WAHOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Where does one even start when writing this post, I'll give it a shot here goes.....................The Binns family has officially accepted a referral for a precious baby boy from Ethiopia.  Rob and I always wondered what the day would feel like when we first saw our child's picture and their information and we were offered the opportunity to consider being his mom and dad.....Well, it is beyond amazing, God must be pretty good at that matchmaking thing because we instantly felt like he belonged with us.  Tears flowed (well let's be honest sobs of joy :), you know me I am not real good at disguising my emotions, but who cares it felt AWESOME).  His big brothers Al and Nico are so super excited and have big plans for him already LOL.  That is one of the sweetest things to watch is how excited they are and they are the reason that we want to adopt because they have truly been God's greatest gift to us (besides God giving me Rob, he's pretty awesome too ;) ).  So any who friends and family.... The Binns family is growing to 5 !!!!!  Please continue to pray for us on this journey, we so appreciate all of the love and support our family and friends have given us:). You mean the world to us and will be such an important part of our new precious baby boy's life.  Please post your comments, we love to hear them :).  You guys ROCK!!

Time is not standing still! (as previously thought :) )

Hello All, Many of you already know that the last couple of months have been challenging for our family in regards to our adoption process.  I have shed many tears the last couple of months and Rob (wonderful man that he is) has done a lot of hugging and holding.  It has often felt at times like time has been standing still, like our adoption is not moving and never will.  We are 13 months waiting for a referral for our child (along with so many other families) and feeling the burn of that wait.  I have been angry, sad, and overwhelmed by the emotions of this process, and I can't say enough...so in love with a child we don't know yet and want to meet so badly.  So many of you have shared with us (me) some awesome pearls of wisdom and along with a little help from a sermon at church, I think I finally get it.   The talk this past weekend addressed that we often are questioning life's events before knowing the whole picture, which often isn't revealed til later.  I realized today that I am acting like the Holly we all know and love, "I want what I want when I want it."  I have made my timeline and by gosh we all better follow it....yeah right.  I am realizing, slowly but surely, the bigger picture... Sometime in the future, Rob and I are going to be welcoming into our family our third child (a daughter or son... stay tuned should be interesting), and like our other two's entrance it will be amazing.  Yes, we will have our ups and downs but when I think of getting "the call", I am excited. We will be adding another blessing to our family, another beautiful child that we would give our life for... and that friends is what this is all about. Granted, the boys will be older than I thought, Rob and I will be older than I thought (but all still beautiful and handsome of course :) ) but getting our 3rd amazing gift from God (Yahoo!!!).  I finally realized that God has given me the gift of time.  In the last 21 months, I have been able to meet (or even get to know better) some amazing people and see their adoption journeys unfold, learn about a different culture, get excited about traveling to Ethiopia (an opportunity that not to many get), count my blessings, count my blessings, count my blessings (whew, what a busy 21 months but awesome).  Like many others have said....I am not saying that I am not still frustrated by the wait but I think I am finally realizing just because I have to wait doesn't mean its not going to happen.  In the meantime,  I will keep watching Paula Dean, because she makes me smile, so sweet (so sad to hear about her Diabetes, but you go girl,  cheers to a healthier lifestyle for us all, but let's not go getting crazy and forget about butter ;) ).  So time is not standing still. I will continue to belly laugh (because so many of you make me do that on a regular basis and I love you for it).  I will enjoy the little things, enjoy the big things, and ENJOY.  I hope this update finds all of you well and enjoying a good belly laugh daily if possible.  Smile on :) friends.  P.S. if you are reading this, I love to hear your comments.

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1/22/1

Long Overdue

Hi Everyone,
So sorry this has taken so long, but for all you who know me well this probably isn't a huge shocker that I haven't posted in like FOREVER :(.  Any who, now that we have that out of the way, let's get to the news...Things are pretty much the same in our world.  We continue to wait patiently (although on some days that term is a huge stretch, I would stay even for Rob.)  We are officially 8 months into our wait for a referral for our child, which is exciting that we have, as many of you remind me, probably waited longer than we will have to continue to wait (OPTIMISM is definitely becoming one of my strong points, for the next 30 seconds that is LOL).  Things have slowed in the adoption process for Ethiopia making wait times longer.  The funny thing is that I believe God knows what he is doing because truly we have used this extra time, enjoying the wonderful gifts God has blessed us with, you may know them as and Alex and Nico.  In all honesty, I truly have realized that everyday is a gift, being able to have two amazing little boys is a gift, and we are so blessed with you all our wonderful friends and family.  This baby, when he or she comes (and they will :)), will be so loved by so many amazing people and that makes me HAPPY.  And so that is where we are, counting our blessings, enjoying watching the boys play flag football, watching Paula Dean on food network (which I don't care who you are, she is so freakin cool) and finding the awesomeness in everyday (which I will tell you I have to shake myself sometimes and tell "me" to straighten up and sometimes my mom still does that for me too ;)).  So stay tuned...things are just getting interesting :)
So much love to you all, Thanks for your continued support!!!

Just a little addition to the last post

So funny, I forgot to say that each Alex and Nicholas want a different sex sibling.  Alex is pulling for a baby sister and Nico is pulling for a baby brother.  Funnier yet, Nico said to me the other day "Mom when Alex gets his baby sister and I get my baby brother we will both be so excited."  Whoa hold the phone, I think to myself, how do I break it to my bubs that somebody is goin get their feelings hurt because Mommy and Daddy only asked for one more, not two.  Nico is so sweet but so unrealistic LOL :).

Holdin on to Hope

And we wait.... (it really has only been like a month and a half but as most of you know I am a tidge dramatic (this is where you say a silent prayer for Rob lol :) ).  In the last couple of weeks our social worker did email and let us know that our dossier was received in Ethiopia, translated, and sent to the MOWA (Ministry of Women's Affairs).  So we are OFFICIALLY waiting, woo hoo(I know I said this in the last post but this is OFFICIAL)!  It is so wild but I actually find myself so attached to this child that I don't even know.  I often tell people that I think about how hard the first trip will be where we meet our child for the first time and how I cry just thinking about having to leave him or her.  Crazy I know because we don't even know if it is a him or her but I tell you he or she will be amazing just like Nico and Alex and I love him or her already.  Another great thing, I joined a group my friend from work started (who is also adopting from Ethiopia, Thanks so much Sue!) and we met for the first time last week.  WOW, I enjoyed so much talking to and hearing from all the ladies about their amazing journeys, some of which are home with their beautiful children and others who are in similar stages of the process as Rob and I.  The meeting was such a great stage to share, learn, and gather strength that the end result is soooo worth the wait.  It was also just neat to learn more about Ethiopia from those who have been there and chip away more in understanding a culture that seems more and more to be pretty amazing.  It makes me want to think far beyond adoption and find other ways to assist in helping this amazing culture of people gain more access to healthcare and offer opportunities to give orphans the chance to be well cared for in their own country.  Who knows what the future holds but I am open to suggestions and nudges (we shall see).  Stay tuned things are just getting interesting......

Numero 2 Post

YAAYYYY!  We received our approval from the USCIS, and we had our Dossier state sealed.  I just chatted with our social worker and we just have to sign ONE more piece of paper (we have signed like three thousand so far, what is one more, really.) and then the Dossier will be reviewed by the International Director and very soon be UPSed off to Ethiopia.  Our social worker said we can officially start our wait time for a referral (she is so sweet, I think the wait officially starts when your document arrives in Ethiopia but she wants to give us that shimmering thread of light to hold on to.  Thank you Kim.).  So this is super big news for the Binns', even though as I mentioned before, the wait currently is 6-12 months and that wait time could change at anytime for better or worse.  And so, we laugh, love, and pray.  Life is good :).  Toodles noodles.

Getting Things Started (1st post)

Hello All!  I know many of you are thinking, "The Binns starting a blog, this should be good."  Well stay tuned because the Binns have started their blogging journey about our adoption of our third child from Ethiopia.  We are hoping that this blog will be therapeutic for us, interesting for you, and lastly a good way to document our journey for all of our children to read later.

I won't bore you with the details (because many of you I already have, thanks for listening)but do know that it is a decision that we feel blessed to have made.  This journey has been so very similar but so very different from being pregnant.  Rob and I continue to hold on to the amazing gift that our child's biological parents will be giving us and how much they must love this child to do such an unselfish thing, to think of their child ahead of themselves.

Where are we at in the process:  We are currently finshing up our Dossier and waiting for our final approval from the USCIS.  So basically this means, soon we will begin our wait for our referral for our child.  The referral wait time is estimated between 6 to 12 months.  We are requesting an infant (I still crave that baby stage) so the hope is that the baby will come home between 6 and 8 months old.  Once we receive our referral we will travel to Ethiopia twice, once for a court appointment (a shorter stay about 5 days) and then our final trip where we go to the embassy and we are able to bring the baby home (woo hoo).  A lot still ahead but Rob and I are so super excited to begin our wait time for our child's referral (that is big news for us in a process that has been long).  Thanks for listening, toodles noodles for now.