Longest Pregnancy Ever!!!!

Seriously this has been the longest pregancy ever, for me at least! I am now beyond 650+ days into our adoption journey. This idea got me to thinking, is it really the longest pregnancy? So here is what goofy me found out: The average gestation period:

Humans: 266 days (longest known is 306 days)
Chimpanzees, Apes: 260 days
Dogs: 60 days
Rabbits: 33 days
Mice: 20 days
Cows: 284 days
Whale: 517 days
Elephants: 645 days

Therefore, I am correct that I have reached beyond even the elephants painfully impressive pregancy of 645 days, making this the longest pregancy ever!!

The Wait Continues.......

So still have no word on our precious Layla. We are hopeful that no news is good news. When I last spoke with Grace our agency coordinator she said Shim was able to find lots of children, but they are still traveling and or waiting on their paperwork or medical reports. Therefore, she said it might be yet another week.
This morning I pretty much lost it from all the waiting. It has seriously gotten to me these last few weeks. To the point where I broke down and cried. Wow, it suprises me how renewing a good cry could be. Then I decided to go for a run, hoping that it would pass the time and allow me to get some of my stress out. And it did!! I ended my run with a song by Martina McBride named "There you are" which is about how God is always present in our lives-In the light of day and in the dark of night. It was as if God was speaking those words to me himself. It not only lifted me up but gave me new hope that I was needing. He has not and will not ever forsake me. I know his plans are so great for our family and I just need to be a little more patient, and we will have our sweet reward!! -Our family united as one!
Thank you father God for always being present in our lives. For being there in our time of need, for hearing our cries and knowing our hearts. For allowing us to find refuge in you and renewed hope just when we need it. Father, I praise you and I am so grateful for knowing your love!
Psalm 144:1 Bless the Lord, who is my rock. He gives me strength for war and skill for battle. Hi is my loving ally and my fortress, my tower of safety, my deliverer. He stands before me as a shield, and I take refuge in him. Amen!!

Mott Family Campout-Mission Accomplished!

Well we finally did it!!! After two years of talking about it and trying to time it we finally went camping- The entire family together!!! Between soccer games, cub scout outings, boy scout campout, as well as holidays and other activites it seemed like it would never happen. But God so kindly opened last weekend just for us to go camping. Being that Caitlin and I hadn't ever been roughing it before we were a little nervous. You know becoming dinner for a man eating bear or snakes attacking us at night while we sleep. But I am happy to report no casulties, not even poison ivy!! We had the best time! It was a perfect sunny day. Our campsite was right above the river so we could run down and go fishing and listen to the river while we sleep. We caught so many fish poor Greg has his work cut out for him. We roasted marshmellows by the fire and just embraced the great outdoors together!! NO TV and we survived!! :) It was fun to watch the kids just being kids, playing in the dirt, helping build the fire, cook and hang out together. It did get a little cool at night and there wasn't much sleep for Greg and I. Funny how noisy it is out there in the middle of nowhere. I must say it's a lot of work to roughing it , but well worth it! So mission accomplished and can't wait to go again!!

Good News All Around at Hope!!

The last few weeks have been filled with blessings all around at Hope. Little one's being brought home. Word of good health reports for some of the babies still there. And I am happy to report that all of the older kids at Hope have been adopted. Praise God!! A fellow Texan Hope family, the Wilkinsins are adopting Menti, the boy in my previous post. Go Texas!! So we have a wonderful, fast growing Ethiopian population here in our great state. I can't wait for the reunions!! Another Hope family, the Daughtery's have decided to adopt Mikiyas, a little cutie! The Brutto family is proud to announce they can officially call Ava their own. We have our court date for Sofonyas. Things are good around Hope!! And we are hoping and praying that more good news will come in the days weeks ahead of more refferals and court dates. The next group of families are headed to Ethiopia this week. Amy, Carrie and Shane may your travels be filled with safety, joy and good health!!
I am in awe of this Hope family and the constant openess, love, support, comfort, encouragement, help and friendship that never ceases!! Father God I am so thankful for all your goodness and blessings in our lives! Thank you for allowing us to be part of such an amazing group/family and to witness your goodness and mercy, kindness and joy everyday!!!

Yippee we have a court date for Sof!!

I just received the great news our court date for our precious Sofonyas is scheduled for March 31. So hopefully, God willing, all will go well and we will be able to officially call him our son and post his beautiful face on that great day!! The only thing is we will be on a plane headed to Colorado first thing that morning so I may not get to post for a week or so. I will call those of you I can and have you spread the news.

As far as a referral, no word yet. We are still anxiously waiting to hear as our director just returned from Ethiopia. We were told it may take a week or so more to here if we have been matched this time around.

Again, praying hard for God to deliver the good news in the days ahead for both our Ethiopian blessings!!

Package for Sofonyas!

Next week another group of families from Hope will be traveling to Ethiopia to get their kiddos. One family has so generously offered to take a package to Sof for us. So this weekend we had so much fun putting together our second package for Sofonyas. This is not the first thought. As soon as we accepted the referral for Sof we quickly sent over a package to him, which was filled with little goodies, a Texas Longhorn Shirt and a letter introducing ourselves. We have since learned he really enjoys cars, like Reagan, so we included a few cars for him and his friends to play with together. We also put in a small photo album of us camping, fishing, going to the beach, our house and yard as well as a few of other family photos, to show him what he has to look forward to. Since both Reagan and Blake have real leopard gecko lizards we put in a small stuffed animal gecko so he wouldn't be left out. Couldn't exactly pack the real thing, and I don't think he's ready for that yet. Reagan found a Transformers shirt that he thought Sof would like, so we added that too. We were even able to squeeze in a bunch of Tootsie Pops for him and his friends and a few books as well. The last item we included was a letter from us to him explaining a little more about our family and all the things we like to do (to help explain the pictures). We are hoping that he will receive this and feel a sense of knowing us a little more. I have asked our director Shim to try to find out some information on what Sof likes as well so we can get to know him too. We enjoyed putting this together for him, and I hope it will somehow help prepare him and make him feel a little more comfortable for when he comes home to live with us. Father, I pray this package is received by Sof with the love and warmth in which it was put together with. I pray Father God that you continue to watch over our precious Sof and to keep him safe and fill his heart with your love as well as ours! In your name I pray, Amen!