This is the first post on our blog. We are trying to wrap our minds around this whole blogging thing.
This is our story about a journey to Africa for our son/brother. Given it is currently late October...we have some explaining to do. Our family is made up of Lewis and Jenae Baughman. Our two daughters are named Hannah and Alyssa. They are eleven and seven years old. We started our adoption in January 2011 with our initial home study visit from an AWAA Social Worker. We begin to pray for God's hand to be involved in this process and trusted that He already had our son selected for us. The dossier was sent off to IAN at the end of May. The I-171 form was finished in mid-August and then the waiting began...oh, the waiting. The time we had...to do nothing. Oh, we were busy, but we accomplished nothing. Lewis didn't get the loft made for Hannah so she could sleep over Alyssa's day bed and share their room together. We didn't get the closet cleaned out and that only starts the long list off. Well, that is another story. We have a new "to-do" list now.
So it was like any other Tuesday. Out of the blue, our phone rings. We have a referral, people! Who could refuse? We accepted, but the Ethiopian courts are shut down so we do not have a court date. So we daydream about when our court date / embassy visit(s) may be. We include our son in our mealtime prayers. We look up the time difference between Oklahoma and Ethiopia(8 hours). We wonder about what he is doing at that moment. We pray for him, his caregivers and their safety & protection throughout this process. We ache for him as he has been through things we may never know.
What we know: He is a cute, adorable, precious and about three and half years old. We have a few photos but cannot post them. Hannah and Alyssa call him "our little boy." They have a very exciting time coming up in the next several years as they love and get to know their brother.
Now we have a court date of December 6th. We will travel to Africa!!!! Yeah!!!! With God's will we are told that we will be picking him up in January 0f 2012........
