Bringing Deacon Home

This is a long blog post but please read the entire post to better understand our needs after we bring Deacon home. This information is important and most adoptive families have had to do exactly what we are doing in order to help inform our friends and families.

This information is not my own, but it comes from people that are a lot smarter than us and have more experience in dealing with adoptive families and their needs. So, please read this and if you have any questions please let us know. Please understand that we love you all and we are really excited to bring Deacon home and introduce him to all of our family and friends. Now, I don't want to make this post any longer than it is so without further ado.....

As we get ready to embark on the most exciting event in our lives, we are thinking a lot about the people around us and how much our lives are going to change. Family has always been important to us. We are so fortunate to have such loving, involved family and friends. We appreciate the support and excitement that you have all shown to us as we have made this journey. We're thrilled about bringing our new child home! We've done a lot of reading, research and asked a lot of other adoptive parents about this process and we feel prepared to help our baby become a well- adapted member of our family.

There are some things about adoptive parenting that are the same as parenting a biological child. There are also quite a few areas that we have learned are different. Through our adoption agency, the UAB International Adoption Clinic, books, other adoptive parents, adoption social workers, psychologists and more, we have learned that our baby needs a specific type of environment and parenting when he first comes home in order to feel safe and secure and to learn how to live successfully in our family.

While we know that every child is different, we also understand that there are many possible things that will impact our child's beliefs and behavior when he gets home. These include how much nurturing our child received, if there was abuse or neglect, the amount and quality of food received, illnesses, the quality of care and our child's unique temperament and personality. The result of these things can include behavioral issues, emotional disorders and a sense of grief and loss from being separated from the only home and caregivers our little one has ever known. Adoption is a traumatic and scary event for any age child whether they are newborn or 10 years old. They're being removed from all of their routines and familiar surroundings. Even babies will feel grief and sadness at an event like this.

In order to help our child feel safe and learn that we are his parents, we are creating the type of environment that will help promote security during this stressful time.
When our child gets home, at the recommendation of experienced adoption professionals, we need to implement specific parenting approaches to help encourage a strong, attached, emotionally healthy family member. Our child needs to learn that we're the parents. He needs to feel nurtured and safe. He will not be used to having parents to love and care for him.

Here are some things we will be doing for our child based on research and experience with other adopted children. 

- We'll be living a very quiet life with limited trips out and few visitors in for a little while. Social workers and psychologists tell us that when children are first adopted, they may be overwhelmed, scared, and nervous. By keeping our lives very boring at first, we'll be helping our child feel safe. This does NOT mean that we do not want visitors coming to see our little one for the first time. We will just have to limit it a little so it is not overwhelming. 

- We do not want family to stay away from us. We just can't pass our new baby around for everyone to hold a lot and we will have to be mindful of overloading with new things and people.

- We know you'll all want to hug, kiss and help spoil our new baby, but it is recommended that we be the only ones to do that at first to improve his chances of attaching strongly to us. 

- Until we feel our child has attached and clearly knows we are his parents, we will need to feed, change and take care of him. I know that missing out on some diaper changes will disappoint many of you. Have no fear; there will be many more once he becomes comfortable at home.

- As strange as it may seem, adopted children who act very outgoing and affectionate with strangers is not a healthy thing. It is called "indiscriminate affection" and can mean that they haven't really attached to anyone. It would not be a good sign that our baby has attached to us if during his first months home he will let just anyone take him and hold him without searching for his mom or dad. 

- Please do not get upset if we do not allow you to hold Deacon. He needs to learn that we are mommy and daddy. 

- Attachment is a two- way street. We need to attach to him as much as he needs to attach to us. So these guidelines also help ensure that we grow to love him as his parents. There may be times that we are faking it until we make it. Or, to say it in a nicer way, parenting with our hands until we are parenting with our hearts. Be patient with us and know we want to do this no matter how hard it is. 

- Pray for us. Encourage us. Know that new adoptive parents can experience the same kinds of emotions as post partum depression. And we also aren't getting much sleep. So be nice. 

For sure it is going to be a weird and wonderful experience for us. We are so excited and can't wait to bring our baby home so you can all see him and get to know him. Things are just a little different when you are adopting a baby rather than having a biological child. He will be adapting to a lot of new things . . . new parents, new family, new home, new foods, new time zone (totally opposite of what he's used to). That's a lot to swallow at one time.

We appreciate your understanding in reading this. We've giving you all this letter so that you will understand how dedicated and committed we are to helping our new child adjust and adapt during this stressful time in his life. We feel confident that everything will smooth out quickly and we will be on a more normal schedule. 

Thank you!  We love you all!
Matt and Jacque 

What do you think about going to Ethiopia next week?

Wow! Things have happened very fast since our referral day. We got our referral call on July 9th and little did we know that exactly one month later we would be standing in an Ethiopian court room.
On July 31st, I got a call from our agency. I answered the phone and Lesley said, "Hey Jacque! What do you think about going to Ethiopia next week?" I just laughed. Lesley laughed with me but then stared encouraging me that it was totally doable and she explained that she would walk us through the process. I was still laughing. Lesley let me know that our court date was Friday, August 9th but we needed to be in Addis on the Wednesday before.
When I got off the phone I knew I had to call Matt. I called him and said "We have a court date!" We then called a travel agent and started looking at flights. Once the flights were booked I felt better about the whole thing. I knew we could get packed and show up at the airport. So, we had about 5 days to get things taken care of and get packed. We did it and we were so happy to get on the plane!

 Here we are on the plane getting ready to leave New Orleans. About 28 hours later we landed in Ethiopia. Our first day in Addis was overwhelming. We left the airport, went and checked in at our hotel and then went to the Transition Home to meet Deacon.
Meeting Deacon was a moment that I will never forget. He was so happy when they carried him into the room. I didn't really know what to expect from that moment. I was afraid that we was going to scream, but he didn't. He was so happy and smiley.

This was a special moment for us. As I was holding him all I could do in this moment was to thank God for this blessing. He is the one who orchestrated this entire process from beginning to end and He is the only one who deserves honor and glory for what He done in our lives. Now, although we have gone to court and we are officially his parents this process is still not over. We will have to make a second trip in order to bring Deacon home. We are now waiting for more paperwork to be finished and for the U.S. Embassy to get their part done. Until all of that is done we will wait to bring him home.
This will not be an easy time for us and it seems that the days are really long. Please be praying for us as we wait to hear when we can go back.

Referral Day

I'm sorry I have not done a good job of keeping the blog updated the last couple months. The truth is I was a little discouraged with how slow the process was moving. Our last post was in May when our number was 24. In June, our number moved two spots putting us at 22. The list had moved so slowly for the last couple months, I began to wonder if we would ever get a referral.

On July 1^st we got a new number...15! We were so excited. I was so relieved to finally be out of the twenties. We were excited to tell our families our new number because we had jumped so much. 

This summer has allowed us to travel some to see family and friends.  July 7-11 we were able to attend a Regional Campus Ministers Meeting in Denton, TX. We have family that lives in the Dallas area and this meeting allowed us to spend some time with them.  This meeting also allowed us to see friends who serve in collegiate ministry who can relate to what we face on a daily basis. 

On the 8^th, Matt was in meetings and I spent time with a friend of ours who has also been through the adoption process with our agency. I was able to ask her several questions about their process, talk through what we are experiencing, and catch up with each other in general. It was really good to spend that time with her.

On the 9^th, Matt left for the meeting while I chose to stay with my family running errands and just hanging out. Around 4:30pm my voicemail made a ringing sound letting me know I had a voicemail but my phone never rang. I had a voicemail from Jen at our agency asking me to call her back and that she had exciting news. Immediately I could not breathe but I didn't want to get too excited. So I called her back and she said, "We have a referral for you!" I think I said "Are you serious?" and then I started crying and not the pretty I'm so happy cry, like I cried the ugly, I can't breathe cry. I had to take a moment and pull myself together. Jen and I got on conference call with our country coordinator, Lesley, and she gave me the details...a 5 month old, boy. When I got off the phone, all I could think about was getting to Matt or getting him to me. 

Matt was in meetings at the conference. I knew I needed to call him and get him to me. I knew that just asking him to leave the conference and come eat dinner with me would not work. I stared the conversation just asking him to come home and eat dinner with me and the family but he wanted to know why and if something was wrong, so I just blurted out, "WE GOT A REFERRAL!!" and then I instructed him to not drive like a maniac. While Matt was on his way, my family and I tried to think of several creative ways of how to tell Matt it was a boy. The only thing I could think of to do was to make a sign that said, "It's a boy!" I saw Matt pull into the driveway so I stepped outside and held the sign so when he ran up he saw it. We had a few moments to ourselves celebrating and crying. Then we went inside, celebrated with family, went through all the information together, and began making phone calls. 

We cannot explain the excitement we are experiencing and feeling. We would like to thank all of you for your constant encouragement and prayers.  We would ask that you continue to pray for our baby boy and us as we wait to hear from the Ethiopian government about a court date.  We will keep you posted on when we receive our first court date. God has been so good to us and only He could have orchestrated all the events to take place the way that they did! We thank God for bringing us a referral and we pray that he will continue to work out all the details of our adoption story.  

Thank you again!

May Update

May has started off with a bang! We got a new number on the first. We didn't really think that we were going to move at all this month, so we were surprised when we saw our new number. Here it is....

We are excited that we moved three spots this month! Be praying that children will continue to be placed with their forever families and that we will be matched with our child quickly.

We also found out that some of our paper work is getting ready to expire, so we have to do a home study update. Which required us doing paperwork, getting some blood work done, and having another home visit with our social worker. Thankfully we were able to get everything done quickly and easily.

May is a crazy month for us. So the addition of more items to my to do list almost sent me over the edge. But God has worked and allowed us to get things done quickly and with minimum stress.

Summer is just on the horizon for us and we are so excited! We are always sad to see students go, but we know that God has plans for each one of our students and we will get a whole new group of students in the fall. I (Jacque) will be graduating on the 18th from NOBTS. So, I'm trying to wrap up my last assignments and get them turned in. We are excited about the different things that we have coming up and the ways that God is moving in the adoption and in our lives.

April Update

We received our new number for April. The last few months have been a little slow with regards to referrals. So, everyone needs to pray that children will be matched with their forever families. We are getting closer, but sometimes it still feels so far away. So here is our new number......

We have had a lot going on in the last month and the next couple months will be no different. Ministry, school and work keep us both on our toes. We love doing college ministry but summer break is coming and it is nice to have a break every once in a while.
Also, I will also be graduating in May with a masters degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. So my time at school will be coming to an end. People ask me if I am excited to graduate and truthfully I am but I am also a little sad that the whole thing is coming to an end. I never in a million years thought I would like school as much as I have. Yes, I have my hard days at school when I don't want to go or I don't want to work on school work but over all I have loved my time at NOBTS. God has blessed me with the opportunity to go to school and He has blessed my time there.
Anyways, enough with all that. Please continue to pray for us in these next couple months as we are working hard to finish both our semesters in a manner that is glorifying to God. Please pray for us also as we are waiting to receive a referral for our child/children.

February Number!

Late January Number!

We have a new number for the month of January! I'm sorry this information so late, but with recovering from Christmas, celebrating J's birthday, celebrating our 8th anniversary, and taking a class during the Christmas break 2013 has started at full speed. So, I apologize for just now getting our new number out. Here it is.......

Our New Year has started out great and we are excited to see what God has in store for us in 2013! 

Christmas 2012

We had a wonderful Christmas break! It was so great to spend time with our families and celebrate the birth of Jesus. I love Christmas time! Christmas to me is such a reminder of the gift Jesus gave us by coming to earth as a baby in order to give us the gift of salvation. I feel like I worship so much more deeply during Christmas because of the overflow of my love and gratitude for God sending Jesus to offer mankind salvation. Don't hear me wrong, I am grateful throughout the entire year for the gift God gave us, but Christmas is just a reminder to take time and really focus on God's gift to us, His son Jesus.   

Matt and I traveled to Arkansas to spend time with our families and then we went to Oklahoma to spend time with Jacque's extended family. The end of our Christmas break became eventful when most of us came down with stomach virus. The stomach virus worked it's way around the family and I think there were only three that were spared. Even though we passed around a stomach virus, I would not trade the time we got to spend with our families! 

Here is a picture of all the kids in their Christmas eve pajamas! They are so cute!

December Number

We got our new number!! Our number for December is 37! Honestly, I was shocked! I didn't think we would be in the thirties. It feels good to be in the thirties though.

We are so excited about adding our new little one to our family, and with each month, we are getting a little bit closer. I will keep this post short because we are in one of the busiest times of the year. I am drowning in papers and finals and M has a lot going on in campus ministry. We are ready for a break!

We hope you are having a wonderful Christmas season filled with lots of blessings! Please keep praying for us as we wait for the child God has for us. We have moments of joy ,but we always remember in the back of our minds that someone from our family is not with us this Christmas. We are excited and blessed to be surrounded by family and friends, but our hearts are torn because our we are wondering about our child.

New November Number!!

Well, today is November 1st! I love the beginnings of new months. I can't really explain why but I always have. Now, that we are in the adoption process I really love the start of new months because we get our new number on the first of every month. So, since it's a new month, we have a new number. Our November number is .............

Please keep praying for us while we are waiting for the child that God has picked out for us. Sometimes, we tend to get a little impatient. We are happy with our new number, but keep praying for us as we wait.

5 Favorite things

I've done a post like this before, but it has been a long time so I thought I would do another one and talk about 5 more of my favorite things. These are in no particular order and they will cover a wide range of categories from health and beauty to household. All of these things are not must haves to live, but they are just a few things that make me feel at home and comfortable.

My first favorite thing is... French Quarter Candles

I have liked these candles for a long time, but I don't think I had ever written about them. These candles smell amazing. They last for a long time and they have have a wide range scents that smell really fresh. I usually keep a couple at the house, and when I burn them all out I usually feel a little sad. These are soy candles, so they burn really clean. You should check them out, if you haven't before.

Favorite thing #2 is ....... Clinique Makeup Remover- Take the Day Off

When I was younger, I never washed off my makeup before going to bed. Now, I can't sleep if I have makeup on. No one warned me that everything changes after you turn 30! I like wearing makeup, but I really love going to bed with a clean face. This cleanser takes off everything without irritating my eyes. Sometimes my eyes get irritated when I use some cleansers, so I really like that this cleanser gently takes all my eye makeup off.

Favorite thing #3 is ........ Gap Yoga Pants

These are the most comfortable pants! I wear these around the house and to the gym.  I like the length and weight of these pants. They are not heavy, so they keep me cool but with the security of pants. Sometimes I just want to wear pants. Do ya'll ever feel like that?

Favorite thing #4 is ...... Target Boyfriend Pocket Tees

Along with my yoga pants, I usually wear a mossimo boyfriend tee. For a long time I was very loyal to Old Navy t-shirts, but one day my sister introduced me to these t-shirts from target and I have never looked back! They come in a wide range of colors and are really light and comfortable. They look great with jeans, shorts, capris, skirts, etc. I have a whole closet full and they get worn all the time!

Favorite thing #5 is..... Naked 2 Eyeshadow palette

This eyeshadow is amazing! I love all the colors that come with it and it lasts all day. I've had my palette for a while now, and it is still going strong. It is so fun to see all the different color combinations that I can make based on the way that I'm feeling that day. You can get the Naked 2 palette at any Sephora or Ulta store. Go pick one up, you won't regret it!

September Number

It's a new month, which means we have a new number. Our new number is......

We are excited to be in the forties! Our agency placed six children in forever families this month! That is awesome! Be praying for these families as they are waiting to to get court dates, they will soon be traveling to meet their children, bringing them home, and making big transitions. 

Be praying for us as we wait our turn. Waiting is not easy, but we know there is a reason why. God is sovereign and He is in control.  

Time to Update

I am way behind on updating you on what has been going on with us and with the adoption. My apologies! Since our dossier has made it to Ethiopia we have been put on a wait list to be matched with a child. At the beginning of every month we will get an update with a new number of where we are on the list. Currently we are number ......

We have had lots of questions about the wait list, so here is my best and quickest explanation of how the wait list works. Everyone from our agency that is adopting through Ethiopia is on the same wait list. So, we are on the same list as people who are waiting for an 8 year old or waiting for a 6 year old girl, etc. When a child becomes available for adoption the agency starts with the number 1 and works their way up the list. When the agency finds a family that meets the criteria of the child then the family is matched with that child. We have been approved for an infant 0-2 years old, no gender specified.

So, the smaller our number the better because we will be closer to being matched with a child. I know it is already half way through the month and I'm just now updating you, I will try to be better in the future months. I'm afraid that in the next couple months we may not have too much to update other than the number because at this point the only thing that we can do is wait and pray. Please keep praying for us as we wait. Waiting is not easy, but we know it is what we have to do in order to be matched with the child that God has already picked out for us. 

3 things I look forward to doing after I graduate

I thought it might be time for a more fun or random blog, rather than always talking about adoption stuff. Since it is summer time and I have a little bit more free time, I feel like I am getting a little taste of what my life may look like after I graduate with my masters degree. In the last couple weeks I've been thinking about things that I would like to do after I graduate.
So here are some ideas that I have....

- Being a mother.
Depending on when we are able to go pick up the baby, I will hopefully graduate and be able to stay home and focus on raising a baby and being a wife. Matt is a huge help around the house, but I enjoy being able to cook dinner and do things around the house that need to be done. Matt has really stepped up and takes care of a lot of the household chores and he is so understanding when I haven't started dinner because I am working on school stuff.

- Read for fun.
I don't get to read anything for fun because I am so consumed with reading for school and assignments.

- Learn to sew.
I do not know how to sew, so I'm thinking about the possibility of learning to use a sewing machine. I would like to be able to make curtains, or halloween costumes, and even hem pants. I don't know how to do any of it and I would like to at least have a basic understanding of how to sew.

I know that adding a baby to our family is going to be a huge adjustment for our family, but these are just a few ideas that I've had the last few weeks. So depending on when we are able to travel and get the baby that would be my first priority before these other things. Lord willing, one day I will finish my degree and hopefully get to do a few things that I want to do.

A Mother's Day Poem

Mother's Day is a tough holiday for me for many reasons. I know that there are many other women who struggle on mother's day, for many reasons and I always take time to pray for those women on mother's day. For so long mother's day was difficult because of the death of my mother, when I was in college. Then for the years that Matt and I were trying to get pregnant, mother's day was a day of torture. Then this year the one year anniversary of my grandfather's death just happened to fall on May 13th, mother's day.
While mother's day is difficult it is also a time that I get to thank the women in my life that play motherly roles in my life. My grandmothers, my step-mom, my mother in law, and several other friends and family members. This year mother's day a little different. While it was still a tough day, I have hope for future mother's days. For so many years, I didn't have hope that mother's day was ever going to be a day for celebration. But now, I have hope that one day mother's day will be a day of mixed emotions of remembering my mother and all that she meant to me but also thankfulness for the blessings that God has given me.
This year our adoption agency sent me an email to wish me a happy mother's day and they included this poem in the email. I thought I would just share it because I thought it was really sweet.

A Mother's Day Poem Once there were two women who never knew each other One you do not remember, the other you call Mother Two different lives shaped to make you one The first one gave you life, and the second taught you to live it The first gave you a need for love, the second was there to give it One gave you a nationality, the other gave you a name One gave you a talent, the other gave you aim One gave you emotions, the other calmed your fears One saw your first sweet smile, the other dried your tears One made an adoption plan, that was all that she could do The other prayed for a child, and God led her straight to you. Now, which of these two women, are you the product of? Both, my darling, both, just two different types of love. ~ Author Unknown

Dossier has been sent!

Today we sent our dossier to our agency to be reviewed and then to be sent to several other places, including Ethiopia. A dossier is all  of the paperwork that is needed to do an adoption. Every country's requirements are different as to what they require in their dossier. Matt and I have been working several weeks on getting all of the required forms and paperwork. Today it all came together and we were able to send it off.

Here we are at fedex sending it off. The guy behind the counter thought I was totally crazy for asking if I could take a picture with our package, but I just had to explain what was going on and that I needed to document the moment! I'm not going to lie, we were both excited and nervous all at the same time. We were excited because we had worked so hard to get everything that we needed and we had finally completed all of our hard work, but nervous because we wanted to make sure everything was perfect and the realization that this package is really important. We spent some time praying over our dossier in the parking lot and asking God to protect it along the way.

Here are some ways that we are praying now and also ways that you can be praying for us.
- Pray that our dossier will make it safely to all of it's destinations. Our dossier will travel to a couple different states, then on to Washington D.C., and on to Ethiopia.
- Pray that Matt and I will wait patiently as our dossier is being reviewed. We know that God is sovereign.
- Also, continue to pray for our baby in Africa. We don't know who our baby is yet, but we do know that God has a specific child for us.

Switching Countries

After a long few weeks, we have decided to switch countries for our adoption. We are now going to adopt a baby from Ethiopia. This decision was not an easy one for us. We have been through a roller coaster of emotions during the whole process. The decision to switch countries was no exception. Matt and I have had many conversations about what we should do and what we felt like God was leading us to do. Ultimately, we had to make a decision and pray that it was the right decision for us and where God was leading our family. We decided to switch countries to Ethiopia and have felt an overwhelming peace about the decision. Throughout the process of switching countries, we have experienced some grief. Grief over our unmet expectations, the way we thought the whole adoption process was going to go, our ideas about where our child was going to come from, etc. It is hard to explain all the emotions that we were feeling, but this is my best shot.
We switched officially last week. We now are working on paperwork to compile our dossier. A dossier is all of our paperwork that will be sent to Ethiopia. We are quickly trying to gather our paper work and send it off so that we can be put on the waiting list to be matched with a baby. Our process as a whole may be a little longer by switching to Ethiopia, but like someone told me in the process of making the decision to switch, "the right answer, isn't always the shortest". We are doing what we feel like the Lord has lead us to do. Some of our paper work will transfer over, but some will not. There are some other differences between the two countries in the adoption process but I won't go into all of them right now. Overall, we are excited about the switch and we feel like good things are happening.
In other news, we have both been sick this week. In the last week we have both been to the doctor and we are now both on antibiotics. So needless to say our weekend plans are not very exciting. I don't imagine that we will be doing much more than sleeping and watching movies. Also, I am getting very close to finishing my semester at NOBTS. I have two finals left and then I will be officially on summer break. This semester has been the most challenging semester since I have started working on my masters degree. However, while it has been a hard semester I feel like I learned so much. This semester has challenged me to grow both spiritually and intellectually, but I'm glad it's almost over.
Thank you for all the prayers, support, advice, and encouragement you have given us. At some points in this process we have felt very alone, but to hear and know people are praying for us and encouraging us is more helpful than I explain. Your encouragement and support has kept us going for the last few weeks. Thank you!

Struggle

There has been a lot going on with us lately. There has been a lot going on with us with regards to school and work but also with the adoption. Honestly, we have been going through a hard time emotionally. We know that there are a lot of people that are praying for us and want to support us. We are so blessed by you, and thankful to have you in our lives.

Our struggle is surrounding the adoption. We chose Uganda because we felt like the Lord was leading us to adopt a child from there. Recently we have received some news from our adoption agency, about the Ugandan government, that was unsettling to us. So we have a decision to make, whether to not to continue our adoption in Uganda or switch to another country.

I don't know how to explain the struggle that we going through trying to make a decision. We still haven't made a decision honestly. The only way that I know how to describe what we are going through is grief. We are grieving the idea of how we thought the adoption was going to go and now everything is changing. We have spent a lot of time talking through our options, and we've had our fair share of tears and break downs. Honestly, I feel like I've cried so much, that I can't cry anymore. It has taken us a few days to even feel like we can share this with other people. Honestly, we are hurting and we are emotionally exhausted.

Today I was reading Psalm 18. I started to read verse 1 out loud, but no noise would come out. I was so overwhelmed with emotion that I began to sob and the only noise that was coming from my mouth were squeaks. I had to stop and pray.

The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;

my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,

I love you, LORD, my strength.

my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

God has not forgotten us. We are not alone. We seek our refuge in God and when we don't have anymore strength, we can find our strength in him. I was so overwhelmed with a feeling of gratefulness for God that the only thing I could do was stop and pray and cry out to God for forgiveness for trying to deal with all of this on my own and not giving the whole situation and all the struggles over to Him. God is so good to us, and I get so overwhelmed by His love and faithfulness.

Please continue to pray for us, while we are trying to make a decision about what to do. Pray for clarification in our decision making and pray for peace. Also, please know that you can talk to us about our struggles, we will talk to you about what is going on. Don't be afraid to bring it up or ask questions, it helps us to know that people are praying for us and supporting us.

Passing the Time

Since we know that we have at least a year before we are going to be matched with a child, I decided that I needed something to help me keep track of the time. I came up with this idea to do a prayer chain. I've talked about how important prayer has been to us during the whole process. So, I made a chain with 52 links, one for every week. I wrote out a prayer on each chain link and each friday we get to remove a chain and that is our prayer for the week for our baby. We pray everyday for our baby or babies but this just helps us focus on one major theme for the week. We will keep each link and put them altogether, so one day our child will be able to see all the different things that we prayed for.

Now, I recognize that we don't know exactly how long our wait time could be and it could be longer than a year, but I just have to remember not to get discouraged if the links run out and I have to make another chain.

Here is a picture of the chain after we finished it.

We are having a good weekend and spending some time together. We have spent some of our weekend moving furniture around and doing some cleaning. I didn't realize how dusty everything had gotten, until I started moving furniture and one thing led to another so most everything is clean now. Hope you are having a great weekend!

Waiting

Now that we have our immigration approval we have been put on a referral waiting list. So, we are waiting to be matched with a baby or babies. We were originally told that the wait would be about 6 months before we go matched. However, since then we have been told that the wait is probably going to be more like a year. Ouch! Our first set back. I was trying to prepare myself emotionally for a 6 month wait and now I have to prepare myself for a year long wait.

We know that God has a plan and He knows what He is doing, but this is still a downer for us. So, yes we are a little sad that it is going to be a little longer than what we had expected, but God has a plan and He is working all things out.

That is really the only update that we have as of right now. We have some paper work to get done before we get matched, but I have some time to get it done now. We have had a great start to the year. We have been really busy but we have been saving time to spend together and just enjoy our time that we have together. We were able to go home to celebrate my dad's birthday last weekend and we had a great time with family. I have gotten horrible about taking pictures, so I didn't get one picture the whole weekend. I'm so mad that I didn't get any pictures! But I guess that just shows that I was having such a good time, that I didn't want to stop and take any pictures.