I know I JUST posted two days ago but I HAVE to share what has happened since the last post….cause its just good stuff!

First of all…the comments and hugs and tears and texts and phone calls and notes have just been the most encouraging thing ever.  We absolutely love that you all are just about as excited as we are over this news.  This little guy will be coming home to not just the 6 of us but to an army of supporters and prayer warriors.  Blessed beyond blessed!

I showed our #5 off to anyone who came asking to see his picture.  It was my pleasure!   (you’ve probably noticed that I am not using his name…apparently I wasn’t supposed to do that so I deleted his name from the last post and will call him all sorts of cute nick names until I can)J

I talked with an International Doctor who will review his medical records and in the process she asked if we would send 4-5 pictures of the child and any video we might have.

I was like…”Ummm, we have one picture. that is all.”

Do people get more than that?  I had no idea.  But I didn’t care if this was the only picture we ever got cause it was ours and it was enough!

We found out during the day that 2 other families from our agency also got referrals so it was a day full of great news!  After Jaxon’s game last night I decided to post on our agencies Facebook page that we got a referral to see if those of us who did receive referrals could connect.  While I was typing I noticed the banner picture….

It was the first picture of Burundi kids that I had ever seen.  In fact I had stared at this picture for months back when we started this process.

And there he was.  Same shirt.  Same face.

OH MY WORD!!!  I JUST FOUND ANOTHER PICTURE OF OUR LITTLE GUY!!!!

Of course we zoomed in and out and compared pictures and sure enough… It was him!!!

Then it hit me.  We have a video…documentary…of an orphanage from the country we are adopting from…could he possibly be in that?  We watched it several times when our agency shared it with us just to listen to the sweet kids singing a year ago.  So of course we had to fire it up and I bet you can’t guess…..YES!  There he was sitting on a grass mat singing & pulling straw from the mat to chew on.  OH MY WORD!!!!!

So then Jay started taking screen shots to create more pictures of him so I have like 10, TEN PICTURES!  What a humongous gift…and I mean humongous in the most humongous sense of the word!

After doing a little MORE research we realized that the orphanage that our little fella is at is the orphanage, that almost exactly a year ago this month, we gave funds to, to help repair and buy beds for the orphans.

I CAN’T EVEN HANDLE IT!!!

One year ago, God pressed upon our hearts to give to this orphanage.  Even though we were saving our pennies to adopt it was heavy on our hearts to give…so we did…and now we find out that we were giving to our son.

Can you EVEN believe it?!!

A few weeks ago my friend Mandy and I were talking about the story of Joseph in the bible and how he had SO much pain & waiting in his life.  How he must have wondered “What are you doing God?”  later to have revealed God’s amazing plan to save Israel through him and to be reconciled to his family.  She shared a sermon with me that focused on the word “Meanwhile” in Genesis 37:36.  Joseph has just been sold to slave traders.  Jacob his father is mourning the loss of his cherished son. And then it says…..

“Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard.”

Now we know the end of the story.  Joseph is used by God to save Israel but from this “meanwhile” to God’s mercy ending there is a LOT of waiting and chaos and struggle in between and Joseph didn’t know what it was for.  I’m sure he KNEW God was at work but doing what?  He was sitting in a prison cell wrongly accused…how could this be for good?  But it was.  Oh boy, was it!

This spoke to me while we were waiting for our referral.   The meanwhile in our lives is never clear, but in the meanwhile God is ALWAYS at work.

All that I just shared above about our little guys and the pieces of the puzzle that have come together in the last two days….that was part of the meanwhile.  How incredibly gracious of God to show us how he was working in the waiting.  This grace has fueled us to step into this next phase of waiting with confidence that God is working….in the meanwhile.

All of you have been so supportive over the last year that we couldn’t wait to share with you all that God has done.  Isn’t it just fantastic!!!

Many of you have asked about giving towards helping us bring home our #5.  Now that we know who our little fella is it feels so much more real for all of us, even you!  We feel so humbled by your concern & willingness to help us.  Last year, at this time, so many of you gave abundantly and helped us raise money to pay for the first part of the adoption.   We have been able to pay every fee with the reserves that you all created and that has been a blessing we cant even fully describe.  With referral fees & travel fees ahead of us we do need to raise some more funds to bring this journey to completion.  If you would like to help financially you can give through the non-profit organization called Life Song that collects all donations and distributes the money when we have an invoice or fee.