Prayers for my Sister

Just look at this sweet face. We love our boy so much! He has been asking a lot more questions about his new sister this week. He usually doesn't like to talk about it very much (it's taking too long for her to be here in his opinion...we couldn't agree more, buddy!). But God's timing is perfect and we wait on Him. Yet, this week, Isaiah's heart is tender towards our little one. He has been praying for her several times a day. His honest and raw emotion are so special to witness. The other day, he was wondering if his sister feels lonely like he does sometimes. I could hardly contain my tears. On Sunday, driving home from our Life Group, he said,

"Mommy, what do the grown-ups talk about during life group?"
"Well, we read the Bible and/or a book and talk about God and how he wants us to live. We also pray with and for each other."
"Do you talk about adoption?"
"Sometimes we do. We pray for your sister almost every time we meet together. Why do you ask?"
"Because sometimes I think it's taking too long and sometimes I want it to take longer."
"Why's that?"
"Because I want her to come...just not right now. I'm not quite ready."
(meanwhile, I'm amazing that these profound, clear feelings are being expressed by our 5 year old!)
"I understand, buddy. It's OK to feel that way. God will make us all ready when the time is right. We don't have to be ready today."
"That's good. I'm hungry, can we get ice cream?:)"

Dear Jesus, how often I feel exactly that way. I'm so eager to be adopting and so anxious to see our daughter's face and to hold her and bring her home and begin life with her. Yet, in some ways we aren't quite ready and I feel you working in us and preparing us...preparing a family for your precious little girl.  Lord Jesus, you are the God of the universe and knit each of us together in our mother's wombs....I truly KNOW that YOU are IN this time of waiting. Prepare us Lord. Prepare us all and make us ready. Make our hearts tender and full of compassion and love for your precious child.  Work in each of our hearts and do the work within us that only you can do. Make us ALL ready for each other, Lord. We put our trust in you. You alone know the cry of our hearts.
Amen.

A Part of Us is In Ethiopia

We received some good news on the adoption front the past 2 weeks....

1) Our Dossier is now officially in Ethiopia! Hooray! We found this out on my birthday...what a special gift from God! It's becoming more and more real now. We can't wait to see the face of our beautiful daughter.

2) Since we've been on the waiting list for our referral, 22 families have been matched with their precious kiddos! We've received word that our wait for our referral may be quite a bit shorter than expected. We will just have to put all our trust in God's perfect time, as things could speed up/slow down many times between now and then.

3) We have officially applied to Show Hope...an adoption grant foundation that was founded by Steven Curtis Chapman. Please join us in praying for God's provision for the funds we still need to bring our sweet girl home. $18,000 left to raise/save/earn seems huge and insurmountable for us, but it is a drop in the bucket for God. He has lovingly provided every penny of the last $10,000. Every penny of that came in at just the right time.

This past week, we watched a documentary called "A Walk to Beautiful." We HIGHLY recommend this film. It opened our eyes even more to the suffering of women in Ethiopia (and in other places around the world) who have fistulas...preventable child birth injuries. We checked it out of the library and it was well worth watching.

People ask "Why Ethiopia?"

Because our daughter is there.

Immigration Approval & Dossier Sent Off Today!!

Today was an exciting day in our household...our Dossier has been FINALLY sent in to Holt!! Hooray! We've been working on all the documents for our dossier for 5 1/2 months....what a true joy to send it in! We received our last form yesterday evening....our immigration/visa approval....now we wait for our referral which could take up to a year. Sigh.
God knows and we wait and trust in him for our little one.
Right now, though, we praise His Holy name for bringing us this far and trust Him for the rest. Hopefully we will find out what place we have on the waiting list sometime this week. We'll write another update soon.

Our First Huge Invoice

As of this morning, Holt International has approved our home study and we now have a $3,000 invoice in our hands for our dossier fee! Seems daunting, yes....but GOD HAS PROVIDED!!! I have no words to express my awe of God...for something I thought was impossible, God has met us and provided for our every need. It is a great reminder that adoption is God's idea in the first place. Great is Thy faithfulness!

We have State Approval!

One more baby step happened in our journey this week. We received State approval of our home study on Monday...so that means that our original copy of our home study will be sent to Holt and we await an invitation to take our fingerprints for Immigration. After that....our dossier can be finally sent in and we wait for our referral. "Lord, please be with our little girl....hold her close in your arms. We love her and miss her so much."

Benji's New Albums

I'm so excited that Benji has been able to record 2 new albums this month. These are the first that he has recorded since we've known each other...so it's really special to be a part of this process with him. He's had over 600 listens since last Saturday night, but few sales so far. We're praying that God will use this not only as an adoption fund-raiser, but a way to reach out to our larger community. And even if they aren't a successful fund-raiser, I know that God will use this in a very special way in our daughter's life.  She is so very loved and cherished already....by her adoptive earthly father and her Heavenly Father. To God be the Glory!

If you'd like to listen to or purchase Benji's new piano solo album "Waiting", please go to http://benjigoodrich.bandcamp.com.

We've Received Approval from Holt!!

We just received word that Holt International has approval and accepted our home study!! One more step in the process!! Now our home study will be sent to the US immigration office and we will wait to be invited to take digital fingerprints. Once that is approved, we can send in our dossier to Ethiopia and get on the list!!

Lord, thank you for each and every step and for opening each door in your perfect time.

On another note, Halloween was super fun last night with Isaiah and all the kids in our Life Group from church. Here's sweet photo of him as a firefighter...I kept thinking that hopefully next year we may have 2 little ones to take trick or treating!