Check This Out!!!

So the first Ethiopian referal pics were taken down off of the CHI site becuase you can't legally post pictures of your child until they are legally yours. So... check out this blog and you can see the pictures of Micah www.kevstac-ouradoptionjourney.blogspot.com/! It is official, they had their court date YESTERDAY and Kevin and Stacey are now officially his parents. How adorable is he? (Thanks for the heads up Pam, I've been a bit slack on checking out the blogs for a few days)

The past couple of days have been emotionally a bit tough, but wow, does this make up for it. Yesterday we got our info to complete our application in the mail, so hopefully it will be in St. Louis by Friday. Today I get to see pictures of an amazingly beautiful boy in Ethiopia waiting for his family to come and get him. And now I can see our kids over there waiting for us. A big brother or sister whose mommy will be having a new little one in the not so distant future. This has helped to make it so much more real to me.

It also makes me so very sad to think about what will have to happen in order for them to be able to come to us, and then I feel a little bit guilty. Am I secretly hoping that something bad will happen to someone so that I can have their children? I've seen some other people mention this, and never really thought about it like that before. While I am going through all of this paperwork and waiting and praying for children, someone else is carrying our baby and loving on our toddler. Something will have to happen to that woman, or is happening to her or to her family, that will neccessitate someone halfway around the world raise her children. It is hard to think about knowing how badly we want children, and how we feel that we could never give them up, no matter what. And that is exactly what will have to happen for us to bring home our kids. And the loss our children will feel. Even if they are young enough that they won't really remember ever not living with us or in the States, they will always know that there was another mommy out there, another family who did what we would deem unthinkable. It is a messed up world, and so unfair to those who are so innocent, but with God's love and guidance I know that we will be able to help our children make sense of what will happen to their birth family and show them that they are children of God in every sense of the word.

Sorry for the serious turn this post took, I really just wanted you all to be able to rejoice with me about another family's happy experience. God is at work here, I can see it, I can feel it, and I know it is true. So please, let us all remember to say a prayer those who have to lose a family and for those who will gain one through that horrible loss.