Five

Five

 

It’s funny to think, when we started the process to bring our little girl home, Oliver (our youngest) was barely 2. We chose an age range of 0-2 based on the fact that we wanted her to be the same age as Ollie or younger. Oliver turns 5 in just 2 ½ months. Yikes. It really puts into perspective how long and tough this process has been.

 

Today, the Mister and I spoke with our social worker and decided to up our acceptance age to 5. It’s something we do at about this time each year. We don’t care if she’s a baby or a kindergartener. We just want her home. We received an update from our agency today – turns out there are over 120 families waiting to bring their kiddos home. Of those, only 15 are open to kiddos up to 5. It’s exciting for us because it means out wait may not be as long as the “norm” since we’re okay with the fact that she won’t be a baby.

 

Of course, adopting an older child brings its own set of challenges – but we’re confided that with God’s help, we can do this. Since she’ll be older, she’ll have memories – both good and bad. Maybe of her parents, siblings, family members…. Good memories that KC and I will do our hardest to keep alive. She may speak Amharic and not a word of English – but getting a dictionary and learning some key words and phrases now won’t hurt us one bit.

 

We’ll continue to take classes and read bookoos of books – to make sure we’re as ready as we can possibly be. Our International Coordinator is praying alongside us that we’ll be matched sooner rather than later. Even she realizes what a battle this has been! Haha!

 

So even though things have been quiet on the adoption-front, we could still use your prayers. As the holidays are coming up, this is one more Christmas without my little girl. So please forgive me if I seem overly emotional during Christmas dinner. Pray for our family. Pray for the children still waiting for their families and the families still waiting for their children.

 

This has been a long and hard journey (a unique one as well!). One that has been filled with many tears – both of joy and sadness. And I’m sure that won’t change any time soon. <3