Addie's news....

WE GOT OUR REFERRAL!!!!!!

me on the phone with Sue our case manager

Clint staring at pictures of our little ones- shocking

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So we got the phone call on Thursday afternoon just as Clint had left for work. Clint and I did not have a very good day- go figure. I was not expecting "the call" in the least- I really thought we'd get it Monday (today). I was on the other line and didn't notice Sue had beeped in. After my conversation ended with Deb, I saw Sue had called. I immediately called Clint and told him to turn around to come home. Just then as I was talking to Clint Sue called Clint's phone. He let me go and told Sue to call me back. So she did and gave me general details to give us an option to officially accept or decline the referral. I hung up with her then waited a few minutes for Clint to come home. Clint and I kissed and made up- who wants to be fighting at a time like this. We sent Addie to the neighbors house so Clint and I could look over everything first. After about 20 minutes we brought Addie back to show her the pictures. We are all so in-love already. Unfortunately we cannot show pictures on our blog or through email. However, we do have some on us in person if you want to see.

We have a little boy "M" who turns 2 on Wednesday and a little girl "T" who turned 1 yesterday. They are not biologically related but are at the same orphanage- Tikuret.

We officially accepted our referral today- November 15th- which marks our exact 2 year anniversary from when we first applied to adopt with CWA! Who would have thought that two years ago when we decided to adopt that our son was being born that same week!

So- what's next...

We wait for second medicals to be completed and then our paperwork will be sent to court to be assigned a date. We already know that the earliest we will travel (first travel) for court will be early February (best case scenario). Which means we wouldn't bring our children home till March or April (if all goes well). This is what Sue told us today. Previously we had hoped it might go a bit faster than that but adoptions are (usually) anything but fast. But we trust in the Lord's timing for it all! Even though we ache inside to have our children home asap! One good thing about the long wait is it gives us even more time to come up with all the travel expenses. Especially now that we know we need a one-way ticket for our son who is over two.

Please pray...

- for protection of our children, physically and emotionally. That they have learned and are currently learning to bond to the caregivers at Tikuret. We pray the Lord will bless our attachment with them when they come home even though we are missing out on some valuable times with them.

- that their second medicals will go quickly and our paperwork will get sent to court quickly so we can have a court date set soon in the very beginning of February!!!

-that all monies needed for travel, visa/passports for the kids, supplies we need to prep for them, etc. God blessed us SO much with our garage sale but we still will not have enough to cover our costs. We are applying for some grants and hope to hear from them in the coming months. Also, if you have an abundance of frequent flyer miles please prayerfully consider donating frequent flyer miles to us. This can be an easy and inexpensive way to give in HUGE way! For those of you who live in Minneapolis area, please come to our church Craft Boutique this weekend! It's so much fun and there are 130 vendors this year! I believe all vendors must be regular attender of Bethlehem. It's at the North Campus in Mounds View Friday- 6-9pm and Saturday 10am-2pm. Our precious friends, the Eggimann's, have decided to donate their proceeds from their booth at the boutique to our adoption. Andie- the wife- is an amazing artist and will be selling cards and other artwork. Hope to see you there!