Praying. WAITING. Hoping.

Does the title sound familiar?

Almost exactly a year ago I shared this post.  It was the first time we put our hearts out for everyone to see.  It was the first time we publicly put forth our hope to adopt.  It was a request for friends and family to join us in the journey of adoption.

A year later we have an exciting announcement.

We are on the waiting list.

We were told that, from application to approval, the process with CIS took 3-4 months.  Less than 2 months from sending in our application our approval came in the mail!  With that over, the next step is to go on the list to be matched.

The irony?  The estimate match time is 12 months.  It could be more.  It could be less (I so hope it is less!!).  But, how cool is it that almost exactly a year after the first post, I am letting you all know that we have reached one of the biggest steps - and that it is likely that almost exactly a year from now I could be posting an even bigger announcement?!  Because at the end of this step, we will know our children.  We will have names, and a little information, and pictures.  I can't wait to have pictures.  I can't wait to see the faces of the children I dream about holding in my arms.  I can't wait to have something tangible for Allie and Ryan to look at and say, "this is my new brother(s)/sister(s).

12 months.  While it seemed like an eternity at times, looking back it doesn't feel like it has been that long.  Surely, the next 12 months will feel similarly speedy in hindsight.

So we joyfully, enthusiastically, hopefully, and prayerfully WAIT.

In the meantime, I'm soaking up life.  I don't like to feel like I'm missing the wonderful moments now because I'm so focused on someday, and the distraction of life is a wonderful way to avoid watching the calendar and obsessively counting the days.

So here is a piece of life from our last week:

 I had been wanting to create "spend, save, give" banks for the twins.  Something to help them teach a little about money.  They "give money to Jesus" every week in the church offering, but it is the money mommy and daddy give them.  I wanted them to be more empowered in their giving...and spending.  But I didn't have banks, and buying banks was expensive, and I couldn't quite figure out how to go about this project.

 When we were in Nebraska, my Grandma took me out to her garage and packed a shoebox of decorate-your-own banks.  Exactly 3 each.  Spend. Save. Give.

 So the kids got to painting (they are thrilled with their creations).  Then, once they were dry, we emptied their big piggy banks and let them split the coins however they wanted (the banks don't hold bills well, so we set the big bills aside to start savings accounts for the twins, and put the small bills back in their big banks to be saved for later).  They picked the pigs for spend, the turtles for save, and the teddy bears for give.  And somehow that makes perfect sense to me...

Thank you, Grandma, for helping me accomplish this project!

p.s. another bit of "life" we have coming up is this year's Yard Sale!  It is exciting, in this time of waiting, to be able to do some productive fundraising to bring our Uganda children home.  We have a LOT to sell, but we never turn down donations - especially if it is the offer to borrow tables for the sale because I have no clue where we are going to put everything!