Two trips to the park, two cameras later, these were the best pics that we got!  We will make one more trip to see if we can get some better ones at a later date!  At this point, if we mention taking pictures, everyone has meltdowns!!!  These were supposed to be for Christmas cards and gifts for family but Mark forgot to change the resolution on the camera!  OOPPS!  Oh well, hopefully the third time will be the charm!!

Well, we are still waiting!  Waiting to see the sweet little face of our newest addition to the Harpold family! 
This time last year, we were excitedly filling out our application to be accepted into the ET program with AW. Fully expecting to have at least received a referral by now!
  
The really disheartning issue here is that not only do we not have a referral yet but we can't even get straight answers on when we will.  Every person we speak with gives us different answers and reasons as to why it hasn't happened yet.  First, we were told that ALL focus was on getting the new transition house up and running after the long court closure.  That's done.  Second, we found out through someone else that referrals had been stopped, not even a phone call from our agency about that one, so after confirming this, we were told that the in country rep, Girmachew, who is by the way, doing the job of at least 5 people, and that is being generous, was working on getting court appts for the two groups who had received referrals already and then he would be making travel arrangements for them before he would be turning his attention towards referrals again.  The first group of families have been through court, waiting on travel news, prayerfully, Girmachew has requested the second groups court dates now.  Third, we were told that no referrals would be given until the transition house had room for more children.  How many children does the home hold?  That's another question we can't seem to get a straight answer about either!  Is it 10, 16, 18 or 20?  Who and or what determines when it is full??  If there are 20 spaces, why not fill them?  Now we are entering the holiday season and our agency is closing from Dec. 24nd - Jan. 1st.  so no answers until 2008!   As you can see by our ticker on the home page, we have now been waiting for 5 months, 3 weeks, and 4 days!  I don't guess we will make the timeline we were given in the beginning which was a referral in 3-6 months!  How much longer will we wait?  ONLY GOD KNOWS!!

So...........What are we to do?  We have paid our money, waited in line month after month (we are supposedly 1st in line for a single infant girl) voiced our concerns, cried a million tears because our hands are tied, asked a million times "Why?, why don't things ever happen like they are supposed too?", answered a million times, "No, we still haven't heard anything", so, now what?  Can you tell me when we will be getting a referral?? 

Carpenter's are rescheduled for December 28th!
We will be praying that all paperwork is in order and they will be traveling soon to bring their babies home!

 Well, today we celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary!  It hasn't always been easy but worth every second! 
We decided to spend the day together shopping in Orlando! YEAH!!  He really loves me!  Well, the plan was to go to IKEA first, then to the mall and then have a nice lunch and return home in time to pick the kids up from school.  Well, that was the plan and this is actually what happened.......

We went to IKEA

That's it!  We ended up staying more than 3 hours at IKEA (could have been there another 3 if time permitted), didn't have time to go to the mall, didn't even have time to stop for lunch!! Not even a drive through!  We were so late getting to the school we had to call our SIL who works at the school and she grabbed T & L for us until we arrived!  Thanks Karen!    We had a great day and it was so nice to get to spend time together...... just the two of us!  That's a rare thing around here but one that we have come to realize how very important it is for a marriage to be successful!
I am so thankful that God gave me such a loving husband!
I don't know what I would do without him!

Well, we know at least 3 of the 5 families had successful court dates today which means that the children they were referred in October are officially theirs!!  We know at least one family, the Carpenter's case was determined unfavorable for unknown reasons right now but hopefully they will know more tomorrow.  They are rescheduled (4th court date) for December 28th.  We will continue to pray for them until they pass!

So we finally have some news from our agency and it is not what we were expecting nor what we were wanting to hear but................ it is what it is!

For now, all attention is being focused on getting the two groups that currently have referrals through courts successfully and travel arrangements for the first group before the incountry rep will turn his attention to referrals again. 

The first group has another court date on December 7th and the second group must wait for the first group to pass court before they can be given their court date.  Once the first group has successful court hearings, then travel arrangements can be made for those families.  What this means as far as time.......we have no concrete answers but as far as we (and other YG members) can determine, this could be late January or maybe even February before they resume referrals for us waiting families. We will still pray that it is sooner!

There have been some discrepencies as far as how many children the  transition home holds so I will try to find out for sure the true numbers.  We have seen numbers between 14-18 and that is too much of a gap for me.  There are currently 12 children in the home and I would think that if there is room for 16-18 children in the home, which is what we were told,  then there should be 16-18 children there.  They are fully staffed with
12 nannies who work on rotating shifts and also a cook, guard and nurse  (this came directly from Laurel) Not sure what the reason is for not keeping the home at capacity but this will be something we will also be asking about. 

So....this is where we are and we really have no idea how long we will be in this holding pattern.  We will continue to pray for the court hearings on Dec 7th that all goes well and the first group of families can travel very very soon to pick up their children.  They received their referrals on October 3rd.  

As we have said before, we know that God's timing is perfect and even though we don't know "why" things are happening this way, it is out of our hands and only God knows how long it will be so, as hard as it is, we must trust that there is a reason and know that God is in control of it all!

This is the latest project I have been working on while I am up in the wee wee hours of the night!  Hope you enjoy!  Check it out!

www.ouradoptionstory-blessed.blogspot.com

Still praying we will be next! 

Ethiopia  -  November 2nd
America World received court appointments this week for the five families who received referrals on October 3, 2007. The appointments are scheduled for November 7, 2007. Once we have final approvals for these families, America World will begin to work on their travel. We continue to wait for court appointments for those who received referrals on October 19, 2007

Ethiopia  - November 9th
America World continues to wait on court approvals for the five families who received referrals on October 3, 2007. There were some hold-ups due to delays at the Ministry of Women’s Affairs. We anticipate more news for the families waiting on approvals next week.

America World continues to work toward our goal of the transition home in Addis opening. This past week our staff representative secured cribs, beds, refrigerators and other households appliances for the home and has started the process of hiring nannies. Eventually children will stay in this home between referral and travel. Our agency looks forward to the home’s grand opening!