Did you think I fell off the face of the earth with the adoption updates? Haha! Between the Christmas decor, The Debt Movement and introducing y’all to NINE amazing women with a winter link up & reader challenge…I’ve been trying to fit this update in. I finally found time.

Here’s the latest…

On Monday, December 3rd I woke up extremely flustered. It was the day of our $1,000 giveaway went live and I had some issues with my post that needed attention STAT. The boys were all giving me trouble that morning. I made them each 3 different breakfasts and they didn’t eat any of it. *Sigh. 

P was nearly late to school {which would have been his first tardy} and I barely could get the boys out of the car and in to daycare.

When I finally got all the boys dropped off, I was heading back home {to work} and I got a call from our adoption coordinator. When I saw the number pop up I assumed she was calling to tell us that the Philippines had requested additional documents. She had prepared me for this from the beginning.

Apparently ICAB {the Philippines government agency that handles adoptions} is very particular {which I appreciate}. She said they never usually just approve a family immediately. They typically request more paperwork.

But she wasn’t calling to tell me that they needed more paperwork. Nope.

She was calling to tell me that…THEY APPROVED US!

Just like that.

Seriously? I was in disbelief.

I think she was to. She said they have never had a family get approved so fast. I was looking for it to take months for our approval. She has had other families that have been waiting over 10 weeks!

Our approval came back in less than 3 weeks. They technically approved us on November 22, 2012 {yes, Thanksgiving}.

We are now officially on the Roster of Approved Applicants {the wait list}!!

Do y’all know how excited I am?  The wait time is still going to be approximately 12 months so we won’t be getting our child any time soon. But soon enough and I could not be more thrilled!

Finally the weeks and months of paperwork is paying off! Unfortunately, with the Philippines, they don’t update you on where you are at on the wait list. The next time I hear from our adoption coordinator it will be when they have matched us with a child! WOW!!

So many of you have been praying for us through this process and I am so thankful for that. Please continue to pray that God will place us with the perfect child for our family. We know His timing is perfect and I feel at ease knowing that.

It’s also very likely that our child has already been born. In international adoption, it is very rare to get a child under the age of 12 months {because of the paperwork and the process you have to go through to adopt internationally}. With the wait time being approximately one year and the age range of our child being 1-3 it’s very possible that our child is already waiting for a family. Would you pray that wherever our child is that he/she is protected and taken care of? Would you do that for us?

Thank you all so much for the encouragement and support regarding this journey we are on. Some of you have introduced me to other loving families who are adopting and it’s been wonderful being able to read their stories.  Some of you have left uplifting comments or words of encouragement. Some of you have sent me amazingly sweet emails. I read every single one. And so many of you have prayed. THANK YOU!

We are one step closer to becoming a family of SIX!

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