Answers when we weren't even asking questions.

Providence is at work. God has been guiding us to and through this adoption. We decided to get started at the beginning of 2010. We initially requested an infant under 12 months on our pre-app. Traditionally first time parents start with a baby (birth or adoption). Then again, nothing about the way we are becoming parents is traditional. When submitting our formal application we prayed, discussed, and marked under 24 months.
Recently God has been stirring our hearts even more. We were discussing bringing home our future child, fully aware of the fact the s/he is already living in Ethiopia right now. We have no idea what circumstances s/he is living in. I told David that we should change our request to an even older child. He absolutely agreed. God had been working in both our hearts at the same time, giving us an answer to a question we didn't know we were asking. Since we are so young we probably will be on the list for a child 3 or under. (you generally have to be 21 years older than the child)
You might wonder, why are we choosing an older child? All children are a blessing and we just want to be parents. We are around so many babies and as a nanny I have atleast had a "baby" experience. The majority of adoption applications processed are for an infant. My heart kept wondering about the older kids, how long will they wait for a home? Does a child who enters the orphanage when they are two wait another two years for a home? I love that the Holy Spirit is working in my life, my heart, and marriage. It must be Providence that Dave and I heard him speaking the same vision for our family. It would be really cool if we could get a sibling referral, but that is totally out of our hands.
On Friday we had our conference call with AGCI... and guess what?! We shared our desire to adopt an older child AND THE WAIT TIME IS LESS THAN HALF OF AN INFANT REFERRAL! We still have tons of paperwork and waiting for things to be approved by different agencies and governments but could be preparing to meet our kiddo is as early as six months from now.