As I mentioned on a previous post, Micah has been calling her new baby sister, which she has assured us that God has promised her, Ariel. Ariel happens to mean "Lion of God." Lions are significant to us, not only because of their prevalence in Africa, but also because we love the song, "Like a Lion," and Micah was singing that song practically as soon as she could talk.
Recently friend posted a link to another blog, that described another adoption story that shared a significance with "Like a Lion."
http://radarradio.net/blog/stuffed-lions-the-bashtas-adoption-story
I thought it was really cool, and I can't wait to see how God weaves our adoption story. I am so excited to meet the newest member of our family, and I have to keep telling myself that it will all happen in God's perfect timing. . . for us and for the child He has already chosen for our family.
What's Next:
Our next task is submit an I-600 form, which is required for international adoptions. This will also require us to be fingerprinted again for the Department of Homeland Security and the process/approval is estimated to take 3 months. While we wait on that, we will be assembling the final documents needed for our dossier, which is the packet of paperwork that will be sent to Ethiopia. At that point, we will be put on a wait list for our child. We are being told the wait from that point is approximately 18 months to receive a match. We are ready to "hurry up and wait" at this point. Brad said we may not have any friends left by the time we get done asking people to write recommendations, notarizing tons of forms, and calling in favors to get all these random documents from (to name a few): the police station, the bank, our health insurance company, and the circuit clerk in 3 different states. Please pray that this next phase goes smoothly for us!
Micah's prayers:
Micah often volunteers to say prayers for the family at night before bedtime. She is so sweet (and creative) with her prayers. They always take a similar format, "Thank you for my mommy, thank you for my daddy, thank you for Sissy and Bubby, thank you for my baby brother or my baby sister in Epiopia (how she says it), thank you for Mommy's flowers (my rose bushes), thank you for the big tree and the little tree (in our front yard), thank you for my school, thank you for chapel, thank you for learning about God in chapel, thank you for going to Disney World, in Jesus' name, A-MEN!"
