Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Hello all Pastor Brandon here for an update! I've hijacked the blog due to my wife working incredible hours teaching 4th grade. I'm very appreciative of her. In adoption news, we have been placed on the waiting list for our Ethiopian adoption. That was such a huge milestone for us. Leading up to this point we knew we had some control of the timing of our adoption, but now it's in God's hands totally. For me that's a wonderful feeling. I totally trust God. We have however learned that our official number is more of a gauge than a concrete reference. For instance we began at number 56 then dropped down to 54 thanks to referrals. We quickly began doing the math to see how long it would take for us to tick down to meeting our little one. Our next update though had us moved up to 57. I was in disdain, but found out that some families, who had been in the program longer, had changed their criteria. I suppose with adoption you are always learning. With that in mind, Julie began studying the criteria by which other families were adopting through the Ethiopian program. We found a wonderful community linking many of the families from our agency. Within that list Julie realized that although we are now number 57, because we have less restrictions, we are really somewhere around number 15 for a child that is slightly older (4 or 5 years old). So, we could possibly find ourselves in Ethiopia as soon as 2013. In any case we both know that God is in control. It was God that led us to adopt, and in His time we will bring home the child He's always planned for us! Blessings, Brandon

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Yay!!

We are waaaay overdue for an update... so here it goes!

Brandon and I turned in all of our agency fees over the holidays!! This is such a HUGE milestone. We have also been approved with our home study agency. :)

What we're working on now:
- Completing our home study
- Lots of online adoption education courses, including one in Kansas City soon for our home study.
- FBI checks and medical checks
- A bazillion other documents that all have to be notarized. :)

God is totally working, and we're trusting in His control. It's amazing how everything works together in exactly the right timing.