Waiting

Well, we've been waiting long enough as to finally garner some attention from our agency. 

It's not what you think. 

It's not what we hoped.

Our dossier is expiring, so we need to renew some paperwork as well as get our fingerprints taken again and then pay up for all of these fun times. We drove to Omaha yesterday to have biometric fingerprints taken. Again. You never know when those circles and waves might change. 

As of April 4, we have been officially waiting 19 months, though from the application to our agency, it is more like 26 months.

We were quoted estimated wait times of 8-10 months to be matched, if I remember correctly.

When the wait would get especially difficult, along the way, "things happened" to encourage us.

Someone shared how their lives had been touched by adoption. Tenfold.

People told us they were praying for us.

I dreamed of a child on many nights.

We moved into connections with people from Ethiopia.

I've learned what Berbere is and I am not afraid to use it!

We were awarded a grant toward our adoption.

Friends and church family donated to that end.

We were awarded another grant toward bringing a child in need of a family into ours. 

We went on mission trips and lived with orphans and held their hands. 

We cried while listening to a 13 year recount what it was like to go to Ethiopia, 4 years after her Ethiopian born brothers came to her family, and love on the children still waiting to move into the arms of a family of their own. 

Our families arms are waiting. 

Where are you?