Waiting for TA!

If you are not in the International Adoption community, there are some acronyms that mean nothing, but to adoptive parents, they mean a great deal!  TA is one of those things!  We are officially waiting for Travel Approval, which could come this week or next (I suppose, technically it could be longer, but that is what the TA's are averaging).  After that, our agency will request CA (Consulate Appointment) which will set our travel dates.  So, we are looking at less than a month until we meet Ethan!  After all these months of waiting, all the disappointments, set-backs, fundraising, praying, stressing, rejoicing, sharing, crying, smiling, anticipating, and connecting WE ARE SO CLOSE to the end of the process and the beginning of Ethan's new life.  We are expecting that he is going to have a difficult time and ask that everyone please pray for a smooth transition for him.  Although we have been preparing for him, there has been no way for him to comprehend or prepare for the changes that are about to happen.  We already love him so much, but it will more than likely take him awhile to trust and love us.  For this reason, we will not want him to be held, fed, or changed by anybody but us.  Adopting an almost two year old is very different than adopting Reagan at age 9 months or Isabella and Becca at ages 12 and 13.  He will have to have time and opportunity to grieve the life he has been used to and the nannies who have cared for him.  Even though he can't remember his birth parents and being abandoned by them, it is still the second huge loss for him in his short life.  Not to mention his health problems that he has faced without the love and care of a family.  We can never go back and change his past, but we can try to give him the best possible future.  I am so thankful that God chose us to be his family!  I am in awe at how all the right people and circumstances led us to him.  It's been a long road, but I know we have learned lots of lessons, learned to rely on others, and made a lot of friends along the way.  Adoption is not for the faint of heart, but it's a community (or Club, as my friend, Angie says :) )  I can't imagine not being a part of! 

We went to an adoptive family get together last night with families from our church who have been blessed by adoption already or are in the process or both!  We had kids from Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, and China, plus some American born, too!  Soon there will be a few more Ethiopian, Chinese, and Thailand!  Who knows where else God will send Lifepoint members!  We were hoping we could someday see a child from every continent at our church.  So, it was so much fun to watch all 18 kids play, swim, and laugh with eachother.  What a great reminder that God doesn't see color!  He loves and cherishes each one of us.  Thank you, Lord for planting us at Lifepoint and surround us with the Ledbetters, Jays, Segebarths, Doughtys, Zacharys, and the Rhoades.  We are blessed...