Where We Are At: May 17

Here's where we are at in the adoption timeline:

• We are currently waiting to receive our fingerprint appointment card from US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS).

• We will then go to Durham, NC to to get fingerprinted. I am guessing this will be around June 15 or so.
  

• A month after that (so around July 15), we should receive our I-171H in the mail. As soon as you we have that, we are ready for the referral of our son.
  

• Then we send in our dossier (fancy word for lots and lots of notarized papers and copies) to be authenticated in Ethiopia.
  

• Referral of our son
  

• Receive Ethiopian court date and make travel plans. This is new, the Ethiopian govt now requires the parents to be there for this court date. This is new as of May 2010 so now we have to go to Ethiopia twice.
  

• Travel to Ethiopia to meet our son and appear in court. Once we pass this court appointment, the child is ours and I can post pics for ya'll to see. (I think I am right about this).
  

• Say Good-bye to our son. . I have already cried over this. I bawled hysterically when we had to leave Jonathan and he was a baby and did not comprehend that we were leaving and coming back much later. Jonathan was asleep in his bassinet when we left. I cannot imagine leaving a 4-8 year old. So we go back home and wait for an Embassy Appointment date to be given.

• Travel to Ethiopia again and be reunited with our son. Get son's passport at Embassy appointment.

• Return home with our son

And here's where I am at emotionally:

There's joy and excitement and anticipation, but there's also a heaviness and broken heartedness that makes me cry often.

To have all these emotions within the same day and try to process and pray thru them. . . at the same time that my 9 year old needs to be homeschooled, laundry needs to be put away, kids need to be picked up from school, and dinner needs to get on the table is . . . a lot. This is the hard part, not all that adoption paperwork, not all that running around town getting this form and that form filled out, not the money. This whirlwind of emotions, this having your heart become aware of things you weren't aware of (more on that later), that is what I am referring to when I say, "adoption isn't for wimps."

I pray daily that my son in Ethiopia. . that his heart would be filled with hope, that somehow supernaturally he would know that a mom and dad and 2 brothers and 2 sisters are waiting for him.

My prayer for me is that I would enjoy this ride and be strengthen and changed to be more like Jesus in the process. God loves my boy in Ethiopia more than I do.
God has already written this story.