We are ON DECK!!!

We got a very fun email today from our adoption agency telling us that we are officially On Deck for a referral. This means we should expect to know who our daughter is sometime within the next 3 months!! It could happen this month, but since we are still 4th on the waiting list, I think it's safer to guess it will be next month for us. We'll see!! On a fun note, I got down a blanket I began knitting 6 years ago after I had Kendra and had put up on a shelf after only doing a small amount. I felt compelled to get it down today and begin making it for Brielle! It was so amazing to get the on deck email today as a confirmation that the Lord really was prompting me that it is time to start preparing for her. The time will be here before we know it.

On that note, I am so thankful we went ahead and got our necessary vaccines for the travel. Unfortunately it was 8 shots for me and 6 for Nathan! I actually fainted shortly after and still can not lift my arms in the air without pain, but it was a labor of love. :)

We will still most likely need to take 2 trips to Ethiopia unless something changes again. I doubt we will make the cut off date for only taking 1 trip. The Lord knows his plans for us, and they will be perfect!

We will be taking TWO Trips to Ethiopia this year!!!!

We just received the news this week that the Ethiopian government has made a new law this past week requiring that families appear at "court" to testify to their willingness and commitment to adopt their child. This means that we will need to now travel 2-6 weeks after receiving a referral for about a week and then return home while the US Embassy processes our daughter's visa.

The embassy has also stated that they are going to be doing more extensive investigations into each case due to some recent allegations regarding certain adoptions and agencies (not ours) that have been in the news lately. All of these measures will ensure that Ethiopia stays open and continues to be a great place to adopt from. However this means, our time between trips will be approximately 2-3 months.

There are parts of this news that is challenging in areas like finances and logistics. The hardest thing might be spending a week with our daughter and then not getting to take her home with us the first time. I know we will have a better understanding of the heart of Jesus longing to return NOW for His bride, but knowing that it is necessary and right for it to happen in its perfect time.

We are excited that we will get to meet our daughter earlier than we would have otherwise and will get to spend a whole week with her and the other children there. We will get to spend more time getting to know Addis Ababa and Ethiopia and will have life changing adventures I'm sure.

It's possible we could get our referral in the next couple of months, so we need to start getting our shots and thinking through the first trip, as the moment we get the Big Call, life will turn into a whirlwind to make all the arrangements and prepare in a matter of weeks!!

Our hearts desire is that we would be able to pass court before it closes at the end of August. While reading comments posted on our yahoo group, I've seen that you can pass court the first time or not for many times. It all just depends on things that are totally outside of our control. We rest in that fact that this will all happen according to God's perfect timing!

Thank you for keeping our family in your prayers. We are greatly in need of them!

We're now #4 and some thoughts on the Earthquake

There is a family who just received their referral after 8 months and a week waiting. Previously it has been 9-11 months wait time for infant girls. We are now 4th on the known list for a referral for a girl. While there are surely some families we are unaware of, it seems realistic that our wait time will be under 9 months and that is exciting. I am trying to get as much done in many different areas of my life as possible during these last months of waiting. My heart wants the wait to be over, but the rest of me knows I have plenty to keep me busy in the mean time.

My heart has been very tender this week with the news of the Haiti earthquake and all that has ensued. I have personal friends who will be leaving within a week to serve there and a part of me wants to join them. The other part of me would rather do anything but go. It has been exactly 16 years since my house was destroyed in the Northridge earthquake and my life was turned upside down in a matter of seconds. By God's grace in having wonderful American engineering our house did not collapse but was close. So there is a part of what happened in Haiti that hits so close to home and at the same time does not even compare to the devastation of what is happening there. Even though I had to move overnight, my family was safe and we were able to move into our grandparents home in Nevada where we received new clothes and were cared for. It was still traumatic to escape my destroyed home and never see it again, to not get to say good-bye to all my friends and to change schools mid year in middle school. Yet my faith in the Lord Jesus-as the unshakeable one-who promised to use this for Good in my life as I trusted him was the greatest gift of all. He was my anchor of hope in the midst of a great shaking. My hope and prayer for the people of Haiti is that they will find that same hope and reality in God that I experienced. Though there suffering is so much greater than mine ever was, the Hope of God's Word and presence is just as real and powerful for them as it was for me.

To this day I hate earthquakes. Each time I have experienced one since the "big one", I think they are about to give me a heart attack. They terrify me and remind me how fast life can change--how quickly everything can be turned upside down. Yet I sing everyday, "Even though the mountains are shaken, even though they may fall in the sea, my heart will not fear. I will not be afraid, for the Lord my God is with me." This is the greater truth that I know will enable me to face whatever shakings still lie ahead of me. This is is the gut wrenching cry I have in my heart for the people of Haiti. This is the only refuge that will endure.

We're moving up the waiting list!

Well, on the "unofficial" list of our agency's yahoo group, we are now 6th in line for an infant girl referral. This does not take into account families that we may not be aware of that are not a part of this group, and thus we can not really use it to estimate our referral date, but it is still exciting to move up the list!

It is very helpful and encouraging to read the posts of all the families who are different stages in their adoptions. I am seeing both the joys and the difficult trials that we may face in the days ahead and am asking the Lord for grace upon these families who are walking a few steps ahead of or behind us as well as upon our family during this process. It still amazes me that we have our entire adoption costs almost completely covered!

Speaking of adoption costs, there is a wonderful family that have adopted a baby girl from Ethiopia and are now starting their second adoption for an older child. They are the Gibsons and they are having a great t-shirt fundraiser as well as a Christmas Give Away that ends today. I think I might have to buy a t-shirt myself. I really like them, and it would be a great way to give towards another family's adoption. I would encourage you to check out their blog. They are trying to make it an inspiring and encouraging resource for those who are considering or already on an adoption journey of their own.

I will attach the link where you can buy an awesome adoption t-shirt and/or enter to win: Christmas GiveAway Adoption Blog

We received a $3000 adoption grant today!

We have some exciting news! We received a letter in the mail today saying that Show Hope is awarding us a $3000 adoption grant! We are so thankful to the Lord for His provision through this ministry. We are now within $1200-4500 (depending on travel costs) of having our entire adoption provided for. It is so exciting to be able to echo and now speak as our own testimony what we have heard and clung to as we began this process--The Lord provides miraculously for adoptions! Thank you for your prayers. We are so encouraged as we wait upon Him to bring us the daughter he has picked out to be a part of our family.

Help us Fund our Adoption by Joining Blastoff!

The blastoff network has officially launched! Here is the link to my homepage: my.blastoffnetwork.com/devontarr! The first day the invitation service was activated, so many people were trying to log on that their load balancer for their services exploded and everything was down for the better part of a day. I'm sorry if you were trying to join at this time and it wasn't working! Things seem to be up and running great now and we hope that people will be excited about joining even though it's brand new and people haven't heard of it. Pizza Hut is going to start marketing it soon on all their pizza boxes, so the word should begin spreading fast. For those of you who are reading my blog for the first time, the Blastoff Network is a new internet company offering a customizable homepage where you can do lots of fun things and save significant money when you shop online from over 400 major retailers. Also, when you share the network with your friends, you get a small percentage of anything they purchase through the site and of anything their friends purchase up to the 10th degree of separation. This means if people begin to understand how significant this could be and join through you or someone that can be traced to you, a large network can be built that might yield some significant extra income.

We are going to use anything we make from this to complete our adoption! It has been over a month since we sent in our dossier to Ethiopia, and we are 9th in line in our agency (that we know of) for a baby girl and 20th for a referral in general. We are still expecting to receive our referral sometime next summer. Our desire is that we would have everything taken care of before the courts close next year, but we trust the Lord's perfect timing to bring Brielle (the name we have chosen for her) into our family!

Blastoff is Launching Oct. 22nd!

We just got word that Blastoff is launching in two days Oct. 22nd at 12 noon central time! This is exciting because it means that you will now be able to go to my blastoff homepage at my.blastoffnetwork.com/devontarr any time after 12 noon Oct. 22nd and sign up to get your own homepage so that you can start sending it to all your friends. If you are interested in knowing more information, please send me an email at devon720@yahoo.com Pizza hut has a contract with Blastoff to start marketing it on Oct. 27th, so there will 5 days before any one else is able to start marketing it to get the word out first.

As far as our adoption goes, we are now one month into the wait since our dossier made it to Ethiopia and are excited at how fast it seems to have gone. We have been brought much to do and accomplish during this wait which we trust will help the time seem faster than it really is. We are having fun being part of our adoption agency's yahoo group for families in process of adoption from Ethiopia. We are seeing what the needs are to pray over and rejoice in everyday. There is a real community fostered in this way that we are excited to be a part of!