Updates

 I'm totally going to kill 2 birds with 1 stone.  Not only am I finally answering the requests for a new post, but I'm showing a couple pictures from our photo shoot last week AND giving an adoption update!  I guess that is actually 3 birds...

We were trying to get a family picture that I could use to make some Thank You's to send to all of the people who have supported us during the process thus far.  I was hoping to get a family picture with us holding our current number on the list.  Sadly, in every picture someone had their eyes closed, or was making a funny face, or something that made it not work.  But...I found a few gems...if I cropped our the rest of the picture...

Allie - the only one paying attention when this picture was taken!

As you can see, we are currently #23 on the list.  What does this mean?  This means that there are currently 22 other families waiting for children from Uganda who were placed on the list before us.  Does this mean we will be family #23 to be matched with a child?  Not necessarily. The list is somewhat fluid based on the children that are available to be placed and the needs/requests of the families waiting.  For example, we want 2 children that are younger than the twins.  If a set of 2 year old twins became available tomorrow and no one on the list before us wanted 2 children, we would jump to #1!  However, if we wait until we get to the front of the list and then for several months the only children they have available are 5 and over, we wait while families behind us are matched.  Sure...this might make it seem like the number is meaningless - and perhaps it is.  But, in a long period of time filled with waiting, it gives us something tangible to hold onto.  The first week of every month we get an update (yes, this means that this number will, hopefully, be different in 2 weeks...thus the picture below with a blank chalk board in which I can photoshop the latest number!).  I look forward to this week each month like I used to look forward to ultrasounds with the twins. I get to see how things are moving along.  I get to hear the latest updates in the program.  I get a peek at the progress that is slowly, but surely, happening.

In case you were wondering exactly how things have been moving, when we first went on the list we were number 29.  We have moved 6 places in the last 4 months.  If things continue at this place, and we are matched in order, it will take 16 more months for us to be at the front of the list.  Slightly longer than the original estimation.  Of course, it could always be less, but in light of a consistent slowdown I feel it is more wise to be prepared for the longest time frame.  Some days this is difficult - the desire to have all my children safely in one place (like a mama hen with her chicks all tucked under her wing), to know the age, sex, and names of my future children, to see an endpoint to all the waiting is so strong I want to cry.  Most days I am able to rest in God's plan - remembering all the times I wanted a different time frame but saw His wisdom in the end, resting in the peace of His perfect plan, looking for Him at work around me when I am helpless to act myself.

In the meantime, we are enjoying life day-by-day.  It has been an exciting fall at the church - filled with new attendees, new members, baptisms, and - most exciting of all - a long prayed for heart given to God!  It has been a fun fall with the twins - filled with adventures and learning and the funniest conversations you have ever heard.  We are gearing up for the holidays (Yes, we have the twins' Halloween costumes picked out.  No, I have not finished making them!).  We have even been planning ahead for Thanksgiving and Christmas - in hopes that thinking ahead about the busy season will make it more enjoyable and less hectic.  Let's face it, once Halloween hits, the next 3 months fly by so quickly you find yourself in a new year wondering when fall ended!  So we are doing our best to enjoy each day while knowing it will be January and our number will be somewhere in the teens before we know it!