OUR BABY!!!

That's right.....we have seen our daughter!! Let me start by saying that I know I have been very absent from the blogosphere and doing a truly terrible job of keeping everyone informed. We moved up to #1 on the list on October 2nd. Now, while I have been counting the seconds for 7 months to get to that point.....it was different than I thought it would be when we got there and I just didn't have the right words for the blog. Don't get me wrong....we were elated to finally be waiting to see OUR daughter. We have loved every second of seeing other parents and children find each other and have truly rejoiced along the way with them....it has really been the only thing that has kept me sane thru the waiting thus far....and we really were over the moon to be waiting for our daughter. But the elation also came with anxiety and exhaustion and a little bit of the depression that you fight the entire wait as you check your phone to make sure it is working approximately a million times a day. So....I just didn't have the words and was trying to remain centered in the life that I am in with my husband and my amazing children and avoid going wacko (although I think that it is too late for that!)
But....enough of that.....especially since you probably don't even care that you didn't know we were #1 and just want to hear about our baby!!! Let's see......she is GORGEOUS....and I mean that! She has a perky little mouth and HUGE eyes and long skinny fingers and tons of soft looking hair! I would love, love, love nothing more than to post a picture right away but we aren't allowed to until after she is home with us. Ethiopia has set guidelines to protect our children and so we certainly want to honor that.....as much as we would love to show her off in all her adorableness!! I'm also not supposed to mention her name on here until we pass court....but it is also beautiful!! From now until then I will probably just call her "the baby"....so don't think that we are horrible people who don't call their baby by her name =) I don't know what else I am allowed to post on here.....she is TINY and healthy and we are so, so thankful for how we have been blessed. We actually received "the call" on Friday late afternoon. Nate & I were both working. I had heard my phone ring a couple of times but wasn't really at a place where I could look at it. Finally, at 1:45 I picked it up and noticed the missed calls from a 303 # (our agency is in Denver)....and my heart almost stopped. Our coordinator had left the most calm message in the world asking me to call her....and then yelled at me when I called her back!! Just kidding.....she didn't yell at us.....but she did ask why the heck neither of us had answered our phones for over an hour while she tried to call us with the most exciting news in the world (my excuse was work....my wonderful husband, however, had dropped his cell phone in an irrigation ditch 2 days before and it could not be resuscitated and had yet to be replaced). Then she told us what she knew and I cried and half listened as I tried to figure out how to get out of work quickly =) I finally got out of work and met Nate & the boys at his parents' house....we were on our way to Denver to meet Nate's family and because we had an adoption training Saturday. We had planned on leaving straight from work but obviously we needed to get to a computer!!! And then we hugged and were stunned for a while.....this is the way we always react to big events in our lives....we didn't speak the day we got engaged or the day we found out we were pregnant with Eli....we had to talk when we found out we were pregnant with Abel because we were packing the U-Haul to move back to CO....I know....stellar timing, right??? Okay...I don't even remember where I am in this story you probably don't even really care about because I think I got a little side-tracked=) We are just so, so excited. We are so blessed by God's mercy and unfailing love and are sure that she will feel like she has always been here=)
So....what comes next???? WAITING....that's right.....more waiting!! We now have to pass court in Ethiopia. Hopefully we will here about a court date in the next 4-6 weeks and hopefully that date will only be 4-6 weeks after we hear about it. The courts just re-opened after their annual closing for the rainy season so nobody has a very good idea of how long court dates are taking at this point. At that point we pray, pray, pray like crazy that we pass court the 1st time....and then we have to wait some more....for our US embassy date. Our embassy date will probably be 8 weeks after we pass court...that's right....we have to wait 2 more months after we pass court to go get our daughter. No idea how we are going to survive the next few months of waiting now that we have seen her face....but at least we are one step closer.
So, prayer requests....please pray for a swift court date and for a positive outcome. I would also love to request prayers for some families with our agency who have court dates tomorrow (I believe there are 4 of them).....I know 2 of the women personally thru our trainings (hello Anne & Anne....thinking about you!) and all of them thru the IAN forum I am on with other mothers. They have been waiting for a very long time to be told they are officially the parents of the children they have been longing for....please pray for favorable outcomes for them!!!
Thank you all so much for your love and support.....I assure you that no part of this journey would have been possible without them!!