Filed for Court for 6 year old boy

News from Ethiopia that we were filed for court for our 6 year old son last Friday, January 16.  So, hopefully we will know what our courtdate is for him before we travel.  It would be nice to be able to share an estimated timeframe for him as to when Mark will return to Ethiopia to pick him up!

Surprise to Celebrate Year End

If you look back at the “Story of Hope” when you click on the adoption tab from our main website page, you will see that when we started praying about Ethiopia in June both Mark and I came across the word “sons” in our time with the Lord.  We thought maybe God wanted us to adopt 2 boys.  I thought a baby and a 7ish year old boy – putting the boy between our sons (who are 4.5 and 10.5 right now).  Adopting out of birth order was uncomfortable and also adopting an older child and unknowns involved with that.

So, we prayed and sought council.  Over time…I think by August, we decided to go with asking for a baby boy so I would be able to nurse him and it seemed we were not to pursue an older child, at least not at that time…and there was peace in our hearts about that.

I think it was when our agency director got back from Ethiopia in November, she posted something about having lots of profiles on boys ages 3-10 or something like that.  Somehow, my heart was again stirred.  I prayed about it.  One morning I was just being quiet before the Lord and wrote “supplanter” in my prayer journal.  My quiet time journal has been so important in this adoption journey and just in general spiritually this past year.  I thought it was strange -  that word - in fact I was thinking about a big tree at the time and planting and bearing fruit.  I felt like supplanter was a good word…something along the lines of bearing fruit, etc.  Then, I looked it up and it wasn’t what I thought.  It was tripping up - to grab the heel of.  So, I just kinda forgot about it. 

When we were putting up our Christmas tree shortly after that…my husband stuck the Steven Curtis Chapman CD in.  We’ve had this CD for a couple of years but somehow I never really heard the words to the song “All I want for Christmas” … until this year.  I still don’t know how I heard the words over the 5 kids all around me excitedly putting up various ornaments.  Perhaps you know the song - it says, “All I want for Christmas……is a family”.  It’s about an older orphan boy who longs for a family.  So, I started tearing up and told my husband that I just can’t shake the pull toward adopting an older boy.  Not much else was said. 

The song kept going through my mind.  I even used it in our 2008 family photo slideshow.

Then the week of Christmas I was thinking about the details of my husband traveling to pick up Nathan (our baby in ET) and emailed the agency director to ask if there was a way to know which kids at the orphanage have homes and which are waiting.  My intention was so that my husband would know when he travels in late Feb (I hope!). The director’s response was an email with attached photos of two boys.   I had no idea she would do that.  The second one caught my attention and so I asked what his name was.  It is a form of Jacob which means supplanter. 

About this time, a lady who just got back from Ethiopia, posted the updates on the kids.  I emailed her to thank her for the photos and update on Nathan.  I asked if she remembered anything about a boy about 6 years old with the name that meant supplanter.  I figured maybe she might have seen him but there are TONS of kids at the orphanage so I wasn’t sure.  About 10 minutes later, this lady called me.  She raved about what a wonderful boy he was and if she could adopt him, she would.  There is a photo of him feeding her son a bottle.  She said he is shy and helpful and sweet.  She said he is active and loves sports.  He’s wearing a football shirt in the photo.  Mark is a football coach.  Both my boys love sports.  Most of my kids are somewhat quiet and shy.  It seemed God had matched us with another child.

I was sold.  It was clear to me that this boy is our son.  Mark and I prayed.  We struggled some with acceptance.  We know it only matters what God thinks and being obedient to Him, but still our flesh struggled.  We have heard people against us adopting saying “You have more than you can handle already”.  Many people thought we should be done when we had 2 children.  We will have 7.  We prayed and I didn’t sleep much at all that night.  I wondered what God would do.   Tuesday morning, December 30, after Mark took a shower, he smiled at me and said, “It’s a yes.”  He said he had a peace about adopting the 6 year old boy when he woke up that morning.

We sent a lady, who is leaving January 2 to pick up one of her children from Ethiopia, a photo album for our 6 year old son.  We wrapped it up as a gift.  We officially accepted his referral Tuesday morning, December 30.  The song “All I want for Christmas” keeps going through my head.  This sweet lady will be passing out gifts for Ethiopia’s Christmas which is January 7.  Our son will open up the gift of a family.

God is SO good!

For those of you who need details…(I am one of those people too!)  Mark will travel twice.  We will not leave Nathan in the orphanage while we wait for our older son to pass court.  I will update when we have a court date for our 6 year old.  Our agency director said they would be filing soon.  My estimation (for whatever it is worth!) is that our court date will be in March and if we pass the first time, Mark will travel to pick him up in April.