Anyway, things are going well besides our crazy work schedules. The adoption has turned into a waiting game. I fully anticipate the next 6 months being one big waiting game. We're currently waiting for a referral. Get a referral, wait for a court date. Court date comes, wait for news. Pass court, wait for an embassy date. Get embassy date, wait for travel. Hop on a plane, wait for it to land 30 some hours later. Get to Addis Ababa, wait until we can meet our child. I'm already sick of waiting.
The good news is that we did receive our updated wait list numbers. Our paper chains have been reduced in size a little bit:
We are now WAITING at #18 for a boy, #36 for a girl, and #15 for siblings. Yup, the siblings category is going the WRONG way further confirming that we are probably going to be bringing home a son :)
I am still hoping and praying that we get a referral in either January or surely by February. 7 families just returned 2 weeks ago from picking up their little ones, 10 families leave on Friday for Ethiopia, and 11 families leave on Christmas Day for Ethiopia so I count at least 30 openings at Hannah's Hope (knowing that some of the families traveling are picking up siblings). Now if roughly half of the incoming children are boys and half of the incoming children are girls, I think we should be top 5 for a boy by mid to late January! Doesn't that sound nice?
I have this renewed sense of happiness with our church - specifically the middle schoolers that we have spent the past few years working with. Their heart of service is seriously something that we could learn from. They helped us in September do a fundraiser for our adoption. We had 2 8th grade girls organize Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes not just for the youth group, but for the entire church. We have a 7th grader who is currently organizing infant layette sets for mothers in Guatemala who can't afford clothes for their newborns. We have a 6th grader who is organizing an event called Hoops for Hope to raise money for AIDS in Africa. Their example is something we could all learn to live by!
Our church is also busy trying to teach us to spend less for Christmas and give more. I love that our church is trying to get beyond its walls and actually do something to help others. Our church is currently raising money to help a pastor in Mexico build and also working on another project that will greatly impact a country we are growing to love - Ethiopia! It is a project where a guy is planting trees in countries all over the world (particularly Ethiopia). Ethiopians are using way more wood than they have for cooking and in turn the land has turned into a desert (no trees cause flooding which in turn causes the land to become a desert). This guy is going to Ethiopia, helping them plant trees and teaching them. He employs over 300 Ethiopians full time and a lot more part-time. The cool thing that they pointed out in church is that this guy isn't driving through Ethiopia in a nice Range Rover or blowing tons of money on nice hotel rooms or big corporate meetings that cost tens of thousands of dollars. He is doing his best to make sure that every persons dollars go to the real cause. That is something that kills me about non-profits. I want my money to go where they claim it is supposed to be going. I want my money to really feed the need. So I am very excited about this project and helping my baby's homeland :)
Just a general update on life. So far we've avoided that nasty flu bug going around (knocking on wood) and are working really hard and waiting for the call!
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