his name shall be.....

Silas.

He's a Silas. We will keep his Ethiopian name as his middle name. I can't wait until I can share that too. And his sweet face. I think you will melt. I know we are still in a melted state....

Edited to Add...
My friend Christine emailed me about the meaning of Silas. Everything we had seen up to this point said that Silas meant "wood, from the forest" (not very exciting or sweet). But I believe we gave him a fitting name....

Silas: This name comes from the Aramaic word that means "asked for." Silas was a member of the early church who was, at one time, jailed with Paul for his beliefs.

We definitely asked for him and He gave us imeasurably more than we asked or imagined (see Eph 3:20).

[from Family Education]

The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. Psalm 126:3

God sets the lonely in families...Ps 68:6a

And He has done that today! We got our referral!!!

He is beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Because of Ethiopian law and our agreement with our agency (he's not legally ours until we pass through court in Ethiopia), all we can tell you is he is a stinkin' cute little guy. Remember how I called him "cutest boy in the world"? Well, he is!

You don't know how much I want to share his picture with you! But in his interest, we cannot. Soon though. Please pray that we receive a court date soon so that we can share him with the world. We will not be sharing details about his life and circumstances though. My life is an open book, but we feel like our son's should remain private. Thanks for not putting us on the spot. :)

Thank you for your faithful prayers and encouragement on this journey. It's not over....I think this wait to go get him will be the worst. We continue to covet your prayers as we now have a son on a different continent that we can't wait to get to. Oh how he is already loved!

What happens now? We wait (notice the theme...) for our hard copy referral to come in the mail. We then send in the official acceptance letter to our agency. The in-country representative requests a court date for us and we base our travel plans around that date.

God is SO very good! I can't believe I finally get to post that we got our referral!!

Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land. Proverbs 25:25

23 weeks waiting....

I can't believe we've made it to 23 weeks. I thought surely the wait would be over by now. We're one week from a 6 month wait.

Our agency gave us a 4-7 month window to wait for a referral. We're still in the window, but I feel like we're dangling out of the window by our feet. :) We're hanging on, hoping a praying for that call.

Two families had successful court dates yesterday and 5 more have their court appointments tomorrow. Please pray they go through and can begin travel arrangements. How wonderful it would be for our little guy to be in the transition home when they get there! What a gift those pictures would be.

I'm ready to pack our bags.....just need that phone call!! It would be silly to start packing before the phone call, right?!

the name poll results

Noah........29 votes....39%
Jude........5 votes.........6%
Abram....2 votes.........2%
Samuel...15 votes.......18%
Silas.........9 votes........10%
Micah......23 votes......27%

83 votes total

Thanks for participating! My sister, Katy, admitted to voting for her favorite name from 2 different computers. Anyone else want to fess up?

holding on to Truth

"But these things I plan won't happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, be patient! For it will surely take place. It will not be late by a single day." Habakkuk 2:3

random quick update

no news this week like we expected. please stay tuned.

gimpy gout is better...way better.

marshall is home. :)

picking up my brother tomorrow morning.

i have no idea who to vote for....and i've looked at all parties, not just my usual.

wish we could watch the new episodes of Lost like everyone else. we love that show.

it's late and i should really be in bed.

love to you all! (i did say random, didn't i?)

22 weeks waiting

Gimpy here. Today makes 22 weeks waiting for someone so worth the wait.

Tuesday was a rough day. The pain from the gout is absolutely excrutiating. It kind of takes on a life of it's own. I feel like it should be called THE gout, not just gout. It's that kind of thing...unspeakable almost. Sounds like it should be shameful. Mom didn't want me to tell people I had the gout, in case they didn't understand. That cracked me up, because for a split minute I thought about what people may think when I said I had the gout. Sounds like leprosy or gangrene. I'm feeling much better now, still tender and limping, but not in that inconsolable pain. I continue to covet your prayers for complete restoration....man, the gout stinks!

My big brother is coming to town! I've been looking forward to this as I haven't seen him in over two years. I get to pick him up at the airport and praise the Lord, it looks like Marshall will be home to go with me in case I need to "sit a spell" in the airport. I usually, though not on purpose, park in the farmost corner of the place and walk several miles to the loved one's terminal. (Do you detect sarcasm here? It's the anti-inflammatory meds, I'm sure ;) He will be around for 2 weeks, mostly volunteering at a hospital, but we will get to spend some time with him.

Thanks for voting on the name poll! It has been so fun to watch. Only a few more hours to go. We just can't wait to see that sweet boy's face.

That's all for now. Gimpy, out.