WE GOT OUR COURT DATE!

We were praying that we would receive a court date for before Christmas but after reading other adoptive family blogs yesterday I started getting somewhat discouraged that a before Christmas date was not in our future. It seemed like so many families had been waiting for weeks and months to hear word of a court date. So yesterday while driving to the hospital I just came to peace with the fact that we would not be traveling until January. It wasn't that I was running out of faith but more that I was trying to think about things realistically. The Ethiopian courts are not what they used to be in terms of processing time. I told myself that January would be better because the airports would not be so crowded with Christmas travelers. I told myself that this way Andrew and I would have a bit more time to raise more money for our trip. I also told myself that God was in control and that I would stop worrying about the date.

Well, God IS in control and He is faithful! At 8:30 this morning I woke up to AGCI calling my phone. I leaped out of bed and answered my phone while trying to sound semi awake! I heard K's voice on the other end and she sounded very excited. She quickly said, " How would you like to go to Ethiopia to meet your boys???" Wow! Another shocking moment in this journey of adoption! I could barley believe what I was hearing! After yesterday I was fully prepared to play the waiting game for several more months before hearing word of a court date and within just hours of giving it all to the Lord we get our date! 

Our court date is just as we prayed for. Before Christmas. The date is December 14th!!!! We will be arriving a few days early to spend time with the boys at Hannah's hope so we will most likely be leaving Seattle Dec. 10th! 

Prayer requests:

***The boy's birth mother has her court date on Dec. 1st and she needs to attend this date in order for us to keep our date. Please pray that she will be able to make it as she has to travel a long ways. Also pray for her heart as this has got to be the hardest thing a mother could ever do.

***Pray for all our travel arrangements too (we are leaving in 6 weeks)! We need to find the least expensive airline tickets.

***Continue to pray for the boys as they are adjusting to being a Hannah's Hope. Pray that God would be preparing their hearts to meet us too!

Thank you all for your continued prayers and for rejoicing in this great news with us!

A Big Thank You!!!

We want to shout out a special thank you to The Laha family and the firefighters and their families for all the support you raised for our adoption at the cider squeeze last Saturday! We feel so blessed by all of your support, prayers and words of encouragement over the past 2 years! We are so excited for our boys to meet you all and see how many people love them! We are also excited to attend the Laha's cider squeeze next year with our boys! THANK YOU!!!

Bringing our boys home one Etsy item at a time!

So, last year after we were done with numerous fundraisers I told Andrew (my hubby), "I don't ever want to do another fundraiser again!". I really hate asking people for donations even if it is for such a wonderful cause. Maybe it's a pride thing but I just really hate it! With that said, I am humbling myself yet again and opened an Etsy account today to help raise a bit more to go towards our adoption. When we set out on this adoption journey we really thought we would be adopting one child and we kinda budgeted for one. When we received our referral for two baby boys last week we were completely overjoyed! We then realized that everything is now times 2! We need to purchase an airline ticket for our 3 year old (about $1000) and several thousand more in the care  and country fees while they are in Ethiopia under the care of Hannah's Hope!

So, I do have a few items for sale on Etsy and I would be delighted if you would take the time to browse our "Adoption shop"! :-)
http://www.etsy.com/shop/megmercy?ref=pr_shop

In addition to Etsy, I am picking up as many extra overtime shifts at the hospital as possible! Andrew did that last year but now the fire station does not offer overtime anymore...:-(

Thanks for looking everyone and God Bless!
Megan

Referral acceptance packet sent!!!

We got all our documents notarized this morning and then sent our packet via UPS! We decided to use UPS because the post office is closed Monday due to the holiday and we didn't want to lose even one day of processing time. We also payed the big bucks to get it there next day (Monday). It should arrive at AGCI's office at approx 10:30am ;-) I think that the lady at the UPS store thought we were crazy as we triple checked the address, payed an outrageous amount to have it sent and took a picture of the envelope before handing it to her. Oh well, what can I say? We are baby crazy and totally in love with our precious boys. I have been spending way too much time just staring at their photos the past few days!

Celebrating our baby blessings with Ethiopian food!

Most of today was spent filling out paper work in our referral packet. I am always amazed by how much adoption paper work there is at every stage of our journey! Just when we think we have filled out every possible document imaginable, there is yet another.

We had two phone meetings today too. One with a social worker from AGCI to go through our transition plans for the boys.We covered issues such as bonding, sleep disturbances, behavior etc. It was recommended to have the boys sleep in our bed with us for the first 6 weeks they are home. Our S.W. also advised us to buy a good baby sling and carry our infant boy close to us in the sling for at least 6 hours a day to help promote bonding and attachment. It was a really good phone meeting because there were so many things that we just hadn't thought of yet.

We also had a consultation with our adoption specialist pediatrician from the UW. The pediatrician went over both boy's medical exams that were done at Hannah's hope. He said that he was very pleased with what he saw in the medical exams, labs and photos of the boys. He did say that our 3 year old is probably more like 2 to 2 1/2 years of age based on weight, height and number of teeth. We may end up adjusting his age once he has an official medical exam at the UW.  Praise the Lord for healthy babies!

At the end of the day we decided to go out and celebrate our baby blessings by going to our favorite Ethiopian restaurant for some traditional cuisine. We so love Ethiopian food! 

Many of you have been asking us about the names of our boys. We have decided to keep their Ethiopian names as their middle names and give them new first names. We have several ideas but have still not come to a decision on what those are yet. We will let you all know when we finally decide!

The best phone call of our lives!

WE RECEIVED THE CALL! The phone call that we have been waiting for for almost 2 years!
Here is the story of our referral call in a nutshell!
   Yesterday morning I was working a 12 hour shift at the hospital and Andrew was in the middle of a 48 hour shift at the fire station (perfect timing right?). At approx. 9:30am I went for my coffee break and checked my phone as I usually do. I noticed that I had just missed a call from our adoption case manager "K" a few minutes earlier. "Darn" I thought. "I always miss her calls". I was wondering why she had called because it wasn't time for our monthly check-in call yet. I figured it must be a paperwork issue or something. I decided I would try giving her a call back before my break was up. To my surprise "K" answered right away and said she was so glad that I called back because she had some exciting news for us. I immediately started shaking and felt like I was in a dream. She said that she had a child referral for us, in fact she had TWO! "Two?" I didn't know if I was going to be able to contain myself after I heard those words. I just felt like squealing with joy! "K" waited until I resumed my composure and then began to tell me a few details. She said that they have to brothers ages 3 years and 5 months! "Oh my goodness" I kept saying that over and over again. I could not believe this was happening. I was really wishing that Andrew was right there with me so we could find out at the same time. I asked "K" if I could call her on my lunch break because I didn't want to know anymore details until I told Andrew. I tried to call him on his cell right away but he didn't answer. I was freaking out because I really wanted to tell him about our referral call right then. I went back to work and was trying to stay focused on my patients for awhile. I tried Andrew again a few minutes later but still no answer. "Ahhhh, he must be on a call right now", I thought. It just so happens that Andrew was not at his regular station because he was working for another firefighter so I had no idea what station he was assigned to. I frantically called a station that I had the number for and they gave me the number to the station he was at. I'm sure that firefighter thought I was a crazy wife on the phone. No answer at that station either. Now I was really freaking out! Of all the times to not be able to reach my husband! I again tried to focus on my patient load. It was a really busy day for me and I had a pretty critical patient that needed my full attention. I silently prayed that God would ease my mind and I would be able to do my job without constantly thinking about the life changing call I had just received (at least until lunch break;-). About one hour later I got a call on the hospital phone from Andrew asking "What is the Emergency?".  "We got the call!" I tried not to scream those words as I stood in the middle of the busy nurses station. I briefly told him all that I knew, which wasn't much at that point and quickly had to hang up. He had been in the middle of his fire drill when he heard I was trying to contact him with an "emergency". Okay maybe it wasn't an emergency but very urgent I would say ;-) On my lunch break I was able to connect with K again and get all the details about "our" boys.
   It has been over 24 hours since we got "The Call" but I still feel like I am in a constant state of shock, amazement, excitement and so many other emotions that I have never felt before! We are going to be "ready-made parents", no kids to having a 3 year old and 5 month old in a very short time. We are so thankful to God for allowing us to receive our referral at this time. Despite many days that we felt hopeless that this day would never come, we now see that God was and is in the details of this and His timing is perfect.

So.....what are the next steps for us?

1) Meet with a pediatrician at the UW that specializes in international adoption for a consultation on Friday.
2) Phone meeting with a social worker from ACGI to discuss our transition plans on Friday.
3) Fill out paper work (again) and get documents notarized in our referral packet and send off to AGCI
4) Wait for our court date in Ethiopia (about 2 weeks).
5) Fly to Ethiopia to meet our precious baby boys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Prayer requests!

**Please pray for safety for the boys as they are adjusting to living at Hannah's hope.
**On Monday, the 3 year old fell while playing and fractured his leg. He is now in a cast. Please pray for healing.
**Pray that all our paper work will all go smoothly and there will be no delays.
**Pray that we will receive our court dates soon and can travel to meet our boys before Christmas.
**Pray that God will be preparing the boy's hearts and emotions to meet us and with the transition of coming home!

****We have decided to not put up any pictures of the boys or background information until they are legally ours. We do have the option of showing part of a photo without faces but we would rather wait!
If you would like a sneak peak at photos we can show you in person! They are SOOOOO cute!

 More info to come! Thank you all for being a part of this journey with us for the last 2 years! Thank you for your continued prayers, support and love! We can't wait to bring home the boys so they can meet all of you and see how many people love them already!
Megan & Andrew