So now that you have seen the adorable backside of our son, I thought I would share the specifics to his story. We received our referral while we were in Chattanooga on Spring Break…or at least we received pictures of ‘O’ but were waiting on his medical. The director of our agency had been in Africa for several weeks and was in their orphanage that is located 14 hours south of Addis. It was there that O had been brought by his mother. We have a good amount of history on him and will be getting more, but have decided to keep it private. It is our son’s story, not ours to tell, yet. They were able to get all of his paperwork together except for his medical, so he was brought to Addis to have his examination and to live at the Transition Home until we can get him.
Here is what we know for sure:
1. He is between 18 months and 2 years. When you live in remote Africa, a calendar is not exactly right around the corner and much is determined by phases of the moon. Because of that, we do not know the exact date of his birth.
2. We will be submitted to court on Monday, April 11. We will find out in about a month when our court date is and this will be when we travel. We think it will be late June or July. Current court dates are for the end of May for those who were submitted to court in early March.
3. We have a decent picture of his medical condition. He was anemic so they have put him on Iron supplements. He is 3% in weight and 25-50% in height.
We had a sweet time telling our children about their brother. They have been so anxious to see his face. We had finally seen his medicals and were ready to move forward. We were ready to celebrate this amazing part of our journey. Jason and I had guarded our hearts and were just plain old excited to share his face and to begin falling in love with this sweet guy. We had some pictures printed of ‘O’ and put them in these cute little bags.
We had each child open it up, but not say anything…but I think their faces tell the story…
JOY
OVERFLOWING JOY
OVERWHELMED…
But, able to rejoice knowing that we now have a face in our minds and a name to utter in our prayers. As I have been processing what it means to welcome this little guy into our lives, I continue to cycle back to his precious mother. While I don’t know all of her reasons for choosing to place her son for adoption, I know this….she is forever apart of our journey and his. For whatever reason, she is choosing to trust that this incredibly hard decision is one that will give her a chance….and her son a chance. I also think about our son, whom I don’t know yet, but what I do know is that in these days, he is experiencing fear, confusion, anxiety and not understanding why….in a nutshell, my son is walking through a trauma. And it is hard to think about, but that is his reality, and that of MILLIONS of other children. Right now, I am choosing to love this little picture of a boy, in anticipation of loving him for all of his days.
So I ask you to pray for him these specific things:
- Attentive and caring nannies- I pray his cries are heard, answered and he is given as much love and attention that he needs.
- Peace- In the midst of his fear and confusion, pray that he feels the peace, security and love that can come only from God. I can’t give those things to him right now, but I serve an amazing God who will and does.
- Attachment- Even though he is young, attachment is a process. Pray that he will quickly bond to Jason and I when we see him and KNOW that he is loved, he is safe and he is home.
- A quick court date- Pray that favor is found in our case. Pray we get a quick court date and pass court THE FIRST TIME. Pray specifically that our letter from MOWA is written and all of our documentation is in order.
- His birthmother- Pray for her heart and mind during these days.
With that I leave you a glimpse of our little man (we can’t post his picture, yet)(and that is a scrape on his sweet little chin)
