It's Progress...

We finally heard from the embassy today......they sent our file to the USCIS office in Nairobi. Its not really a "good" thing. But its progress. So I will take it!

What does this mean? The US Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia decided there was not enough information in our file to approve us to bring her to the US. The US Embassy does not have as much authority to clear cases as the USCIS in Nairobi does. The Embassy has to have enough information to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the child is indeed an orphan before they send them to the US. I know...you are thinking, "its a little bit late for that, she is legally yours!" Yep, no one understands why the US decides to conduct their investigation AFTER you have already legally adopted the child. Anyways, thats beside the point. Because the Embassy could not locate the person in our case for an interview, and were unable to get any other information from the police officer originally involved in her case, they decided they did not have sufficient evidence to clear us to bring her to the US. I know this sounds horrible and depressing....BUT its really not. The USCIS office in Nairobi is able to clear cases without as much information because they are a higher authority. We are hoping and praying we are cleared quickly! We should hear something in 2-3 weeks. Thank you for continuing to pray our little girl home!

Halloween '12

10 years

I can't believe that Brian and I celebrated 10 years of marriage this month. I know people thought we were crazy when we got married....or maybe more thought my parents were crazy for letting me get married so young! Here we are 10 years later.....the first five years we spent just the 2 of us and the second 5 years we have added 3 children to our family. We always wanted to do something big for our 10 year anniversary. We dreamed of second honeymoons and tropical islands. A big trip full of relaxing.... just the 2 of us.  Well, this year we HAVE taken a very big trip to the other side of the world and will be taking another trip very soon! No tropical island or much relaxing...and we spent it with a very special little girl:) We decided we have and will travel enough in these months surrounding our anniversary! I wanted to make our anniversary special, and I have been dreaming up a plan for the past 6 months or so. I asked our dear friend Courtney to help me surprise Brian with me in my wedding dress and a photo shoot to celebrate our 10 years together. We have known Courtney for years and he has taken pictures of me when I was pregnant with Brody, and also Brody and Levi's newborn pictures. He was more than happy to help me:)

I told Brian he had to leave the house for an hour or so and told him what time to return. My mom showed up with my dress as soon as Brian left.  I laid Brian's suit out, along with a few things from our wedding, our old wedding invitation, and a new "wedding invitation" inviting him to meet me. Courtney and I went and hid down by the pond and waited for Brian to come. When he finally came walking down the path and saw me, he was pretty shocked. I think the first words out of his mouth were something like "where did you find your dress?!" Like I had lost it after all of these years:) Apparently he didn't even know I had it anymore! We renewed our vows together and then had fun with our photo shoot! Here are a few of our favorites!

Encouraged

I am surrounded by some amazing people. It's no secret I have had a rough and emotional week. Each delay we have encountered has been small, but they are adding up. And I am WEARY. I have been so encouraged though this week through the words of some of my dear friends. Like this.....

"Well...I guess my thoughts on your delay and potentially mine are relating to how God knows the beginning atnd the end. He knows the exact moment she'll be forever placed in your arms. I guess we can choose anxiety or experience the gift of peace we have as believers. It's an ongoing battle with the flesh. Sadness with hope, however is an emotion given to us by God. We can long and be sad from disappointment. I know too that once she comes home we'll have new trials. If we're growing in the Father we'll always have trials of suffering. It's times like these where the cycle seems endless, my heart aches for heaven. Take heart, my friend He is God and has overcome this world!"

And this..... 
  

"Someday we will sit around a table, with our kids playing nearby and we will 'remember when...' And we will be healed from this heartache and we will be building our amazing families. And we will be better at it having sat where we are now-on the heartache-joy roller coaster. Oh my friend, tears are a most effective prayer. With each tear or scream into a pillow, we are saying this is hard. That trust is hard. That faith is hard. But not once, in any way shape or form does it mean that we are turning our back on our Father. He knows.

For a long time, unrelated even to adoption, the only prayer I could muster was a weeping "please" and an occasional "thank you" sometimes the pain and the weakness is far too much.  It's when God wraps us up in his arms and makes it possible to do the little things to care for ourselves and the ones we love.   This is what I believe. It's not a test or a punishment- it's the ebbs and flows of faith.  And when we want to yell at Him- that's ok, too.

When it's hardest to be positive and the weight of the wait is too much, my friend always says, "Grab the Hand." And it brings me to tears to picture God, our father with his hand reaching out to hold mine. 

Each tear is a prayer. We can not always be strong."

And then I was reminded that The Lord uses these trials in our lives to grow us so that we can one day encourage others. 

"Read this verse this morning and immediately thought of you two.2 Corinthians 1:3-4 'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father ofmercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, SO THAT we may be able to comfort those who are in affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God'
This teaches me that not only does God comfort us through difficulty, but He is also training us how to be USED by Him. He is "dragging" you guys through this lengthy experience to better equip you to be used in the lives of others. Our process over the last 18 months has enabled us to minister to so many in ways we never could have had we not been through. So, He promises to comfort in the midst of, but then to use our story to comfort others. God will use your story of faith in tremendous ways for years and years of ministry. The best part will be telling the story while Aven sits on your hip."

I love adoption. I love what it says about God and how it is such a clear representation of the Gospel. One of the things I am so excited about doing, now that I have walked this journey, is to shepherd others who have decided to adopt. Most of the time, adoption is not easy. Every story comes with its own share of hurts, heartaches, and delays.  If our adoption was easy, how could I ever relate to the majority of adoptions? How could I shepherd those who need encouragement during their journey of adoption. I desire to be a help to those in this process and for this reason I am thankful I cannot say "it's easy".

These are just a few of the texts and emails I have received this week. One of the most amazing things about this is that some of these people I have never met face to face, or have only met once. And they have become DEAR friends during this journey. We exchange emails and texts almost daily, encouraging each other and just being there for each other, because we know EXACTLY what each other is feeling. We will be lifelong friends because we have walked this together.

I am so blessed by all of my sweet friends who have chosen to walk this journey WITH me. This process would be so much different without their encouragement and support. For that, I am so thankful!

I'm Ready

I'm ready.....

 I am ready for a lot of things......

For my entire family to be under one roof.

 To not feel like someone is always missing. 

To not picture what every situation would be like if she were here. 

To not wonder if she feels loved. 

To not worry about her health. 

To not think in two different time zones.

 To not check my email every 2 minutes and in the middle of the night. 

To stop being busy with preparations. 

To stop thinking in timelines. 

To stop being jealous of families who are already bringing their children home and only find pure joy at the news of orphans finding forever families. 

For my boys to meet their sister.
To have an answer for them when they ask if Aven is coming home soon. 

For people to stop asking when she is coming home because clearly she is in my arms. 

To have her in her precious room I have been having so much fun preparing for her. 

To finally introduce her to so many people that have prayed and supported her home.
To not feel weak, but act strong.

For her to. be. HOME. 

And to know that no matter how hard it is once she is here, that she will absolutely know she is loved and has a family forever. 

The Latest....

I have hesitated even writing this post. I want to just tell you that Aven is coming home. But there is another delay. I am tired of writing about delays. As I sit here debating on whether or not to tell you about all of this, I am reminded of how so many of you have prayed so hard for this process....for us...for her. And how so many of you are emotionally invested in this journey. I have promised all along the way to be transparent and to show you as much of this process as I can. As tired as I am of these delays, I know all of them have been small. As frustrating as it is, I know it could be much worse. And each time we have seen a delay, we have also seen the Lord work and get it resolved quickly! So I am praying for that again.

Monday we received an email saying that the Embassy wanted to interview a specific person related to Aven's case. This is completely routine. A message was sent to the village where this person lives and the staff was asked to locate this person so they could set up an interview. Wednesday we found out that there was a power outage in the village and they would not be able to hear back from the staff about whether or not they had located the person for the interview. We were told the power would be back on Saturday. So I prayed really hard that the power would be restored sooner! And it was restored on Thursday night! However the news we heard was not great......the person could not be located. Apparently this is not uncommon. I mean, we are talking about Ethiopia. And its been 9 months since Aven was placed in an orphanage. Who knows what has happened in 9 months with this person. So now we wait. Some more. The agency will notify the Embassy on Monday that they cannot locate the person for the interview and then the Embassy will decide what they want. A few things could happen.....They could decide they want to interview someone else. Or they could send our file to the USCIS in Nairobi, Kenya for review. Or they could just clear us on the information they already have. Obviously we will be praying hard for them to just clear us! Either way, they will more than likely want a police report stating that this person cannot be located and so we need to pray that the police will write this report up quickly!

Thank you for your continued support and prayers as we continue to wait,
Jana

Hillridge

Each year we make at least one visit to Hillridge Farms. It is something I remember doing growing up and now my boys are enjoying it as well! My mom and I took them while Brian and my dad were in the mountains camping. They had such a fun time! They are turning into such good buddies and playmates.