Can't believe it has been 3 1/2 months since we first laid eyes on our boys! Time cannot go by fast enough right now! Sure, we have a lot to get ready and both governments must go through their processes, but I can't help but whine and complain about this wait. We are hopeful that we will travel sometime for our first trip in the next 2-3 months. Our second trip will most likely be only a month later, so we hope to have our full family united by the end of the summer!
During a continued time of delay, changes and improvements in the adoption process in Ethiopia, a lot of progress has still been made on our case and we are particularly thankful that we passed our first court date in Ethiopia back in March (we did not attend this one, but will the next). That was a day our family won't soon forget. The weekend before, as we prayed hard and looked forward to the upcoming good news on our case, our 5 month old puppy, whom we had named Addis, ingested part of a sago palm plant that, unknown to us at the time, is extremely poisonous to dogs and she stayed overnight at the ER vet. On Monday morning, about 10am, we got the super awesome e-mail stating that the court date went well in Ethiopia and at 1015am, we got a call from our vet saying we had to put our puppy to sleep, that her liver was failing and she was dying. Anyone would find this a sad accident, but let me add a quick history on this special pup. The kids and I had been working on Michael for almost a year for a puppy, clearly lining out all the wonderful reasons why a puppy would benefit our family. He finally relented last September agreeing that training and adjusting a puppy before our adoption was final would be ideal. We decided to name her after the Ethiopian capital, since she was a symbol of our journey and would be growing up right next to the child(ren) we were adopting. She was beautiful and amazing. She was so full of love and was a constant companion to Melissa during some adoption ups and downs in December and after our referral. She was the first pet our kids lost and it hurt our hearts badly to see each other and our kids go through so much sadness and happiness in one day. She was with us only a short time, but for an important reason and she taught us a lot. We are (most likely!!) going to wait to introduce a new furry member to our family until after our boys come home and let them be a part of it. In the meantime, we will give our 11 year old faithful dog lots of extra love (and will keep showing Michael pictures of rescue dogs just in case!!).
Back to progress....there has surely been a lot of progress on me as a person, wife, parent.....A few different friends have mentioned the book of James to me lately, so I decided to read this book of the Bible I wasn't super familiar with (didn't even know it was only 5 chapters). Of course, I have seen on many blogs and shirts the familiar adoption verse from James 1:27, but I was eager to read the rest. Boy, is this the perfect book for me! Perfect in Word and timing! Because I need to refer to these truths ALL THE TIME, here are a couple of things I will hold onto:
JOY during times of testing: James 1:2-4 My brothers, reckon it all joy whenever you become involved in all kinds of testings, for you are well aware that the testing of your faith produces unswerving constancy. And let constancy go on to work out its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete, deficient in nothing. I have been tested so many times during this adoption journey. Tested while waiting for a referral, tested while making the decision to adopt from a different country, tested while riding the roller coaster of ups and downs in the process. The list goes on of how many disappointments that (still) seek to take my faith away, yet I need to have joy through all of these, as each and every test is not meant to make me fall, but to make me soar. Instead of being weaker when this adoption journey is done, we will all be stronger. Thank you Lord for these tests so I can be a better mom to all of my children. Especially to these 2 boys who have gone through many sorrows.
Dependence on God's will: James 4:15 Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and we shall do this or that." The future is uncertain to all of us, but I need not be paralyzed by this uncertainty. The adoption process is full of uncertainty, we are always waiting for an update (literally we are today while I write this). While waiting, we need to put our plans in the hands of God. Then...LEAVE them there. Every time I take them back, I am paralyzed again.
The timing really was perfect in reading these encouraging words from James. There are have been so many other encouraging times during this wait and I will end this post with one last one. We had our adoption garage sale on April 12. It was our only fundraiser for funds toward our journey. We started a couple of weeks prior and advertised to friends and family that we were holding the sale and asked for any donations of goods. We were in awe of the donations that poured in over the following weeks, including some from friends of friends, people we have never met! We could not walk in our garage and our house was a total disaster for such a great reason! Friends also contributed yummy baked goods for a bake sale the kids held in the yard during the garage sale (which took up 2 full driveways). We woke up at 4:30 and it took over 2 hours to get everything out. We had so many giving family and friends helping us that day and even had some surprise family members drive many hours to support us just for that day. The weather was beautiful and the sale lasted until 4pm. We even had things left over that we donated. Our monetary goal was to make enough for 1 plane ticket to Ethiopia, which we are estimating about $1,800. From the things we sold right before and during the sale we made about $3,000! A huge thank you to everyone who helped and prayed for our fundraiser. We are ready to buy those tickets! Every little thing gonna be all right!
MELISSA
