Sunday, October 17, 2010

Three plus months in line

Hi Readers,

We are 3 1/2 months into our wait for a referral. While I'm anxious, it feels really exciting knowing that we could get a call any day! For those of you just tuning in now, the average wait time for a referral is 4-6 months. I HOPE we are somewhere in that margin and not beyond it!
We had our agency phone meeting about our referral and travel. The list of things I have to do before, during and after travel is so daunting. Amos read over it with WIDE eyes. I am a bit worried too but at this point I feel like I would walk through fire if it lead to us bringing our baby home. It looks like my sister will be traveling with me for the second trip. I am so thankful for this as I know I'll be exhausted and required to do many important things at the Ethiopian court and US embassy. I need her brain to help me through my list WHILE adjusting to being a mommy in a 3rd world country.
Another hurdle we will need to overcome is the finances. When we say yes to our referral, we will need to send $5,300 with our answer to get things going in Ethiopia. After that we need to by the plane ticket ($1000-1400) and book a room at the guest house ($1000). This is more than we have in our savings account now but I know God will be faithful and he will help us be creative with our finances to make this next step.
We received a little booklet of Amharic words to practice before the trip! I love this. I plan to make some flash cards to learn some words for the meeting of our little one on the first trip! An Ethiopian mom at my school is very excited to help me with this:)
Lets hope and pray for finances to fall into place and a referral call soon!
For now,
Dehna hunu (good-bye)