Checking in!

It's been a bit since we've checked in here so I thought I would give a little update.  There is not much to report (in some ways that's a good thing!) but lots of you  have been asking so I want to do my best to let you know what's up and what you can be in prayer for.  As of now we are just waiting!  It's something that according to our agency we need to get good at.  Unfortunately for me, I kinda of stink in the patience department.  When we began the process the average wait time was 26 months and by the time we submitted our final paperwork it was about 33 months.  The last email I got said 40-48 months.  I cannot tell you how disheartening being told these numbers is.  I know it's in ours and our adopted child's best interest for things to be done ethically and carefully but my heart breaks knowing there are so many children waiting for a forever home and so many families waiting and wanting on the other side of the process too.  In the adoption world we phrase this as being "stuck" and stuck is a challenging place to be.  It's here where I need to go back to my Creator and trust in his timing.  

There are things that part of me is mourning knowing that our wait time has nearly doubled.  My kids won't be as close in age as I had thought and we will be that much closer to the "over the hill' marker of our life by the time we are all under one roof,sigh.  These things sound kind of silly but when you were born as an American "type-A" that's just how your brain works!  For every negative, there is a positive too (I often feel fortunate that we have the opportunity to pray for Baby J's birth-family for years before our families become one!) and that is the direction we need to look!  

Prayer Requests:

1.  Patience, patience, patience.  

2.  Protection for a special set of birth-parents of which whom only God knows by name.  Prayers for health, warmth, safety and that they may know the truth of God's great big love for them.

3.  For the government processes (both on the Ethiopian and US side) to speed up while maintaining safe ethical adoptions.

4.  For other families who are waiting along with ours.  It's a juggling act to have your heart in two different parts of the world at the same time.