We were going to keep this secret, but...

We originally thought that we would wait to share this news. At first we thought we would wait until we received our referral but that could easily be a year from now. That was just way too long. Then we thought we would just wait until we had actually turned our adoption application in and we had been accepted. That should only be another 2-3 weeks. Then we realized that as we were talking to people we increasingly found it too difficult to keep this little secret of ours. So, here it is...when we decided to adopt we had decided that it just didn't make much sense to go to Ethiopia and only bring home one, so will be bringing home two. Now you all know. Our plan is to ask for 2 children (siblings or unrelated), at least one of the two being 12 months or younger, the other being 6 years or younger, boys or girls.

As you can imagine getting 2 verses 1 changes things a bit. Suddenly we will be a family of 6. One of which will not have any language skills and one (depending on age) will most likely speak only Amharic. Furthermore, this changes the cost factor of our adoption. It doesn't exactly double the cost but there will be additions. For one thing we will have an extra plane ticket for the ride home not to mention the additional fees for immigration, adoption and re-adoption fees (yes, I said re-adoption - you have to re-adopt when you get your child in the U.S.). We are confident the cost can be covered and yet we also know that this is a step of faith. We are asking that everyone keep us in your prayers during this journey. Pray for the finances, pray for our children (all 4) to adjust well to their new home situation, pray that Dottie and I don't go crazy just sitting around waiting to go to Ethiopia, pray for our children in Ethiopia that while they are currently out of our care that they will be safe and cared for by the aid workers at the orphanage, pray for the families who have had to give up their children - their sacrafice will allow for our family to grow (many of these families give up their children due to severe poverty and/or the death of one or both parents).

We thank everyone for their love and support during this journey. We are truly excited to see what God has planned here and we are excited to share it with you.

By the way, we had only told Joshua we were requesting one. We decided that since everyone else now knows about the second, we should tell him too. His response? "Well at least one of them will be potty trained!"