Introducing....

OUR SON, ABNET!


We got a call last night from Julie saying that we went through court on Monday! Abnet is legally our child! Yea! She thinks that we will be able to travel in about 4 to 5 weeks. They need to get his passport, and set up an US embassy appointment before we'll know for sure. We should hear from them next week with dates that we can travel.

And although I am so excited that the process has been really fast for us, I'm also feeling very sad for some others who have been waiting longer than us. Julie told me last night, that there were some families who have not gone through court yet, and they have been waiting longer then us. I can't imagine how hard that would be. Unfortunately the courts don't really look at who should be next in line, so you never know what order it will be in. I am praying hard for you all (you know who you are) that your case will come fast! & I'm sure we will be celebrating with you soon!


Here are some more pictures of Abnet:

This is when Abnet first came to Hannah's Hope (the AGCI's home). --i think he is about 2months here.


This was taken by some other families who were there to bring their children home. --again i think he is about 2 months old.


I think he is about 2 1/2 months here


About 3 months here



I know, I know, he's adorable! :)

Ballet

My New Toy

So after 2 years of waiting to get a new camera...I finally did it. I used to have a Canon Rebel film camera, but it broke about 3 years ago. I love taking pictures, I'm no pro, but I've really missed it. My small digital is convenient, but just doesn't take as nice of pictures. I especially wanted to have a nice camera before we left for Ethiopia. The nice thing is with Canon cameras is that all their lenses are interchangeable. So I was able to just buy the body of the digital SLR, and use all my lenses from my previous camera. Makes it a little more affordable. :)

Hopefully soon I'll have some great pictures to post for you all!

***Thanks Uncle Bob for giving me great advice on what to get & where to buy it!

We Need A Name...

Okay, I need your help. We need a cute/fun nickname for little one. :) I've been trying to come up with one for the past couple of days, & my mind is blank. So please come to my rescue, and give me some of your ideas.

June 30th

We got news today that little one's birthday is June 30th! When we got our referral they weren't exactly sure what it was, they figured somewhere between early June and early August. So this is great that we actually know! So that makes him almost 4 months old!

As far as our phone call went the other day...not much is known yet. They are still giving us the 3-5 month estimate for travel. But I really think that this is a conservative estimate. (or at least I really hope so!) But they believe all our paperwork has been submitted to MOWA (which is who approves us as a match for our little one). Once MOWA approves us MOWA will then forward everything on to the court, and it's at that time that a court date will be given. After that...TRAVEL!

Just Waiting....

Sorry about the lack of posting...but there hasn't been much to post about. We are just waiting right now for a court date. I have no idea when that will be. We actually have a call scheduled for tonight with All God's Children, and I am really hoping that they will have a good idea of when it might be.

I've been doing fine with the waiting...well pretty good. But I just saw on another families blog that they just got a court date for this week, and they got their referral the same time we did. (they are with a different organization) Although I'm really happy for them, I'm of course insanely jealous! But at the same time, I think that we are not even close to being ready to bringing the little one home! It's felt really far away at this point that it's been hard for me to really feel motivated to get things all done. But I know once we hear of a court date, we will most likely be traveling I think about 2 weeks later...so we need to be ready! :)

So off to go paint the room! & I'll let you know if I get any more good information from the phone call tonight!

Please Help

We just got this in an email from our agency, All God's Children International-- "...as many of you have heard our Guatemala program is going through a hard time as the current Guatemalan government is making decisions that are impacting orphans and birthmothers who are currently being cared for. Because of this we have had to stop bringing on families to our Guatemala program. Whenever this happens it impacts our orphan care program as a large portion of adoption fees go to helping the children who will remain in Guatemala.

Please also keep this in mind as you are praying for AGCI—we are trying to make a tremendous push in our orphan care efforts and we need the support of families to do this—both in prayer and finances."

So a great way you guys can help would be to help sponsor a child or a home (like the same home that our little one is in right now, only in Guatemala).

If you are interested in this please click here to find out more.


"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." -James 1:27

Guatemala

Please pray for Guatemala and the adoption process. I'm not sure if I understand exactly what's going on, but I know that it will effect A LOT of children & adoptive parents here in the states.

Basically, of what I understand, the president of Guatemala has said that he will sign the Hague into affect on December 31st and as of that date they will only do adoptions with Hague Countries. The U.S. is not officially ratified into the Hague and when they do the US says they will make Guatemala make changes before they allow adoption. At this point the president said nothing about if cases would be grandfathered in. He will stop all cases not completed.

So one of the big issues is that their are 5,000 children that have already been referred, but since the adoptions are not completed, they don't know if they will be able to bring their children home.

Sorry that I don't know much...if you want more information please click here.

I just can't imagine being a parent in this situation, just waiting to hear if you are able to bring your child/children home. Also I know of one family, who was adopting from another country when it shut down, and so they switched to Guatemala, and now if this shuts down, they will have to switch again...if they can, b/c every time they have had to switch countries they've lost a lot of money in the process, & so I don't know if they would be able to again. So please pray with me!