Anna's Birthday Wish

The day before my sister's birthday we received our referral for our daughter. Ryan and I decided to wait until the next day to tell our family since we would all be together for Anna's birthday dinner. After Anna opened all her gifts we handed her a birthday card from us...

Inside we included a picture of Nara...Under her picture we wrote "Guess who's turning 3 tomorrow? Meet your new niece who will soon be a part of our family!!!!"

Their reaction was priceless....

Hate the picture ended up being blurry but I think Ryan was crying too and couldn't hold the camera steady. After Anna finally could catch her breath she told us that her birthday wish had been for us to receive a referral. The day before (when we received our referral call) she blew out the candles on her cake from friends at school and made her wish. She wished again the night of her birthday while we were at dinner. Anna was so happy that God granted her 18th birthday wish and that she and Nara share birthdays one day apart! 

We are still waiting to be submitted to court. There were a few documents that needed to be updated since we have waited so long. Our agency encouraged us last week to go ahead and start working on them so we will be ready when they call us for court. We are almost finished with the updates already! Two weeks ago our dear friends Carmen & Trent went and visited Nara in our agency's transition home in Ethiopia. They put our sweet girl on the phone so we could talk to her! Absolutely priceless to hear her say mommy and daddy on the other end! We are so excited but I have to say this part of the wait has been hard on me in particular. Now that we know who she is and have heard her sweet voice I am wanting so badly to bring her home more now than ever! I am so thankful she is in our agency's transition home now where she is being taken good care of. The support, gifts and encouragement from all our friends and family has been overwhelming! We are so thankful for your continued prayers!