A long overdue update...

After reading my last post, I realized how long overdue I am for an update on our family! The past few weeks have seemed to fly by, but our most exciting new news is that we are expecting a new baby to join our family in September! We were hoping to get a referral for our Ethiopian baby by then, but God had other plans! Near the end of January, I began to suspect that I was pregnant, and we soon found out that sure enough I was!

We contacted our adoption agency, AAI, later in February to find out what the procedure is for a family getting pregnant in the middle of an adoption. Once again, we felt so grateful to God for leading us to choose AAI. Many, if not most, adoption agencies have a pregnancy policy where you have to begin your paperwork all over again after your baby is born and you are not refunded any money you've spent up to that point. AAI. however, is very supportive of families getting pregnant during the process. After calling AAI's office, I discovered:
-We will be put on hold for a referral until after our baby is born.
-We will continue to move up the wait list.
-We will not have to pay any extra fees unless any of our paperwork expires
-We will be taken off "hold" once our bio baby is six months old (AAI has this policy so that the new baby has time to bond with the family before introducing a new member)
-By the time our bio baby is six months old, we will be at the top of the wait list, meaning we will most likely receive a referral within weeks of our baby turning six month old.
-This puts the approximate time for our referral sometime around March of next year.

Of course, after learning I was pregnant, my emotions ran the full gamut--excitement, disappointment, uncertainty about raising two babies at once (one possibly quite needy), etc. However, as I get used to the idea, I look forward to seeing how God plans to grow our family in the next couple of years. As busy and crazy as I was raising our first two (a year and five days apart in age), I love how close they are now and how they love to play with each other. They are very rarely apart. I hope for the same bond between our next two.

I have been blessed with this pregnancy. So far, I have been feeling pretty good--just tired. I had my first doctor appointment this last week and was glad to hear the flutter of a miniature heartbeat. The last two days, I have enjoyed feeling what I suspect are tiny movements. I hope to have an ultrasound this next week to better pin down a due date. Right now the doctor is thinking September 16th. Meanwhile, life goes on and seems to be picking up pace, gearing up for summer already!