Today has been such a great day! We had many blessings today, some huge and some small. I'll share them all. :)
First, our friends Anita and Dave just got back from a denominational conference that most of the church staff attended. Ray and I really loved the conference last year, but weren't able to go this year. Ray is still working hard to get all his papers done, and I'm saving all my vacation time for the baby. Anyway, Anita ordered all the sessions to be sent to Ray's email in an MP3 file so that we could hear the speaker! She also knows how much we like Herr's potato chips. We could buy Herr's in any store in PA, but no where here in NY. So, she bought us 3 bags of Herr's chips. :)
Next, a friend from our small group gave me a necklace of Africa today! She said that one of her friends made it by hand when they were involved in a ministry called Kenya Kids Project on the campus of Roberts Wesleyan College. Meg, our friend, said that she doesn't wear the necklace often, and she thought maybe I would like to have it. I LOVE it! Meg mentioned that she tried to move the bead from the Kenya spot to Ethiopia. I'm not sure if she was able to move it or not, but Kenya is right below Ethiopia. So, I have a hand-made necklace of Africa with a bead on Ethiopia. Here is a picture of it. I told Meg that I would wear it every day. She probably thought I was kidding, but I was pretty serious. :)
Finally, amazingly, we received another large gift toward our adoption today. A couple from our church who had looked into adopting from Russia at one time let us know a couple of weeks ago that they were interested in helping to support our adoption. Today they gave us a card that said:
"We hope that your adoption is progressing well. How excited you must be in anticipation of God's wonderful gift to you. We'll pray for you as you take this step of faith and embark on this awesome journey. May God bless your family!!" Inside the card was a check for $1000!!!! The Lord continues to amaze us by the generosity of his people.
The estimated wait time for a boy request or an either gender request is 5-7 months. That means that the earliest time we might hear something would be the end of June. If that happens we may be able to have our court date in July and travel in August. The courts in Ethiopia close in August and September, so if our referral comes after June we probably won't be able to get a court date until October at the earliest. We'd prefer sooner than later, but we know that if it doesn't work out that way we can wait a few more months. What's a few months compared to all the years we'll have with our child after we meet him or her? We're just so excited that we're in the process that will lead us to our baby and we're resting in God's timing for it all. In the meantime we're enjoying our last few months as "just the 2 of us."
