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| Happy to be DTE! (1 year ago~) |
Today marks our 1-year anniversary since we sent our dossier to Ethiopia. We anticipate our adoption journey to continue cruising along in the "wait" stage for 6-12 more months, then HOPEFULLY we'll get a referral... but it could take longer.
On the bright side, the process of travelling and passing court in Ethiopia and getting US Embassy clearances is going SO much smoother now for the families ahead of us, so the time frame in which we get to bring our daughter home after referral is hopefully only about 3-4 months.
I've been reading a lot of books about African and Ethiopia specifically, and one thing that stands out to me is how differently people mark time. Seasons are defined by the crops that grow, the rains that fall, which animals have babies when.
Even though sometimes time crept unbearably slowly, this year also seems to have flown by as we waited
A few benchmarks in OUR last year since we sent our dossier to Ethiopia:
-S learned to walk!
-M started Kindergarten!
-S turned 1 (will turn 2 next month)
-We had visitors from near and far
-We visited family and friends near and far-ish (we miss our friends who are really far away!)
-We all bled a little blood from various small injuries
-We all sneezed and wheezed a little during the winter, but overall had a very healthy year
-Many hours were spent building with LEGOs (hubby + boys), reading (all), painting (me + the boys), gardening (me), writing awesome cool computer code (hubby)
-Many miles were hiked, fish were fished, and camps were camped
-Much mischief was achieved (boys, mostly)
-M lost his first tooth... and then continued losing more and more and more teeth!
-M finished his first year of school, and turned 6
-S is running and climbing and talking up a storm
-Hubby and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary
In short, life has been so good, and we feel so blessed! God has been so good to us! Yet, our family does not feel complete.
We really really really hope to have a referral this time next year, but international adoption can be unpredictable. We love our adoption agency, and are so thankful to know that they work so hard to ensure our adoption is ethical. I will happily wait as long as it takes if it means that we can be sure that everything is as it should be.
God's timing will be perfect, and I can't wait to meet the wonderful little person who will become our daughter!
Baby girl, we can't wait to include you in our family updates... family hikes... family hugs... family EVERYTHING!
