I've been a bad blogger lately....

I've been a horrible blogger lately - there I confessed it!

Not much has been going on but we've been super busy!  Garrett finished basketball last week and we have moved onto baseball. Opening ceremonies fo baseball is March 27.  He is on the Tigers this year.  We are looking forward to a great season!

Ryan has just been going to preschool, hanging out with dad in the shop, and going to Staci's when dad is working.  Last week, Ryan helped dad start working on the Dakota that dad is rebuilding for a rock crawler.  Dad sold his Jeep to help pay for the adoption.  He just can't handle not having something to work on so he bought this Dakota for pretty cheap.  He'll just take a few years to rebuild it.

We have been busy working in the yard, getting the fence up, and just regular every day stuff.

Some news on the adoption front is that we are now going to be taking two trips to Ethiopia instead of just one like we initially thought.  Ethiopian courts have changed their process and require the adoptive family to be present at court instead of signing over Power of Attorney to the AWAA in country staff.  Since we will be meeting our daughter prior to court, she will be entering the US on an IR3 visa which allows her to be a US citizen once she touches down on US soil.  Readoption is not necessary but is highly recommended.  Readoption will allow us to get a US birth certificate for her which will be easier for school and sports activities.  Plus if we were to lose her Ethiopian birth certificate, the chances of them finding her Ethiopian birth certificate again would be hard.  The hard part of this is going to be meeting our daughter and playing with her, holding her, feeding her, and bonding with her for a week and then we will have to leave her for 10-12 weeks until we can travel again to pick her up.  This will be HARD! It will probably be the hardest thing we will have ever done.  Please pray for us!

We have been DTE for 3 months now and are anxiously awaiting for the referrals to start flowing.  There have been no referrals in our agency since the end of January.  We are praying that referrals start flowing soon.  I know the in-country staff is working to see how the new requirements will work out and once that is figured out, I believe there will be a flurry of activity.  Until then, pray for the AWAA families.

My heart aches to hold this baby girl more than you can imagine.  I know the Lord is preparing all the details and they will all work out in His timing.  I can't wait to see what His timing is.  Until then, I pray the Lord finds me faithful and honoring of raising His precious daughter along with His sons he has given me!