Expect the Unexpected

That is what our pastor talked about in church on Sunday and that is how I've tried to live life for a few years now. Not that I have always succesfully been able to do that. God has so blessed my life in that I can't even begin to thank Him.

Last year we moved into a home that was about twice the size as our other home. We got everyone settled giving Kelsey the largest room knowing she would be sharing with our future adoptive daughter. Our oldest son claimed the bedroom in the basement. It was a fairly large room. We were so happy with this house because it meant no major renovations. UNTIL - our son said that his bedroom was to large and could we build a wall and cut it in half? How many kids out there complain that their bedroom is to large? He used a logical argument saying that it would be a spare bedroom when we have guests (my parents live in B.C.). Also Barry and I have recently had the nudging from God to take in an older child , whether through the CAS or just someone we know. However we did think we would do that until after our odoption was settled.

Within a month of this room being completed God literally dropped an oportunity into our laps. We talked about it and prayed about it. How would this boys history affect our kids? We decided to give it "a try". But God told us He didn't want us "to try" he wanted us to commit. We are so blessed to have this almost 17 yr old in our home. He has fit in with our kids so well. We are completely enjoying his presence in our home.

God is Amazing!!

Adoption update - nothing new and exciting to report. Referals are still trickling in. We started out # 87 on the wait list and are now # 64. We are in the process of updating our dossier since it runs out this summer and we don't think we will get a referal before then. Things have seemed positive and steady lately and we thank God for that as well.

March update

The latest from Ethiopia is the requirement for 2 trips to Ethiopia. As you can imagine that was a blow to a lot of families. Financially most families are having a tough time with the added cost of this adoption ( pulling Imagine out of bankruptcy). To have this added on top of everything else will be hard. It was not welcome news in our household. The added $4,000 is going to be tough but God will see us through. We will need to meet with our child before their court date. The reason for this is that there has been a history of adoptive parents not wanting their children when they come to take them home. These children are then left in limbo because in ethiopia once a child is adopted it is final. It is a very sad thing for these kids to be abandoned once again. I'm not sure what the reason is for these adoptive parents to do this. Possibly they had been given wrong info on their child and only found out when they were in ethiopia picking them up.

On a postive side there were 7 referals in March. That brings our family to the 68th spot on the list. It's a slow go but at least we keep moving up. Hopefully we will know who our daughter is before the year is over.