It's been a long time since I last wrote.  Wow, I just checked the date of my last post.  It's been a really long time.  Things, amazing things, have happened regarding our adoption over the past few months of blog silence.  I keep telling myself that I'll write when something blog-worthy happens.  Then when it does, I don't.  Now another shift in my heart that I'd like to write about, but I feel so compelled to document all of the ways God deluged us with his grace this autumn as well.  Where to begin?!

We spent much of the fall waiting, and waiting, and waiting.  Which, honestly we expected to do.  I mean, we are on the Waiting Families List.  It's what characterizes this stage of the adoption process.  The paper chase complete, we wait to be matched with our child.  While waiting in itself can be excruciating when one longs for what they are waiting for, waiting without any sign of progress can become demoralizing.  This category of waiting was one we had not expected.  Families were flying through the list when we started our journey at #42.  We moved swiftly to #30.  And then held steady for over 3 months.  Stuck.  Stagnant.  It felt like nothing was happening.  And yet we fully realize now that so much was happening behind the scenes.

On October 9 we had the tremendous joy of making a day trip to St. Louis to eat lunch at an Ethiopian restaurant with the incredible women in the Ethiopia Program at Children's Hope and other families who had adopted from Ethiopia, or like us were waiting for their children.  Grace upon grace, my parents were visiting that weekend and made the trip with us.  The food and company was outstanding, but the image that is burnished in my mind is of my two girls playing with a 3 year old boy adopted last year from Ethiopia.  My heart swelled as the thought flashed: "This is a glimpse of your future family."  Tears still spring to my eyes to remember that sweet moment.  Longing.  Oh, my longing for my son.

The day was bittersweet for our family too, as we said good-bye to our faithful, and faithfully amazing, social worker, Ashley, who was moving on from Children's Hope.  It was a joy to tell her in person just how much she had meant to us, how much we treasured having her hold our hands as our trustworthy guide on this journey. 

And still, we waited.  Glimmers of progress broke through.  We received a wonderful grant from a Missouri adoption grant agency, Kinsman Redeemer.  We worked hard for our friends at Buckeye Acres, manning the entrance and painting faces at their pumpkin patch for all five weekends in October. 

We were saving up for a new computer, but God sweetly arranged for our pumpkin patch money to go towards bringing our child home when some dear friends gifted us with a brand spanking new computer.  What?!  Who does that?!  Sam and Stephanie that's who.  And wouldn't it be just like God to heap blessing and goodness and grace upon us all at once so that we swirl wide-eyed in the vastness of his love?  The very day that Stephanie dropped our our new computer was the very first day in over 3 months that we received an email telling us that finally a child had been referred to a waiting family.  And just like that we were waiting family #29.

November was filled with birthday parties, family visitors, and many cake orders including this beauty :)

Which I never would have pulled off without the rock star assistance of my remarkably talented sister, Jenna.

The day after my family traveled home to Iowa we received a letter from Show Hope, an adoption assistance organization founded by Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife, Mary Beth.  This was the only other grant we had applied too.  Our sweet social worker told us we stood a good chance of being awarded at least something from them, based on her experience.  I think I sobbed for a full 10 minutes when we opened that letter and saw that we had been awarded more than double the average amount they typically award.  Boundless grace.  Over the summer I met another adoptive mom who told me, "God funds what he favors."  Hallelujah.  Amen.  The combination of our two grants covers our final payment to our agency.  The amount we have saved thus far will get us to Ethiopia and back at least once.  We began this journey with wide-eyed faith, fully aware that on our own we were incapable of realizing this dream.  From the moment we said yes to this vision of adoption our Heavenly Father has confirmed repeatedly that this dream is his calling on our lives.  As we obey he continues to provide.

As I said above.  Things, big things, blog worthy things, have been happening.  And yet, still we wait, but our wait is getting shorter.

Yep, those beautiful girls standing in front of our chicken pen are holding a sign that says 20.

I had a flash of panic mid-December when I realize that time was running out to renew my passport.  Boo for no more smiling in the ID pictures.  Alas.  I am not in high school any longer.  About time my passport reflected that fact.  I've also been attempting to arrange for vaccinations.  Thanks, Mom, for keeping such a scrupulous shot record for me :)  Hopefully I can find a clinic closer than Liberty (1.5 hours away) that will give me a typhoid vax.

I guess that's all the logistical updates I have for now, but this post has become long.  Almost as long as my period of blog silence.  But I still I'd like to share my thoughts about our coming son.  Would posting two days in a row cause my computer to melt down in shock?  I think this new one can handle it.  So I'll close with this:  This is the year.  2012 is the year we meet our son and our family of 4 grows to 5. Hallelujah!