He is Faithful!

WE ARE GOING TO SEE OUR GIRL!!! 3 weeks from today a Judge in Ethiopia will hopefully be telling us that she is ours:) Im still in shock that we have a court date. We were told it would be 2 weeks before we were assigned a court date. I was hoping we would possibly hear NEXT friday (which would still be early).  In the 6 months we have been with our agency, I have never seen a court date given out so fast! The Lord has heard our prayers and we are so thankful that he has moved mountains so we could see our baby girl before the court closure!

Last night I spent the night at the lake with my parents in their new camper. I brought Levi along to "try out camping". We love camping and I wanted to see how he would do. Well...I will spare you the details, but it didnt go so well. Needless to say, I was exhausted so I went back to sleep while Mom and Dad took Levi on a walk. When I finally woke up, I checked my phone to see what time it was and I saw a missed call and voicemail from our agency. My brain was still foggy and I was trying to process why they would be calling me. It went something like this...

"wow, mom let me sleep late"

"I have a missed call from a Georgia area code"

"our agency is in GA!!"

"why would they be calling me?"

"It couldnt possibly be for a court date"

"It's WAY too soon"

"I hope nothing is wrong"

All of this while fumbling around trying to push the right buttons to listen to the voicemail from an unknown Georgia number. Then I heard my adoption coodinators voice and her say "Hi! I have good news!"

Best. Words. Ever!!!!

I barely heard the words, "you have a court date of August 3rd", before I started sobbing uncontrollably! I think I have been guarding my heart against getting super excited about possibly seeing our girl so soon. I have been hoping in the Lord that He would do this for us. But I have been trying not to get my hopes up in the event that the Lord decided something else was best for our family. All of the emotions that I have been holding back came flooding out, as soon as I heard that voicemail!

We were assigned a court date of August 3rd. We will fly to Ethiopia a couple of days in advance. Pray with us that all parties will have the needed paperwork at our court date and that we will PASS! 

Thank you SO SO SO much to all that have faithfully prayed for us and that we would be able to see our girl before the courts close!

SUBMITTED!!!

God has heard our prayer for the last 3 months or 12.5 weeks or 89 days (however you want to look at it!) We were SUBMITTED TO COURT yesterday! We are praising the Lord for taking us to this next step!

Whats Next?

We wait for 1-2 weeks to hear what date they will assign us for court and then we get on a plane HOPEFULLY 2 weeks later to GO. SEE. OUR. DAUGHTER!!! Which means HOPEFULLY we will be with her in ONE MONTH!

How Can I Pray?

The courts close Mid-August for 6 weeks. We desperately want to get a court date and see our girl before the courts close! If we don't get a court date in August, we will most likely go in early October, which is entirely TOO LONG TO WAIT! Pray that the Lord will allow us to go see our girl soon. I cannot stand the thought of her being 6 weeks older or having to be in Ethiopia any longer than she has to be. She needs to be HOME!

The Lord has not let us down yet, He has continued to answer our prayers,  so we are confident that He will not dissapoint us now! We covet your prayers and are so blessed by the amount of people that are joining with us in praying our baby girl HOME!

"But God has surely listened and has heard my prayer. Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!" (Psalm 66:19, 20 NIV)

Weekend Getaway

A couple of months ago, while watching 4 precious boys play in the park, our dear friends and us decided we needed a vacation....or at least a weekend getaway. We weren't sure how we were going to make it happen, but we decided we would pick a date, find someone to keep our kids, and THEN we would decide where to go. We picked a weekend, had grandparents that gladly agreed to keep our boys, and decided to rent a cabin in Boone for the weekend!

Sara and I have been friends since elementary school. We went to middle and high school together and then were roommates our first year at Liberty University. Our husbands also went to Liberty and have been friends every since. I am so thankful for our friendship over the years and that now we are raising our boys together.  Brody, Levi, Logan, and Landon are quite the crew:) Things can get pretty wild and crazy with the four of them, but we love every minute of it! 

Last weekend we enjoyed a getaway with just the grown-ups. I have only done this one other time since we had Brody.... and I think we need to do it more often:) It was such a relaxing weekend. We grilled out, slept late, went tubing down the river for 2 hours just the four of us, ate dinner out, hiked, shopped the outlets, slept late, lived in the hot tub, and LAUGHED more than you can possibly imagine. It was so good for all of us. 

6 months

Our girl turned 6 months old last week. I got over 50 new pictures of her last week, from one of the 5 girls that join with me in prayer each morning. She was the first of us to travel to Ethiopia and she took so many pictures for us! I even saw a few pictures of "A" trying to sit up by herself. This does my heart so good! Its pretty normal for the babies to be slightly behind developmentally because they are in group care. So I was thrilled to see her doing "6 month old things"!

I think for the first time I truly realized how much of her little life we will miss. In my head, she is still three and a half months old, because that was the age we first saw her. To know that she is already 6 months old and trying to sit up on her own are hard to wrap my head around! Especially since we haven't even held her yet. It's hard knowing we will miss many of her first milestones, but knowing that we will be there for the rest of her life makes it worth it! We are coming, sweet girl!  

I received updated measurements of our growing girl this week that were taken the day before she turned 6 months old. She is 15 lbs 2 oz and they say she is 27 inches long (but I dont think thats right when I compare it to her measurements 2 months ago) She MAY be 27 inches including her head full of curls!

This is an email I received from the mommy that visited our girl and took all of the pictures for us. Once again I am blown away at the bond formed with other adoptive parents and so thankful for the amazing people I have met during this process!

Jana, Your little girl is a little chunk-of-love, and she was not afraid to be held and didn't cry once while I was there!!!  Really.  I laid my hands on her, and prayed over her that God would infuse his Holy Spirit into her body, mind, and soul and draw her near to him every day.  That he would place a shield of protection over her, keep her safe from anxiety, safe from illness, and enveloped in love from the caregivers and all who come into her path.  I prayed with her hands in mine that she would open her heart to know you as her mother,  and to know that she is already loved beyond her understanding by our God and her earthly family.  She gazed into my eyes, she rested her head on my shoulder, and I laid her back into her crib and she fell into a cozy slumber. I continue to pray for your process, our process, and our other IAG sisters in Christ for God to bring these blessings home soon!

Waiting....with Peace

We are still waiting on being submitted to court. We heard from the director of our agency last week that due to an error in our paperwork, it would be a couple more weeks until our paperwork was ready to be submitted. That is all I know. 

I dont know the exact day our paperwork will be submitted and I dont know if we will get to go to court before the courts close for rainy season. If the courts close before we get a court date then we will have to wait until early october-ish to go see our girl. I have no control over this, and I have no way of knowing what the next few weeks are going to hold. 

But the Lord knows...and He is sovereign in it all! I DO know that he has given me a CRAZY peace about all of this. It is definitely a "peace that passing all understanding".  I know this Peace is from the Lord.....because this is NOT ME. 

I am a pessimist by nature.....not because I always believe something bad will happen, but just because I like to prepare myself:) "I" would have started preparing myself weeks ago to not go see our girl until October,  "just in case" that is what happened. "I" would be a nervous wreck every time I thought about the court deadline approaching. "I" would be checking my email every second of every day waiting for some news (Well, maybe I am doing that....but not with fear in my heart). 

The Lord has been SO GRACIOUS to me! I know myself, and I know that the Jana a few months ago would be living in fear, and my anxiety would have overtaken me by now. The Lord is doing such an amazing work in my heart through this. HE'S GOT THIS! I know that! I know that whatever happens in the next few weeks will not crush me or destroy me. I am praying expectantly and I know the Lord wants to see my faith. I can literally feel His loving arms around me as I am waiting. His peace is so tangible to me right now! It is only by His GRACE that I am not living in FEAR!

Beach weekend

 

 We enjoyed a great weekend at the beach with the Martin family this weekend. We have enjoyed getting to know them this year and have developed such a sweet friendship with them. Our kids adore each other! It was a very busy weekend at the beach with five kids, but so much fun! The adults were exhausted after the first day on the beach entertaining 5 kids all 6 years old and younger! And then we of course stayed up late chatting at night while the kids were sleeping. It was a refreshing weekend in so many ways! We are so thankful that the Lord placed this family in our lives!

 

 

While we wait....

I know most of my posts have been about our adoption recently. That's not to say that there isn't a lot going on here at home with my two sweet boys. They are so busy and are starting to have so much fun together. They're acting like true brothers....playing together, occasionally fighting, but mostly just loving on each other and enjoying each other's company.

Levi is talking like crazy. There isn't much he won't say! If he wants or needs something he will figure out how to tell you! He thinks he can do anything and everything Brody is allowed to do. He has no idea he's not four years old. Levi is always the life of the party. He is HILARIOUS and we all are constantly laughing at him! Our family would not be complete without that little guy!

Brody is still amazing, as always. He is such a great big brother. He's so patient and has such a sweet spirit and kind heart. He loves his brother to death and will do anything for him. I tell him all the time how lucky Levi is to have him as a big brother. He finished his first year of preschool and did so well! He learned so much and is growing up way too fast! He is so excited about his summer! We have "countdowns" on the fridge to all of the big events of the summer! We have such a busy summer ahead! We are going on lots of little weekend trips and HOPEFULLY a big trip to Africa!