WE ARE EXPECTING!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, you heard that right! WE ARE EXPECTING!!!!.... a child from Africa to join our family early next year!!!!! We have completed our Home-Study visits and we mailed off our paperwork to our adoption agency!!




We are pursuing the adoption of that sweet, sweet 3 year old boy that we blogged about on Day 5. It is really a sweet story. I had a heavy heart when I blogged that post that evening. I was already in LOVE with him, and selfishly wanted him to be part of OUR family. We weren't paper-ready and I knew others out there were. We had not heard anything back from the Adoption Agency that we were considering since that Monday, when I asked if she could wait for us to get paper-ready. She had told me she had to check her list first, and I assumed someone must had accepted him already.

We were starting our homestudy process the next day. That Thurday morning when I woke up, I had 3 emails in my inbox from the agency director. I took a deep breath, and opened the emails. She was willing to work with us!!... under the condition that we move at warp speed to be paper-ready by October when the Ethiopian courts re-open. (They aren't seeing any new cases right now, since they are on winter break.)

Yes, Yes! We will be ready! Ready, Set, Pray People!!!

We can't share at this time his name, any video or pictures of him, but we will as soon as he is "officially" ours!!! I can share with you that he is a DOLL! So sweet, so precious! We recieved a video of him yesterday in the mail from Sue, our agency director, at Celebrate Children! It is so great to see more footage of him. He is so stinking sweet- even if he is dressed in a girls pink shirt! Philip informed me immediately that he would be wearing some Titan's gear as soon as we get him home!!!!

This whole process is happening so fast! We are buried in paperwork, but it's ok! We are moving swiflty through it, trying to get him HOME as soon as possible!

We do believe God wants us to share our story of our journey, so we will be fundraising like crazy to go towards his adoption. By doing this, we will be creating awareness of the Orphan Crisis in this world. . There are over 147 Million Orphans out there who need a FOREVER family. Maybe we will be able to share our story, and open the hearts of one or two families along the way. We really need your support and prayers as we begin this journey!!!

We are so excited and so happy to finally tell all of you of HIS plans for our family!!! Ok, we've got to get busy... toddler proofing the house!!!!




So much to do!! Someone pinch us! This really IS happening! God is so Good! This all started when we started our "Living a Better Story Journey", which was the first post on our blog! Ok, BUMC-- did you expect this? We didn't, but we are so thankful for that $35 we recieved that Sunday morning. We have been faithful and God has led the way!

Blessings!
Love,
Philip, Gina, Robby and Caitlin Payne :)