Back to 2...I think

Okay so the family that was put back on the wait list just got a new referral! As long as this goes as planned that puts us back on the list at:



Like many who have posted before me I welcome the weekend because I know that if my phone rings it has nothing to do with a potential referral. I do have a set ring tone for AGCI, "Africa" by Toto, but still any ring and I get excited. Two days of peace and then we will see what next week brings. October 23 would mark 6 months on the waiting list and I post a while ago that it would be cool because that is my brother's birthday, but I'd really rather not wait 13 more days if I don't have to. The "pumpkin vase" that my necklace is on was a cute project my friend's mom invited me and my daughter to do last week. They turned out so cute that thought I'd do my number post with it this month. Keep checking back next week because I REALLY hope to have my "referral day" post soon!

New Number

But almost:




Okay so here's the scoop...we were unofficially two and then officially two for a few minutes, but now we are back to three because someone ahead of us lost their referral and were put back on the list. We don't know details, but we are just glad to know for sure what number we are. Today was a bummer of a day for me finding out we went backwards and also that time between referral and travel is now looking more like 3-5 months vs. the 2-3 that we had been anticipating. I'll just have to trust that God will continue to give me patience. I do want to send out a congrats to my friend Amy who got to "meet" her baby girl yesterday. I know I'll be there soon and I can't wait!

Okay for those of you (Cassie) who are checking our blog hoping to hear new numbers, we still have not heard. I was really thinking we would today, but no word yet. I know that AGCI is planning on giving out new numbers this week through email, and I'm hoping that we also get a call. Since I think we are #2 we should be getting a call to go over the referral process even if we don't have our referral quite yet. A friend of mine who is number 1 on the girl list got this call a week ago and I have been hoping for the call soon too. Now that courts are open things should be processing again, but I know it will take some time for them to get caught up and back to normal. I kind of feel like we are sitting in traffic and the light is green way up ahead but we have to wait for all the other cars to start driving before we can actually start going ourselves. While I am very anxious and excited I am still managing to maintain a peaceful and patient attitude about the wait which is only due to knowing that the Lord has his timing. This attitude may change very quickly if we go another two weeks with zero referrals, but I'm trying my best and the Lord is calming me. For those of you who know me well I hope you can see how clearly this peace is from God because you know how impatient and passionate I usually am. The thought just came to my mind that God did the same thing to me while I was pregnant. I was so laid back and calm durring pregnancy (aside from the normal crying at the drop of a hat). I didn't have severe mood swings I just felt calm and at ease and that is overall how I feel now which is SO nice, what a blessing! I can't say that this will continue while I'm waiting to travel, but I'll take what I can get :)

Celebrate!

Yay for courts opening again!!! To all of you waiting for travel, I pray your travel dates come soon. For all of you waiting for a court date I hope they will be assigned ASAP. And for those of us waiting for referral I pray the papers will start flying and many kiddos will find homes this week! The long two months are finally over!

Praise God Again!

I needed to write a huge thank you to a wonderful family from our church. I got to attend a fun little birthday party for a friend of my daughter's this morning and little did I know that God had a huge blessing for us there. Not only did I get to re-connect with some good friends that I haven't seen much over the summer, but one wonderful friend also decided to give us a donation for the adoption. She said she and her husband had been praying a lot and they felt led to give us this money. I am so honored and humbled to have the support and prayer on our behalf. Receiving a donation is always a blessing, but this one came as a direct answer to one of my prayers. Since we heard the news of being unofficially #2 I have been praying that God would provide the money to pay for our international pediatrician fee before we got our referral. I thought we would earn this money from selling my old car, but God had other plans. It is so great to see how when we seek God together he will bless us through one another! THANK YOU to our sweet Godly friends who truly blessed us today, and we pray you will be blessed ten fold!

Time Flys...

I have been having so much fun on my mini-vacation in CO. I came down 10 days early for my best friend's wedding that happened yesterday. We have been busy and enjoying wonderful times visiting with friends and family while here. I was really hoping that this would take my mind off of the hard wait through court closures. I was really excited to be away from the computer for a few days so I could stop torturing myself looking at blogs that were not posting about referrals as soon as I was hoping for. I thought this will be nice and then once October comes I can start getting excited again. Well apparently the few days I WAS away from the computer everyone and thier brother got a referral! My sweet husband called me Friday night while I was playing the game Catch Phrase with my three best friends the night before the wedding. This is how it went:

J: Hey, how's it going?

Me: Good what's up? (thinking I need to get back to my game)

J: Well, are you sitting down?

Me: Um yeah, (getting a little nervous b/c I didn't know if it was good or bad)

J: Well, Autumn emailed us and said we are unnoffically #2

Me: WHAT??!! Did you say NUMBER TWO?!! (all girls in the circle looking at me with huge eyes)

J: Yep!

After that we talked for a few minutes and were so excited. Thanks again to our wonderful blog friend Autumn for keeping us updated, it has been so helpful while I've been busy. I couldn't have asked for a better time to find out about the movement. My three best friends were there in person and were SO excited for us. It was such a blessing to see the true excitement and love that they have for me and for our son already. I'm glad it wasn't the actual referral call because I would have hatted for my focus to be torn between two very exciting things and I would never want to take away from my friend's wedding day. It sure made for a fun and exciting night. Now I can't wait to be posting about the actual referral. For the first time it seems like it will actually happen. I'm SO EXCITED!

Number Update

With the courts closed for these two months referrals have been slow, but we have moved a little bit. We are now #...



Here is what my husband wrote when I told him in an email our new number:

"It almost doesn’t even seem real. Did Brian and Autumn get a referral? I don’t think I am prepared for when we actually will get our referral because up until this point it has all just been paperwork and kind of theoretical! Once the courts open back up we could be getting a referral asap. Yeah!!!!!!!!"

Those of you who check our blog regularly will notice a new charm on my necklace. This is a fun little coin that has an M stamped in it. This is the first initial of the name we have for our little guy. I have one with an A on it for our daughter too once we are done with the wait list charms. I'm guessing not much will happen this month, but hopefully in October there will be more movement. We hope our blog friends Brian and Autumn can be filled with peace until they get their referral as the sit in the agonizing spot of #1.

On another note, our friends who have the little guy I asked for prayer for are home. He is doing much better! He still has some sickness, but has gained 4 lbs in like 3 weeks I think. I got to meet him and hold him for the first time yesterday. He is SO sweet and the most smily and cuddly thing. Our daughter just adored him and even got to hold him. She was so sweet and would rock him and kiss him very gently on the head. I know that when our little one comes home our daughter will have a lot of adjusting, but it is good to see how sweet and interested she is with babies...maybe that will make it a little easier (for a little while at least).

We had our second ET picnic this past Sat. it was fun to see some of the familiar faces and to meet a few new families. We now have 19 families in our group and it keeps growing...praise God. That's about all the new news here. I'll be traveling next week for one of my best friend's weddings so that will keep my mind occupied while we wait out this slow referral month. I'm looking forward to seeing good things in October and maybe even a referral on my brother's birthday the 23 or our "dating anniversary" the 31st (9 years together!). We'll see...