Whatcha doin?

The past couple of weeks around the Foster house have been pretty neat, if I do say so myself  :)  Crazy?  Why yes, but that's how we roll!  Here's what the past couple weeks have looked like....

-Getting home from Budapest--that travel alone was crazy and patience-testing.  May I add that although I lost my sainity while going through unexpected complications with security and customs and started tearing up to two women who were complete strangers as I explained "I need to get home!"...all over the thought that my bags could get lost and heaven forbid our paperwork that was signed by my husband who was across the ocean at the time and needed to be in our agency's hands ASAP would not get home.... Well yes,  I'll be honest. It is pretty goofy thinking back on it.  But, at the time, I thought "these people just don't get it!!"

-Exploring the new world of a pediatrician's office--something our agency requires us to do before accepting our referral.  While I sat and waited in the very.quiet.room. while listening to the humbled stay @ home dad next door via the very.thin.walls. explain to the pediatrician something about his daughter's bowel habits.... I decided to distract myself from their "private" conversation and whipped out my camera...

-Weirding out the FedEx people when I asked them to take a picture......thankfully, she got her manager and all smiles unfolded when I explained to them what this was for :)

-Welcoming my hubby back home after his long business trip :)  I wasn't the only one who missed him...It's good to be loved and Labs know how to hit it on a special note!  Brie climbed up and snuggled in for an afternoon nap with J ....

-Looking at endless nursery room ideas after returning our cute JJ Cole bedding that will need to find itself a home somewhere else.  We're not settled, but we're getting closer and we realize we still have some time.  Here's a couple ideas we've stumbled upon while looking at one of my favorite Little D related sites, Project Nursery--check them out for great ideas around your home.  And there's always our beloved Ikea ;) ... wonder what her room will look like?....stay tuned ;)...

Super cute Bananafish bedding found here.

This mom, Aria, over at Project Nursery, made one of the coolest nurseries I've seen!  We're scoping out Craigslist to find a mid-century dresser like the one above...

We LOVE Ikea...this pendent light will be hanging somewhere in her nursery

-I recently read a new book that's geared towards the friends and families of adoptive families.  It's called In On It by Elisabeth O'Toole, and I found it to be a really great read.  Written by an adoptive mom, her focus isn't to the adoptive parents, but rather to the friends and families to those around them.  She wrote it to help them understand how important their role will be and how they can be in on it [i.e. the adoption] :)  Check your local library to see if you can snag a copy otherwise, Amazon is where we ordered ours.  It's a wonderful book and I wish I could share it with all of our close family and friends before Little D comes home.

So that's just a few of the musings of our time since the awesome news we announced about two weeks ago about our referral!   On the front-line of prayer requests: The Ethiopian government has begun their limited processing of court cases (going from 50 cases a day to now 5 per day), and our family, along with a dozen others, are now in the midst of waiting out this new process.  We're not certain of how long it will be before we can travel to meet Little D and attest to the judge that we are madly in love with her and that she has a permanent place in our family forever.  But, we have witnessed on several accounts, that God has more power than we often think possible or give credit to, and so we are going to Him frequently, asking that He'd give the ET government the resources and time that they need to do a thorough, safe job with bringing families together.  We want Little D to be home, like yesterday, but we also know that it's not about us.  Truly.  All entities are doing the best that they can and it's our role to patiently support them.  As we wait, we're comforted by some awesome blessings already:  several families who are traveling to Addis Ababa (the capital) have offered to take pictures and video of Little D for us!!!!  We're thrilled!!  We can't wait to see more pictures of her and hear the nannies pronounce her name for us :)  There is great hope in that fact that she is being lovingly cared for by our agency's nannies.  She has been removed from the state-run orphanage and is now in a home where she is being cared for in wonderful ways.  Do you see it?  God is providing us with a lot, all around us, and we have the option to either choose to a) anxiously turn to frustration and fear or b) rejoice in the fact that He is taking care of this little girl and her parents ;)  We're going with the latter one--and we hope you will too!

We'll keep ya'll updated on the little moments, as well as the big ones too as things unfold.  Thanks for coming along with us on this amazing adventure of becoming parents!