February 2012

We are still waiting to hear from the embassy. Monday will be:

7 weeks since we passed court in Ethiopia

4 weeks since our file was submitted to the embassy

2 weeks since we have heard anything at all from the embassy

Every weekday morning I check my e-mail as soon as I wake up, sometimes in the middle of the night, to see if the embassy has tried to contact us. Usually my inbox leaves me disappointed. I have no idea what this week or the next few weeks will hold, but I am continuing to pray that we will be cleared soon.

So far, February has been a special month in our adoption journey. It is also the month, 11 years ago, that Justin and I started dating.

February 2010 is when we really got serious about pursuing adoption. We had been talking about adoption for a while, but we didn't know where to adopt from or what agency to use. We went to an Adopted for Life conference praying the Lord would give us direction and answers. It was at this conference, we knew our child was in Africa, most likely Ethiopia. We also first heard of our wonderful agency, AGCI. It is hard to know when our adoption journey officially began, but to me this is when it really started.

A year later, Feb 2011, we were on AGCI's wait list. I started the month feeling very discouraged and wondering how long it would be before we finally saw our daughter's face. I went to the Created for Care retreat and the Lord truly renewed my weary soul. He also showed me that His plans for our life and our adoption may be different than what we had planned. I really feel this was when he started to prepare my heart for our sweet Mia.

So, now here we are in Feb. 2012. We know our daughter and we love her dearly, but she is still not home. I have no idea what will happen in Feb. 2012, but I am praying hard that this is the month our adoption of Mia Grace becomes full and final!!!