We truly are a family redefined. We are husband, wife, son, daughter, step children, biological and adopted children and most importantly, Children of God.

A friend pointed out that I needed to update my blog header. After our adoption from Ethiopia, I had updated it stating how the adoption of Sara Joy completed our family. Well... the journey continues. After much prayer, we have decided to follow what we feel is God's calling for us...we went to Ghana with the intention of adopting a four year old girl, Isabella Hope. Little did we know that she would be the catalyst to bringing home not only her, but her half brother and sister. We will now be adding not only Isabella Hope to our family, but also Mary Grace (9) and Gilbert (6) who we will transition to the name Nathaniel Timothy. The shock is wearing off and the JOY and EXCITEMENT are overwhelming. Now truly, our family is complete. The great part of journeying with God, is that it's always an adventure. He knows where we are going, and for us it is all a marvelous surprise. Looking forward to sharing our family adventures as we walk daily through life and as we venture off to Ghana to bring home Mary, Nate and Isabella! It's always an adventure redefining our family!



Sunday, June 13, 2010

Remember that "patience" thing???

So, in one of my posts right after referral I said I was going to be patient... that God would deliver Sara Joy to us in His time.  I still believe that... all but the patient part.  I have never been a patient person.  You would think that going through four adoption attempts (hopefully the second of which will end up successful) would have taught me some sort of patience.  I guess I am a very slow learner.

I wish I could share the pictures with you, but unfortunately, I can not.  I was on a photo site over the weekend though that our agency set up for people who are traveling to Ethiopia.  When they travel, if they have the opportunity, they take pictures of other children at the orphanage (along with the names alongside their bed) and they upload them to the site when they get home.  This way, people who have not yet traveled, but who have been referred their children, have an opportunity (if they are really lucky) to get a picture of the child they are waiting to bring home.  I looked thru about a million pictures and I found THREE of our Sara Joy.  She is SOOO cute! 

For any of you who are working with the same agency that we are, trust me when I say I am going to snap pictures of EVERY child that I can and will load them to the site as soon as I get home.  You have no idea how excited I was to find pictures of our Sara Joy in the pictures.  Some were from as long as about 10 months ago!  I know the value of these pictures and would LOVE nothing more than to provide that joy of seeing their child's face, to a family that is still waiting to bring their little one home.

On Monday we formally accept the referral of our Sara Joy.  We accepted her verbally last week, but then needed to wait for a referral packet.  We got that on Friday and will send it back to the agency on Monday.  I guess at that point they will work to get us a court date.  I'm DYING to get a court date!  I'm DYING to go and see my Sara Joy!

Until we are "officially" Sara's parents, I will leave you with a brief description of her... other than what I have already said that she is BEAUTIFUL and CUTE! 

She is tiny.  All records indicate that she will be small.  She has lighter skin that I would have expected... almost the color of Cameron and Anna after about a month of summer has passed.  Her eyes are HUGE and brown and almond shaped.  She has a perfect little nose, tiny rosebud lips, a little chin and WILD hair!  I mean WILD.  It's not super curly like I kinda expected, but it is VERY wild.  I can not wait to take that beautiful little girl and put some pretty ribbons in that wild hair of hers and just love on her!

I wish I could share her cute little face with all of you. 

Pray with me that we get a speedy court date.  Sara has been in an orphanage long enough.  She is ready for a family and her family is ready for her.  I knew, without a doubt, that God would give us our daughter from Ethiopia!  I knew, knew, knew it.  I am so glad I waited.  I was not fond of the journey we had to take to get to her, or the time that had to pass for us to be united with her... but I'm so glad God gave us her.  I'm so glad we followed where God led. 

God is SO good!

In Christ,
Charity

4 comments:

Heather said...

Soon enough!!

Paula said...

Charity, are you with Nightlight? We were the second Nightlight family to pick up our children at Hope's place in Addis. We took over two hundred photos of children! It was wonderfully gratifying to know how happy the pictures made the waiting parents. I ended up with dozens of pictures of the twins at the orphanage through the generosity of other travelling parents. I hope you don't have time to collect as many as we did (we had three court dates), but I know you'll get some more. Makes the wait a little more bearable. :)

Charity said...

Paula,
Yes, we are with Nightlight. When did you travel? I found pictures from August and September of 2009 (she was just about 6 months old at the time). If you have pictures of "Edom" I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to see them!

I seriously pray we do not have to have THREE attempts at court to pass. That surely must have tried your patience. If you uploaded your pictures, which folder are they in. If not, and you remember seeing, or have any pictures of Edom, please send them to me:

charity.roach@roche.com

It would make this mamma very happy to have them! By the way - your girls are very beautiful. It looks like they are water lovers! I'm always watching your blog for updates!

Can't wait to share the rest of the journey with you!

Charity

Lori said...

Can't wait...impatient with you!!! xoxo