One year...

This past Sunday was our one year mark.
Our public decision was announced and our application was printed on January 5...application mailed to our agency on January 20th.

A blurb from a previous blog entry on that day back in January 2012.

We are just in the very early stages of pursuing an adoption for a little boy...in Ethiopia. We are incredibly excited, a bit nervous, confident of our calling to this, and pumped that we are diving in. We have talked and prayed about this for over a year, and have finally decided to begin our journey. Our girls are thrilled, to say the least. After we told Ellie and Emma that it was really going to happen (they have been a part of praying with us in this for quite some time) they both went to school the next day and told their classes that they were going to have a brother from Africa soon! Ha! I love their joy and excitement. Although it's not going to be soon...

Lifeline adoption agency says the average process takes 12-15 months once the dossier is submitted, but Ryan and I are gearing ourselves up for 2- 2.5 total years. :) We would love for it to happen sooner, and God willing it will!

In the meantime, we begin the paperwork trail, and it's oh so daunting. I don't think I can read through the Ethiopian manual too many times or I might start having anxiety attacks. An adoption or a pregnancy--BOTH require emotions and our physical bodies. Neither is better or worse, just different. So we are beginning a very different journey to our son. I know it will seem more real and more exciting and more glorious, once we've seen his face on a picture. In the meantime, this is how we're praying:

*for this boy, who may not even be born yet, to be carried in his mother safely and with as much dignity and care as possible.

*for our finances...I really have no idea how the money will come in, or if the money will come in. I don't know what God is going to do with this, but we are trusting Him and beginning to take strides to make some changes in our spending.

*for the city of Sylvania, OH. That our community would fall in love with the TRUTH that more of us can change the life of an orphan. We would love to see this spread, we would love to see more trans-racial families in our community!!

Now...
One year later we are done with the trail of paperwork.
We have continually prayed those prayers.
We have been blessed beyond belief with support from family and friends.
We have just BEGUN to learn the lesson of what it means to wait on God.
We have had tons of fears/worries as well as blessed conversations and encouragement from people who have walked this path. We are ready to dive in.
And... we are SO many steps closer to receiving that email with the picture of our son's face.
Pumped.