Merry Christmas!

It is hard to believe we are coming upon 4 months of waiting. I have definitely been missing our sweet babe this Christmas. I can't help but wonder if he's having his first Christmas, or if we will experience that with him next year. All I know is that my arms ache to hold him! He has been on my mind so much, along with his birth family, and I've been praying for them so much. I have not been able to sing "O Holy Night" this season without thinking of our baby and Ethiopia. This is the verse that always brings the tears:

Truly he taught us to love one another
His law is love and his gospel is peace
Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother
And in his name all oppression shall cease

All oppression shall cease! Sweet, sweet words.

Merry Christmas from the Wings! 2009 is going to be an exciting year!

3 months!

Wow, 3 months waiting! I definitely have not intended to only post monthly, there just hasn't been too much to report on the adoption front. We do have some good news. There are only a few things to tweak and the CD goes to print! This has been a long process, with a lot of time and work poured into it. Everyone who has helped Phil pull this off has donated their time and services! We are so thankful for everyone who has helped, and we can't wait to hold the finished copy in our hands. We are also excited to see how God uses this to help bring our sweet baby home.
Thank you for your continued prayer and support!

2 months!

I was so happy today when I visited our site and noticed we were at 2 months of waiting!  Crazy!

We were so blessed last week when we were given an envelope with a very generous donation in it!  The gift was anonymous, so if the person reads this blog, thank you so so much!!!  It was a wonderfully sweet surprise.  

We are also very excited that Phil's CD is almost done!  Only a few more things and it will be ready to go to print.  This is such a relief to us and we are just so excited to see our next fundraiser come into place.  I am so proud of Phil and the work he has done on this project.  He is so talented.

I am also excited to report that the first travel group after the reopening of courts is in Ethiopia right now picking up their children.  I read their blogs and look at their pictures and just cry!  It is so amazing to watch these families being united, and also to think that we will be in that same place in just a few months. 

Wow.  God is so good.

still here

We get asked all of the time, "So what's up with the adoption?". Not a whole lot right now! We are just in the waiting phase. Our biggest challenges right now are trying to organize funding by the time that referral arrives! Phil is finishing up his CD and we are applying for grants. We also found out recently that there is an increase in the fees from Ethiopia. I am constantly reminding myself that God is going to provide for our family. He has amazed us and showed us miracle after miracle so far, so we don't doubt His provision.
The wait time really is flying by so far. I know other adoptive families could kill me for saying that! I am just enjoying my family of four right now before the craziness dials up as a family of five. Absolutely I cannot wait to see our sweet baby's face, but I am thankful for the grace that God is giving us to have joy in each day.
God has also been spurring my heart to be praying even more for our baby and the birth family. After the recent loss of several referred babies, I just am reminded how grave the situation truly is in Ethiopia. We are praying for a healthy pregnancy, delivery, and baby. I can't wait to hold my little sweetheart, look into his/her eyes, and give out more kisses than they can take! Oh what a day that will be.

prayer

Please pray for the Forrest family. They are a family with our agency who had received a referral for two children and were waiting for a court date and travel. Their gorgeous little baby girl died in a hospital with pneumonia this weekend. They never got to hold their daughter, but we can have joy knowing that she is in Jesus' arms right now!
Please pray for them during this difficult time.

ONE MONTH!!!!

That's all I have to say :)

later

It is crazy that we are almost to 3 weeks waiting. This Fall is so busy for us, and I'm hoping that will make the time fly!
I haven't posted much on here, because there isn't much going on adoption-wise. You can keep up on our other family happenings over at my other blog.
I am leaving tomorrow afternoon for a trip to visit my good friend in Denver. I am excited! I am a little nervous, this will be the longest I've ever been away for the kids...5 days! I know I will have tons of fun though, and return to my family rested and ready to serve!
Now come on September referrals :)

one week

See my cute little ticker up there? One week waiting for our referral, only 7-9 months to go! Haha. I am hoping and praying our program receives some referrals today!
In other news, everything with our fundraising has been put on the back burner for now because we have been terribly sick for a week. Next week I am hoping to get pictures of our tshirts up here (seriously!), that Phil can work more on his CD, and that we can make more progress on our grant applications. So much to do! I also need to get our fire inspection done again because our social worker can't find it anywhere. No big deal, it was one of the easier things to get done at least.
I find myself very excited for October. That is when the courts in Ethiopia will open again and there will be more referrals, court dates, and traveling families! There are some waiting families very anxious to go get their kids, I can't even imagine.
This is going to be a busy Fall!

something about this time of year...

8/30/01- Phil proposed

9/2/04- Found out we were pregnant with Gibson

8/30/06- Maya made her debut into the world

8/29/08- We are paper-pregnant, the wait is on!

What is it with our family and this time of year? It is wonderfully sweet. We found out today that we are officially "DTE"...sort of. The woman who is in charge of collecting the dossiers in Ethiopia is currently here, in the States. So, our dossier will be sent out once she returns there. The good news is that they will use today's date as our official date. They use these dates for the order in which referrals are given. So our wait officially begins today, even though this child has been in our hearts for a long time. The current wait time given is 5-7 months for a referral. It is hard to believe that we could see our baby's face in a few short months. Please join us as we pray for joy in the wait. It can be a hard time, but we are trusting that the Lord has the perfect timing worked out. All I can think of right now is that HE is good!!! WOOHOO :)

good news?

Well, we did not receive an email from our family coordinator today...which is a good thing! She said if there was a problem with our dossier that she would contact us Tuesday afternoon. I am so happy to report that we didn't hear from her. So, it looks like we will be receiving a tracking number on Friday, because our dossier will be on it's way to Ethiopia!

out of our hands

This morning I was up bright and early to get the kids ready for our trip to Columbus. Thankfully, we made the trip with only minor glitches. After I got back into town, I headed to make the copies. I set up my little system and it went quickly. My husband was sweet enough to go take care of the money part for us. Before I left his office, we gathered around our stack o' papers, put our hands on it, and prayed. We prayed for our papers' travels, and for our precious baby. Of course, I was a blubbering mess! It was such a sweet time knowing that this leg of the race was over. After I got a little crying out, I was just overjoyed. Before I knew it, we were at the post office and I was handing it off. It is surreal. I will now be stalking my tracking number and making sure it is there by noon tomorrow! Hopefully all of our papers will be in order and we will be DTE (dossier to Ethiopia) soon! We now have a wait of approximately 5-7 months to see our baby's face!!! I get goosebumps just thinking about it.
PRAISE THE LORD!!!! We are on cloud nine :)



Phil was rushing off to a meeting so we didn't get a chance to take pictures. So I took one myself in the post office parking lot. Cheesy? Yes. Wow, and scary. You can see my puffy eyes from my happy tears through my sunglasses. Agh, I almost can't believe I'm posting it! But it's my only picture with my "paper baby"! :)

WE GOT IT!!!

That precious little I171H came in the mail today!!! Amber will be headed to downtown Columbus tomorrow to have the last stamp put on our papers. We are hoping to get everything off in the mail tomorrow. Pray for us :)
We are overjoyed!

"to find you"

Some people have been asking about the song that I wrote about our adoption so I figured I'd post the lyrics here.

This song was written from our anxiousness during this time of waiting. For those of you who have adopted before, you know that the tension between wanting your child so badly and having to wait to meet them, almost drives you crazy at times. That's where this song came from.


To Find You

There's a mother with a burden, she carries down deep
For a child across the ocean that she's yet to meet
And though for now she's left here waiting
In her heart anticipating
With all she has she begins to sing

I'm coming soon

I'm coming soon

I'm coming soon

To find you

There's a father who is trying to walk in belief
To love the lost and lonely and the "least of these"
And though his walking has him waiting
In his heart anticipating
With all he has he begins to sing

I'm coming soon

I'm coming soon

I'm coming soon

To find you

And a light will shine on you
And we will see the same light too
And we will know it's true
That we've been waiting all this time
Just for you

I'm coming soon

I'm coming soon

I'm coming soon

To find you

The recording of this song will be on the acoustic CD coming out this fall. More info on that soon...

Just waitin'

We are now officially only waiting on our I171H. We finally received our life insurance letter ("5 business days" turned into a couple of weeks), so we faxed our documents to be approved by our family coordinator today. That means our side of things is completely done! Our goal was August, so I am glad we squeezed it into July, it makes me feel more accomplished, ha! So now we just wait for that magical little letter to come in the mail any day now. Once it is here we take our documents to be county and state certified. We are still praying that our dossier will be sent to Ethiopia in August! The other great news that our agency put out today is that the wait times for referrals have changed. It was 7-9 months for a baby boy or girl, but the wait time for boys has gone down to 5-7 months! Since we are open to either gender, it looks like a boy could be coming our way. Obviously, God can do ANYTHING in a matter of months! But, we are excited to know that a couple months of our wait might be shaved off. I try not to count on any of these estimations though, because we always have to know that international adoption can be very unpredictable!

there are no words

Wow. That is all I have to say. We have been so blessed by people's generosity and willingness to help bring our child home. We continue to get random checks and money, whether from friends or anonymous donors. I can't tell people enough how much we appreciate it. We have raised half of our funds! We feel like God is continually confirming our path, and using so many people to do so! We are so humbled and grateful.
We are continuing with our fundraisers. We are still selling our t shirts and Phil is working on his CD. Hopefully that will be done soon, I can't wait to hear it! Also, now that our homestudy is done, we can apply for some grants. I hate to talk "numbers", but people are constantly asking us how much more we need. The costs of an adoption are all estimated, so at this point we still need to raise about $10,000+ more.
Thank you all for your prayers through this process. God is so faithful, and is certainly our Provider!!!

YES!

Our homestudy was sent to USCIS yesterday!!! We are very excited since we weren't expecting that until next week. Just wanted to share!

a new plan

Well, today went much different than planned. The original plan was for Phil to go to work this morning, and then we would meet our social worker in the afternoon to sign the completed homestudy. She was going to be in the area for another meeting, and it worked perfectly for us so we didn't have to travel too far. Well, this morning Phil woke up sick. So sick he couldn't get out of bed. Oh no! We started praying of course because we wanted him to feel better, but also so we could somehow make our meeting. As the time inched closer, we knew it just wasn't going to happen. He was feeling awful. So I called up our social worker and shared my disappointing news. She felt bad that we wouldn't be able to get it done, since we are so close. She offered to call us later today after her other meeting in the area to see if Phil was feeling any better. Thankfully, he was! He is by no means at 100 percent, but at least he could be out of bed and sitting on the couch for the meeting. It was so sweet of her to come to our home so that we could get it done today and we are grateful that the Lord worked out each detail. She wasn't here long at all, and now we're done! AWAA is currently reviewing it and will let us know if it is O K to send off. We are hoping that it will be sent early next week to USCIS. (once it is at USCIS and processed, we will then wait for our I171H that you have heard me talk about) Also, our dossier is almost finished! Basically I have done everything, and I'm just waiting for a few things to come in the mail. The goal is to have all of that done by the time our I171H comes back, which will hopefully be soon. We have heard many families who wait a long time for it, and others that get it quickly. Please pray with us that we are one of the quick ones! I can't believe we are so close to being completed with our dossier. I just keep thinking how each of these things brings us one step closer to meeting our sweet baby!

a mixed bag

We got our USCIS fingerprints done today. Hooray! It was mostly painless, except for a few cranky outbursts from the kids. We were out quickly, and even ran into a couple that attend our church there getting fingerprinted too. So that was a fun little surprise. After that it was lunch time and we headed to IHOP because we figured that would be a kid-pleaser. Oh. My. Goodness. We had the worst experience we have ever had while out to eat with our children. There was much discipline and threat-whispering going on. I ended up taking them out to the van, leaving their half-eaten lunch still on the table. Yes, it was that bad. Our kids love to eat at restaurants, but we told them it is going to be a long time before they have that special treat again. I think my blood pressure is rising just thinking about it.
But then I came home to a good email from our social worker. She hopes to have a rough draft of our homestudy to us this week, and then meet on the 17th for our last visit and just to finalize it all. I am so glad to get this on the calendar, we are ready for this phase to be over.
I think that is all the adoption news we have for today, hopefully there will be more good news to come!

early is a good thing

We got our passports today!

another praise!

Our passports are another thing that we have been trying to get done and were wondering how long they would take. We were told 4-6 weeks. We sent them less than a week ago. I had been tracking them online, even though it said it could take 7-10 days to even show up in the system. As of Tuesday (yes we sent them Friday and I started checking on Monday...because I'm crazy like that), they weren't in the system. I couldn't check yesterday because something was wrong with their website. Well, I just pulled it up, and not only had they arrived, but they were done processing and had been sent out! They should be here by Monday! Wow. God is certainly in every detail's timing! Passports in a week, not bad!

praise praise praise

I am so overwhelmed right now...in a good way! God's grace and provision is so amazing. This process is making that even more real to me. Recently we received two very generous donations that will completely cover the costs that will be due at dossier submission. Praise the Lord! That is so huge. We will still have our very large chunk at the end, but God has provided every cent so far, and we know he is more than capable to do that! The other huge praise today was concerning our life insurance. I believe I mentioned that all we were waiting for was the verification so we could complete our financial info, and that we were told it could take 4-6 weeks, and the shortest they had seen was 2 weeks. Well I faxed our paper work just over a week ago. I called the underwriter today, and she still hadn't received it. She said that was not uncommon. So I told her about our adoption, and she gasped. She said she would just have to pull some strings for us! So she asked for my phone number to keep me updated. I am not kidding when I say, 15-20 minutes later I got a call. She said she called them, had them send it to her immediately, she worked on it, and it is done! Our coverage starts today. I thanked her profusely, hung up the phone, and then started crying and praising God! I just couldn't stop saying how good He is. So I was able to fill in that little line on our financial and that is the last piece of our homestudy paperwork, and also one more thing crossed off the dossier list. I have the biggest smile on my face right now! :)

hoo-ray!

I was so excited when I got the mail today! We received our USCIS fingerprinting appointment! It is set for Monday, July 7th. So we will head down to Cincinnati for our "biometrics". It is great timing, because our homestudy should be done soon and it can join up there and then we will begin the wait for our I171H paper. I was jumping up and down when I got the mail today. It is just so nice to have another part of the puzzle in the works! We also got our passport applications sent out Friday, so we are hoping and praying those don't take a sweet forever. So yeah, hooray for fingerprints!

Our little sweethearts...

home visit...part two

Today was the final visit to our home from the social worker. Actually, she is still here, I am just in the other room! I already did my one-on-one with her and now it's Phil's turn! Things are going great. Really and truly, nothing to be nervous over. I can hear her laughing out there, so Phil is on his game, haha. I am excited to say we are done with all of our homestudy paperwork...except for one little paper. Our financial info can't be completed because we are still waiting for finalization of our life insurance. We faxed it all last week and I talked to a guy who said it can take as long as six weeks, or as short as two, so to maybe plan for four. Please join us in praying it is two!!! Everything is done except for those two little blank lines...taunting me. It would just be so wonderful to have this phase complete. I was looking at our dossier sheet today, and there really isn't that much to be done. We are waiting for our fingerprinting appointment, and I really hope we get that letter with our appointment date this week. It looks like we should be able to make our August deadline that we made for ourselves. But as many know, we certainly can't count on it! Who knows what the pesky I171H will decided to do.

two down, two to go

Today we had our first home visit from our social worker. I really wasn't stressed or nervous at all, and now I'm glad I didn't work myself up, because it really was great! Our social worker is so easy to talk to, and it was like talking to an old friend in our living room. She did a great job of asking us all of the questions in an easy, conversational manner. I also really liked just talking through everything. It was nice to revisit why we decided to adopt, and just how God has worked in our hearts to bring us where we are. We were also so excited to schedule our next visit for Monday! I only have a few stray papers that I hope to get by Monday, and our part will be done! Then we will just wait for her to write it all up. She said our fourth and final visit would be to look over everything and just tie up loose ends. Now that our homestudy papers are almost done, we can really focus on gathering more for the dossier!

clearing things up

I have had several people come to me confused. Apparently, we tripped a few people up when we started this blog! So to clear it up, we do still have our own personal blogs up and running. We will just be posting here regarding our adoption. So please check here for the latest details, and for the every day stuff, you can still find us at:

www.mamalovesadeal.blogspot.com

www.philwing.com/blog


Thanks for keeping up with us!

onward

It looks like our first home visit from our social worker will be on Tuesday! We are so glad to have this scheduled and have the ball rolling.
Today we went and had our BCI fingerprinting done and got our police clearance letters. I am thoroughly enjoying crossing things off of our list of to-do's. It feels great! Of course, there is still a lot to be done, but we're moving along. Hopefully we will hear from USCIS soon and get our fingerprinting appointment. Our next goal to tackle is passports. I have our applications, so we need to get our photos and get over to the post office. Hopefully I can say that is done by the end of the week!
It is easy to keep pressing on when you read about other families who are further along. Here are some people that are in Ethiopia as we speak, getting ready to bring their sweet children home!

The Kidds
The Wests
The Cordells
The Gardners

Still here

So I have just been bad in general about updating my blog, and here as well. We are staying busy though. I will also try to update the timeline in our sidebar soon since we have made progress! We are waiting to hear from our social worker right now to schedule our first home visit. We only have a few stray papers until we have everything collected on our end for our homestudy. Yay! That is victory. I can't wait until we can say that part is done! I went downtown to get a few things today and it was frustrating to say the least! Finding parking was a nightmare, the kids were just totally acting out-of-control, and I got a $15 parking ticket. Seriously?! At least I got a few things crossed off my list, so I am trying to look at the positive instead of the dent in our wallet and my sanity. We are hoping to get our BCI fingerprinting and the police letter done this week, and our physicals will be completed next week. Other than that, I am just waiting for other people to get things to me.
We have had some major storms and flooding around the area last night and today. Since we were trapped at home, Gibson got a long-awaited hair cut from Daddy. It was his first big boy buzz cut, and I'm still getting used to it. He just looks old and it makes me a little sad. Before we took it off we left it in this mohawk...and I'll be honest, I kind of wish we would have left it because he looked so darn cute:

He really wasn't sad in the picture, he was just concentrating on his Wiggles DVD.
On another note, I am researching preschool homeschooling material. Any suggestions?

chuggin' along

I can't help but think of Gibson when I write that title! Man, that boy loves some trains.
So anyway! Not a whole lot to report here. We have busily been gathering papers and making phone calls. We had a small setback on our I600A because of some miscommunication. It is all straightened out now, thankfully. I sent it back out today and was also able to send off a good chunk of paperwork to our social worker as part of our home study. Hopefully in the weeks to come we will be scheduling our home visits. I am ready!
I also wanted to update people on the tshirt situation. Very soon we will be ordering smaller sizes. We have not forgotten! We are finally bouncing back after vacation, and after we get some things together, we will be ordering them! So the status is: tshirts coming soon! That said, if you are interest in a L, XL, or XXL, please let us know and we can get it to you asap.

How you can pray for us:

• Our house has been for sale for quite a while. We are praying it sells soon, but are also considering whether or not to leave it on the market since our home study is beginning soon.
• Peace while paperchasing (that is mostly for me, ha!).
• Future fundraising, grants, donations, etc. that will make our adoption possible.
• Our future child who is probably in his/hers mommy's belly right now! So pray for a healthy pregnancy, their development, and also for their family who must be facing great hardship. Please pray for our child's mother. My heart hurts for her.
• Pray for rain! Ethiopia is experiencing a drought right now. You can imagine how hard that is for the people. Also, because of conservation, it slows down all communication which directly effects adoptive families and their children. Rain, rain, rain!

of progress and blessing

Vacation was truly wonderful! It was such a great rest for our family. We were in need of that possibly more than we ever have been! Phil and I had so much fun together, and Gibson and Maya had a blast. They had been fighting so much before we left and they just had a great time together and really became closer friends.
Now that we are back we are diving right in. I sent in our I600-A today. Tomorrow we will be traveling to do our orientation meeting with our social worker. This will count as one of our face-to-face meetings. We will also pay for our home study meetings tomorrow night. I am hoping later in the week to cross a few other small things off the list like birth certificates, marriage license, etc. There is a lot on the list! If I just look at it as one thing at a time, it is not so overwhelming. I hope that along the process that I can just keep the right perspective that each step will bring us closer to our child. Now that gets me really excited!!!
I just have to put out a big thank you to all of our friends and family out there! The support and prayer that has been poured upon us is amazing. We have been so humbled by the checks and donations that keep popping up along the way. The 10 dollar check means just as much to us as the 200 dollar one. We know people are giving sacrificially and that is truly humbling. So thank you everyone!!!

another step

Today we sent in our signed agreements and paid our first program fee. We are in this, y'all!!! We are leaving for vacation with my family tomorrow morning (that makes me twitch a little), so while we are gone things can be processed and we will be hooked up with our family coordinator. That means that when we get back from Florida we can hit the ground running collecting papers and begin the home study process. I can't wait! But I am ready to relax a little on the beach first. :)

warning: post contains many exclamation points :)

Last night was awesome! Oh my, it was so great. Not only was there amazing music by Charis, Blackburn, and Phil Wing, but we just truly felt so loved and supported by the body of Christ. So many people helped us out and served selflessly to help pull it all off. We had about 250 people come out to celebrate with us. It was great to hear another family come and share a little bit about their own adoption from Ethiopia. It was a joy to watch their little children run around with ours. A little glimpse into the future that got us so excited! We also had a friend come share about the World Vision Experience. It sounds like something you will not want to miss.
Now I have to brag on my husband, because he would never do it himself. His band sounded so great last night! Definitely the best that I've ever heard from them. Their new stuff is great, and the song he wrote about our adoption, To Find You, made me cry for sure. Wonderful. I am so excited for his CD to come out now! I have a feeling it will be my favorite, not just because he's my husband, but because the songs are so good.
Our tshirts were flying off of the shelf! We are going to be ordering more (all you small and medium people out there!) so look for those to be coming to our website soon. We are going to set it up with paypal so you can just buy them right off of here.
People were just so generous. We are humbled. In only one night we were able to raise about 20% of our total costs!!! Wow. We were blown away and moved beyond words. Thank you to everyone who so generously gave! It means so much to us for you to be a part of bringing home our baby! We are overcome with joy.
God is good, good, good!!!

Wow

Friday is approaching quickly, and I can't wait!!! I also just wanted to let people know that we are going to have tshirts at the concert as well. I would post a picture but we don't have them back from the printers yet. But let me tell you, they are going to be SWEET!!! Whatever we have left over after the concert we will make available here for purchase. It will be just one of the many ways we will be fundraising for our adoption.
I will see some of you on Friday, agh! (I'm freaking out a little)

CONCERT

Please mark your calendars for Friday, May 2nd - 7pm. We'll be having a benefit concert for our upcoming adoption. It will feature my band, charis, and the debut performance of blackburn. It'll be a night to hear some good music, how God has led Amber and I to adopt, and how you can possibly help. Please come!!!!!!!

WE'RE SO EXCITED!!!

yeah baby

We are officially accepted into America World's Ethiopia program! I got the call this afternoon. As soon as I hung up the phone I cried. Wow, we are only at the beginning and I'm already a mess! It is just crazy that it is finally here...and He is doing this! We truly cannot wait for this adventure in bringing home our next child. I am already dreaming of him/her.

Don't forget to mark your calendars for May 2nd. at 7 p.m. Join us!

anticipation

We are eagerly awaiting hearing from AWAA sometime this week. We are hoping and praying that there will be no problem with our application. It will just feel good to "officially" be in the Ethiopia program. If we find out we are accepted, we will then get our info packet that gives us the details of all we need to get started on. I do know one thing, it will be a lot! But we are ready and can't wait to jump right in.
One more thing, Friday May 2nd at 7:00 p.m...save the date!!! This is the night of our concert fundraiser! More details to come this week.

...to find you...

We're the Wing family: Amber, Gibson, Maya, and Phil (left to right)

God has led us to adopt a child from Ethiopia and this blog will serve as our journal through the whole adoption process.

We can't even speak the words to express how excited we are...nervous as all get out, but so excited! We'd love your prayers.

though for now we're left here waiting

with our hearts anticipating
with all we have, we begin to sing...
I'm coming soon, I'm coming soon

I'm coming soon

to find you