2 BIG hurdles crossed! :)

2 BIG hurdles have been crossed today!! First of all, our application was approved. :) Yippee!!!! Secondly, we got approval to use Catholic Family Services for our Home Study. :) Praise God!!! What a huge relief both of these approvals bring! We can now proceed with our Home Study stuff. As far as the adoption process goes, they will be sending us an "Orientation packet." We need to read through the stuff in it. We are scheduled to have our "Orientation call" next Thursday. Both Jason and I will have to be on the phone. We will go over some of the papers they will send and we can ask any questions we have. Like I'm going to wait to ask my questions until then. :) I'm good buds with Tiffany at AGCI. It seems like I always have some question for her that I email. I'm sure she is sad when a day goes by with no email from me. HA!

Along with this journey comes many highs and lows. Last night, we had a low and then today turns to a high. The requirements for adopting from Ethiopia have just changed. We will now have to take 2 trips there. We will get a referral for a child. Then we have about 3 weeks before we need to be in Ethiopia for a court date. We will get to spend some time with our new child before leaving her/him for 2-3 months. We will come back home without him/her. :( We will travel again after more stuff is completed to actually bring our new child home. This is quite the blow. Needless to say it is a lot to soak in. We will need to take an extra week off of work. We will need to find a place for our girls for another week. We will have to pay for 2 more plane tickets. (Too bad we don't fly more often...frequent flyer miles would come in handy here) We know they are doing this for the kids and that is what we have to remember. From what I know, about 40 kids were ready for their families to come and pick them up only to be told they weren't wanted. How horrible!

We knew this road wouldn't be easy, but we knew we had to accept the challenge. Many times we have questioned why it has to be so hard. 2 steps forward and 1 step back. We still are TOTALLY trusting God that this is going to work out. This was placed in our hearts for a reason. God brought us TO this and He will bring us THROUGH this!

Thanks to all of you that have faithfully checked our blog for updates. Thank you for all of the prayers. Thanks to those of you that are buckled in the seat next to us and helping us on "our ride." It is with all of your love, support, and prayers that we will be able to make the difference in the life of a child. We can't wait for that day! :)