"Once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls knows that we know, and holds us responsible to ACT"...Proverbs 24:12
















Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Little Glimpse

 Most orphans that are adopted come from 2 orphanages.  That was the case w/ Sova Grace and I recently found out that even though we are adopting a baby- this will be her case too. 
 As traumatizing as it is to move a child from the only 'home' she's known to a new 'home'- it is a good sign that that child is getting closer to having a family. 
Sova was in her 1st orphanage from birth till 3 years- but that orphange was not licensed for international adoptions, so once no one from India came forward to adopt her- she was moved a few hours away to a larger orphanage that was able to do international adoptions, where she stayed one more year. 

Now for Ethiopia- once a child is brought to an orphanage they will stay there until a family signs papers stating that they plan on adopting that child (referral papers- hopefully by this fall for us! )
As soon as that child is 'matched' with a family then that child will move to (in our agency's case) a smaller orphanage which our agency (WACAP) calls the 'WACAP House.'  The children there will all be adopted out through our adoption agency within 2-4 months...so it's a pretty short stay.  There are usually only 18-24 children there at a time.  Once a bed empties...another child will get the chance to move one step closer to having a family.
Families that have traveled before say moving the child to the WACAP house is a very good move...usually better care than the government run homes.  So here's a little glimpse of the 'WACAP HOUSE.'


It's pretty surreal to see these pics knowing that within the year we will be walking through these gates to our daughter...
  










It seems like a lifetime away right now!  Oh please Lord, hurry things up!

side note:  the courts in Ethiopia have been pretty stagnant...there is literally ONE judge that handles EVERYSINGLE adoption case!  Completely nuts...there is alot going on there right now concerning adoptions so things are slow.  Surprisingly our agency still stands on the same timeframes that they gave us.  They reassure us saying that things happen in waves and batches over there.  Praying hard for some type of movement!

Thursday, February 3, 2011


Driving on a long car trip Jacob drew this picture in the back seat.
It says "I love you" with the a picture of 4 children holding hands- signed Jacob, Sova and Caleb
and baby
Oh pure sweetness...I will save this picture forever...she's already born in his heart.



We plan on bringing Jacob with us to Ethiopia on one of the trips (we have to go twice!)
I found him at the table with our globe- he was drawing the country of Ethiopia with a cross in the center.  He then labeled the country and wrote,
 'I Love TFT'  'Love Brother'
TFT are the 'possible' initials of the baby IF we end up changing her name (making her Ethiopian name her middle name- but we are ahead of ourselves in this dept anyways!)
Jacob Loves a certain name- regardless of the choice, once again...he's gonna be a great big brother!


Sova has pictures from Jacob in her Life Book that he made for her while we were waiting for her.
Whenever he talked about her he would say, "baby Sova." 
 So funny considering they are 13 months apart!