Has it really been over 2 years?

Soo... it's been awhile folks.  A great while since I posted on our blog.  You can say that I was... er... going through some things that were not that easy to put into words.  Let me tell you, adoption is HARD.  Not like "oh it's hard to get up in the morning" hard, but more like "it's hard to run a marathon in under 4 hours" hard. And here is the crazy part, I am still in the paperwork/court process.  I still haven't even brought my baby home, and I complaining about how hard it is!  Go ahead adoptive mamas, shake your head at me.

I heard a great message today about dreams God gives you, and the process you have to go through to get to the end, and it was pretty spot on in regards to our adoption.  So, here is my humble attempt to explain it:

Dream:  God gave us a dream, a calling.  "You have a child in Ethiopia".

Our response "Yes God.  We are very scared, but we are trusting you."

Delay:  Ok... we were told that our adoption would take 6-12 months.  It has know been, oh... THREE YEARS!

Our response "We are trusting you God.  We believe in your promises.  We are very scared, but we are trusting you."

Death:  Our dream, "calling", feels dead. Ok... it's now been way over three years, in fact, we are creeping up on five years now.  Did we really hear God right?  Is this the plan for our family?

Our response:  "God... do I keep trusting you?  Did I really hear you right all those years ago?  Ok... I sorta believe in your promises.  We are very, very scared now.  We are only trusting you now, because we have no other option."

Destiny:  WHAT!  Did we seriously finally get the call!?!?!  Did we finally get matched with our baby?!?  Yes we did, and I now see how much YOU, Lord, were DEFINITELY working everything out for our good.

Our response:  "You are a good, good father."

That pretty much sums up the last few years folks!  We were told so many times during the wait that "God's timing is perfect", and you know what... it absolutely is.  We are over the moon with excitement and can't wait until we can bring our baby home!

A few prayer requests:

December 4th is our "guardian/birth parent" court date in Ethiopia.  We, of course, will not be there, but they will be discussing our case.  Please pray that everything will go smoothly and there will not be any paperwork hang ups!

Please pray that our baby is receiving lots of care & love while he is still in the orphanage.  Health, safety, warmth,... the list goes on and on here.

Please pray for the Bethany social workers and staff who are processing our paperwork and working on the ground floor for so many orphans across the nation.  They are truly heroes.

I will try to keep everyone updated much more as the process moves along.  Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement throughout the years.  Yall mean the world to us.

Mike & Kami (and soon to be Baby Fleener!!)