Our Jaeger Lass...

Here is a picture of Anna.

We have a daughter!!

We passed court last night!!! :) The Lord be praised. We still need USCIS prints maybe tomorrow, can they process so quickly? Please pray for us, that they are willing.

Our little girl's name is Anna Mihiret Jaeger :O)
Her birthday is two days after mine, and she is 2 years and 3 months. She is very tiny and we hope a good American diet can help her to recover the height and weight she hasn't been able to attain. We are so blessed to have such a precious little one to add to our family.

Quotes today:
Malachi "I am her big brother and I am going to take care of her and I am going to share my bed." (he he, she needs a crib)

Josiah "Now she is a Jaeger and she is a part of our family"

Caleb "No, not Anna, I want her to be named Leah"

DTE 8/8/08
RR 4/15/09 (best tax day ever!)
CD 5/13/09 passed today!!
USCIS fingerprints expire 5/21/09 :(
TTD 6/6/09 - 6/13/09 or 5/25/09 - 5/30/09 (if God provides with our prints)
(TTD = tenative travel dates)

God's Timing... how we got this beautiful little girl!

We started in March 2007 with our home study. Due to social worker hangups (not the agency's fault) we ended up not finishing our home study until December 2007! I thought this was the last hang up we would encounter, but then Kent was graduating with his MDIV (after 11 years of study) and I just couldn't get my mind around filling out my Dossier while we waited for USCIS which ironicly was perfectly on time. So then the wait from April until 8/8/08 was my fault. I felt like such a failure and had such struggles while my husband watched his company go through many layoff gymnastics. Sure enough we got our news in October that layoffs were enevitable for his group and that the whole cellular division was going to be dropped or sold. As we waited for the sale to go through and many companies tried to buy it but it was a time for banks to be more careful. In fact God provided the new job three days before the last job ended. All this to say, it was a little over two years after we started the process that we were able to get our referral, but she is the one for us. She is so wonderful, I didn't even know how my heart would long for her, and now she is here. She wasn't even in the orphanage during "our planned date" for the end of this adoption. God had to slow down our social worker and then me. It has been really humbling for me, and beautiful knowing that God isn't absent from these details, but more present than I am.

God bless,

Marion
DTE (Dossier to Ethiopia) 8/8/08
RR (Referral Received) 4/15/09 Best Tax Day Ever!!!
CD (Court Date) 5/13/09 (what is God doing? This is so fast! He is "The Good".)

Kent has a Job!!

OK
The short: Kent has a new job assignment with the same company. Our adoption can go on, and we can stay in our house!!

The Long: Wednesday morning we got our referral, Wednesday night we realized that all of our options had ended and we were facing a layoff the following Tuesday (tomorrow). We decided to accept the referral for the little girl we were offered anyway. She was so beautiful and wonderful. Thursday we accepted. Friday night 30 minutes before Kent left work he got an offer for a group that had been theorized just two days before and his cool boss had managed to pull together to get 20 more guys jobs before the site closed.

So in two days we got the answer to six years of praying our little girl, and then a job so Kent can continue to provide for us and we don't have to sell our home.

God Rocks!

Marion
DTE 8/8/08
RR 4/15/09

We got our referral and decided to go for it!

Just a quick note to say we are accepting our referral for a 2 year 2 month
little girl. It is a change from what we had initially asked for, but she is so
beautiful. God rocks!!


DTE 8/8/08
RR 4/15/09 (ha ha, on tax day :)

Layoffs or transfers...

It has been a crazy four weeks for us while Kent was notified of the closing of his site, and the possible new employment by some company maybe. It is possible that God is calling him to choose to be a pastor earlier than I had planned, but not earlier than he had desired. Or maybe we are going to chase one of these few jobs to AZ where they seem to be.

God has been faithful in this time. He has provided me with some cool psalms, (Psalm 68) regarding His care of the orphans. I think no matter what else happens in this time, staying in the Chicago burbs near my family, moving somewhere else, Kent remaining an engineer for a time, or changing to a pastor...
... as I was saying no matter what else happens, it seems that our adoption will go through, for if God is for it, who can be against it?

Hope your day is full of delight in Christ.

Mari

Running the race with perseverance...

Today, I found myself wondering at my perseverance. Can I continue to run? We are getting nearer our time to get our referral. However, a major obstacle has come into the picture. Kent's job is uncertain, the economy doesn't favor getting work. How I would like to know where God wants my heart with this adoption. I long to bring my little ones home. He could have brought them home earlier, but He hasn't. What does He long for in my family. Lord guide my heart.