Waiting.....

For the past five months we have been so excited about adding Tizita and Geremew to our family. We have gathered mountains of paperwork, all 6 of us have had shots, we have sent a care package to our precious children,  have weekly done some pre-adoption counseling, started to prepare our home and raised money to bring our kids home from Ethiopia.

The first part of this adoption journey started with the mounds of paperwork to get our home study and Dossier complete. Each day we would remind ourselves that the task of paperwork would all be worth it in the end! David and I are both organizationally challenged and so a long list of paperwork to collect is not our cup of tea! With everyday we were able to check things off of our ever-growing list. The list is now complete and our Dossier was mailed to Ethiopia at the end of March.

We have all six been vaccinated and I must say that this has been the most unpleasant part of the journey for the kids. Lindsay and Jacob had to keep reminding each other that this would all be worth it to have another brother and sister. Megan and Kaylee did great with their shots but they are both really glad that they are over! David finished up today with his booster shots and I thankfully didn't have to have any boosters.

One of the greatest joys so far in this process was packing and sending a care package to our kids. Megan, Kaylee, Jacob, Lindsay, and I  had a blast one day at the mall as we searched for special things for the twins. Megan and Lindsay were in charge of Tizita's package and Jacob and Kaylee packed Geremew a package. The care package was limited to one Gallon sized zip-lock bag. How do we send our love as a family in one small bag? Tizita's bag was packed full of hair accessories, a notebook, a pen, T-shirt, and other girly things. Geremew's bag was stuffed with a toy car, a notebook, a pen, T-shirt and several other boy things. Both bags had a photo album of our family, our home and notes from each of us. I cried as I packed the bags with the kids- I knew that our precious twins would soon know of our love for them. As a family we prayed that these bags would reflect our love, hope for the future and an amazing joy as they received them. A few days after they received their bags we received photos of our amazing kids wearing the T-shirts that we had sent. Tears of joy came again as we knew that they knew that their family was coming soon to bring them home!

David and I have enjoyed our time of counseling as we prepare to bring two more children into our family. On David's trip to Ethiopia last year he had the opportunity to spend a week and a half with RJ who is an adoption counselor. When we started to pursue adoption this year we knew that he would be one of our first contacts.  He has been so helpful as we meet each week to discuss what adding twins from another culture to our home will look like. He has shared many thoughts, ideas and suggestions that we have really taken to heart. For David and I it has been wonderful for us to spend hours talking about what is to come. Many dreams and many fears of what our days ahead will hold. We have had some great family conversations from the thoughts that he has shared with us. Our entire family will be meeting with him this week and we look forward to this journey knowing that so many have gone before us and so many will follow.

Preparing our home is the stage that we find ourselves in at this moment. David says he is "nesting". Having six children will be logistically challenging at times and so we are preparing the best we can to cut down on any extra chaos. The reality of 16 shoes at the door when we come in from being out can seem overwhelming and so we are adding systems to our home to make things run smoothly! The laundry room (that is always full of laundry with 6) is also getting a major makeover. Eight name labeled tubs for clean laundry on a rolling cart that can be rolled from bedroom to bedroom, a huge folding table and plenty of storage shelves for all of the extras that we are going to need. Lindsay and Jacob are adding beds to their rooms and Lindsay is so excited that we found Tizita bedding that matches her current bedding (Thanks to Pottery Barn). David's mom has towels that will soon have their names stitched on them to go in their bathroom. We are adding babydolls with darker skin and five year old boy toys to the playroom. This is so much fun for all six of us because we know that these changes mean that our family will all be together soon.

If you would have ask us in January how we were going to come up with over $30,000 we would have said that we had no idea and we didn't. We did however know that God was calling us to step out on faith and follow Him. We as a family prayed that God would provide what we needed to make our family complete. An amazing and unexpected part of this journey has been to watch our children get so excited about God providing for us in amazing and unheard of ways. They truly have seen  God provide when we trusted and obeyed Him. Something that we could never teach without experience but a joy to watch unfold in front of us. I will share in the next blog how God has provided in ways that we could have never ever dreamed of-

Now we wait.......on a court date, an embassy date and for the day that we get to hold our precious Tizita and Geremew!

Enjoying the Journey-