his unspeakable gift...

"thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift." - 2 corinthians 9:15

i told you that verse would be on this blog again.

the fact is, i already planned to use it again. i knew exactly when and exactly how. i just couldn't post it in blog world...until now!

brent and i are thrilled (beyond thrilled really...more like ecstatic, bouncing off the walls crazy happy) to announce that we have accepted the referral of the most beautiful little girl we have ever laid eyes on! we could not be more excited about her, and we can't wait to get her home!

now, since i know you are all dying to ask, i will go ahead and answer some frequently asked questions:

wait, how did this happen so quickly? i thought it could be another year (or more).
we had originally thought we would get on the waiting list and wait for a referral, and that wait could have been at least a year. but, our little one was a waiting child - she was waiting for a family, and we CHOSE her! actually, God chose her for us, but He showed this precious face to us, and we knew we had to bring her home.

how and when did you find out about her and choose her?
you may want the short version of this story, but that ain't happening. so, get comfy.

many, many months ago, right after we had started this process, i blogged about meeting an adoptive mom, kristi, at chick-fil-a one afternoon - very randomly. kristi and her husband adopted a little girl from ethiopia and posted a video about it on you tube. seeing this video had been a real encouragement to us, and opened our eyes to the whole ethiopian adoption world. then in january, brent and i ran into kristi and her entire family (and that is a crew!) waiting to get their fingerprints for their second adoption. we just happened to both show up at the same time to get fingerprinted. while we waited for our names to be called, we got to visit with the family and talk all about their upcoming adoption and kristi's recent trip to ethiopia with her sister kelly, who runs ordinary hero...

talking to kristi and hearing about what they had done on the trip got me thinking about ordinary hero and about all the kids they saw while in ethiopia. so i emailed kelly and got the password to view pictures of all the kids who were waiting for families. i saw a certain little girl...and i had to know more about her. but, the next thing i new, her status was "adopted". i couldn't be too sad because i knew it meant there was one less orphan, but i could never get her off my mind.

fast forward a little bit, and i read this blog post (read the part at the very end)...

so she was still waiting. waiting. waiting. and God was telling me she was waiting for us.

here was the only problem...brent didn't know about any of this. whoops. i figured it was kinda important for he and i to be on the same page about decisions like this.

so, we talked and prayed and talked and prayed some more. it was not the easiest decision we have ever made. our hearts were with her, but satan was using our heads to scare us. i mean, we had been down the waiting child road before, and we were only left with broken hearts. and in order to adopt this precious baby, we had to change agencies. and then what if we did all the work to change agencies and then someone else chose her before we could?

and in the middle of all this talking and praying (and the whirlwind going through our minds), brent's sweet grandfather passed away. let me just say this, making tough decisions is not made any easier by being sleep deprived and emotional. i'm just sayin.

then on sunday, march 20, brent passes me a note during our morning worship service. it read: "i think we should do this." i thought i was going to jump out of my seat and start screaming with joy. but it was right in the middle of the sermon. (yes, dad, we were passing notes during your sermon. sorry.)

so, we did it. on wednesday, march 30, we officially accepted the referral of "baby m" from ethiopia. the huge weight that had been on my head and heart just disappeared. (unfortunately the huge weight that has been on my hips is still there.)

on that very same day, we find out that kristi's new son and murray and jaime's little girl have been living at the VERY SAME PLACE as our little one! (btw, murray and jaime are friends of friends - and now our friends - who actually used to live with my former boss when they first moved to our area!) and on the very next day, jaime offered to take a care package for us when she and murray traveled to ethiopia for their court date! so our sweet baby m has now seen pictures of us, and we have seen pictures of her looking at pictures of us (i think she was underwhelmed).

so, when do you get her?
well, we really can't say with much certainty. we do know we have (as of yesterday) been submitted to court. that means we are just waiting to get "on the docket" for a specific date. we will go for our court date (that is when we meet her for the first time) and then again for our embassy visit (that is when we bring her home forever!). but, we will keep you posted when we know more about the time frame.

so where is her picture?
well, we can't post her picture anywhere, but we will be MORE than happy to show you a picture if you see us! we're kind of annoying about it.

but until you see us, you can see a picture of her car seat.




we have been so blown away by God's awesome power, by the love of family and friends, and by this adorable little girl! we can't wait to meet her.

what an awesome, mighty God we serve.