Great News and Prayer Requests

God is continuing to move everything along smoothly and quickly for us. On Wednesday I was able to take our complete dossier to the county clerk and the secretary of state offices. I hardly slept the night before, I was so excited! Here are some pictures of my trip to Frankfort, KY for the state seal:

We mailed the dossier to our courier in Washington DC and she'll be taking it to the US Secretary of State early next week. They should be able to process it the same day, and then the courier will take it to the Ethiopian Embassy. They process it in about two days, and the courier will mail it to our adoption agency. Once they approve it, they send it to Ethiopia to be translated. We're moving right along!

And here's the really great news. I called to check on a little detail before I mailed the dossier, and our case worker was surprised that I was already sending it off. She said that we had been at the bottom of the referral list for a child and she'd written "It will be a while" next to our names. But she told me she would go ahead and move us to the top of the list! We had been under the impression that we had to wait until our US-CIS form was approved before we could get a referral, and that's still more than two months away. But they said we don't need to wait for that at all. Praise the Lord! She couldn't really say how long it will take for a referral to come -- it could be one month or it could be six months. But we trust the Lord's timing. He's been very kind to clear the way for us so far.

In the meantime, there are three things we'd love for you to join us in prayer about...

1. When we get a referral, we'll also get a large bill in the mail. We're thrilled that we'll be able to see pictures of our children sooner, but we're also asking that God will continue to provide for us financially so that we'll be ready for the referrals when they come.

2. Ethiopia has been getting a little more strict, so we're hopeful that things will continue to be as smooth and easy as they've been so far now that we're about to begin working with the Ethiopian government.

3. We're praying that the Lord will give us wisdom about how old to request that our children will be. The process could be faster and smoother if we are willing to adopt a child between 1-2 years old, but right now we're thinking our preference would be that both kids are under 1. We're praying that the Lord would either work out a way for us to bring home two children under 1, or that He would guide and equip us if His plans are different than that!