To read about the glorious day when we met our son, click here.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Keep Moving Forward
Have you ever seen the movie Meet the Robinsons? It is one of my favorite kids movies of recent years. It's a super cute movie, I LOVE the songs, and it has some pretty great themes. One of them is the phrase that is the main character's personal mantra "Keep Moving Forward."
In the movie, the phrase refers to the character's inventions and when something doesn't work or goes wrong, he reminds himself to just "keep moving forward."
This is where we are right now. We have been given the strength by God time and time again in this adoption. What a long, tedious, all-encompassing process this has been.
Has it built character? Yes.
Has it taught us tenacity? Uh-huh.
Has it been hard? Absolutely.
Has it been worth it? Oh, my...more than I can express. Because at the end of the day, my child is worth fighting for. In much the same way that Christ longs for and fights for us, {The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”~Exodus 14:14} we have had such an amazing opportunity to fight for our child. How awesome that we get to do this!
This week we received news that our case is "moving forward" and we were told that we will be submitted to embassy on Thursday, May 31st. Thank you for praying this date with us for the last couple of weeks.
Our next prayers are for the embassy representative that will review and accept or reject our case. We are praying for a softening of his or her heart towards our family and our baby and that he or she will work diligently on our behalf to approve our case and give us a quick visa interview so that we can go get Bek and bring him home.
I would also appreciate specific prayers for bonding. It is finally becoming real that we are going to have a third child at home and that our family dynamic will change significantly. Please pray that we will bond quickly and that any hesitation or wound from this wait will be replaced with unconditional love and an excitement that will sustain us through the transition.
In the meantime, I'm going to do a week in review in pictures of our Ethiopia court trip. This will be Monday through Friday. Hope you enjoy! :)
In the movie, the phrase refers to the character's inventions and when something doesn't work or goes wrong, he reminds himself to just "keep moving forward."
This is where we are right now. We have been given the strength by God time and time again in this adoption. What a long, tedious, all-encompassing process this has been.
Has it built character? Yes.
Has it taught us tenacity? Uh-huh.
Has it been hard? Absolutely.
Has it been worth it? Oh, my...more than I can express. Because at the end of the day, my child is worth fighting for. In much the same way that Christ longs for and fights for us, {The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”~Exodus 14:14} we have had such an amazing opportunity to fight for our child. How awesome that we get to do this!
This week we received news that our case is "moving forward" and we were told that we will be submitted to embassy on Thursday, May 31st. Thank you for praying this date with us for the last couple of weeks.
Our next prayers are for the embassy representative that will review and accept or reject our case. We are praying for a softening of his or her heart towards our family and our baby and that he or she will work diligently on our behalf to approve our case and give us a quick visa interview so that we can go get Bek and bring him home.
I would also appreciate specific prayers for bonding. It is finally becoming real that we are going to have a third child at home and that our family dynamic will change significantly. Please pray that we will bond quickly and that any hesitation or wound from this wait will be replaced with unconditional love and an excitement that will sustain us through the transition.
In the meantime, I'm going to do a week in review in pictures of our Ethiopia court trip. This will be Monday through Friday. Hope you enjoy! :)
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Adoption News and Pictures of Bek
This week, two things happened with our adoption:
1. Our in-country staff received our new adoption decree from the judge.
2. We had our home study update visit.
Both of these are good things...steps in the right direction. We still have a LOOONG ways to go, though it is impossible to pinpoint exactly how much longer it will be. The decree still has to be translated and Bek's birth certificate, passport, and visa medical exam all have to be done before we can even be submitted to embassy. Once we are submitted to embassy, one of two things could happen: either they will request a birth parent interview {which has typically been taking 2 weeks} and then give us approval to come back for our visa interview OR they could reject our case and send it to Nairobi, Kenya {to the office of the USCIS}, which would delay our case for around 3-4 weeks after our rejection.
This could all take anywhere from 5 weeks to 4 months {or longer...blah!}.
If you are praying for us, please pray specifically that the decree will be translated quickly and that the processing of the birth certificate, passport, and visa medical exam go smoothly {no spelling errors}. Our agency submits cases to the Embassy on Thursdays, so the earliest this could possibly happen would be May 31st. If you'd like to pray BOLDLY, that would be a great date to keep in your prayers!!
Now for some fun! I have been posting a picture a day of Bek on Facebook ever since we found out that he was officially ours. So far, these are all pictures that we took on our trip in early April. I just realized that I should post those here, too! So, without further ado...our darling African son:
Thank you for supporting us and loving us well...your prayers and encouragement {along with a big, heaping dose of God's grace} are making this wait bearable, even on those unbearable days!;)
1. Our in-country staff received our new adoption decree from the judge.
2. We had our home study update visit.
Both of these are good things...steps in the right direction. We still have a LOOONG ways to go, though it is impossible to pinpoint exactly how much longer it will be. The decree still has to be translated and Bek's birth certificate, passport, and visa medical exam all have to be done before we can even be submitted to embassy. Once we are submitted to embassy, one of two things could happen: either they will request a birth parent interview {which has typically been taking 2 weeks} and then give us approval to come back for our visa interview OR they could reject our case and send it to Nairobi, Kenya {to the office of the USCIS}, which would delay our case for around 3-4 weeks after our rejection.
This could all take anywhere from 5 weeks to 4 months {or longer...blah!}.
If you are praying for us, please pray specifically that the decree will be translated quickly and that the processing of the birth certificate, passport, and visa medical exam go smoothly {no spelling errors}. Our agency submits cases to the Embassy on Thursdays, so the earliest this could possibly happen would be May 31st. If you'd like to pray BOLDLY, that would be a great date to keep in your prayers!!
Now for some fun! I have been posting a picture a day of Bek on Facebook ever since we found out that he was officially ours. So far, these are all pictures that we took on our trip in early April. I just realized that I should post those here, too! So, without further ado...our darling African son:
Thank you for supporting us and loving us well...your prayers and encouragement {along with a big, heaping dose of God's grace} are making this wait bearable, even on those unbearable days!;)
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Best Part of Being a Mom
I love being a mommy. It's the most difficult, frustrating, rewarding, amazing, important, God-ordained experience ever! I'm so blessed to be Mommy to these THREE kiddos...
And, boy, do we know how to have FUN!! :)
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Birthday Boy
Guess whose birthday was last weekend!!
Yep! It was Big Brother Camden's 5th birthday last Sunday! We had so much fun. At our house, when your birthday is on a weekend, you really get a birth-weekend full of celebrations (instead of just a day). :)
It started on Friday at Camden's pre-school...
...then continued on Saturday when we gave him his gift from us...
...and had his birthday party at the Macaroo Gym.
God gave him a really amazing birthday present that night...
{the supermoon, May 5th, 2012}
...and a party at Nana and Papa's house for Camden and his May birthday cousins! :)
{it was only Nevin, Jovie, and Cam's bday, but Nana is an equal-opportunity spoilist!}
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