One Year & Moving Forward

September 13th we hit the 1 year mark of being on the waiting list to adopt from Ethiopia. To celebrate we prepared a traditional Ethiopian meal with family.  It was really yummy, but I must admit I need to practice on my injera skills!

The last year seems quite crazy really.  Lots of things going on with our family, and then we started on a new adventure to move to Manhattan Kansas, now here we are and the adventure continues.  

At the end of this year our homestudy needs to be updated as well as our Dossier (fancy word for pile of paperwork in Ethiopia).  Since we need to update with our move and new job then we will just do this all in one bang.  We will keep our same family coordinator out of Virginia (our agencies main office) and be assigned a new social worker out of KC.  We are working on getting all this rolling so we aren't scrambling to get it in around the holidays. To update everything should cost around $750 (oh the joy of money and adopting)  We also are working on finishing off an installment payment of about $2,500. We have been blessed by all of you in your giving and praying and have already made our first installment payments and first fees.  Once we finish off these payments we will be applying for grants, fundraising, and saving to be ready for the fees that will come with accepting a referral.  

To give you an idea of when we expect a referral... When we were officially put on the list last year we started at number 87, today we are number 46.  So we are moving along!  It still could be close to two years, but really only God knows when we will get that call!  

Because the wait time fluctuates so much and is unkown we are praying about getting pregnant.  We had always hoped to finish our adoption and then get pregnant, but as the wait time increases we are asking God to either bless us with a pregnancy or wait for the right time (so that's exciting!!)

Basically we just wanted to give you all a little update on things.  We are still waiting, we are praying so much for Prather #3! Daily, nightly, weekly.  We pray for safety, for them to be loved, and for their spirit to be guarded by the Lord. We pray for their birth family, and the environment they are living in, and so much more.  We pray for our kiddos at home and their hearts in this crazy process. And for Todd and I and our weary hearts in the process. And we always appreciate your prayers along side of us.  

It will be a wonderful day when we bring home Prather #3 and we all rejoice and praise God together!!!!   we will wait well until then! 

Blessings - Dawn