On Monday, August 25, a day that Josh had off and our three
kiddos were in school we received a phone call around 11 a.m. from our case
worker, Kris, from Adoption Associates.
This is a moment I have dreamed about for three years and it didn’t go
as I had expected at all.
Josh and I were on speaker phone on my cell as Kris gave us
the news…they had a referral for us. She
told us all about Dawit, an 11 month old baby boy. I thought for sure I would be in tears, but I
wasn’t. I think I was somewhat in shock. I just sat there at the table, taking notes
and listening, silent, while Josh responded to Kris on the phone. She told us all about him and then hung up
and sent us several emails with the same information and 7 PICTURES!!!! taken
back in May. Josh and I pretty much knew
ahead of time that we would accept any referral that was given to us, so we
immediately started to feel our hearts falling in love with this little
child.
Five minutes after getting off the phone, Josh left to pick
up our Abigail from preschool. We
quickly agreed that we would share the news with our children at dinner first
before anyone else, but as soon as he left, I was bursting with excitement, so
I called him and we agreed we could share the news with our parents right away. Oh the joy of making phone calls!!!
That night, we told the kiddos in a special way….several months ago, I started a
craft (pictured above) with pins and strings outlining the country of Ethiopia several with the idea of adding a heart over the place of our son’s birth. However, the craft remained unfinished until
that day… check out the video here…
We are now waiting for one document from our agency and then
we can send our paperwork to the USCIS agency here in the USA to start the
process again. We are very hopeful that
we will be able to bring him home in 5-6 months.
Some of you have asked how you can help us along this journey. First and foremost, please pray for Dawit, us, Dawit's caregivers, his birthmother, and all the numerous people involved in making this adoption happen.
Second, we humbly also ask for your financial support. There are two fun ways to do this right now...
Any purchases made at www.jaclyncooper.noondaycollection.com will support our adoption. I started working with Noonday to do something tangible to help prevent children from becoming orphans and I LOVE this "job". Noonday uses fashion and design to create economic opportunity for artisans in 10 different countries (including Ethiopia). All profits received will be used for our adoption expenses.
We will also be having an online auction coming up soon for both a one week vacation and a weekend vacation at a gorgeous 5 bedroom beach home on Lake Michigan in Douglas, MI. This home sleeps 12 and has plenty of room for sleeping bags as well. If you are one of the winners of this auction, you will have your choice of dates from May-September 2015 (to be worked out with the homeowners). We will be having this auction on Facebook so stay tuned. And please help us spread the word about this awesome vacation opportunity.
