Prayerfully Waiting

I realize it has been 3 months since our last posting here and I thought I should write something to remember what was happening when we look back at this part of our journey.  Even as I type this though, tears fills my eyes to think that we are able to document everything on “our” side of this journey, but our son won’t have much to remember his side, and that is what is really important…

Has he been born yet?  If so, what is his story?  Is he okay?  Does he have someone to comfort him when he cries?  Does he have someone to feed him when he is hungry?  How is his birth mom doing?  Is she still alive?  If so, how do people in her village treat her?  How is she handling her decision?  Where is our son’s father in this?  How is he handling everything? 

Father God, please protect them all and give them your comfort and peace. 

So I almost have to focus on the paperwork and life here in our current family because the emotions are so overwhelming.  So this is what we have been doing the last 6 weeks or so…

Since we moved to Kansas, we needed to update our home study to reflect this change as well as the job change for Josh and me staying home now.  So we applied with a wonderful Christian Agency called Lifeline Children’s Services to do this update for us.  We got fingerprinted downtown Topeka at the police station and had them sent off to make sure we weren’t felons anywhere. J  Our home study update has been drafted and now we wait on the state to send back the fingerprinting clearances so the home study can be completed. 

Our USCIS approval to adopt an orphan from Ethiopia has also recently expired (since we have been in this process for over 2 years already J).  So, we had to send in an extension request, with a ton of paperwork, for this to be extended and we get to be re-fingerprinted by the government next week.  So, next Thursday, Josh and I travel 90 minutes to Kansas City, MO to the USCIS office to have our fingerprints taken electronically and then sent back to the US gov’t for approval. 

As far as waiting, as of today we are officially number ….

on our agency's wait list for a referral. 

We are still hopeful that in the next 2 months we will receive our referral call, meaning that we will be “matched” with our son.  This is when we receive a picture of him, any medical history and background that is available.  Of course, that background info will be his information to share when he is older if and when he is ready.  But that will be an exciting day for us.  As I was talking this over with a friend yesterday, I guess you could somewhat compare it to the day a child is born, as now we have an actual face to be praying for.  But in actuality, there is really nothing to compare the excitement of this day to.  We are really looking forward to our referral day phone call!!

And… commence the prayerful waiting…  Thanks for praying with us!!