photo magic

since our referral we discovered that we're in need of a family photo for some last minute adoption things. we had been planning on setting up a tripod in our backyard and just hoping for something that would get all five of us in the frame (a good family picture has never really happened, the one that heads our blog is the best that's ever happened, but note that we're in our pjs), but at the last minute decided to call upon our wonderful nephew-in-law, andy who happens to have some skills with the camera. he agreed to take a crack at us, so we went over to andy and emily's cutie new house to have ourselves a family picture. he took what seemed like 300 shots of us in about 5 minutes (he has one of those nifty cameras that shoots a bazillion frames per second) and an amazing thing happened...we actually got a photo of all five of us looking at the camera, smiling and looking like fairly well-adjusted members of society!! anyhow, here is our family photo that is just waiting for a little brown girl, named ruby, see that place for her...the empty spot in her daddy's arms...?

referral!!!!!

at some point i'm going to sit down and write a cute little post about our crazy day yesterday, but right now all i can think about is the way that it ended...with our referral!!! our dossier has been in Ethiopia for only two weeks, so imagine my shock when our case worker called me in the middle of the afternoon yesterday to tell me that they have a referral for us if we would like it (like it????)!!! she told me that the referral was for a little girl, slightly older than we had requested and she just wanted us to take the day to think about it and pray about it before we saw the photo and learned the details. so we did just that. we thought about it and prayed about it and both decided that we wanted to move forward. late last night we were curled up on our couch when her picture and information was sent over and we knew right away...this is ruby.

how i wish that i had the freedom to post her picture for all to see...she is more beautiful than i could have possibly imagined or hoped. she is about to turn 2 in the middle of august and so we will be bringing home a toddler, rather than a baby. major prayers have been answered when we saw that she has only been in the orphanage for about a month...we had so hoped that she would have begun her life in the care of a mother who loves her before she was placed in the institution that would be her holding place until we could bring her home.

we are praying for a miracle that would allow us to travel in july, before the courts close. we've been told that this is very unlikely, but not out of the realm of possibility, and so we will continue to ask our God to bring home our little one quicker than anybody would ever expect. so many prayers answered already, so amazing to see HIM making Himself known here.

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." John 14:18