On Wednesday, March 21 the kids and I were eating lunch as usual. Then my phone started to ring. I hurried to get it and when I looked at the phone and saw "International Adoption Guides" I had instant butterflies and my heart started racing like crazy. It was THE call.
Here's the funny part. All last week I had been telling people if the adoption agency didn't call me by Friday (March 23) I was going to call them and find out what the deal was. See, the agency told me we would wait 1-3 months for a referral. The week of March 19 marked 3 months exactly from the day we sent our paperwork. I had to chuckle when we got THE call on Wednesday because God's timing sometimes is so perfect and so funny.
Anyway, back to THE call. Susan, our adoption coordinator, asked me if I wanted some good news. Of course, I did. Then she said the most amazing 3 words to me: "How about twins?" How about twins? HOW ABOUT TWINS? YES, yes, yes! We'd love twins. We've always talked about twins. We'd always thought having twins would be so fun. We never thought it would actually happen. But it did. Amazing.
On Friday, March 23 we officially accepted our referral of 8-month old twins... a boy and a girl. It's absolutely perfect. We are so in love with these cute little babies.
Michael and Liliana are beyond thrilled. We gave them the pictures of the babies and asked, "Do you know who these babies are?" Michael said, "Me and Liliana when we were babies." Liliana said, "It's a picture of my baby Olivia!" (her doll) Matt had to give them a clue. He said, "Do you think that these babies are a part of our family?" Michael said yes, so Matt asked, "What does that make them?" Michael: "Happy!" So cute. They finally figured it out: these two babies are their new twin brother and sister.
Of course, we had to get their input on names. Michael said he wanted his brother to be Samson. Liliana said she wanted the girl to be Olivia and the boy to be Jesus. In response to this Michael said, "No, you can't name him Jesus. There is only one Jesus and that is God!" I love that boy.
We hope to get our babies home by the end of this year. As many of you know, the Ethiopian government has changed the adoption process since we adopted Michael and Liliana. This time we will travel twice - once for their court hearing (at which point we will become the twins' legal parents according to the Ethiopian government) and then again for our US Embassy appointment (this is when we get to bring them home).
Our paperwork is currently being put together by the adoption agency staff in Ethiopia. They hope to submit us for a court date in 8-12 weeks. After we are submitted for a court date, we will travel for court around 1-3 months after that. Then we come home and wait for our Embassy appointment. This usually takes another 3-5 months. So, the long time frame, we are looking at bringing the babies home around a year from now. The short time frame, we are looking at bringing them home in about 6 months.
We would love for you to join us in prayer! We need all the prayer we can get knowing the ups and downs of the adoption process. Here are a few things we would love prayer for:
- pray for the twins -- their health, the attachment process, that they would feel our love from afar and have a peace from God
- our finances -- that we would be able to pay for this adoption debt free
- Michael and Liliana as they adjust to adding two new babies to our family
- God's favor each step of the way -- that everything would go much quicker and smoother than we ever thought possible. Pray for God's favor with the US Embassy in Ethiopia, the Ethiopian courts, the Ministry of Women's Affairs in Ethiopia, International Adoption Guides (our agency), and our paperwork
We look forward to sharing more information, as it becomes available, with you all. We will be announcing the babies' new names soon, so stay tuned for that as well! If you would like to see pictures, you'll have to stop by (we aren't able to put their Ethiopian names, birth dates or pictures online.) Thanks in advance for your love, support, and prayers. We truly appreciate it!
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