We've been waiting to be waiting...

We got the news today that we are an OFFICIAL WAITING FAMILY! Our dossier just came back from DC and we are now on the waiting list. What does that mean? Well, it means that we've done all we can do to speed up the process and now we just wait for God to choose Joleigh for our family. This is the first time that I am able to post what number we are on the waiting list.... and here it is....


This means there are 57 families ahead of us on the list BUT a lot of those families have requested young babies so it's possible for us to move up on the list b/c we've asked for a little girl between the ages of 6 months and 30 months. When I got the email today stating we were officially a waiting family I was overjoyed. I really can't put it into words. Butterflies raced through me and my stomach was in knots.
I needed today because yesterday was NOT a good day. Several circumstances led up to the bad day and then I got home and Cameron told me we had an email from Children's Hope International, our adoption agency. It stated that there have been changes in the Ethiopia adoption process. My stomach sunk... it is now a requirement for parents to travel TWO times to Ethiopia. This was quite a shock! There are reasons behind it that I totally understand but it's not going to be easy for us. This will increase our adoption cost from about $25,000 to over $30,000 just for the extra airplane tickets, not to mention our stay there. Here's one thing I've learned through this process... Satan is constantly at work trying to disrupt HIS plans. Here's another thing I've learned... HE IS BIGGER and will provide. All Cameron and I were really raising funds for was our travel and now that is doubled. That looks big and scary but He is bigger and we trust HIM fully! We canNOT wait to bring Joleigh home to meet her siblings!