Missed it by *THAT* much

Well, it's official. We'll be making two trips to Ethiopia. The deadline was May 8th. In order to have fallen under the old law which only required one trip, our dossier would have needed to have been in Ethiopia, translated, and submitted to the Ethiopian courts by that date AND we would have needed to have had a referral for a specific child. Instead, our dossier arrived to Holt's offices in Oregon today. Oh well. We gave it our best shot and we trust that God is in control of this process.

The ET coordinator at Holt estimated that we are # 28 on the waiting list, but that was just a rough guess since she only just received our dossier today. Regardless, it's exciting to know that someday in the future --maybe in a few days, maybe in a few weeks, maybe in a few months -- we will be getting a call to tell us that we've been matched with a sweet child in need of a home.

One benefit of the two trip rule is that when that call comes, we will get to see our child sooner than if we weren't required to be at the court date. That will be a blessing even if it will also be heartbreaking to have to leave them in Ethiopia when we return home to wait a little longer afterwards while the US Embassy in ET does its' paperwork.

And we know that in all things
God works for the good of those who love him,
who have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28