2 Months Waiting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today not only does my baby girl officially turn 1. But we have hit the 2 month mark of waiting for her sister!

I have so many emotions that I am starting to deal with on a daily basis. Knowing that half a world away there is someone who I already love so much, and not knowing what is happening to her today. Not knowing if she is scared or hungry or tired and not being able to do anything about it if she is. It literly makes my heart hurt when I think about the loss that her birth family is going to have to go through. The loss that she will go through. Typically the kids will go through 4 different 'homes' by the time they come home. Their birth home then to an orphanage then the transition home (after we receive her referral) then home with us. Sometimes I try to imagine how hard that would be. I imagine if that was Bethany and she was sent from place to place with nothing concrete in her life. I know that she would NOT do well with that.

We are learning and educating ourselves about what it will be like when we finally get to see our daughter face to face. You kind of have this picture perfect meeting in your mind. Like your swooping in as the savior of the day. But that is almost never how it works. We understand that she will probably be unsure or even scared of us at first. And rightly so. She has never known who will be around the next day so she probably won't know right away that she can trust us.



We have been so blessed to be a part of the Bethany Christian Services adoption board. Families who are in all different phases of their adoption ask questions and share wisdom from what they have learned. We have had the privilege read the stories from countless families who have already traveled to pick up their child. Each story is totally different.

One thing I really enjoy is seeing the pictures these families post of the orphanage and the transition home. It's really surreal knowing that my baby girl will be there soon or is already there. I'm a very visual person so it really helps me to picture what her days may be like.

One more neat thing about the Bethany boards is that once we are matched with our baby, families that travel before us can love on her and take extra pictures for us. I'm sure those pictures will go with me everywhere until she is home safe in my arms!



We are getting ready to start month #3 of waiting and still hopeful that we will be matched sometime in November! Trying to keep my head on straight and know that this date may change. BUT........ this mama still hopes that November will be our month. Although we would be more than happy if it was earlier=)

My baby girl is 1 !!!!

This is how my day started 1 year ago...


This is how it ended....


I got to take this precious bundle of joy home with me!


Her brothers thought she was just the greatest gift in the world....


Over this last year this is what we have learned about her....

She is a great sleeper....



She is a goof ball....
She likes when mommy dresses her up all girly....



She smiles from the time she wakes up till she falls asleep. Even when we wake her up from sleeping she smile immediately....




She enjoys sucking her thumb....

She has a variety of facial expressions......


She REALLY enjoys walking.....

She enjoys snuggling with mommy....

She is just about as cute as they come!!!!

Happy Birthday my sweet Bethany Joy! Mommy and Daddy love you so much and can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for you this year. Your a VERY special little girl Bethany!!

Ober Gatlinburg

We finally got to go to Ober Gatlinburg to celebrate Stephen's birthday this last weekend. We had such a great time together. I found tickets a while back for about 65% off the regular ticket price so we decided this would be an awesome gift to give stephen.

I came here with my parents and little sister when I was a little girl. I have such fun memories of going on the chairlift with my dad, who is EXTREMELY afraid of heights. He actually offered to pay my little sister to ride with him since she weight the least. Then mom and I got a good laugh when we started rocking ours a little, that didn't sit to well with him!





Stephen and I beat Izzy, Daddy and Bethany on the maze by a full 5 minutes!!

Disregard the face Bethany is making. She really had a good time!

The boys were obsessed with going on the water rides. You had to be 7 years old to go by yourself so that really made his day!! I couldn't believe it he went on the one that drops straight down. Crazy! Then he made me try it. Yikes!

Happy Birthday Stephen

I can't believe I have a 7 year old!!! Good grief where has the time gone? Really seems like just yesterday when we got to bring this wiggly little bundle of joy home!!


























We got the privilege of celebrating Stephen birthday last week. We had a GREAT time.

As always my kids get to choose what they eat on their birthday. Stephen had me hopping. He chose:

Breakfast: Pancakes & Sausage

Lunch: Homemade sub sandwiches, chips, blueberries, juice

Dinner: Hamburgers, French Fries, Orange Soda, Homemade chocolate cake and Reese's ice cream



(he actually didn't even eat any of his cake. Decided he had had enough sugar for the day!)

He got a few gifts from grandparents and aunts and uncles and his brother and sister. He was so blessed by the things given to him.


One thing I'm so proud of Stephen for is his thankfulness. We attempted to give him our gift ( a trip to Ober Gatlinburg) two days after his birthday. Well we got there and it started raining and didn't stop. So we decided that we would have to postpone our trip. After about 3 minutes being bummed he said, "Well I'm just thankful that we get to spend the day together!".

This is one thing we have poured into our kids since the day they are born. There is so much in this life we have to be thankful for. All you have to do is look. What a blessing a thankful child is!


So our day got rained out but we had a great time walking around Gatlinburg then went swimming in the Little River.

Nerdy Spreadsheet

Okay so after spending the good part of my nap time on Saturday building it, I finally have my nerdy adoption spreadsheet filled out!!! Now I can attempt to figure out when we should be expecting a referral!!!
I used the number of families submitted up until our paperwork went in (on June 18th). Minus the referrals given out since our dossier went in.



So that all has brought me to these #'s.

52 Families Waiting at the end of June (when our dossier went in)

-12 referrals in July

Puts us at family #40 on the wait list



I divided 40 families by the # of referrals typical in a month ( which changes every month). That puts our wait at 3.01 months left to wait!!! Okay so this is hopeful thinking and I have realized that the only thing predictable about international adoption is how unpredictable it is. So this maybe WAY off or could be right on. I always hope I'm a little off on the numbers and it would be sooner than expected, rather than later.

That would put our timeline like this



Referral: early/middle November (praying by Thanksgiving!!)

Trip #1: End of January

Trip #2: Some time in April to bring our sweet baby home!!!! (depending on if we pass court the first time)



All these numbers are very exciting! But one thing that I'm learning is that I'm not a patient person. I'm so thankful that the Lord is teaching me how to REALLY be patient.

The days go by quickly when I'm not thinking a lot about our adoption. But as the time grows closer to finally seeing her picture for the first time, I can't help but dwell on how long 3 1/2 months can be! It's like the end of a pregnancy when everyone tells you to rest or enjoy the time before the baby comes. Yea right!! You could careless about resting you want to hold your precious baby in your arms.

We also may have decided on a name. We'll call her baby H for now (still waiting on daddy to sign off on the name).

Thank you everyone who is praying for us and for baby H. It's amazing stepping out in faith and watching the Lord blow your socks off!!!



PS. Also still can't say anything about our good news=( Which really stinks!!!

We got some GREAT news today in regards to our adoption. I can't share any info until I talk with our social worker. It isn't a referral or anything of that nature. But Great news nonetheless!!! Can't wait to share it !!!

1 Month Waiting!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have officially been waiting for an entire month already!! Can you believe it?!! I can't. This month has flown by. I know it doesn't seem like much to have been on the wait list for a month but when I look back on all the work that it took to get us to this place, I just can't believe we are already here. I remember looking at the wait list when we were up to our ears in application paperwork, the appointments, notaries, county sealing, state sealing, doctors visits and on and on and on. At that point the wait list seems like a distant dream=) But here we are!!

There have been some referrals on the Bethany boards, some of which only submitted their dossier 4 months before us. Now I'm not saying we will get a referral in 4 months. I know that international adoption changes in a heart beat. But a girl can hope can't she??=)

There have been a few new changes to the program within the past month or so :

#1 we now have to have a birth certificate issued by the local districts before our case can be submitted to court.

#2 we also have to have pictures of the their previous guardian (except in abandonment cases) before going to court.

These two things can increase the time from referral to court date. But we also got some good news that the Bethany team in Ethiopia was able to work with the government and now both adoptive families and birth families can have court on the same day. Previously you had to have two court dates anywhere from 1-2 months apart. So that will help to bring the wait time down some!!!!
We have been reading up a lot on Ethiopia and adoption, attachment and all the other things that go along with this journey. I have read some really good and heart touching books. I plan to share some of them with you soon!!

Meanwhile we have started our new year of homeschooling rather early this year since I know that we will be missing a few months in the middle when our new little miss comes home. Kids are LOVING our new curriculum. Bethany Joy is doing great. She is walking all around the house with the help of her newest toy. She really is such a joy in our family. Her smile and personality are just super sweet.