Referral Anniversary

One year ago today we received an email that would change the course of our 6 month waiting streak. Our agency director was in Ethiopia and I had high hopes that she might come across the little girl that God had set apart to be in our family. It was a Sunday morning and we were getting ready for church when my email alert on my phone went off. For months I had been refreshing my email every 15 minutes waiting for "The Email". When this email alert went off something inside of me knew. Something knew that this could be it. As my heart skipped a beat and my blood cooled (you know that feeling when you are really nervous and your blood feels cold but your body feels hot...well thats the feeling I am talking about) I opened my email on my phone and there an email sat. It was from our agency director and the subject read one lonely word... Urgent. I closed my eyes and prayed. I prayed that if this was it then my heart would know. Phillips heart would know and we would have peace. I proceeded to open the email and I read a single paragraph stating...

"i am in Kamashi and there is a little girl here. she is somewhere between 2-3. they usually tell me when they have new children but for some reason they never told me about her. would you be interested in seeing her pictures?"

YES! My heart screamed. I ran to Phillip's side of the bed with tears welling up in my eyes and showed him the email. We thought for a sec before we responded. In my heart I prayed that if this child is ours then God would tell us to say yes we want to see pictures. To me there was no point in seeing a face that we couldn't adopt. It is too heart breaking to see the face of an orphan and not feel led to move on that particular case. We did that once and luckily it worked out for the best. Those two little girls now live less then mile from me and were welcomed into the home of our very best friends. God is good.

Phillip and I both decided that Yes! though she was older then we had anticipated (we were thinking more like 6 months-18 months old) God has a plan for this one and our family. We continued getting ready for church and went into teach our 3yr old class. All during our lesson time I kept my phone in my hand and kept refreshing my email over and over and over. Nothing. My heart fluttered as I began to question wether or not this was it. During worship in the service we attended I felt God telling me to let go and trust in him. We sat and I prayed. About half way through our pastors sermon my email alert buzzed on my thigh. I knew this was it. The email that held the face of our daughter. The wait of wondering who she was over. With one simple tap I would see her sweet face. I nudged Phillip and he gave me to ok to open it. And this is what we saw....

Oh!!! Be Still My Heart!!! We knew instantly that she was the one. We fell in love. Everything was perfect about her. Her sweet kissable lips, her big brown eyes and her sweet little profile. She was perfect. We accepted the referral later that night and a whirlwind of events followed. 

She has now been home for a little over 2 months and things could not be better. Sure she gets on my nerves and we for sure have our ups and downs. Adoption is hard. It is unnatural but we are doing our best at making it natural. We have some struggles with bonding and attachment but I know that God is a God who redeems and heals and that is what He is doing right now. It is a process and I am glad God chose me to be apart of it in her life. I feel honored to be called her mom. She is speaking English a little better. She gets frustrated, as do we, but we are figuring it out. She is losing her language and that saddens me. I was hoping that she would keep some of it. I wish I knew more then the handful of phrases I do know so that I could help keep it around a bit but I don't. She is really happy, or at least she seems to be. HA! I can't believe it has been a year since we first saw this sweet little face and that she is now in our home and I get to kiss it whenever I want. 

MINUS 1 !!!!!!!!!

The word says "God gives a crown of BEAUTY for ashes, a JOYOUS blessing instead of mourning, He give festive PRAISE instead of despair." (Isaiah 61:3) He defends the Orphans (Psalm 10:14) He will bring justice to the Orphans and the the oppressed. (Psalm 10:18) He tells us to "Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows." (Isaiah1:17) He says "I will not abandon you as orphans - I will come to you." (John 14:18) He also tells us "Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you." (James 1:27) 

I am thankful that when God wrote the story of our family he wrote in adoption and redemption. I am thankful that God saw Emme in a small remote village in Ethiopia and saw us here in Texas and brought us together for his good and perfect plan. Here's to a lifetime with the prettiest little girl in the world.