Celebrating Gotcha Day!

This weekend we celebrated Joseph's Gotcha Day. The Gotcha Day is a day celebrated by many adoptive families to commemorate the day that the adoptive child was placed into the family's home for adoption, in other words, the day the family Gotcha. One year ago Joseph and I stepped off the plane and were reunited with Jack, and our life as a family of three began. We have been blessed in so many ways by our sweet Joseph over the last year, and he has changed so much. It is hard to believe that this shy and reserved boy who would barely make eye contact with us would turn into the spunky, outgoing, and talkative little man that he is today.



To celebrate Gotcha Day we took Joseph along with some friends who were in town out to one of the Ethiopian restaurants for lunch. We also gave him a handmade Ethiopian doll that we bought last year while in Ethiopia. He doesn't know yet, but we bought enough gifts while in Ethiopia so he will have one unique gift from Ethiopia each year on Gotcha Day until age 18. (We also bought him a wedding gift in Ethiopia that we will be able to give him and his wife one day.)



Joseph - we are so proud of how far you have come and the hurdles that you have jumped in the last year! We love you so much, son. Happy Adoption Day!

It's a Boy!

We are so excited to announce that last week our agency matched us with the sweet 8 year old that we had been praying for and eluded to in our last post. We are SO excited and feel so blessed that we will be able to call this child our son. Joseph is very excited, too, about his big brother.

We waited for six long weeks for one last document, the I171H, to come in before our agency could officially match us. We received word from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service on January 23rd that we had been approved and immediately let our agency know. Just a few hours later we received word that we were officially matched!

We let Joseph call our family and tell them the great news - it was so cute to hear him tell them that he was going to have a big brother. We already have lots of pictures of him, too, so it was fun to be able to show him off to the family.

While I can't share a lot of details or any pictures online - I am happy to show him off to you in person. It is crazy, but we think he looks a lot like Joseph. He has big, brown eyes and a sweet smile. We know that he is in school and learning some English, loves to play soccer, and apparently likes to take care of some of the younger children at the orphanage. Perfect since he will have a little brother!

And to make things even more fun, my sister announced that she was pregnant on the same day that we found out! I am so excited that the two of us are getting to share this journey together! Yeah Mandy!

Many of you probably want to know when he will be joining our family - unfortunately it will probably be at least 6 months until he is home. More on the process to get him home in posts to come, but in the meantime thanks for your prayers for our expanding family!

I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. 1 Samuel 1:27