whole process, and stories that need to be shared.  So here we go...

On November 9, 2012 we finally received our referrals for two beautiful Ethiopian boys.  The older is nearly 2 years old and the younger is now about 6 months old.  We've been in this process of adoption for nearly three years.  As is common in the world of international (and probably domestic) adoption, there were many setbacks along the way.  Shortly after starting our adoption the country of Ethiopia decided to reduce the number of adoptions out of their country by around 90%.  Setback.  Then our adoption agency came under investigation (they were cleared fully of any wrongdoing) and the country of Ethiopia held all adoptions from our agency.  Setback.  As two years passed, we had mostly lost all hope that this adoption was ever really going to happen.  It was at that point that I happened to see a facebook posting by Kari Gibson, she runs the "mycrazyadoption" blog and the Simply Love campaign, saying that she knew of an agency that needed families and had virtually no waiting list.  At that point we were stuck in waiting list purgatory.  Switching agencies would require re-doing literally ALL of our paperwork, and re-paying all our fees.  But after lots of prayer and discussion I sent an email to the Ethiopia director of International Family Services with the subject "We're In!", and about 5 months (and a lot of work) later we had referrals for our two little boys.

Our reaction at the news that we'd be getting not one but two little boys was a little emotion that I'd like to call "joyor".  It's the combination of sheer joy and sheer terror.  :)  I looked at Wes as our adoption coordinator told us over the phone we'd be getting two boys and could see the expression I knew was mirrored on my own face.  Big happy smile, eyes wide with shock and not a little fear.  She wanted us to take the weekend to pray and discuss it before accepting the referrals if we were willing on Monday.  I stayed awake most of that night thinking of things like "Oh no!  My dining room table only seats four!"  and "Are three car seats going to fit across one seat in my car?"  and "I'm going to need more Christmas stockings!"  Obviously the deeply important issues.  :)  But Monday came and I called our adoption coordinator and said these words "Randi, those are our boys."  And with those words, here we are now: not so patiently awaiting a court date.  The average wait has been around 2-4 months.  We are now sitting at about 3 1/2 months.  Once we have the court date we travel to appear in court and meet the boys.  Then we come home for a month or two (sadly having to leave them there) and wait for a US embassy date.  When we get that, we'll be able to travel back to Ethiopia and BRING OUR BOYS HOME!   So that's the story, super condensed, up to now.  Stay tuned...