Wait.... and HURRY UP! :)

Hurry up and wait.... Hurry up and wait.... Now, wait.... and HURRY UP!

Ahh  we got our birthmom court date yesterday, March 25!  Which means, if all goes well that week we will likely know our court date and be booking plane tickets! CRAZY!!  If we follow others recent timelines we'll like be on a plane 3 weeks later.  Wow....   After nine months of dragging waiting, now all of a sudden I feel there is so much to do in relatively little time!  We will probably receive travel information soon to start looking over so we are prepared when the call comes. That in itself is going to take some sorting through... where to stay, how our trip will go, what airline to take etc. etc.  I want to get the boys room ready before leaving so that we can show his birth mother a picture of the room (I bought curtain material yesterday and will likely shop paint and what not this weekend!). I've got to continue to put together donations for the orphanage (if anyone is interested in contributing anything donation wise for the orphanage please let me know), a photo book for the birth mother, get those darn vaccines (I wish I could go a week without getting sick so I could get these taken care of already), start collecting gifts for people in Ethiopia (it is customary to give gifts to people who have helped you and the list is QUITE long).... and just a whole bunch of "nesting" things that kicked in.... oh about a week ago!

Its like a whirlwind of activity, and honestly... I love it!! I'm back in my "zone".  I'm a doer LOL I don't do particularly well when my "do" is to "wait"... Now, give me 25 things, and I'm in my element.   And I look at his precious face and feel so incredibly blessed and excited that it wont be long till we can meet him and be able to love on this beautiful little person.  And I feel so blessed to have a birth parent case, and we will likely get to meet her and talk with her and ask her questions that will be priceless to know the answers to.  And we will be able to have the opportunity to hopefully grant her some peace with knowing where her son is going and whom will be his family (and by connection a leg of her family).

And in all this, as always, we place ourselves in His hands and pray that He work through us and embrace this whole process and the beautiful people that are being knit into our lives forever by it.  And pray for the little boy that will be our son, and his birthmother and everyone caring for him while we wait to bring him home.

This wait is a lil different....

This phase of waiting is different....   In some ways its easier and in some ways its harder.  Our update came from the agency today.  It was so strange to not see us on the list.  An AMAZING strange :)  We were on that list for 9 months and now we are on the "waiting for court date" list!  Is it real? Pinch me!!!  And its crazy, because there are so many moms that I just love on the list that I'm still anxiously watching for referrals so that they will also finally know who their little ones are.  Of the most anxious is who my little niece will be...  Pray my sister and Brandon get matched soon!!!  Its even possible their little girl could be at the orphanage with our son and be getting to know her soon to be cousin and not even know it yet.... WAY COOL!

One small plus of being on the wait list so long... this phase of waiting hasn't even really hit me yet!  We were submitted to court on Tuesday (praying!! I haven't heard officially that we were since they told me that that was the plan)... we will wait a couple weeks and hear with our birthmom court date is, and then following that...hopefully only a few short weeks later, we'll be in Ethiopia to meet our lil man for the first time! UGH... CAN"T WAIT FOR THAT DAY.

So this phase of the wait..... it's easier because there is a peace.  That whole anxiousness of "where is my child/ who is my child/ when will the call come/ how long will it be till i know who they are etc." has been answered.  There is a little boy and he will be our son and I can look at his face a thousand times a day (and I prolly come close to that lol!!).  And for all intensive purposes this wait should be almost half of what I just did waiting for referral... and it will be split up by a trip to go meet him and go to court. Its harder because now, every day, there is a very real person missing from our house....  growing a day older each day without us, and that just really feels like a lil chunk of your heart is sitting on the other side of the world.

So far though, I really am still on a "referral high".  We just received new pics of our lil guy because our agency caseworker was in Ethiopia last week.  She said when she got to the orphanage he was just finishing his bath up on the stair and then proceeded to try to put his shoes on (wrong feet)...ugh melt...  And she snapped lots of pictures.  ADORABLE!!! She also took measurements and he gained a lil weight :)  And another family is travelling soon and will be taking him a little care package from us and getting more pictures for us.   It definitely helps pass the wait having such a great little adoption family!!  And some of the sweetest things are coming out of our kids.  They all have his pictures on them all the time.  Jasmine peppers every person within arms reach, showing off our lil guys pictures with such excitement. Dominic filled the crib with his blanket and toys and a handmade card of "Me and my new baby"  Melanie has declared herself the "babysitter", Isabel made the sweetest little book for him with pictures of us, the kids, the dogs... and such sweet notes for him about how much we love him :)  Its  so amazing.... its like we all get to watch our hearts grow even more and this lil guy is already so loved :)

This has kinda been a 'stream of conscious' blog :) But its where I'm at at the moment!  Please keep the prayers coming that we get a court date soon and we can go meet our lil guy for the first time!! I just cannot wait for that moment!!!!