Catching up

It's August tomorrow and I haven't written in some ungodly amount of time, I know. I began our adoption journey with such hope; such earnestness... but it soon gave way to much deeper things emotionally; things I didn't feel inclined, at the time, to share with all of cyberspace. Norm and I hadn't fully realized what beginning the process of adding another child to our family would bring up after having lost a child. So I stopped and gave myself some space. Now, things are not quite so raw, so I thought I'd give this another try. There's perhaps more to tell now anyway and we do so want to keep our friends and family in our adoption "loop."

I changed the name of my blog to this verse in Habakkuk. I love Ubuntu (that one word could encapsulate such truth and grace is a wonder to me), but this verse uniquely speaks to our story. It's the verse I hold onto every day... the verse that speaks to God's plan and a dream long held... that encourages in the waiting that I sometimes think might break my heart... and my anchor in these often turbulent waters of international adoption.

Our "paper pregnancy" lasted-- get this-- 9 months. Our fully gestated dossier was finally delivered in April, 2008. I had been working steadily on our paperwork since last August and had completed it (I thought) three times before it actually got sent to our agency. Each time I sent it in for approval there was something wrong with one document or another. It was quite a learning curve-- Norm and I got very good at being utterly anal about keeping our ducks in a row (Norm's actually quite meticulous in general about such things-- I tend to shoot more from the hip-- and even he was surprised by just HOW meticulous things needed to be). What a wild ride it was!

(We are so thankful for gracious and extremely patient friends, family and notaries who contributed to our paperwork and bore with our aforementioned meticulousness. You blessed... )

By the time our third round of paperwork was rejected, the process had taken so long that some of our documents were expired and had to be redone. Two months later, our fourth submission was approved and our dossier was officially completed on April 8th, 2008. It was then sent to Washington D.C. to be authenticated and then bundled and sent off to Ethiopia in May. I was overjoyed and so relieved! The only shadow on that fine day was learning that referral times had been extended to 6-10 months (it had been 2-4 months when we started) which, translated, means that we will probably not get Kez until sometime in 2009 (up until that point, Norm and I were still holding out hope that we might be able to get her by the end of summer). I cried.

We of course knew it could happen-- our agency had been warning us that as more and more people start adopting from Ethiopia, there would be longer wait times. But Norm and I had both thought that we would be finished with our adoption before things got rolling to that extent. But the Ethiopia program is growing very fast, and our paper pregnancy went very S-L-O-W. Still, we hold out hope for a shorter rather than longer wait, even as we realize that this could very well be a grace to us. We do still need to come up with the second half of our adoption expenses. The money showed up in one form or another for our first three payments... we are praying for the same for our next three. Would you please pray with us for this?

Also-- please pray for Kezia. She's very likely already born, there in Ethiopia, facing who knows what circumstances each day in her very young life. Cover her with your prayers. They carry... they carry...