One Year and May Numbers!

Today, exactly one year ago, we got our very first wait list numbers. It's hard to believe that we finished our dossier one year ago!  We started this journey at #98 for a girl and #78 for a boy.  Today one year later, we are for a girl:

and for a boy:

That's a pretty good amount of movement in one year!  We have moved 40 spots on the girl list, and 33 on the boy list.  This means that many more children are orphan's no more and we praise God for that!  Obviously, from my posts lately, we have seen a significant slow down in the number or referrals each month.  We are uncertain about whether or not we will ever get back to where we see 5 or more referrals a month, and this honestly puts a damper on our spirits some days.  Hubs and I were talking the other night about how nothing about this process is easy.  Adoption involves beauty and loss.  And the pain of this seemingly never-ending wait is heavier than we would like to admit at times.  These are days when we cry out to God on behalf of our child and ourselves.  We know that the days of this adoption were numbered before it was even a thought in our mind, but the waiting is still hard.  One year later, and we are starting the process of renewing some of our paperwork and updating our home study.  Today and yesterday were filled with fingerprints at 2 different offices, once again.  It feels weird to be doing these things again, but also feels like we are on the move again, working towards the light at the end of the tunnel.  After one year on the wait list, we can say that we have grown so much.  We are not the same people who started this process 18 months ago.  We are saying yes to things we said no to at the beginning.  God had been working on our hearts and we feel there are exciting things ahead for our family.  If you are still hanging on this journey with us, thank you! We appreciate the prayers more than you will ever know!  We have no idea when we will see our child's face, we are still praying fervently that it will happen before the end of the year, and invite you to pray with us.  We are trusting this unknown future to our God, who has made himself known to us more than ever over the last year.  We know everything is in his hands, and there is no better place for it to be!