Hurray for Milos!!

Milos has a family!!! He is the cutest little guy. Just look at those eyes. He sure looks like he is full of mischief. I fell in love with this little boy at first sight. In appearance, he is totally the opposite of Andreas, with his dark skin, hair and brown eyes. In other ways, they have much in common. Both are older boys with Down Syndrome living in orphanages. Both were born in September, and both are in the double digits. Milos just turned 10 a few days ago. I wanted to try to talk Dan into adopting him, too, but I knew it was a "me" thing. It was not at all the "GOD" thing that happened with Andreas. So, I have just prayed for him often. I am SOOOOO happy that he has a family.

I am happy, too, that I was able to compare my "want" for Milos, and my "call" for Andreas. It has helped me to remember. I went back and re-read all those early emails to Andrea at Reece's Rainbow. I went back over the timeline of this whole process. I have been waiting a long time, but others might view it differently. I saw the Red Cap Picture in February of 2008, and I KNEW. For me, the wait started then. We commited to Andreas on April 23, 2008, and the wait began for our RR family. Then we had a few glitches, and we finally started our homestudy on May 30, 2008. The homestudy agency required us to take a class in August, so we couldn't complete our homestudy until we completed that class. Then, we got a rough draft in Sept. and had to wait 5 weeks until we got the completed copies. A copy was duly sent to AHI who said they didn't know us. What??!! Are you kidding? I was in contact with them since April, but, there was a misunderstanding. I thought they said we couldn't apply until we had a completed homestudy. They were waiting for our application(with the accompanying fee)before they would start working with us. So, for AHI, our wait began in October 2008. We finally got I-800A approval in January, and VERY QUICKLY got a date for our preview trip in February. I am guessing that as far as Estonia is concerned, our wait began in January. I still feel like we have been waiting way too long, but it helps to put things in perspective.

Thank you for all the encouraging comments! It helps. Looking back and remembering was a good thing, too. We won't give up, no matter how unreal it feels. I am still holding on in faith. The Lord provided miraculously. He sustained us through the initial trials, and He truly blessed our trip last winter. It was so apparent that we were doing the right thing. So, we continue to wait, in faith, with hope, that we will SOON be returning for Andreas.