Tenth Month Waiting

Last week our agency announced in their weekly update that they are still within their projected wait times for referrals. We were told when we signed up with Children's Hope International (CHI) that the average wait time for a female 0-12 months old was a 7-11 month wait time. I pray they're right because that would mean that our referral is getting close because TODAY marks our 10th month waiting. YEAH!!!

Two of our favorite people, Aunt Vivi and Uncle Jim celebrated our 10th month waiting on a recent trip to Louisville. Both Vivian and Jim have been so supportive of our adoption, we are forever thankful for their love and support throughout the process.

This picture was taken in Costco ~ they're brave souls.

I also wanted to share this extra special gift Aunt Vivi recently gave us to celebrate our adoption. She purchased it at August House Studio in Chicago which hosts the annual Dumela Contemporary African Art Show in her local neighborhood. The artwork comes from Africa and is created by African artists (this piece was hand painted by an artist from Ghana).  We are in love with this painting, it reminds us of HER and her birth mother, it's beautifully done and warms our hearts, we'll treasure it always! Thank You Aunt Vivi!

Last Friday marked 3 months with no referrals given out from our agency. GEEZ! Talk about challenging! Our patience have been tested BUT we are in a good place (emotionally speaking - at least for now anyways) and hopeful all this waiting will result in us seeing our little girl's face sooner than later.

Please join us in praying for the CHI Staff and everyone involved with Ethiopian adoptions, the orphans waiting to be referred and matched, their birth families, and all the other waiting families across the world longing to have their children in their arms forever. It's a hard battle to fight but worth every stresser and heartache encountered along the way.

Marcus Samuelsson Rocks!

Has it really been almost a month since the last time I blogged?! Oops.

Guess we've been too busy hanging out with our new friends ...

Yes, we're besties with Ryan Seacrest and Julianne Hough these days! No, not really but we did run into them in Chicago and they were kind enough to chat and pose for this picture with us. They're a really cute couple.

Bret and I snuck in a Labor Day getaway to Chicago by piggy-backing on a work trip I had to the Windy City. We spent time touring the city, eating, shopping and hanging with our Aunt Vivi. We had a fabulous weekend!

We started the week out right by visiting Ethiopian born Chef Marcus Samuelsson's C-House restaurant located in the Affinia Hotel in downtown Chicago.

Date Night!


Here is just a sample of our yummy cuisine:

Gunthorp Farm Pork Chop ~ roast summer squash, white peaches, and crispy polenta

Red Snapper ~ tempura fried squash blossoms, maitakes, broccoli, and basil

Mac & Cheese ~ pork sausage and goat cheddar

We had never heard of Chef Marcus Samuelsson until about a month ago (where have we been?!) ... we were milling around the house watching HGTV and they were featuring famous celebrities homes (HGTV's version of "Cribs"), when I saw Samuelson point to an Amharic Alphabet and then explain he was born in Ethiopia and adopted by a Swedish couple.

Bret and I stopped what we were doing and instantly started paying more attention to the t.v. We seem to have super sonic hearing when it comes to words like: "Ethiopia", "Adoption" and "Africa" - they tend to peak our interest and divert our attention. We looked into Samuelsson a little more after the show and discovered that he had two restaurants in Chicago - where we were headed in a few short weeks - YEAH! His food was absolutely FANTASTIC!

Marc Burger was his other restaurant that we visited. It was located in Macy's food court in downtown Chicago and it was delicious.

Bret, embrassed of me taking his picture in the food court.

Smoky BBQ Burger with paprika, applewood bacon, and homemade bbq sauce

Classic Cheeseburger with homemade slaw and pickles

Strawberry Custard Shake

The Decor`

We are officially Marcus Samuelsson fans! Now, if we can just make it to New York to visit his Red Rooster Restaurant in Harlem we'd be in good shape.

Thanks for staying tuned. We'll try to be more active on our blog in the coming months. Hopefully we'll have some good news to announce before 2012.

Thanks for your continued love and support,

The Wait

I apologize for not posting in a few weeks but we have been busy riding the emotional roller coaster that can only be found at perplexing Adoption World.

We were certain that we would have had our referral by now ... in May I posted "Referral Day" guesses from our friends and family, they ranged from June - August. I actually laughed and frowned at the August guesses because I thought surely we'd have our referral by then and if we don't I'll go crazy. Well, those proposed dates have come and gone and although my sanity is still debatable we're still here - waiting. Our agency has not had any referrals in 2 months.

Yes, there are millions of orphans still waiting for their forever homes in Ethiopia but "paperwork" is named as the culprit for the lack of movement. To my knowledge this is the longest "lull" in referrals since we've been part of the Ethiopia adoption program (maybe even in the history of the program). Some days we're so busy that the wait is an after thought but some days (and unfortunately most days) the wait feels like a ton of bricks weighing down our hearts.

It's hard to explain and comprehend if you have never gone through an adoption but the emotional baggage that comes with the experience is surreal. Some days we feel like children playing house and dreaming up a pretend scenario of having a child because the possibility of it becoming a reality feels so very distant. Other days, we're painfully reminded of the reality of our situation by anxiety filled days and the unpleasant unrest in our souls.

We pray that she is out there and that she will be revealed to us soon. We have been on the wait list 9 months today. The good news is that 9 months are behind us, the bad news is we're unsure when our laboring will cease. There is no doubt in our minds that all of the waiting and uncertainty will be 100% worth it in the end but for now the roller coaster is moving so fast, we can only see what is right in front of us, not the end of the ride, although we trust that the ending will be beautiful!

In honor of our 9 months of waiting, my father-in-law created this photo, it's of my in-laws at their 40th Anniversary Party from a few weeks ago. You can tell from their faces that they were in emotional shock - we threw them an unforgettable surprise anniversary party.

We are grateful for both of them and their continued support throughout the adoption process, we know they're laboring along side of us - anxious to see their grand-daughter.

Thank you for your continued love and support. We're still here - waiting.

"Life Ain't Always Beautiful"

No words needed this week ... Bret and I both agree that Gary Allan's lyrics in this song pretty much sum up how we're feeling these days.

                        

Still no referrals for the past 5 weeks. We're really missing our "referral high" we hope to celebrate some good news really soon.

Please continue to pray for us, our daughter, her birth family, and all waiting children and their families.

Please do not forget about our brothers and sisters living residing in the "Horn of Africa". They are plagued by a horrific drought situation, food insecurities and an unstable political climate. In addition to your prayers they could really use your financial support. Please click here to learn about ways that you can be part of the solution.

Please DONATE TODAY! 

Down the Long and Winding Road

As of Tuesday, July 19th we have been on the wait list for:

Mammaw (Dorothy) Walker

8 Months!

I am blessed to have such a great mother-in-law. Dorothy will be traveling with us on our second trip to Ethiopia. I love her and her willingness to push her own boundaries and expand her comfort zone for both us and her grand-daughter. I can't wait to see the two of them together, it just melts my heart thinking about it.

We celebrated our 8 months being on the wait list on the last day of our staycation. We went to Nolin Lake for a long weekend and it was wonderful.

Our lake house get-a-way nestled in the woods. Yes, that is our minivan and no, we don't have kids YET but we love our minivan.

 What a sight! A mamma deer and her triplet fawns in front of the house.
Lots of wildlife sightings!

Our corgi Gracie loved swimming and fetching her frisbee off the dock.

Chilling 

     Us, prior to turning into lobsters.

No referrals from our agency for almost a month now (ugh!). It's frustrating but for the most part I have "turned my frown upside down". I have an odd peace with the wait right now and I am enjoying it. A few years ago when I was struggling with God's plan for our family I discovered "Truth for Life" with Alistair Begg and I listen to him on my drive into work in the mornings and now I listen to him on my iPhone too - there's a Truth for Life App (love it!).

On July 12th Alistair gave a great sermon entitled, "Who is Doing What?" and it gave me new found hope. The sermon was simply a reminder that, "HE is constantly at work inside of us giving us the energy and strength to struggle, labor and strive through difficulty (i.e. the wait). HE is constantly at work within us giving us the will and power to do what pleases HIM the most".

Some days the longing for her can be so intense that it truly feels like a heartache but Bret and I both believe that we are following God's plan for our life and her life. We felt called by HIM to embark on this journey and sometimes we forget that the same one who placed us on this journey, is the same one that will give us the strength to finish it and see it through. We are placing our faith in HIM and laying our aniexty at HIS feet.

For now we are enjoying the present and continuing on our journey, humming Darius Rucker's lyrics, "it won't be like this for long", along the way.  This too shall pass and if God is for us, who can be against us?

Continued prayers appreciated.

Much Love,

Truckin'

Bret and I had a great 4th of July weekend! We went kayaking on the Elkhorn, a really beautiful place close to home.

We fished,

swam around and explored.

We love our Old Kentucky home!

Weeks when referrals don't come all we can do to keep our sanity is try to keep ourselves busy and remind ourselves that she's just not ready for us yet BUT when she is we'll be there for her forever and ever. So for now we're focusing on getting the house ready for her by doing home improvements and making our home more child friendly. I'd love to start on her bedroom but we're holding off until we get our referral or between trips, we haven't quite decided. We're almost done with her bathroom though which I'll share when it's complete (we're really close).

Please continue to keep us, waiting families and waiting children in your prayers. I know other waiting families are struggling with the wait too. We hold all of you close to our hearts!

At the current rate that referrals are being given out we're starting to think that our referral window has changed to August - October. Only God knows what's best for us and our little girl but part of us thinks that getting a referral later than we anticipated might be a good thing. Ethiopian courts close for the rainy season August - October and court dates aren't given out during that time (although thankfully referrals are still given out). So, if we're blessed to get our referral in July then the earliest possibility of us getting our court date would be sometime in October and then we'd have to wait to travel for our court date. 

Either way we still have a long way to go before she's home. There's a chance that she could still be home in 2011 but if not, I would say early 2012. In the end none of this will matter, all that we'll care about is that she's home and all the pain that comes with waiting will melt away. We're looking forward to that day more than you could ever imagine! 

A Rainy Summer Day

This past Sunday my brother and sister, Kelsy and Killian came to visit us and stay the night to join me on a canoe trip on the Green River the next day.

Iconic 300 Springs located on the Green River.

Late Sunday evening my work called off the float trip due to impending bad weather. The kids were bummed (wouldn't you be? look at that beautiful picture!) but luckily they still got to stay the night. I got to work from home the next day (thanks Terry!) and enjoy their company.

Kelsy kept herself busy doing Naomi's hair while I worked:

 

 After a long day with the kiddos I had to lock them up for a while: 

Just kidding!!! 

The kids thought this would make a funny picture and it did. I love the look on Wally and Gracie's faces.

The dogs love when the kids come to visit and so do we. We're blessed to have them in our lives. Growing up as an only child I use to pray every night for God to bring me a brother or a sister (well, I did until I was a teenager at least). Twenty-seven years later HE answered my prayers! 

Just proves that HE is listening. Even on days when you think your prayers fall on deaf ears remember that HE is listening, it just has to happen in God's timing, NOT OURS (a good reminder, for this very impatient blogger).