A lot has happened in the past 24 hours! First of all...we have officially been accepted into AWAA's Rwanda program!!! It wasn't as easy as you may think. We went through quite the grueling thought process trying to figure out exactly what direction to go. AWAA had contacted us and wanted to know if we'd be interested in changing courses and pursuing Ethiopia instead of Rwanda. Ethiopia's program is much more established and there are few restrictions. Based off our financial situation and some health concerns, AWAA thought Ethiopia might be "safer." But Ethiopia is also more expensive, would take longer and is not what God laid on our hearts. We sought advice from a few family and friends and we prayed A LOT. It became very clear that we should continue on this path. It's a risk...but so is Ethiopia as it requires more money. If the Rwandan government ends up rejecting us, we will be set back $3,000 or so and have to start much of the process all over again. But we MUST proceed with what we believe in our hearts and minds we are supposed to do.

If you have given or are planning on giving to our cause, please understand that none of this is official until we bring the child home. We know that makes giving to this cause hard, but we hope you understand that we have to follow our hearts and what we think the wise thing to do is. We truly have peace about this decision and hope you understand.

Since we have now been accepted into the program, we recieved a ton of paperwork today! We have four documents (a grievance proceedure, the Rwanda Agreement and Disclaimer forms, and a Client's Rights and Responsiblities form), that we have signed and will send as soon as we can with our first payment of $1,125. We have almost reached this amount through donations and the yard sale! (AMAZING!)

Once we have sent the paperwork and money in, we will be put into contact with our "Family Coordinator" and begin the real paperwork. =O) It's so crazy that we have only been in this process for 3 weeks! It seems like so much has happened.

We continue to seek guidance and wisdom from God. It occured to us yesterday that it's quite possible that our child is just about to be or has just been born. Gives me goosebumps just thinking about it!