A Surprise!

I am so full of joy and happiness that I can't stand it! It's your average Friday night at the Banker home - nothing special going on. Baseball on the TV (for the little guy and daddy), dishes are done, the dishwasher is humming in the background, and things are quiet. Tonight daddy is putting the little man to bed - I can hear them on the monitor, saying prayers, and the little man talking, talking, talking to his daddy. (The vocabulary and speech is coming along - he has finally said his name TONIGHT and we could understand him!

So as I listen to them on the monitor I am catching up with my blog friends and seeing how everyone is doing. A sweet friend and her husband leave in two weeks to go get their two boys! We are praying for them and so excited for them! God is awesome!

I also decided to check in on our adoption portal with our agency. I had looked at it yesterday to check out the waiting children page. When I logged in, I looked over at the "What's Next?" section of our portal and it said "Service Plan". I was confused. Before it said "Dossier". I expanded the window and it gives you a step by step of the process and a check mark next to each item as you complete them. I wondered what was up, so last night I sent an email to our agency to ask about it and if we were missing something because Service Plan came before Dossier in the list. You know me, Little Miss Efficient - just wanted to make sure there weren't any issues.

I got an email reply from one of the case workers and she said that it meant the service plan was reviewed when I was there to drop off the dossier and a copy would be emailed to us to review and sign. I thought we already did that. Well today was so hectic, I didn't get a chance to respond. I later checked my email to get another email from the director (whom we have been working with from the start) and she said the service plan item in the list was a new addition and every profile defaulted to it and that it was fixed to reflect the correct "where are we".

So while I was reading blogs, I remembered the last email from the agency. I logged into our portal to just check out our "What's Next?" I had to contain my excitement! After all, the little guy is going to sleep and one very loud THANK YOU, JESUS at the top of my lungs would disrupt the whole going to bed routine. Our status moved...which could only mean one thing...our dossier has been accepted and our status for what's next is no longer Dossier...it now reads REFERRAL!

If you are adopting or have been through the process, you will know how exciting this is! We celebrate every milestone - in this journey, how can you not? We are seeing God's plan come to life; seeing His plan for our lives unfold. We are just blessed that he has chosen us to tell this story for him. Thank you, dear Jesus for entrusting us with your special children to raise for you while here on earth. They are yours...all yours. We are just your humble servants.

Then just let me throw this one out there as icing on the cake to God's work today. Let's go back to how did we arrived at adopting from Ethiopia. God laid it on our hearts. It wasn't just an "oh, I think we need to adopt from Ethiopia, what do you think, honey?" In our lives, God likes to show up. A Lot. Through other people. Probably because he knows that's how we know its him. Last summer we hosted 3 boys and a chaperone from Daraja Children's Choir from Kenya for 16 days. We fell in love. These boys touched our hearts in a way I will never forget. God used them to open our hearts, minds and prepare us for the adoption journey he had planned for us. We have a photograph of all of them which sits very prominently in our living room on the side table.

Today, out of the blue, I got an email from Kabugute, the chaperone. We haven't emailed in many, many months, but TODAY, this came. Here is the email:

Subject: New Chapter

Get ready for the new season that God has sent your way. Spend more time in his presence so as to develop the capacity to handle the floods of God's blessing. Pass my love to the boys.

That was it. Nothing else in the email. Just those profound words. It is sooo cool to see God at work...I can feel his presence right here, right now. It's like I can hear him breathing, sitting next to me. The feeling of his "realness" (if that's even a word) is just amazing and we totally know it's God. I am just excited to tell you about it and give him honor, glory and praise. He is a God of promise. He is the King of Kings, Lord of Lords and He reigns. And I love it when He continues to show us over and over and over again that THIS IS HIS PLAN and that this IS what he has called us to do and all he's asking us to do is be obedient. He will take care of the rest. Even when we say, why, how, I don't think....I'm not so sure... he says, "I am God. I have this. Just obey me."

Blessed weekend to you!