Looking back...ready to move forward

If you have been following this blog, you can tell that I am a bit behind.  As you can see the post that is titled "January brings change" was not posted on here until June.  This post was an email that we sent out (back in January) to our friends and family, giving them an update.  Now it is June and as I look back over the past year, so much has happened since we were first put on the "wait list".

I have been in the process of completing my masters in Education Administration...which I have just completed!!!  Jeff has been in airline school to become a professional pilot, finishing all of his courses and internship at the end of this month.  We are praying now that he gets a job with an airline.  For the past 7 months, Jeff has been in Phoenix, Las Vegas and Jacksonville for schooling and I have traveled around visiting him when I have long weekends or vacation time.  All of this flying has truly taken away my fear of flying.  Plus, helping Jeff study has educated me and I have an understanding of what goes on in the cockpit, which somehow makes me feel safe.

As I type, I am sitting in a hotel in Jacksonville.  This is the first true down time I've had since August.  I often wonder why the adoption process has taken so long.  My emotions go from being patient and knowing that God has a plan and a timeline, to not understanding why Ethiopia keeps changing laws, my patience shot and feeling frustrated. 

Over the past few days, I have had time to think, to look back on this year and really take everything in.  This school year, to say the least, has been the most challenging for me.  Transitioning to a new school, taking on the job of co-ASB/Leadership director, completing my masters, interning for my masters, coaching and teaching.  It was a crazy busy time.  I have learned so much and I feel that the experiences have challenged me and changed me.  This all while Jeff was also in school, also being challenged and stretched, gaining the training that he needs to be a commercial pilot.  Looking back...God knows how much we can handle and God knew that we just needed to get through this year and then we would be ready.  Yes, the wait has been hard, but God knows, His timeline is the best....so stay tuned because we are ready!  

January brings change....

I haven't written anything for awhile so here is a little update on the adoption. Our January number is 19 and we continue to patiently wait………patiently………some days I do way better with this than others. :) The adoption journey has been a rollercoaster of emotions and we are so lucky to have the support of our family and friends throughout this time. Thank you all for your prayers, support and words of encouragement. I love that we have all of you going through this with us!


Jeff and I have really been praying for God's guidance during this time. We know that he is leading us in this journey and that He has amazing plans for our family. When we started the process, we knew that we wanted to adopt a precious baby boy and this little guy is now known as J Luke. As we continued the process, we talked about the future and the desire to adopted another baby from Ethiopia…..once we had the opportunity to go through the process, the travel, all the aspects of the adoption. The waiting and praying and waiting and wondering why it is taking so long and why Ethiopia has changed so many laws and procedures has made us really depend on God and His direction for our lives. We have talked with other families who have adopted, read blogs, researched and we have a love and a tender heart for the people of Ethiopia. I can't explain how excited we are to travel to Ethiopia….even the plane ride doesn't scare me anymore.

As I stated above, we have a desire to adopt again. Through the waiting and gaining more of an understanding of the need for these children, this desire has only become more intense. After the January phone call with AGCI and again finding out that the process has been extended (MOWA is slowing down the number of cases they are processing per month, we really don't know what this means, however, we are told that it will extend our wait time), I felt a bit of a nudge from God. I can't explain it. As I thought and prayed about this, I thought, Jeff will never go for it. So I took my nudge to Jeff and explained how I was feeling and I knew that he would say…."Mindy, slow down, lets just see how this process works"……But instead, he said, "I'm down with that!"…..and he was excited too like God had been nudging him too!!!!! I called AGCI and told them what I wanted to do, expecting them to tell me that I had to do all of this paper work and that it would be a huge process and it wasn't, it was so simple and we stay at the same wait list number!

As of today, it looks as though we will not have J Luke for at LEAST 6 months. However, we may have another little baby coming with J Luke. We changed out parameters to except twins. Meaning that we may still get one precious baby boy…J Luke, or that J Luke will have a twin sister or brother. Our Agency has said that twins are very unlikely but that obviously it happens. So please continue to pray for us and for the adoption and for God's will and direction. When you feel the nudge, you have to follow it and that is what we are doing.