Time to start blogging again??

I have to say, I've considered getting back to blogging many times over the last several months, but it just seemed like too much to catch up on! Where do you start when you haven't blogged for 8 months! Well, last time I blogged, we were getting ready to move. We moved to Centerville in June and are feeling right at home! The boys spent all summer long swimming, boating, exploring, and playing in their "new house." They started preschool in the fall (Grayson on MWF; Abram T,TR) at the Methodist Church in town and love it. I love their teacher and her commitment to keeping parents involved. I've stayed busy with unpacking a house and all kinds of new photography clients. It's so great to be able to do sessions with people I grew up with! And, of course, we're loving being just 10 minutes away from both sets of grandparents! Aaron and I have gone on more dates in the past 7 months than the last 5 years!





And, while all that was happening, we continued to sit on the waiting list for our little girl. We had been very content to wait and wait, until about a month or so ago. We began to feel a stirring in our hearts...would we consider siblings? What about a child with a special medical need? We still knew we wanted girl(s). For one, I could use an ally around the house. And two, we felt girl(s) would transition into our family easier. And then, in the middle of January, we came across our girls....sisters, 6 and 4. We instantly started praying. No joke, we prayed NON-STOP for about a week....I mean constantly. There wasn't a minute that went by that I wasn't thinking of those girls and trying to discern if this was God's plan for our family. We inquired about the girls and learned that a woman traveling to meet her children in Addis had met our girls. She was so moved by the love and joy our girls exuded that she emailed from Addis saying she MUST talk to the family adopting these girls. It was just what we needed to hear. We called the agency and told them we wanted to adopt the girls. That night, we called our families and told them to expect TWO granddaughters/nieces!

Because our girls were listed with a different agency, we've spent the last 3 weeks gathering all our documents for another dossier. I have to say, I think we may have set the record for fastest dossier! With the exception of one document, which was where it needed to be, but was misplaced, we had our dossier together in 2 weeks! I sent it UPS overnight mail and it arrived in Georgia this morning. The agency will look it over and send it to be authenticated in D.C. and then it's off to Ethiopia. We hope to be submitted for a court date in the next 6-8 weeks. At that point, our court date will be 4-6 weeks out.

Please pray that our dossier arrives in Ethiopia safely and is quickly translated and submitted for a court date! Also, pray for our girls as they learn they have a family in the U.S. Pray that God will prepare their hearts and minds for their transition into our family. Also pray that our boys will be loving and accepting of the sisters that will no doubt take some of our attention away from them.