THE REFERRAL {part 4}

There are three common questions that people have asked when we've told them our good news:

1. What's his name?

2. How old is he?

3. What's next?

So, this post will answer those questions. :)

1.

Trevor and I looked long at hard at names over the course of our wait list months.  We wanted to give him a name that  ties him to his heritage, yet isn't too difficult to pronounce.  So, our baby's name is {drumroll, please}...

Bekele means "he has become or he has grown".  We will keep at least part of his given name {which we are unable to reveal quite yet} as his middle name, and we plan to call him "Bek".

2.

Bek is

7 1/2 months old 

I'll blog about this later, but we are praying that he'll be home by his 1st birthday this Spring.  It would basically take a miracle for that to happen, but we believe in the God of miracles!! 

Will you please join us?!

 

3.

Let me just begin this one with a *sigh*.  We are still over-the-moon excited to be at this point in the process, but I would be lying if I said that this next part is going to be easy.

 

We have officially accepted our referral and our agency received our official acceptance on Thursday.  So, our dossier should be either on the way to Ethiopia or already there.  The paperwork will then be translated and things will be prepared for our court date.

 

According to our agency, our court date should be 2-3 months from our official date of acceptance, so we should be traveling in January or February.  This trip will be super quick, as in around 5 days from leaving American soil to getting back home.  During the trip, we will be able to be with Bek for about two days and will spend one day at court.

 

Then, the incredibly hard part...we have to leave our baby boy in Ethiopia and come home to wait indefinitely.  Truly, we have no idea how long we will be home between trips.  Our paperwork says that due to the many changes in Ethiopia adoptions over the last several months, it is not possible to predict how long it will take for the U.S. Embassy to approve our case and give us an appointment to stamp our little man's visa.  This is the point at which we're hoping it will be quick and he'll be home by his birthday!

 

So, here's where you come in:

 

Please pray!  Specifically, we'd appreciate prayer for the following:

• Baby Bek's health and wellbeing for this time we're away from him.
• The Nannies who are taking care of him day-to-day.
• Patience for us! :)
• That all the pieces will fall into place and that Bek is home by his 1st birthday!!

 

Thank you so much for loving us and for sharing in our excitement.  What a crazy, amazing journey this is! :)