Well, I did not think we would be here, but we are here none the less. Today, just one day after Ethiopian Christmas, we celebrate 6 months on the waiting list. It may not seem like something that you would celebrate, but the thing is, every day we get closer to getting our referral. And every day that we get closer to getting our referral is a day we get closer to getting to meet our babies! That excites me!
Next week my sister and bro-in-law head over to pick up their twins and then in 5 weeks Josh and Bex (whom we are celebrating with) take off to pick up their daughter. It is good to have others "pave the way" for you as you go along this journey. There are a ton of other bloggy friends we have out there who we get to learn from and vicariously experience their journeys too. So glad for that.
Will this be our month? It better be! Karston prayed the other night that we would get our call in the next 5 months. I said, "5 MONTHS!!???!?" He just laughed.
My how time flies. A year ago Jeanne-Ann and I had just made the decision to move forward in adoption process. A year and a half ago I wasn't even thinking about it! Now we have been on the waiting list for 5 months. If you are new to what I am talking about, let me explain.
In December we submitted our application to Dove International, then we took a bunch of classes, filled out a bunch of paper work, got fingerprinted, did more paper work, waited a lot here and there, had in-home visits and finally sent off our dossier (all our paperwork that said we were approved to adopt) to Ethiopia. On July 8, our dossier landed in Ethiopia. That is when we started on the waiting list.
That was 5 months ago today. They say the average wait is 4-6 months. Some have waited for just over 6 months and 3 weeks, some have waited just shy of 3 months. We are smack-dab in the middle of the "average." Typically I don't like to be average in anything. I am an all in type of person. We would love to be VERY AVERAGE on this one. So if we got the call today, I would not be upset. :)
Ever feel like the thing you want is so close you can almost taste it, but for some reason you can't quite grasp it? I feel ya kid.
(FaceBook friends click here to see the video below)
Today we hit 2 months since all of our paperwork arrived in Ethiopia and we officially went onto the waiting list for our 2 babies. It is strange to sit and really think about this fact. They say the average wait time is 4 to 6 months to get a referral. Most days are not that big of a deal. Today as I sat down and thought about it, I long for them. As I pray each night with Kynzi and Karston we always pray for their brother and sister and for their birth parents. We prayed for them tonight.
I guess when you hit a milestone it makes it more real. So tonight I sit...reflect...dream...pray.
Sometimes in life we have those ordinary days that don't seem special and something happens and everything is different. I think that is what it will be like the day we get our referral. Today we have been on the waiting list for exactly 4 weeks! I know that in just a moment, some time in the near future, our lives will flip. It will be an ordinary day just like today. Nothing extra special about the day, just normal stuff. Then BLAMO, we will get our referral and our lives will be that much closer to bringing our babies home!
Have you had a day like that? A day where everything is radically changed in a moment? Tell me about it. Share in the comment section. The video below is a moment like that. A choir was out in a community singing. One of the students had called his mom and asked her to pick him up because he was bored. Then someone showed up and the whole day became different. The singer of the song they were singing! He called his mom back and said forget it. Check out the evidence below.
