Hugs from God

Hi all!

Well, we called our agency on Friday to check in and see if we've moved up the waiting list and........ we're first in line for a sibling group!! And since we are open to the possibility of adopting 2 unrelated children, we are also on the infant girl list. Basically, if we get matched with an infant girl before we get matched with a sibling group, we'll accept that referral then be placed on the boy list (which moves considerably faster). We're currently 7th on the infant girl list!

So, what does this mean? It means we could get our referral call any day now! Phil actually called our coordinator back after we got the news to make sure we heard him right and that we truly, literally, could get the call any day... It's true!

Of course, along with this news came the realization that at this very moment, our children could be losing their parents... It's a sobering thought, and tough to handle. Please pray for our children and their birth parents; that this transition will be as painless as possible and that they feel God's love through the pain. Please pray that their birth parents have a sense of calm about their children's futures.

As for the "hugs from God"- Phil and I received something very special and timely in the mail Saturday. We have sponsored a little boy in Sudan for about three years now and wrote him a letter about a year ago. Well, wouldn't you know, the day after we received news that we're next in line, we not only received our final document needed for travel (I-797), but a beautifully colored picture of the Baby Jesus with an angel watching over him and a letter from this sweet boy in Africa. I felt like God was saying- "Look, I haven't forgotten about you and my angels are watching over your kids in Africa, just as they watched over mine."

Thanks for all your prayers!

Love,
Amy & Phil

1 Month of Waiting

Hey Everyone,

Well, we've officially been waiting for 1 month for our referrals! No news, but please keep us in your prayers. We'll let you know as soon as we hear anything.

All the Best,
Amy & Phil

Our documents are on their way to Ethiopia!!

Hey everyone! It seems our documents have made it through all the crazy steps in the US and are now on their way to Ethiopia! We can't believe we've finally reached this important milestone.

Now all we can do is wait for the referrals and pray.

Thanks to all of you for following along in our journey with us!

Love,
A&P

Paperwork is A-OK!

Hey Everyone! Just wanted to let you know that our paperwork has all been approved by our agency! They have mailed us the final form we need before we can send our dossier on to Washington DC, where it will be authenticated. Acorrding to UPS, it should arrive tomorrow! Once the dossier is authenticated in DC, it will then travel back to our agency then on to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. We'll keep you posted!

Many Blessings,
Amy & Phil

So Sorry!

Oh my. I just checked our blog to see what Phil's last post was... I am so sorry we just left everyone hanging like that!! Anyway, here's the news...... We've changed countries to ETHIOPIA and now we're adopting TWO!!! There's quite a long story behind the switch, but basically here's what happened:

As many of you know, our motivation to begin our family through adoption is to give a child (now children!) in an impoverished country a home. Our first thoughts were of Russia, because the two main people who brought adoption to the forefront of our minds were connected to Russian adoption. As we got into the process, we found that Russia (and Ukraine) couldn't handle the number of families interested in adopting their orphans. The truly sad part is that there ARE orphans in these countries. The government just can't process families quickly enough.

We then moved on to Kazakhstan. Unfortunately the Kazakhstan officials also became overloaded as families who were trying to adopt from China, Russia, and Ukraine, spilled over into the Kaz program.

While we were waiting for our docs to be processed for Kaz, Phil began reading a book by Vernon Brewer, who had spoken at our church a few months back. His book, "Children of Hope", is about the millions of African children who have been abandoned to fend completely for themselves after watching their parents die of HIV/AIDS. (You actually can get the book for free- just pay shipping- by visiting his website http://www.worldhelp.org/). Phil's heart was broken for the children of Africa. He then read John Ortberg's book "If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat" and was inspired to pray continuously that God might provide a way for us to help the orphans in Africa. This probably should have been a clue to us that God might want us adopting from Africa, but we just kept on with Kaz. A bunch of other amazing things happened shortly after, all connected to Phil's desire to help orphans in Africa.

Meanwhile, our docs were still at a standstill with Kaz. One night in November, Phil asked me if I thought maybe we should consider changing to Ethiopia (one of only 2 African countries that allow American adoptions). At first I was hesitant. We had been waiting SO LONG already, and starting the process over was certainly not what I wanted to do! But I told him I'd pray about it, which I did. The next day I picked up "Children of Hope".... That night Phil had his answer- LET'S GO TO AFRICA!! We also both felt we would LOVE to adopt 2 while we were there. We would have considered two from Kaz, but the cost would have been astronomical (around $65,000), but we can adopt two from Africa for slightly less than adopting 1 from Kaz!

So we're back in the paper-chase phase (though, we actually should be ready to send our docs off this week! ). After spending a year and a half in the adoption process already, we're a little gun-shy with guessing when we'll meet our two little ones. But if all goes well, we should have a referral sometime before next summer, and we should travel by late fall '09. Oh, and we're expecting either a girl and a boy or 2 girls under 3 1/2 years old :)

So, again, I apologize for the month-long teaser on our news. I think Phil just wanted to make sure he had adequate time to blog about such a huge change! Thank you all so much for following along with us and supporting us with your prayers!

Love, Amy & Phil

News??

We do have some big adoption news...

We're not about to travel and we don't yet have a referral, but it is very happy news!

Stay tuned - we'll post a big update soon!

Love,
Phil & Amy

Still Here Waiting

Well, we are still waiting for the Kaz Consulates to start accepting dossiers again... Our agency estimates this will occur the middle of next month (but could be longer). Please continue to pray for our patience. We know there is a reason for this delay, but it is still difficult. We just can't wait to meet our baby girl!

Love,
Amy & Phil