with love,

We have gotten a little something together for our new Whitfield!!

I just dropped these things off in a lovely zip lock bag with some friends who are leaving for Ethiopia Friday and they will take it one step closer to our baby!! I am praying that it does eventually make it to him, although i am not totally convinced it will!

It felt so great to shop (at Target, of course) for our sweet baby boy. I have mostly resisted the temptation to shop for him until we get a little closer to him being home for my own emotional well-being (and because i have no idea what size clothes he wears). But, last week, the girls and I laughed and laughed picking out BOY stuff! They had about 10 outfits each for him, but we narrowed it down to 2 outfits...and a photo album full of picture of the 4 of us. They helped me pick out the pictures of themselves for baby brother so see.

...and his name will be Jude David Whitfield. we may keep his ethiopian name as a second middle name, but don't know yet. Jude has ethiopian as well as biblical significance, which was important to us. He will have the same initials as his daddy, which was also important.

We are still waiting on our court date, but are hoping to hear in the next week or so. Things have definitely changed for the positive with the adoption process. The MOWA is processing more than 5 a day, although it is still unclear exactly how many they are doing. Some people are passing when they go to court and some are not....at least some are passing! We are praying for some friends as they travel in the next few weeks that they will all pass on the first try so they can bring their kiddos home soon!

Please continue to pray for our adoption, as well as everyone else involved in bringing their kids home. We feel so blessed to be a part of this journey.....

little update....

Please continue to pray for the children of Ethiopia. We have not heard much of an update, but we are praying that these adoptions will not slow down significantly and these babies and children can get to their forever homes. On a positive note, we were submitted for court earlier this week! It should take a month or so and we will be assigned a court date. We will still go travel for the court date, but will probably not pass (because of the current hold-ups).

and so we ask you to fervently pray, pray, pray...and watch this awesome video!

pray, pray pray...

I am asking for everyone to pray for the Ethiopian adoption process. There were some new developments last Friday (the day after we saw our baby's face) that could significantly change our adoption as well as so many others. Here is the link you can look at...

http://www.voanews. com/english/ news/africa/ -Ethiopia- to-Cut-Foreign- Adoptions- by-Up-to- 90-Percent- 117411843. html

If this actually happens, instead of getting a court date in May, it could be a year from now before we get a court date. These babies and children do not need to stay in the orphanages an extra year for a paperwork delay. We are praying fervently that God will have His hand in all of this and we will feel His peace. Join me in praying.....

oh happy day!!

We got our referral!!! What an awesome time it was to look at our new baby's face...and i mean baby!! We were approved for a 0-12 month baby, but assumed he would be in the older part of those 12 months, but he is 6 weeks old! and really cute, i might add!!

We had gotten word from our agency that it was probably coming this week, so i was checking my email non-stop all week. And it was perfect timing. we got the emails about 5:45, while david was home! we put a movie on for the girls to watch so we could concentrate on enjoying that moment and looking at our baby, and then we videoed telling and showing the girls. it was precious, they were so excited and i can't wait to show this little guy how much his sisters love him already. then the girls called our parents and the rest of the night was full of visitors and phone calls. it was wonderful!

We will get the medical report today and we are praying that everything is okay with that. as long as we feel good about it (which we think we will), we will "accept" him and apply for a court date in Ethiopia. and then we wait again....

david and i both have a picture of our cute baby and will carry it everywhere to show all of you, and he is cute!!! we are so blessed to welcome the newest member of our family.....

waiting, waiting, waiting

waiting for things in not one of my strong points. I am pretty sure God is teaching me one of those, "I am in control" lessons right now. We are waiting for our referral, and i am not waiting too patiently. The referral is "the call" you get when they have placed you with a child. We will get a picture and some very basic medical information on him (i think). Once that happens, we will wait for a court date in Ethiopia. So, basically there is a lot of waiting going on. That's the update for now, but I will post as soon as we get a referral (which we are hoping is in the next couple of weeks)!!

and just for fun, here is me with my 2 favorite girls...

the shirts are in!!!

The shirts came in this evening and we had so much fun opening all the boxes! If you would like to join with us on this jouney of bringing "baby brother" home, email me at sarawhitfield@bellsouth.net to get your shirt! They are $20 each and the sizes available are in the post below. We hope you like them as much as we do!

Please help bring this baby home!!

So many people have asked what they can do to help us on this journey...well, here is yourchance!

*The first thing we ask you to do is pray! We can't do this alone, and appreciate so much the prayers of others for this journey.

*The second thing you can do is clean out out house and give to us instead of Goodwill! We are having a garage sale this spring and would love to take things off your hands and sell them. We will be doing the garage sale with Jason and Megan Thompson, and will be splitting the profits 50/50 to help with both of our adoption costs. We are happy to take things now so they don't have to sit in your house in a pile, it can sit at our house! If you have stuff for us, email me at sarawhitfield@bellsouth.net and I will arrange a time to get it from you.

*The third thing you can do to help us is buy a t-shirt!! We have just ordered shirts and they will be here early February. The cost is $20 a shirt and we have mens(unisex), womens, and kids. The mens shirts are charcoal, the women's are black, and the youth is baby blue. They are great looking and you will look super cool wearing them around town! By buying a shirt from us, you will be taking part in bringing "baby brother" home and we will be forever grateful for your support. If you would like to buy shirts, please email me at sarawhitfield@bellsouth.net with the sizes you would like. The sizes are...

Womens S/M/L/XL

Mens(unisex) S/M/L/XL

Youth XS(2-4) or S(6-8)

Get your order in quick, I have a limited number of shirts and sizes and I sure don't want you to miss out!!!

**some of you have asked what the verse is on the shirt since it is a little hard to read as it flips to the other side...it is Matthew 25:40

"I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."