A Really Big Update

Valentine's Day was extra sweet for us this year. We finally received our referral, which means we are officially matched to our precious child!

NOTE: Due to the sensitive nature of international adoption, we are not able to share/post pictures or any identifiable information about our child. For those of you who have pictures or know information about our child, we kindly request your support and consideration by not sharing any pictures or identifiable information about our child.


Because we are not able to share photos or information online, we decided to share the good news by having an Adoption Reveal Party with several of our closest friends and family on March 4th. 

Our parents came up that weekend - yes, we made them wait until they got here to know anything about our little one! We decided to do a private reveal with them the night before the party and took them to an Ethiopian restaurant in Cary right after sharing pictures with them. They were SO surprised -- they really believed we were going to make them wait until the Reveal Party to find out! :) 

Our family celebration at Awaze. (Left to right: Joseph; Laura;  Laura's Mom, Rina; Laura's Dad, Jeff; Joseph's Dad, Lee; and Joseph's Mom, Cathy)

The Reveal Party was the following night. It was such a sweet time to gather and celebrate with so many of you who have walked this wild journey with us. 

These two ladies are rock stars! Deb (left) and Ellen (right) organized the party, decorated, and ran the whole show. They are incredible!! We felt so honored by all of the work these ladies (and many others) did for us - we are truly so grateful!

Check out their handiwork! It was beautiful - nicer than some wedding receptions, to be completely honest. :)

The room filled with friends, family, and lots of little kiddos. :)

We ate some yummy Mexican food from Moe's, thanks to Joseph's parents, Lee and Cathy for providing the dinner!

 

Ellen made this beautiful wood art of Africa for the party where we asked people to guess boy or girl by placing either a pink or blue push pin on the wood. You can't see the push pins in this picture, but it was super cute. :)

After we unwrapped our gift (the picture) people came up to take a closer look.  Yes, there were lots of sweet tears.

"Look how cute?!"

Lots of sweet embraces!

Take your time - the picture is adorbs!

My friend, Lauren Brown, deserves a lot of credit for taking these sweet pictures and helping us remember the day. This is Laura and her Dad - daddys&daughters is a sweet thing. 

And Laura and her mom - she was Team Pink, if you couldn't tell. ;) 

 We owe a huge thanks to several people for helping out, members of our small group (who are truly some of the most self-less people we know), and other members from our church who graciously gave up a Saturday afternoon/evening to help make it a memorable time. 

The Process

Now that we've been matched we are working through the process to bring our little one home. Right now, we are estimating 6-12months, but praying we have our little one home by October -- and we would love for all of you to join us in that prayer. 

We will be fundraising once again to help cover our travel expenses. By God's grace, we have been able to cover all of the adoption fees to this point -- the next big thing is travel, and we cannot wait! :)

One thing is certain - we have seen the Lord answer many, many prayers in this journey. While we have a long road ahead, we are anticipating many, many more answered prayers along the way. He's a good, good Father - we know this to be true. 

Now, we can't share any details about our little one, but I will say is this: we have lots of baby dolls and pink tutus in our future. :) 

#PrayBabyThigpenHome