600 Dozen

A milestone in history has been reached ... this week I made my 600th dozen of cinnamon rolls (is that the right way to say that?). Wow! Who'd have thunk it?!

All in Good Time

So, for those of you who are keeping track, it's already been over a week since my last post, and still no referral. I decided to go ahead and call the agency yesterday and found out that our coordinator had been out of town since last Tuesday and would not be back until Tuesday, today. I so wish I would have called sooner and found that out! It would have alleviated a lot of wondering about whether or not the agency was going to call with news. Since I couldn't talk with our coordinator yesterday, I called her today, knowing full well that she wouldn't have news for us, because if she did, she would've called first thing. Talking with Terra was good, even though it didn't give me any answers. She assured me that we would be her first priority when our referral did come, and as soon as all the loose ends were tied up in Rwanda, she would be able to give us the much anticipated call.

That got me to thinking about a cross-cultural communications class I took several semesters ago. Most African cultures are polychromic, time is relative. Deadlines don't mean much and relationship is valued above accomplishing a task. So different for our Western monochromic thinking! We like things done on time and in the order it should be done! Needless to say, I'm chilling out and going to just try and enjoy the wait time. God knows what is best, and He will bring our son to us in His good time.

He is 10 months!

This morning when I saw our adoption agency's number pop up on my call ID, I was hoping to hear the words, "Congratulations! We have a referral for you!" I didn't hear those words, but we did get good news. Our agency coordinator called to tell us that the orphanage would like to refer a healthy, 10 month old boy to our family for adoption. She needed to ask if we were ok with this because in our paperwork, we had requested an infant male who was 0-9 months old. I told her immediately that him being 10 months old was no problem. She said that she should have all the details for the referral worked out within a week! Hooray! For some reason, I didn't even think to ask anything else about him!? I know that women tend to get forgetful during pregnancy, but maybe during a "paper pregnancy" too? :)

Waiting...and waiting...and waiting...

I used to think that I was a somewhat patient person...that is, until now. It feels like we have been waiting forever (5 weeks equals forever, right?) to find out who our son is! Last Friday when I knew that I wouldn't hear any news that day or into the weekend, I felt just like I did waiting for our first daughter, Asia to be born; despondent and discouraged, convinced that this baby in NEVER coming! I was so antsy waiting for her to come those last two weeks that it really did seem that I might be pregnant forever (Trina was a different story and decided to come three weeks early. Didn't even have any of the baby stuff out of the attic when I went to the hospital!). Similarly, right now it feels like we might be in the process of adoption forever and never be able to hold our precious little boy in our arms. I know in reality that it will only be a matter of days until I'm able to post that we have our referral and will be traveling to get him soon! With my pregnancies, I had all those comforting little reminders, like feet kicking me in the ribs to remind me that my baby was indeed well and on her way. With adoption, I can only wonder about my child. What does he look like? Is he getting the food he needs? Is someone going to hold and cuddle him today, or will he have to stay in his crib without affectionate touch? Everything is out of our control; we can only wait and pray and pray and pray.
I've also been thinking and praying a lot for his birth parents. In Rwanda, it is illegal for a mother to relinquish her child, so oftentimes children are abandoned in public places. If they are still living, I am praying that God would reveal Himself to them, that they would realize that He has a tremendous plan for the son that they brought into the world and that we will now raise, and that the God's comfort would be very close to their hearts. I don't ever want to forget that our gain is someone else's loss.

Video

The Story Thus Far...

After promising an adoption blog for many, many months, I am finally doing it! Many of you reading this have never heard how we got into the grand adventure of adoption, and hopefully this answers questions many of you have had about our process.

How did this all begin anyway? When I was pregnant with our second child, Trinity (aka Trina), I kept having very vivid dreams of an African-American baby boy, and each time I dreamt about him, I knew he was my son. Also during this time, I heard several radio broadcasts about adoption and caring for orphans. One of the broadcasts was an interview with a Christian singer named Sarah Groves. She said, "If God said in the Bible in the book of James that pure religion is to care for widows and orphans, I really think He means for us to actually do that." (Ironically enough, she later traveled to Rwanda and did some work there.) Those words struck me like an arrow. Adoption wasn't some abstract ideal that I should dream about someday doing. The seed was planted. Since we had just had a new baby, we were in no position to even think about adopting. I put it back on the "prayer shelf" and left it there for one year. Lots of things needed to come into place if we were going to pursue this dream.

Fast forward to July 2008. Have you ever felt like God's hand was in your back, pushing you forward? We were feeling it, but so uncertain of whether we should move forward in this monumental process. Both Justin and I knew that our next child should be brought into our family through adoption, but it seemed so expensive and so laborious. We had found the agency we wanted to work with, America World Adoption Association (AWAA; check them out at www.awaa.org) but didn't know where the money was going to come from. As I was praying about it, I felt like God told me that the money was the easiest part. He has unlimited resources! I had an idea to do a fundraiser that my mom and I had used when I was in junior high; cinnamon rolls. I started putting the word out that I was taking orders for cinnamon rolls. We said that we would start the process when we had raised $3,000, figuring that might take awhile! Two weeks later (yes, two weeks!) we had $3,000 in hand and were sending off the initial paperwork to the agency. Amazing! Since July, I have made almost 600 dozen cinnamon rolls (I'm still taking orders! :) ), we held a dinner and silent auction with our friends, the Lockwoods who recently adopted from China, and received a few large monetary donations from several individuals. God has provided so much!

Where are we in the process now? We have gone through the paperchase process, submitted our dossier (all the official adoption paperwork) to the Rwandan government, and been approved by them to adopt from the Home of Hope orphanage in Kigali, Rwanda. We are anxiously awaiting our referral any day. A referral is where we are matched with a child from that orphanage and receive a picture and information about him. We are requesting a boy, under one year of age. Hopefully, we'll be able to travel to Rwanda in July to bring him home!