Happy 6 months Lucy

This is my first blog entry since we have been home.  I keep meaning to write an update but I forgot what it's like to wake up every 2 hours in the middle of the night!  I am planning on eventually sharing what our last trip to Ethiopia and the US Embassy was like so stay tuned.

Today, however, is a super special day!  Today Lucy is 6 months old!!  I can hardly believe it.  She is such a beautiful bright addition to our family.  She is smiley, cuddly, and lights up the room!  We are so incredibly thankful to have her home forever.  Right now she is working on rolling over and sitting up without help.  She has rolled over once but we can't seem to get her to do it again.  

While I don't have a picture from her first month, I do have a picture from when she was 6 weeks.  That one is in the top right corner.  It was actually one of her referral pictures so it was one of the first we ever saw of her.  The other pictures were sent to me by precious friends that were visiting Hannah's Hope at different times while we were waiting and the one of me with Lucy is from our first visit in August.  I am so thankful to have pictures of her growing all along even though I wasn't with her for all of those milestones.  The big picture is from today!
   

Happy 6 months Lucy Lu!  We love you so much!!

We are going back to Ethiopia!!!!!!

Our case cleared with the US Embassy yesterday!  I went to sleep the night before praying that it would be soon and I woke up and checked my email (which is something you do when you are constantly waiting to hear about your daughter across the ocean).  There was an email from the Embassy and the subject was: CASE CLEARED!!!!!  Now we just go for our last interview with Embassy and that will be it!

I am going to be holding Lucy R in my arms in 4 days.  October 2010 is when we officially submitted our dossier and received our waitlist number and now October 2013 we will officially have our daughter in our arms forever!  Only God could bring all of this together.  Only He can knit stories of loss and redemption, of waiting and persevering, of beauty from ashes.  He is so so good.  We have been so so blessed in this journey.  While this part of the journey is going to come to an end, a brand new journey will begin.  It's hard to imagine that in just a week's time we will be a family of 4.  Isabel will have a sister that she's waited so long for.  We will have a new little person living here with us!

We are amazed and grateful to God for the ways that He has provided for our adoption.  You all came together and answered the call to care for orphans and see children in families!  You all helped bring our daughter home to us.  We are forever grateful and blessed!  God has provided for our last trip and we have the money we need to travel!!!  Only He could do so much!!

I can't stop singing this song today.

 "Who brings our chaos back into order
Who makes the orphan a son and daughter
The King of Glory, the King above all kings

Who rules the nations with truth and justice
Shines like the sun in all of its brilliance
The King of Glory, the King above all kings

This is Amazing Grace"