Still here...

Those who know me well are not surprised that its been 8 months since I last posted...blogging isn't my thing (though I've written about 20 posts in my head since then - that counts, right?!?).

Lately I am starting to get more and more questions like, "Are you still doing that adoption thing?" so I figured its time to get out there again. And to answer that question, yes, we are still doing that adoption thing! In October we hit the two year mark since this journey officially began. It's crazy to think that Lila wasn't even two yet!

This is the day we told them they were going to have a new sister from Africa! Such babies...

This cutie just turned 4 a couple of weeks ago, which makes it seem like a LONG time that we've been waiting. We constantly get the question, "Why is it taking so long???" which is a question with no easy answer except to say this is a spiritual battle. The Enemy knows that adoption is at its heart the message of the gospel and he is doing everything in his power to frustrate the system. But we press on, knowing that the battle belongs to the Lord, and that he is victorious. We talk to our girls about what it means to persevere, and we constantly ask the Lord to show us what He wants to do in us while we wait. Patience is a lesson we are getting to learn daily. And I can truly say that (most days!) we are at peace with where God has us in this process. We continue to go back to the call that he gave us, knowing that this is completely from him, by him, and for him, and that he will do it in his perfect timing. We have confidence in knowing that one day we will look back and see exactly why he asked us to wait. There are still moments of frustration, sadness and longing, but our depth of trust in our Savior is increasing day by day.

So here are the facts at this point:

• we have been on the wait list since April 2011 making that a full 20 months on the wait list (add 6 months of paperwork to that and we its more like 26 months of waiting)
• our wait times have been increased again from 18-24 months to referral from DTE (on the wait list) to 24-30 months, making April the earliest we could expect a referral and October of 2013 the longest. Clearly, in our experience this is still subject to change. But we are hopeful that 2013 will be the year!
• we increased our age request from a girl 0-12 months old to a girl 0-24 months old. Our intention has always been that she would be our youngest. Now that Lila is 4, we felt God's leading to open ourselves up to a little bit older child.
• we are unofficially number 25 on the wait list for an infant (0-18 months) and number 10 on the wait list for a toddler (19-24 months). There is no way of knowing which list will move more quickly as the movement has been very sporadic and unpredictable.
• we continue to have confidence in the integrity of our agency, AWAA. We believe that though our process may be longer than some in other agencies, we will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that our child is a true orphan in need of a family and that there will be nothing illegal or unethical about the process we participate in (which is sadly becoming more and more rare in Ethiopia). This is very important to us as Christ-followers who are not just concerned about getting a baby as quickly as possible, but want to ensure that the process is a good one that allows the most children possible to come into loving forever families.

God has been at work in us, as always, teaching us, challenging us, and hopefully shaping us more into the family he wants us to be for our baby girl.  These three girls are teaching me a great lesson about trusting in God: I keep thinking that one of them will question whether or not this is ever going to happen. It's hard for little minds to comprehend how long a typical pregnancy is, much less one at least 3 times that long! Lila and Addie don't remember a time when they weren't waiting for their baby sister. And nearly every night one of the girls prays, "God, please bring our baby girl home soon!". Their childlike faith reminds me that God keeps his promises. He is trustworthy. She will come home one day, and we can wait in expectation for the answer to our prayers.