Officially on the wait list!

It's official! We got our call Monday afternoon with our official waitlist number:

YEAH!! We are #69 on the boy list! I can't believe we are really on there now waiting to get THE call to know who our son is! The wait to get THE call is 12-18 months right now so we will be waiting for a long time but it's all in God's perfect timing.

Big sisters are also excited! When I got off the phone, Claire gave me the sweetest, biggest hug. It's so hard for her to understand everything but she's doing a great job so far.
They can't wait to kiss, hug, love.....

play, discover new things and be silly with their brother!

And sweet boy, we can't wait to see your face and know who God has for our newest addition to the Lewis Family!

It's really interesting how the wait list works. I love how our agency's waitlist is set up. There are three wait lists. One for boys, one for girls and one for siblings regardless of age or special needs parameters. There are a number of families who are on more than one waitlist so as soon as they get a referral, they come off all lists so there is movement either way. With having numbers, you see how fast things are moving along, you see progress, it makes it a little easier for us as we wait, etc. but they are not at all bound to the numbers. Just last week #16 and I think #40-something got their referral calls. I don't know what the details were but they have to look at so many things - what gender, what age parameters you are open to, if there is a special need, etc. I asked Toni who does the actually matching of a child to a family. She said that the special mothers (caretakers) at Hannah's Hope write a little blurb about each of the kids they are loving on/assigned to (the ratio is 3:1 so they know their kiddos!). The blurb gets sent to AGCI headquarters and then all the Ethiopian case workers read them through together, pray and discuss if they have a family who they think is the best fit for the child. She made it VERY clear that they are advocating and placing the child which is wonderful. Then they go to the list and see who has the lower number. They are very mindful and prayerful and I love knowing that they rely on God so much in placing each child. I wouldn't want it to be strictly because we're number 1. All that to say, we don't know what number we'll be when we get THE call but the more movement there is, the closer we get!

A few months ago we were given a gift certificate to County Line so Neil and I went out last night to celebrate! We hadn't had a date in such a long time so it was just what we needed.

County Line is a memorable place for us as we ate there the evening of our wedding down on the river walk!

The radiant expecting parents to be =)