Introducing. . .
Okay we have no name yet. But, here he is, our long awaited son. He is 14 months old, healthy and as handsome as can be. (Although we may be biased.)
In less than a year, he should be tearing it up with his sisters here in Michigan. Thank you all for your prayers and we will keep you posted on the continued process to bring him home. I will put more specifics up later. Thanks again for all your love and support.

We just got home from a 2 week vacation. I was really hoping we would get a referral while we were gone. Somehow I got in my head that it COULD happen. I continue to wonder why I let myself hope for these timeframes. But no such luck.
We did have a wonderful vacation and spent a good deal of time enjoying God's beautiful creation on the road from Texas to Michigan.
The good news is we think we have settled on a name for our son. Unless we really like his given name. Wouldn't you all like to know. . .

Clearly, we did not get one of the referrals from that last batch. Apparently only 3 of 20 went to Bethany families. So we are now going on waiting for 8 months. We are in a giant phase of apathy. I feel like you can only stay excited for so long when nothing is happening. Some friends just got a referral this week and they turned in their paperwork three weeks before us, so you never know, it could happen.
The girls continue to pick out names for "our little brother." The latest is "Jeff." I have to say it is better than Matea's last option "Pepperhead."
At least they are keeping their excitement. . . We continue to trust that all will happen in God's time. Without that assurance, I don't know how we would survive.

Prayer Needed

We found out this weekend that the orphanage is going to give out 22 referrals this month, several of which will go to Bethany families. We are fervantly praying that we will be one of these families.
We are struggling right now with a little frustration and lack of patience. So you can pray for that as well. We are continually faced with the dicotamy of the huge orphan crisis in the world and our seemingly unfruitful waiting. Thus, patience is needed.
Please join us in praying that we will be matched up with our son this month.
Crystal

Referral Update

We just found out that due to delays with the Haitian government, it will be another couple months until we get a referral. The average wait is now 5-7 months. We are 2 months into our wait. Most of the time, the waiting is fine but every once in a while, we get pretty impatient. There are 25 kids at the orphanage waiting for passports (the final stage) then they can go home. When that happens, they can accept new kids, one of which will most likely be ours. Pray that these kids get home soon.
Check out the orphanages website if you get a chance, pretty impressive. www.glahaiti.org

One more step completed

We received our I-171 today. This is the paper from the US government stating they have approved us for adoption. Not that we were overly concerned, but the paper in hand is another check on our to-do list.
Praise God!

God's Leading

Someone asked me the other day "How did you know you were supposed to adopt?" I thought it would be a good thing to post here since you are all journeying with us in one way or another.
Steve and I had always felt that adoption would be a good option for us. However, as the conversation got more concrete, I was less sure if this was something I could do. God politely reminded me that this was not something I would do, but something we would do with HIM. We were at church one Sunday morning and after a particularly hard discussion with Steve about my doubts, God relieved them all.
I was standing in church singing and I had this picture unfold in my head of holding my son for the first time and it was just as clear as day that I could and would love him as unequivically as I do my biological girls.
On the way home from church, I told Steve we could go ahead and start the process because there was no longer any doubt in my mind that this was God's plan for us.
Being that sure of His plan, makes it much easier to obey. If only he were that clear all of the time. . .
In Christ,
Crystal