#1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK. A darling little 7-month old baby girl has been found by her forever family (YAY! One less orphan...147 million less one). SO, we are #1!! This means we could get "the call" any minute with an email to lay eyes on our darling daughter for the first time!! Oh, this is amazing. There have been lots of amazings around here lately. I will make time soon to post what has been happening.

#2

It's official!!

#2 (unofficially)

YIPPEE!! I got an email this afternoon from the people who were #1 on our wait list. They just got their referral for a 3-week (yes, 3 WEEK not 3 month) old little darling daughter. I am so excited for them!!! Now we are #2! It's just not "official" until Monday when they can accept the referral formally. It won't be long now until we see a picture of our baby girl. I would think a month or two months at the most. Please send prayers for our little girl and her birth family. They are in my heart always and on my mind A LOT these days, even when I should be sleeping.

#3! & update

YAY! I have to admit, I was getting a little impatient. We are #3 now!!!! SO close!

We also found out this week the US embassy in Ethiopia has changed their timing on things, so now we'll probably have to wait about 4 months (instead of 3) to pick up our darling after we get our referral. :( Booo, I don't like that, but all in God's timing. We'll just need more support from our wonderful family and friends in the wait. :)

Dear God

Dear God,
I have insomnia tonight, not typical for this Mom of 3 who needs to get sleep when she can! :) In my insomnia, I decided to share my plan with you. I'm planning on getting the referral for our new daughter the day before Halloween, or maybe a few days before. Then we can go scoop her up the beginning of February, after Adair's first birthday. Oh, and could you put about 6-8 months between the girls in age? You know I like to plan things I'm excited about, even those things that are not in my control. I do know it is your plan we will follow. Thank you for all your mercy and the ZZZZZZs I'm about to get. Bless our baby girl and the hearts she has already touched in this great world!
Yours TRULY, Brooke

#4

A baby girl was referred to her forever family. We are now #4! Wow! This is happening MUCH faster than we expected.

#5

Holy cow! We are now #5.

#6

Wow, I just found out today that two people accepted referrals on Friday, so we are now #6!!!

#8

A 5-month-old baby girl found her new forever family today. We are now number 8! Seems like we might be looking at another Christmas with news of a new little one! Please send prayers for our darling daughter, who may be still in the womb or newly born. Bless her and her birth family.

China Update

We get updated monthly from our China agency. Even though it will be many years before we receive our referral from China (some say 3 years, others say 10), I figure we'll keep you in the loop regardless. Current time from LID (log in date) until matched with your child is 40 months. Our LID is 9-10-08. China matches children with families one day per month. On June 22, they matched LIDs for March 15-20, 2006. Children matched were 7-12 months old.

#9

A family got their referral for a baby boy today! They were also on the baby girl list, so we are now #9.

#10

A family got the best news ever today. They are the proud parents of their first child, a 5 1/2 month old baby girl! Her Daddy cannot say enough about how beautiful she is. Another mother who was just in Ethiopia said she got to love on this baby and confirms just how amazing she is. Praise God. We are now #10.

#11!

A precious 9-month old baby girl was matched with her blessed forever family today! We are now #11.

Back on the list!!!

OK, we are officially waiting once again for our second darling daughter. #12 is the magic number. I promise to keep the blog updated with any movement as we climb up the ladder again. I can't wait to find out who Adair's Irish twin will be. We will love on her like crazy! Our boys are so fun to watch together, so I am so excited for the girls to have one another too. :)

current "pregnancy"

May 14 we had a home visit to complete our homestudy addendum. This is the document that tells Ethiopia we will still be a good home for our next baby, even after adopting Miss Bear. June 4 and 5 we made the trek back to USCIS to get our fingerprints redone before they expired. Our homestudy addendum came back from getting certified at the county clerk, so it is now in the mail to the Secretary of State to get certified. SO, we should be back on the wait list for our darling daughter by the end of the month!!! We go back on after our agency gets our certified homestudy addendum. We will probably be #11 on the wait list. The average wait time until referral is 6 months, so December might be our month again this year (we found out about Miss Bear the week before Christmas)! If the baby is about 3 months old at the time of referral as we expect, her gestational age is about 25 weeks right now. VERY neat to think about. I'm sending prayers for her precious birth mother and our darling baby. I hope she can feel how much she is already loved.

kids, books, and birthmoms

Well, a few weeks ago (probably soon after Miss Bear started sleeping through the night), we decided to continue our adoption with Ethiopia and bring our second darling daughter home next year. Yay! A little nervous, like always when we make these decisions, but also trusting our faith in Him is bringing us right where we're suppose to be.

A week ago I read the most amazing book called "It's Not Okay With Me." It came highly recommended by one of my adoption buddies many months ago. I think she said it changed her life, so I bought it and it sat on a shelf for several months. I finally picked it up and began reading. I couldn't put it down. It certainly focuses on Africa and Janine Maxwell's (the author's) cause, but it also encourages you to find your own cause and nurture it, feed it.

We celebrated Birth Mother's Day with Miss Bear's birth mother and her family 2 weeks ago. It was sweet and went too fast. Justin and I gave C a framed poem with a picture of C and I the first day we met, a picture of C, Miss Bear, and I together about a month ago, and a darling picture of Miss Bear. It was complete with Miss Bear's hand print next to the poem. SO cute! But have you ever tried finger paints with a 3-month old? Don't! (They make a fist when they feel the paint). Below is the poem. No, I didn't really write it. I found it on the internet and then tweaked it to fit for our family.

Our Miss Bear

Once there were two expectant mothers.
One carried and cared for Miss Bear beneath her beating heart.
She became Miss Bear’s Birthmother.
The other carried the hope of Miss Bear within her.
She became Miss Bear’s Mom.
As the days passed, Miss Bear grew bigger and stronger.
Her Birthmother knew that she could not give Miss Bear all she wanted for her after
birth.
Meanwhile, Miss Bear’s Mom was ready and waiting for her.

One day in December, her Birthmom and Mom found each other.

They looked into each other’s eyes and saw a friend.
Miss Bear’s Birthmom saw the life her Mom could give her.
Miss Bear’s Mom saw how much her Birthmom loved and cared for her.

They decided that what Miss Bear needed was both kinds of love.
So now Miss Bear has two families.
One by adoption, one by birth.

Miss Bear will always have her home where she can have:
her questions answered, her boo boos bandaged,
lots of laughs, and much needed hugs.

And a place where she can find:
answers to her questions,
her image in the mirror,
and a part of herself.

Two different kinds of families
Two different kinds of love
Both a part of Miss Bear.

Wow - our darling "baby sister" (said by her brothers about 50x/day) is doing great! She is Miss Smiley now and sleeping about 8 hours at night, needing a pacifier refresher about 2x each night. It is so cool how God sometimes brings your biggest gifts in ways you least expect. We can't imagine our lives without this great blessing.

Ethiopia update... Had we stayed on the Ethiopia list, we would have had our referral on March 27 after being #1 on the list for only a day. I think the baby is 8 months old, and she is now with the forever family she was always meant to find. How wonderful! I spoke with our agency the week before last. Our specialist and I talked about a timeline that would keep us from having to redo our paperwork. Ethiopia's rule is that you must have your embassy date (when you travel to pick up your child) in Ethiopia within 2 years from the time your paperwork was received in Ethiopia. So we need a completed embassy date by October 22, 2010 to avoid doing another dossier. For this to occur, they want to give us a referral by May/June 2010. So they plan to put us back on the waitlist this Fall. Yes, this Fall. Wow, that's soon. That means picking up Baby #4 next year. Hmmmm....not sure we will be ready for that. Needless to say, Justin and I are just praying about this knowing He will guide us and bring us the child that He planned for our family when He planned for her/him to arrive. God is great!

An Amazing Woman

About 30 seconds after my last blog post my phone rang. "Hello" I said. I heard, "Congratulations!" in unison. It was C (birthmom) and K (birth grandma). I burst into tears from their love. It's overwhelming. They said there are no returns, refunds, or rebates. :) THANK GOD! We all shared a laugh through the life changing moment I will never forget. Kissing my dear daughter feels even more wonderful now. How sweet it is that I can always share with her my admiration, love, and respect for the woman who gave her life.

Ours!

That's it! It's 5:00 so Miss Bear is officially ours!! Her birthmom brought her a "little sister" onesie today to celebrate her official entrance into our family. We are so blessed!

Miss Bear is here!

Wonderful news to report! I have been paralyzed in my blogging for a couple reasons. One, taking care of my busy household gone busier. Two, the events and emotions I have to report are difficult and maybe impossible to put into words. But I’m going to do my best in the minutes I have to fill you in. On Saturday, January 24 at 3:48am, we were blessed with the birth of our darling daughter, Miss Bear. 6 lbs.,12 oz., 19 1/2 inches. I got a call from K (the birthmother’s mother) at about 3:00am saying, “They’re doing an emergency C-section. You need to get to the hospital right away.” The adrenaline kicked in and was there for the next several days I think. We were at the hospital by 4:00, record time. C, the birthmom, requested the Dr. wait for my arrival to do the C-section. They tried to wait, but when the baby’s HR dropped to 90, they put C under general anesthesia and took the baby right away. Miss Bear had just gotten into the nursery when we arrived. Like from a movie, the waiting room was filled with young people, C’s friends, who had all left their partying downtown to support their friend’s childbirth. Some were sober, many not, but all were there with loving intentions for their dear friend. I knew many of them from the “pamper C” shower they had thrown for her 4 days earlier. The second we walked in C’s roommate yelled to the nurse, “These are the adoptive parents” and a nurse whisked us off to meet our daughter. She was under a heat lamp and absolutely beautiful. We adored her and Hubby went to check on C's status, as we were keeping her Mom up to date, who had an 8-hour drive ahead of her to reach her daughter and new grandchild. The next 4½ days were filled with all the social activities of a wedding and all the demands of caring for a newborn. Because I was breastfeeding, the hospital provided us with our own room and the staff was amazing. We had so many deeply loving, sad, exciting, humorous, touching moments with C and K and the other friends and family. It was exhausting and wonderful. These are the days I struggle to communicate to you. Two families came together with God in love for this darling child. I have never experienced one little life touching so many. God took over and He cared for all of us, allowing each of us to make sacrifices in our love for each other and for Miss Bear. What resulted was an amazing adoption story filled with many little stories of healing and loving. One person called it a “true love story.” We couldn’t wait to leave the hospital with our little girl, but the leaving was brutal. We didn’t want to say goodbye to C and K, with whom we had become so close. Leaving was dramatic and abrupt on the rainy day, and I would even say traumatic. We were sad on our drive home, and in true form, we got a loving phone call from K within an hour letting us know that they were OK. This helped us. She said she knew I wouldn’t enjoy my day because I would likely be worrying about them, so she wanted to call. She was taking care of me even in all she was experiencing. Mutual compassion and respect and faith in God – that’s how we all got through. I called them to notify them of Miss Bear’s Dr. appt the next day, as she was going to an orthopedist for hip dysplasia. I sent pictures of her in her little sling thing. Then God took over again. C’s Godmother was in town and they had the courage to ask if she could see the baby, saying many times “It is TOTALLY fine if you say no.” We were hoping they would ask. Although we feared C’s process of separating might “start over,” our guts told us it was the right thing for us. This was just what we all needed after the hospital departure. People say, “Doesn’t the contact make it harder?” C put it best, “Now it feels like a series of hellos rather than one goodbye.” It is easy for us to be open with them, as they so respect our boundaries and our roles as Miss Bear’s parents. I will write more as I digest it all. I am changed forever I think. God is great!

Full-term

OK. Our little sweetheart is full-term tomorrow, so if she's anything like her oldest brother or birthmom, she could come any minute. Although we are SO excited to meet our little darling, we're hoping for her birthmom that she waits to come on January 30th when she is induced so her birthmom can have her Mom (who is coming from out of state) there for support.

Our Ethiopia agency called today to tell us that we are now #4 on the girl list and #8 on the boy list. Number 4 on the girl list - WOW! When it rains it pours.

Ultrasound today

Our baby's birthmom invited us to her ultrasound today. It was hard to really see our baby girl because she's so big now, but it was still cool to hear that little heartbeat again and see a head, abdomen, thigh bone, spine... We didn't get a very good look at that little face, which I CAN'T WAIT to be cheek to cheek with. They estimated she is 6 lbs. 5 ounces now and will gain a half pound per week from here. If she goes until January 30th - maybe 7.5 pounds. The fluid is a little low right now so Dr. said she could come early. Next appointment will be next Thursday. Hopefully her cervix will be ready enough so they'll schedule the induction for the 30th. It was so nice to get more time with the birthmom who is quickly becoming a dear friend we care so much about. Today I felt more at ease, as we're getting to know each other better. The sweetest thing is that the birthmom said her roommate has been calling the baby "Miss Bear" (obviously I don't share real names on my blog) when she talks to her, which is the name we have chosen for her! :) The highlight of the morning was getting to feel some little feet kick me while we were waiting to check-out of the Dr. office. It was the first time I felt my little girl and it brought me to tears instantly. We had a fun breakfast together after the appointment at IHOP.

Blessings, blessings, everywhere

OK, our world has been rocked this past month, so I haven't blogged even though there's much to report. Back around Halloween my sister and I were hanging out and she told me about a friend of hers who she adores. Her friend was pregnant and placing her baby for adoption. I said to Justin kind of joking, "Should I email her?" He said "sure." Despite our great emotional and financial investments in our Ethiopia and China adoptions, I really couldn't let it go and wrote her an email telling her about us. I told her I felt a strong pull to share our story with her and that I believe in following up on my feelings because I find this leads me to where I’m suppose to be in life. I told her I knew she had been looking for a family for a long time and might have found that lucky couple already, but that I wanted to follow up on my “feeling” just in case. I also told her not to feel any pressure to reply if she isn't interested. I was anxiously checking my email for the next several days, but didn't hear anything so let it go. A couple weeks later we got a sweet email from her letting us know she had found a family. She thanked us for thinking of her and her baby while going through the adoption process. Then, just as my sister had described her, she said, "I know that whatever baby you guys end up with will be the baby that is meant to be in your loving family." I prayed for her and thought about her often. THEN Monday, December 8th Justin was up putting the kids to bed and the phone rang. As I often do, I didn't answer because I was tired from a long day at work and had just sat down to relax. I didn't hear the whole message, but caught something like my sister saying her friend had just called to ask for our number and that maybe something fell through with the other family. She wanted to know if we were interested. My heart dropped and I yelled Justin's name in a way that he knew before I even said anything. I called her friend and she said the other family fell through due to finances. My heart broke for them. She gave me her agency information. Justin and I decided to talk to the agency and see if financially this was even an option for us. SO many things to consider... How would this change our other adoptions? Were we ready for an infant again and next month?! Can we live with the fact that we could have the baby for 12 days and her birthmom could still change her mind and take her back (a reason we avoided domestic adoption)? After praying about it and talking, we met with her on Friday, December 12. What an emotional type of meeting to have with someone, but the 3 of us just hung in the best we could! I was so touched by the honesty in our discussion, as we all tried to feel each other out. She was mature, grounded, loving. I had a really good feeling, but could barely enjoy it in my nervousness. What a week! The waiting was grueling. She called me on Monday, December 15 to tell me her Dr. appt went well and the baby's HR was 139. She said she was meeting with another family the next day who would love to adopt the baby. That was the other thing. Justin and I know there are so many people who would LOVE to adopt this child, many with no kids. We didn't want to take an opportunity from another couple, but the way it all came about feels like God found a way to bring us this child. On Friday, December 19th (the Friday before Christmas), while making Christmas cookies at my Mom's house, the birthmother called and told me, "I've been wanting to call you and let you know I want you guys to be the family." "You do?!" I said. Ahhhh, that moment. I called Justin and let him know we were going to be parents again. Our little girl!!!!!!! Then I went out and told my Mom. We went to the Dr. appt last Friday and heard our baby girl's heartbeat. She is fullterm Jan 17th and will likely be induced on January 30th.

Oh, and I found out last night we are now #6 on the girl list for Ethiopia and #8 on the boy list (moved up 1). There is also a baby girl referral that should go out this week. The baby boy referral is 2 months old and we are SO excited for his new forever family. If God's plan is for our daughter to join us in a few weeks, then we plan to put a hold on our Ethiopian adoption for several years until after our China adoption. (China only allows a 6-month hold). Yes, that means I have to do all the paperwork for the Ethiopia dossier again. I haven't screamed about that - I think it's all in God's hands - i'm just following His lead. Can't argue with God, right? :)