Referrals for five families!!! UPDATED 7/23/08

Five families received referrals yesterday! Congrats to the Laughner, Britton, and Nunez families,and two mystery families.....the most exciting part.....the Nunez family has the same dossier to Ethiopia (DTE) date as us!!!! We weren't expecting anyone in our DTE group to have a referral for another month or so....but I guess we were wrong!! So, I believe that we are #2 FOR AN INFANT BOY!!!!! I am not positive, and we could be maybe #3 or 4, but I am pretty sure this is where we stand in line!! I am going to verify this Monday morning!!

It just feels so unreal to know that we are this close...to know they are to our DTE group!! I am not sure if any more referrals will come this month, or if it will be next month, as it has happened that sometimes DTE groups are separated by a month or so in terms of when referrals are received.

Please keep praying for the many families that already have referrals and are waiting anxiously to hear news about court. We are praying that they will all make it through before the courts close in a few weeks.

UPDATE 7/23/08- AWAA would not say anything about when the next referrals would come or exactly where we stood in line, but they did confirm that there were four families with DTE dates of 1/25/08, and that the Nunez was the first of these families requesting an infant of either sex. This is great news, as our records showed the same information! We can now assume that AWAA is processing requests for infants of either sex or infant boys in the 1/25/08 DTE group....so, we should be #2 for an infant boy!!

Also, on a less happier note...it does not appear that the ten or so families awaiting court dates will get through before the court closure around August 5th. This means they will have to wait until October to have a court date and travel to meet their children. This is very disappointing news for these families. We continue to lift them up to the Lord and ask him to bring peace and strength to them during the next few months.