So much to be thankful for

We are preparing to head North for some R&R and of course a wonderful meal with family, I am reminded of all we have to be thankful for in this amazing adoption process. I am grateful for God's nudge in the time where this all began. I am grateful for the time and energy both myself and my husband have poured into embracing and accepting adoption as the way we were meant to grow our family. Thank God both of us could get on the same page and have felt equally called to adopt our daughter. I am thankful for our agency and all the many AGCI families who continue to amaze and inspire me. Whenever I feel challenged by the idea of four children, all I do is look around at the many AGCI families and I am reminded of God's grace. By next year we should know who our little Ethiopian daughter is. I know this holiday season she is in Ethiopia, but not a day goes by when she is not in my heart. We hope next year to share this season of giving with her, baby Strobel. We are thankful for you!

Our growing girl...

Here we sit as a family with a new number in the adoption line. We have been given the number 25 which in loose terms means that there are 24 families ahead of us who are also waiting to adopt their sweet daughter from Ethiopia with AGCI. As the number continues to go down we become more aware that all of this is truly happening. That is a strange comment I know but we have been waiting for so long for all of this to actually happen. Our hearts were stirred many years and three kids ago and over the weekend both Bob and I were enjoying an old favorite restaraunt where we lived during his graduate school days. We were visiting to attend the UofM football game and have our boys and my Dad join us for a day of reminiscing and fun. We determined during our calm dinner that the last time we had been to the Earle, in Ann Arbor, MI, over ten years ago, that we were discussing the possibility of adoption due to infertility issues that had lead to an ectopic pregnancy. At that point we were interested in only one thing. We wanted a baby. We both were convinced that adoption would be right for us and that we would not try to have a biological child forever. Little did we know how much that conversation nearly ten years ago would come to pass. What began as our own journey to children soon became God's journey. We went on to have three beautiful boys but still the feelings of adoption lingered. It began to feel like something maybe we were meant to do. Funny how God works sometimes. As our lives became busier, as we become more aware of the blessings in our lives, as our relationship to God became bolder and more important, we were continually reminded of the days back in Ann Arbor when adoption was our great hope. We celebrated 14 years of marriage with our dinner at the Earle this past Saturday evening and we feel like there is no more we could hope for. We are incredible blessed with rich and rewarding, fun and faith-filled lives. We are listening to God's nudges and the daily benefits are so great. We are number 25 and soon we will hold a little girl who is growing somewhere. She may be growing in her birthmother's belly or growing within the walls of an Ethiopia orphanage. She is growing like the idea of adoption grew in us. She is growing like the seeds of faith that have grown within myself and Bob over the past fourteen years and she is growing to someday be welcomed with open arms into our family. We cannot wait to know who our precious little daughter is. Bless and keep her God as she grows-wherever she may be.