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.