FAQ: Do you know who your child is?

I get asked this question a lot. It would seem like since we have been walking this journey for over a year now, we would know WHO we are adopting. I am sure that because I say "my boy" "our son", etc, it gives the idea that we have seen this child's face before, know a little of his history. But, we have not seen him and hold no information on who he is or where he is. The way this process works is that once all of your paperwork is complete (ours took 11 months to finish), you are placed on a waiting list. The waiting list is for a referral of a child who falls into the parameters you have listed that you are wishing to adopt. For us, that is a boy, anywhere between the ages of 0-6.

How long must we wait to see who our son will be? Well, that is a tough question to answer. Our agency has told us that there is around a 2 year wait from the time we got on the wait list (December of 2013) until we could potentially get matched with a child. That time frame can change. Lately, things have slowed down BIG TIME in Ethiopia as far as processing paperwork in country goes. I foresee our wait actually being longer than 2 years at this rate. When we started this adoption journey, I would have never imagined that it would take this long, but it is what it is and we are trying to just roll with it. As mentioned before, every month as referrals are given to families at the top of the wait list, we move closer to the top. Some moths there are a few referrals and some months, like lately, there are none. The first of the month is always filled with anticipation to see if we have made any progress on the wait list.

Although we do not know who he is, what he looks like, or where he is, we still love him. We love him because God has already placed him in our hearts. He started in 2012 carving out a place for this little guy and our love only grows stronger over time as we pursue and wait for him. We anxiously await the day that we will open the computer screen and see his face, the face that already has a place in this family. I know that once we do see him, my heart will just burst with even more love as I lay my eyes on the little boy who we have prayed over and called Brother for so long. Oh, how I long for that day!