A Room For Our Boy

If you know me at all, you know that I LOVE a good house project.  Welcoming our son home means a whole new multitude of possible projects!!  Here is his room pre-projects...

Right now, this room is "my office" but over the next two years it will be transformed into our son's bedroom!!  More pictures to follow in coming months...and years!  :)

Children's Hope International

Last week, we went to St. Louis to visit Mike's family.  While we were there, we took a side trip to see Children's Hope International.  It was nice to finally see the building in person after months of mail, paperwork, and emails to this mysterious place.  :)

I know, not my best photography (you can see our car in the window...yes this is where I took the pictures from) but you get the general idea.  Outside the building flies the flags of all the countries with whom CHI works.  The Ethiopian flag is second from the right...it never quite wanted to open up for us!!

A Waiting Family...FINALLY!

After months of paperwork, interviews, and more paperwork, we are FINALLY a waiting family!! We found out (on our anniversary) that we are waiting family #82!!  This number seems really big, but it includes all waiting families in front of us, including those families who want girls, older children, sibling sets, etc.  Our adoption councilor explained that the number doesn't have a lot of significance other than to help us measure progress on the waiting list.  Generally there have been 3-4 placements per month which puts us around a 24 month wait for our sweet boy.  God has purpose in this waiting time, but it still seems like a really long wait!! 

I'm a visual person and needed a way to "watch" our wait get slower so I made an 82 link paper chain...

...this is a daily visual reminder that we are waiting for our son to come home.  It is hanging in the room that will one day be his and reminds me to pray daily for his birth family, his development, his nutrition, his care, and his heart.  I am excited to watch this chain get shorter in the coming months!!!