It’s been one month since our dossier was sent to Ethiopia, and this month has seemed longer than the entire year we were working on paperwork. The 12-24 month wait they told us to expect before a referral has seemed incredibly far away & it’s been tough. BUT, I got an exciting call yesterday from our adoption agency giving us an update on how things are moving along. Our program director, who is brand new to the agency, was the one who called, and she is super nice & so honest, which I loved…a great communicator, which is what I needed. I think she is going to really benefit the agency. Anyway, it was funny because I asked her where we stand, and she said, “well, it looks like you will be the next one placed with a baby!” I gasped, “WHAT!??? Really!!???” And then she paused and mumbled to herself, then said, “oh I am so so so sorry…I was reading the list wrong…I was reading it backwards.” She felt so bad to get my hopes up, haha. So I quickly realized that we are actually LAST one the list, but that’s ok. I knew that having only had our dossier in Ethiopia for a month, that probably wasn’t a possibility. It was so nice talking with her because she gave me numbers, numbers that I’ve longed for. She told us we are approximately #37 on the list waiting to be matched. This isn’t an exact number because all families have different requests when it comes to age, gender, health status, etc. and it’s essentially someone in Ethiopia making the match based on a number of factors. But, it gives us a nice idea of how far off we are. She was so sweet & said I can call anytime to check our status. This is so different from how things were before she came along, so I’m thankful for her working with us! She said to not get our hopes up, but they are expecting at least 4 referrals per month (but she’s expecting more based on what the orphanage has communicated). So she said, “do the math.” That means, we could have a referral in the next 9 months!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is quite faster than the 12-24 months they told us not too long ago. That was the best phone call we’ve received since this whole thing started.
Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us. But most importantly, thank you to everyone who has been praying for the tiny children in Ethiopia & all around the world who don’t have a family to call their own. Last night, when Jake and I pulled into our driveway, the song “When Love Takes You In” by Steven Curtis Chapman played on the radio. We both sat & sobbed while listening to the song. We weren’t sobbing because we long to meet our baby, but sobbing at the realization that there are so many children out there who are waiting for love to take them in. They just need families who are willing to love them.
To see the music video of the song, click here: http://youtu.be/beZ5hF-qZDY
