Update

I was just telling Brent tonight that we need to write down all the funny things that Ephrem is up to right now. What better place to store treasured memories than on our blog right? So, I will be updating more frequently if for noone else but our family. We don't want to forget ANYTHING about Ephrem's childhood. So, here goes...

#1) After Thanksgiving Ephrem has begun to talk A LOT. Favorite sayings and words include:
-"Where'd Mommmy/Daddy/Miley go?"
-"C'mon Mommy"
-"Thank you"
-"Please"
-"No!" of course
-"I don't know"
-"My truck"
-"Watch Mommy!"
-"I want...up/down/juice/milk/cocos/Elmo/Barney/."
-"Lights on/off"
-"Shopping!"
-"Church"
-"Wal-Mart"

#2) Ephrem does not really enjoy playing with toys other than his bike and his trampoline. He much prefers playing with real life objects such as: keys, pots and pans, remotes, turning the lights on and off, banging on pots and pans, coasters, spray bottles, opening and closing doors, laundry baskets, socks (as hand puppets) oven mits (as hand puppets) and anything else he can find that is not a toy. He also likes running around with Miley, dancing, being chased, hiding in dark closets and running.

#3) The one thing he does LOVE right now is this tiny rubber mouse he got for Halloween. He's obsessed with it and even ripped it's tail off on accident. He asks for it first thing in the morning and last thing before he goes to bed.

#4) Favorite Movie: Elmo in Grouchland (He really doesn't watch anything else but an occasional Thomas show).

#5) Favorite Foods: Pizza, Mac N Cheese, Leftovers, Hot Dogs, Salsa or anything spicy, Chicken Nuggets, McDonald's fries.

#6) Favorite Songs: This week it's "Frere Jacques" Hopefully we'll be able to video him singing it. HILARIOUS!

#7) Ephrem goes to daycare and LOVES it. He flirts with all the other kids' moms and runs around like he owns the place.

#8) Ephrem still goes to bed b/w 6-6:30 most nights and continues to be an early riser. He does love playing in his crib when he wakes up in the morning and has been known to throw a few parties in his crib at 3am (singing and talking to his toys for an hour b/f he falls back asleep.)

#9) Ephrem is a TOTAL social guy. He would much rather prefer being on the go and hanging out with all his friends (Bo, Amy, Tekle, Luke, Lila, Benton, Reagan and Amanda) than hanging out at home. He is constantly on the go and is super playful and happy.

Brent and I continue to thank God and stand in awe of the amazing gift He has given us in this precious little boy.

Ephrem 2 Year Old Pictures

Here's some sneak peek pics. of Ephrem we had done last week at our house. Our photographer Elle at Ella Bella Photography was amazing. She gives great discounts to adoptive families. Ephrem turns 2 in less than a month and I can't believe it. He's growing up so fast I can't stand it!

What We've Been Up To

I haven't posted in a while so I felt it was time. Here are some pics. of what's been going on with us. Ephrem continues to do great. He is really speaking a lot now. He calls all books "Bibles" and is beginning to enjoy toddler songs. His favorites are "Twinkle, Twinkle" and "Patty Cake." He is trying new foods: strawberries and pineapple are the latest things he'll eat this week. He also loves McDonald's chicken nuggets and fries. Ephrem loves taking a bath and LOVES his dog Miley. "Miley" is the first thing he says in the morning and usually the last thing he says at night. He also blows kisses at us after we lay him in his crib and says "Night, Night." Too cute!

Austin Shower and Trip to OKC

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Ephrem's First Play Date

Just a few more days!

Introducing Ephrem!

We are so thrilled he is officially our son and can't wait to hold him. We are once again praising God for the way He has worked in this adoption.
If anyone has ANY travel suggestions/packing tips especially for toddlers please let me know. Did you take the malaria meds? Also, if you would like us to take pictures for you please email me at bevanryan@gmail.com.

It's Official!

Mary just called and we made it through court! We travel May 11th. Wow, that's fast!

Court Date!

Yesterday I noticed that another family had received a court date for April 22nd. I couldn't believe it. I told Brent I was going to pray that we too got a court date for next week. He told me not to get my hopes up. To which I replied, "My hopes are up! They were up for our referral and they are up for this too!" BTW I am a notorious pessimist. So, all this "hopes up" stuff is very unusual for me. I proceeded to do my quiet time and beg God in my prayer journal for a miracle: a court date next week. I was near tears as I drove to work...Knowing that it was possible, sensing that God was stirring this urgency in me to pray because He was about to move, feeling convicted for taking my eyes of God in comparing our journey to others, tired of comparing wait times, vowing to take a blogging/FBI fast for the week. This waiting thing is soooo much harder than I realized.
So, I'm sitting in my dyslexia training, checking my phone quietly every so often to see if Mary had called with news of our court date. It would be pretty unlikely that we would have a court date after only 12 days, as she told us to expect a wait of 1-3 months. But I had that stirring. The same stirring I felt about 2 weeks ago as I began to pray for a quick referral...I checked my phone at 2pm and there was a text from brent: "We have a court date!!! April 23rd!!!!" I couldn't believe it, but at the same time I could believe it. My God can do anything.
I've been learning about God's Sovreignty and how He uses our actions and prayers as a means to His ultimate end. I know that He stirred my heart to pray for a miracle because a miracle is what He had planned. Once again, I'm in awe and humbled at the way God has orchestrated our adoption process.
Thank you to everyone who has been praying for for our little boy. We will continue to pray for his well-being, and a smooth court date (sometimes families do not make it through on the first round).
To God be the Glory!!!!

Cardboard Tears...

Here is a video our church played on Sunday. Many of the people in it are dear friends we met when we first started attending the Stone. These stories are amazing and encouraging. I can't help but think about our birthmother and how much I desperately hope and pray that she too will be able to "flip her cardboard sign over" one day and tell of God's healing in her life.

Cardboard Stories from The Austin Stone on Vimeo.

Referral!

Yesterday we got our referral call after waiting for exactly 3 months and 3 weeks. I'd been having a feeling it would come soon and was rather obsessive about it for the last few days. Everybody says the call comes when you least expect it. I thought that would be impossible. How are you never expecting it? But's it's true...At 5pm while I'm doing a Jilian (Biggest Loser) workout video I was only thinking of surviving the 27 minute workout torture I had subjected myself to. I was about 5 minutes in when the phone rang. I thought for sure it was brent. When I went to the phone and saw an (817)number I still didn't get it. Don't all referrals call from an unknown number? I decided to answer it anyway. It was Mary!! She asked me if this was a good time? was brent around? I couldn't believe it. As I'm talking to her I'm still completely out of breath from my workout. She then told us she had a referral and I started screaming on the phone.Then I called brent but he couldn't understand what I was saying b/c I was screaming. He just kept asking me if everything was ok. After this came a confusing few minutes as Brent and I tried to coordinate getting together to receive the referral info. He was supposed to go straight to band practice at 6 and 5pm traffic would be too bad for him to come home. So, I decided to go to his office. Of course Miley came as well (when I put her in her kennel to leave she started whining and barking, which she never does, so I let her go. It's her family too). Anyway, I raced to brent's office, we put Mary on speaker phone and learned all about our beautiful almost 19 month old boy!! I can't post pictures or any info. until after our court date. We're still in complete shock as this was a pretty quick referral time. We are praising God for this child and are once again in awe of His providence and goodness.
So, what now? Our court paperwork will be gathered and we will receive a court date in 1-3 months time. Hopefully we'll make it before the rainy season. We are so excited and humbled that God would give us the privilege of raising this amazing boy.
Praise His Name!

Children's Ministry

Here are our child's future children's ministers. Hmmm...

New Info.

So, we had another monthly Gladney conference call on Wednesday. The only reason I'm posting the details is for anyone who might be reading this to gather more info. about the Ethiopian adoption process. I know when I was researching I got A TON of the most up to date info. from blogs and I always appreciated as much info. as anyone was willing to share.
As of this month the wait times for referrals are:
0-12 months: average 8 month wait from submission of dossier
13 months and up: average wait time of 4 months

The courts will be closed from August 8th to September 25th for the rainy season. What this means is that the courts will not be issuing decisions during that time. Paperwork can still be submitted to the courts for review through August but families will not receive a court date until after the 25th of September. Families that receieve a referral before the courts close but who do not get their paperwork submitted to the courts before the end of August will have to submit after the courts reopen. At this time there is usually a backlog of those families that did submit paperwork before the August deadline. Pretty confusing huh?

All that being said we were told that court paperwork must be submitted by the end of May in order to get a court date before the rainy season.

What does this mean for our family? Well, we requested 0-18 months so that could mean we could get a referral in the next few weeks. We're praying that is the case. Or we could have at least 4 more months until a referral and then several more months until travel. We really don't know.
What we do know is that God is in complete control of this situation. He's shown us how amazing His providence is this week and we are in awe of the way He works in the details of our lives. Whatever the timing is, we truly have a peace that it will be perfect and for our good and His glory.

Chick Fil A Song

We love Chick Fil A at our house. This is pretty funny.

"What Do I Know of Holy"

The words of this song are amazing.

Week 10: Waiting Pictures

We had a friend from church take some pictures of us as a family of 3. It was extremely difficult to get Miley to look at the camera as there were ducks in the pond, kids, people and dogs everywhere. She only broke her leash and ran away one time.


Lots of families have gotten their court dates; only four months out after the date of their referral. It'll be a miracle if we make it before the rainy season in August. But God is a god of miracles. We keep praying

Here is the link to our awesome photographer:

I Need Africa...

While We Wait: My First Purchase

Now, that we've been on the wait list for over two months I can't help but look at the baby stuff when I go shopping. I don't know why I do it b/c I can't buy anything. We don't know if we're having a boy or a girl or an infant or a toddler. Both Brent and I think it's going to be an older boy since everyone seems to be requesting infant girls. But, God could have a surprise for us. However, the other day at Tuesday morning I found this diaper bag and I bought it. It was only $9.99 and came with many cool accessories, as you can see. I figured it was a pretty safe buy b/c it could be used for either gender and I'm pretty sure our child will still be in diapers when we get them (at least for a little while). Of course when we get our referral I will have Baby R's name monogrammed on it. We're not 100% on names yet. We're pretty well settled on the boy name but not sure if we'll use the same name for a girl. Anyway, here's what will probably be my only purchase between now and our referral call.

Speaking of referrals: 5 families made it through court on the 19th and at least one referral was given on the same day. I'm praying for Justin, Kendall (they used to go to church with us) and Baby Ewan who have their court date on the 23rd. Their blog is posted on the right.

Week 9

Not much to report in week 9. I FINALLY added our blog to the FBI list for Gladney adoptions. It's an unofficial list run by a fellow Gladney family that shows about 50-75% of the families in process. So far we're pretty far down on the waitlist.
Go here to check it out:http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=ppHBvDAxQ8m6D9u0lLFvNIA

Yummy Valentine's Recipe

This has nothing to do with adoption, just random...If you know me at all, you know I'm not so into cooking. But I do enjoy baking and I recently found this recipe on another blog and then tracked it down to this blog below:

http://bakerella.blogspot.com/2007/12/red-velvet-cake-balls.html

I made them this week and they are so yummy! I didn't cool them long enough which made them harder to dip but they were still delicious. I think she has other versions that you can make as well with different types of cake and icings.

During Week 8 we celebrated Miley's First Birthday. We had her party with her best friend, Oliver, who was turning 3. The humans ate mexican food while the doggie table was filled with dog bones, cookies and even a birthday cake. I know I'm crazy but I have been known to throw a party for my Cabbage Patch dolls back in the day. I do have the photos to back it up (coming soon). A good time was had by all!

Week 7

Week 7 of the wait brought with it a conference call with all Ethiopia Gladney families. We love Gladney. I really appreciate their desire to keep us informed about what is going on with the Ethiopia program. The latest news is that the new wait time from waitlist to referral is on average about 6 and a half months. Then it can take anywhere from 3-6 months for a court date to be scheduled. Court dates are scheduled about 8-10 weeks out and then you travel another 3 weeks after that. This was not earth shattering news as far as we were concerned. But I do expect the wait to continue to creep up as the months go on. So we're probably not looking at traveling b/f next Fall or Winter. The good news is that more and more families are interested in adopting orphans from Ethiopia.

We also attended our first Austin Ethiopia Adoption get together. It was so fun to actually see all the Ethiopian cuties in person. It made it much more real to us. Brent and I just kept looking at them and thinking, "Wow, one day this will be us." It's an amazing group and I know they will be so helpful in sharing advice. We already heard a few horror stories about the 18 hour plane ride home.

Finally, the most exciting part of Week 7 was that Miley Ryan turned one year old on Sunday. We are officially celebrating her birthday this weekend, however. It seems like just yesterday that she was our little terrior terror: biting everything in sight, growling while holding onto our pants and chewing our brand new base boards! We don't miss that part but we do miss her little white puppy self running around like a banshee when she had her crazy puppy freak outs after 8pm. She's still a little crazy at times but thanks to Lee Mannix Miley has definitely calmed down. She even graduates from her intro. to agility class on Wednesday. Here are some pics. of the pup over the last year.

Week 6: While We Wait

One reason that we are keeping this blog is so Baby R. will one day be able to look back on the way in which he or she became a part of our family. So, I thought it would be fun to post a few random things that we do while we are waiting. As most of you do not know, Brent and some buddies from work have begun a garage band. Their first gig? A surprise party for the guitar player, Philip's wife, Sarah. And man, was she surprised. They serenaded her with Better than Ezra's "Good" as well as "Happy Birthday." Here are some pics. Yes, they are a little old for this :) But, who doesn't want to play in a garage band. I'm thinking about singing some BGVs.

Week 5

Well, we've made it through another week. Nothing new to report on the adoption front.
We continue to pray for our baby. It's hard to imagine he or she possibly being alone in an orphanage right now. God's love for the orphan is comforting:
"A Father for the fatherless, a defender of widows is God in His holy habitation. God sets the solitary in families; He brings out those who are bound into prosperity." Psalm 68: 5-6

Week 4: 1 Month Down!

Today we have been on the waiting list for 1 month. According to the most recent timeline we've been given that means 3-5 more months to wait. So far, the time has flown. As far as this week goes, we watched one of hour Hague Training Videos: The Institutionalized Child. It was very eye-opening, interesting and helpful. That covers 2 of the 10 hours that we need to complete.
Other than that, you'll notice I posted a new badge on our blog: From Ashes to Africa. It's a book written by another Gladney family (from OKC) that adopted their son from Ethiopia. I haven't read it, but I have been following Amy's blog for a LONG time. All the info. I got from it really helped us become more informed about the Ethiopian adoption process. So, I think I'll order it today as I'm always looking for new reading material.
Also another Austin family family is in Ethiopia and they just met their son today! Go check their blog out at http://jeremyandchristina.blogspot.com/.

Week 3: Happy New Year

We're praying we'll have our little one home in 2009!