Back in 2007, we felt drawn to adopt again. Little did we know how long this journey would take, but God had a plan, and our son had not been born yet!

We had no idea we would ever be able to have a son and a daughter. That felt like an impossible dream we would never be able to realize the fruit of; however, we found out in 2010 that it was not impossible at all. God turned our hearts during 2008 towards the nation where our son was going to be born, ETHIOPIA, and on 9-23-10, we sent all of the required documents for our adoption dossier to Ethiopia. 12 months later after dossier, we were still waiting. “When will the wait end God?” Looking back, I now realize why the “when” took a while to  come… Joshua was not yet born. 3 more months would pass, and then unbeknownst to us, on the other side of the world in Dec 2011, a little baby cried in the northern region of Ethiopia, and after he had been placed in the care of America World Adoption Association’s Transition Home there in Addis Ababa, we received the phone call we had longed for on 2-29-12.

“We have a referral photo of a beautiful little baby boy, and we were wondering if you would like to review his file?”

“Why of course we would! Send it on right away!” we said. We received his information via e-mail and fell in love from the first moment we saw his little face. We thought we would leave a short time later for our first trip, but there was a 5 month delay waiting for paperwork. Those 5 months were so hard. It was so hard getting updates every month, watching Joshua grow, and wanting to be there for each milestone. Finally on 7-23-12, with all paperwork in the hands of the judge we sat in her office and passed court on the first round! WHEW! Almost there!

Then a very hard part of the process began however. After bonding with him there in Ethiopia, and holding him, and feeding him, and playing with him, and being officially declared his parents, we still had to leave Joshua in Ethiopia for one last time in order to return home and wait for his VISA clearance to be given by the US Embassy.

And we thought that 5 month wait after referral was tough! WOW was this part hard. We handed him to the nannies at the Transition home and walked out of the room where his crib was… in tears because we were going to miss him so much. The next 1.5 months dragged on for what seemed like years! We watched other families clear so quickly, and we wondered “What about us God? What about us?” BUT GOD!

Today, almost exactly two years after beginning our journey, we heard our phone beep at 4:23AM our time and received an e-mail from the Vice Consul of the Embassy telling us that we were officially cleared, and in two days could begin to plan our trip to get our son.

HALLELUJAH! Joshua here we come!

I was reading a verse in Psalm 138 this morning that really was so timely! –

“ The LORD will work out his plans for my life—
for your faithful love, O LORD, endures forever.
Don’t abandon me, for you made me.”

At times throughout this process, things felt kinda hopeless… like we had been forgotten and ignored, but as this verse reminds us, God is so faithful and in spite of the way it looked in the natural at times… His loving and perfect plans for our lives and for Joshua’s life were faithfully and meticulously laid out before we were even born. He hadn’t abandoned us at all! He had our lives and Joshua’s life timed perfectly to meet at just the right time so we could have a son, and he could have a family. What an amazing God we serve! Thank you Lord for blessing us so much with this little precious life You have entrusted to our care. May You anoint us with wisdom in raising Him, and may His life and our lives praise you from start to finish.