Something practical

It's been a while since Rob and I have been able to do something practical towards our adoption, since we're waiting, waiting... Today, however, we get to go in for our homestudy update. Our immigration paper is going to expire in the next couple of months and so we are starting to work towards its extension. It's such a small event, but it's exciting. Have I become an adoption nerd? I mean, I've been nerdy all of my life, so I guess that it just follows. Ha!

While we're meeting with our social worker, we're going to give her our phone numbers again, but in the order that we'd like them called, when that momentous event does happen. I think that we'll go: my cell, Rob's cell, Rob's office. Ah!

Other than that, we're just doing happy dances when other families move forward and I'm reading more about Ethiopia. The past two books that I've gotten from the library have been too dry to get past the first chapter, but I'm determined to push through most of A History of Modern Ethiopia by Badru Zewde. I figure that I read plenty of boring texts while in school, so I should be able to do this now.

Waiting, waiting...

So thankful

There are two families from our agency in Ethiopia right now picking up their children. They have had the most amazing experiences and consequently are experiencing God left and right... and then up and down! Reading their stories from Ethiopia has encouraged me beyond words. Thank God for what they're doing and what He's done for them.

What has moved me the most was the first-hand testimony of how tirelessly the staff in Ethiopia has been working and continues to work. One family told of desk after desk of people that only have the children's best interest in mind. Thank God for these people! Please pray for them... for their protection, health, energy, commitment, wisdom, attention to detail, and joy.

God is too good. He is... too good to us.

Like the Jeffersons

Another referral today! "Well, we're movin' on up..." (You know the tune!)

More good news

Two families got news of their referrals yesterday! Wahoo! This is all getting so exciting! Too many exclamation points! Ah! I can't stop!

Others' great news!

Two families had successful court dates on Christmas Eve, and they just got their travel calls. They have to be in Ethiopia in one week to pick up all of their children! Wahoo!

Merry Christmas, Ethiopia!

The majority of Ethiopians that are not Muslim would say that they are Orthodox Christians, which means that they are celebrating Christmas today. Feliz navidad, Ethiopia.

A movie and something good

A few posts ago, you may have noticed the photo of the gifts given to us with our adoption in mind. One gift was the movie Meet the Robinsons. We love it and have watched it and cried and re-watched it. A great story about adoption... with some sci-fi thrown in for fun.

Secondly, here is a link to a Reader's Digest story about a man that does good work in Ethiopia. I think that I must have seen the making of the documentary or something, because he and his story are familiar to me. Check it out.