filling the nest

This blog was created to be a place where family, friends and other adoptive moms & dads could come to follow our journey to becoming a family of 3: to share in our joyful celebrations, to laugh with us at our silly moments, to keep us encouraged when times get tough for one reason or another and seem so trivial at in that instant yet reveal themselves to be worth it all along, and watch as Our Maker reveals to us  His wondrous design of unifying and husband & wife in Ohio with a cherished little boy from Africa.  Since being added to the wait list, we've had weeks where we hear that we've moved closer to our son, and weeks where no referrals are given within our agency and we remain eager to hear of news that brings families together in the coming weeks.  In August we were encouraged that the wait might last about 10 months, and as of now, we're almost half way there! You should know that there is no guarantee that someone in Ethiopia is sitting there keeping track of the Foster's wait and making sure we are held any timeline.  It's just an estimate to help our newbie minds understand the process. :)  It might be longer, it could be sooner, but we're praying that in 2011, we'll welcome our baby boy into our lives!  What we do know is that Jesus already knows the date when we're going to get that amazing call that says "you have a son!", the week that we'll travel to Addis to hold him in our arms for the first time and attend court, and the final trip that will grow together as a family and bring him home.  We find peace in that alone.

We've nicknamed him JJ (because when he is adopted, in Addis Ababa he will take Justin's name as his middle name for the court records...so as of now, he's Justin Jr.... ha, we know, original, eh??!)  Anyway, little JJ is already working on our hearts, and we don't even have a face or name to this precious little one!  Looking forward to someday sharing news that we've gotten our referral.  Until then, we'll wait!  No news of moving up on the wait list this week.  We remain at praise-worthy number 19!!  (That's great growth from where we started!!)

Have a great weekend everyone!!