Our Boys

"Then Christ will make a home in your heart as you trust in Him. Your roots will grow down in God's love, and keep you strong. And you may have the power to understand, as God's people should, how wide, how long, how high and how deep His love is." -Ephesians 3:17-18 I have a few more details to share about Etienne and Daniel today. First, and most important, we have accepted our referral and the travel coordinator has already begun to get the ball rolling for the final phase of the process! The emotions I am feeling are surreal- overwhelming awe at the depth of love that we feel for our sons and gratitude to our Lord that He sees us through. I am touched by the joy that others are feeling with us. At moments, I want to cry that Etienne and Daniel aren't with us right now. We are grateful that a volunteer at the orphanage will be delivering hugs and kisses to our boys on Saturday from their mommy and daddy. The other questions: No they aren't biological siblings (we all know how much biology matters!!!). Ryan and I feel that Etienne knows his name- he will be 3 in October, so Etienne he is. This name is Stephen in French and pronounced (a-tee-en). Daniel we are not decided yet, may move Daniel as a middle name. TBA. We are beginning our last (hopefully!) fundraiser in the next week- selling "Rwanda Adoption Project" fashion tees through this blog. We will also be adding a link to donate frequent flyer miles. Stay tuned!

Today!

My heart is overflowing with joy and gratitude! We are the proud family of Etienne, our 33 month old son, and Daniel, our 17 1/2 month old son. They are perfect and beautiful and ours. God is so good. We are all 4 speechless and it is surreal. More to follow....we've got good news to spread!

Huh?!

Here's one for all you OCD-anxiously awaiting-adoptive moms: Call at 9am this morning, area code 703, awaa! Just our case manager, saying, "This isn't a referral, but it is about your referral. Would you be disapointed depending on which gender of your children is older?" HUH? You know I said no and attempted to pry further with no luck. I did get told that it would be "within reason" to continue to carry my cell phone in my pocket at all times. Sigh. It is a little funny to the average outsider and I fear my new co-workers may think I am a wack job.

No Noticias

No news. In Spanish, cause I speak it a lot these days. I feel a little sad only because it is more time that our children aren't with their family. This weekend I am asking all of our great prayerful friends to pray for that the Limmer and Himes families, also waiting for referral. I am blessed by both Courtney and Heidi, yesterday getting frequent texts during the day, saying "You call and see what's going on, I'm chicken!" God put the desire to adopt in our hearts, He will see us through.

Maybe this week

Yesterday our friends, the Limmers, received word from awaa, asking did they mind if they received a 12 1/2 month old rather than a child under 12 months? Of course, we all know their response! They are at the same stage of waiting as we are, as well as one other family; and we've all been told we'll receive our referrals together. Well, the Limmers were also told that they'd most likely have a referral by the end of the week! We're praying it will happen with for all 3 of our families this week- and it is emotional to think that these referrals will mean that 5 orphans will have a forever family. "My soul waits for the Lord, more than watchmen wait for morning, more than watchmen wait for morning." -Psalms 130:6

Omaha-who?

Week 1 of our move to Omaha is behind us, even though we haven't really moved yet. Molly says we can't totally move to we get our new brother and sister, so I'm cool with that. It was important to me that we bring them home to Basehor and somehow, we'll still do that. Also, since our house hasn't sold, we can't buy a home in Nebraska yet. So...we just pray that we will want what God wants for us, not what we want.

We are grateful that my new job is really a dream come true. I get to practice as a midwife with a compassionate, enthusiastic, happy group of people. It also helps that my boss adopted internationally, so that's an added bonus.

I remember when we started the adoption last summer, I saw some t-shirts that read "Yes, I am still waiting," and at the time didn't appreciate the truth to that. I am glad that people care so much to ask, but I would like to just refer them to the blog. Sigh. Yes, I am still waiting.

Here's a picture of the Old Market, so all my friends who haven't been to Omaha can see that its actually more then cornfields.

Here's the scoop

My email to Ryan Hanlon generated a quick response. The story goes thus far: Rwanda has recently placed a new framework regarding out-of-country adoptions. After America World matches each family with their children, they have to send the match back to the Ministry for Approval. Prior to our dossier (and the other 2 that are at the same stage as us), it wasn't neccessary to send the match back to the Ministry before giving the families the referral. In other words, there is a new hoop to jump through and our 3 families are the first to jump. Sigh.