We are still alive!

Well, I figured that those two people that read my blog were deserving some attention. If you haven't noticed that the lag in time between my posts directly correlates with summer break from school. I have had my hands full with the three kids this summer and really have not even been on the internet much this summer. So we are now in our first official week of school, so maybe I can keep this updated better. Although we are just waiting so there will not be much to say about the adoption.

Max is in second grade this year. He is growing up right before my eyes! Here he is at the beach with a treasured clam.

On a very sad note, Emma will be starting kindergarten on Monday. What a day that will be. She recently lost her first tooth! I am still not mentally prepared. Something about the change of sending my second born to school is really hitting hard. The good thing

is

that she will be with our beloved Mrs. Moore. (couldn't do this without her) We went to build-a-bear yesterday to take advantage of their August special (bear/outfit/shoes= 29.99) which was a pretty good deal. We were celebrating here last days out of school.

Poor little Samuel, he is not going to know what to do with himself!! He is going to miss Emma so much, but this will give us some much needed mommy/samuel time. Life is full of changes, it just takes some adjusting. For everything there is a season! Samuel is just enjoying being two for the last month. I can hardly believe he will be three years old next month.

Alright, I know what this blog is about so I will get to it. Adoptions are slow processes. We heard from our agency this last week that we are #77 on the list. "The list" includes all of the waiting families, waiting on a boy, girl, both, older child, younger child, siblings, etc... So we are still on the same mind set that this is going to take around one year to hear of a referral. It also depends on how many referrals our agency receives. In May there were 20 something referrals. If every month were that good, we would be well on our way. So since we started at 108, I don't feel like it is moving too slow. The hardest part is trying to explain the wait to the children. Max said the other day, "mom, are we really going to adopt a baby?" Yes Max, we are, the problem is, that in all of our dossier preparation, home study, kid furniture swap/move around in our house, I left out explaining the time situation to a bunch of children who don't have a good concept of time. So that is the newest information in the McQuilkin household.

Just loving the ride!

So a little late, but this is a Mother's day photo, I am praying for another addition to our family by this next Mother's Day!! We are so richly blessed! We have been very busy with the end of the school year. Max is now 7 and officially a 2nd grader! Emma is 5 and officially a kindergartener!! Samuel is 2 and when I have to say he is 3 it is going to hurt bad. We are having a great start to our summer. We have been keeping track of all of the activity or non-activity in Ethiopia. The courts are still not approving any adoptions of abandoned children in Addis Ababa. We are praying for all of the families that are caught up in all of this. In good news, our last updated number (and probably will be our last official update due to agency changes) was 93. We have moved from 108 to 93 very quickly. We know of several other referrals since this last update, so our best guess is that we are around 88. It is interesting to see how we progress, so that we will be able to make educated guesses on when our daughter will be born. It is possible she is already born, but we are guessing her mother may be pregnant right now, worrying about how she will take care of her child, maybe she is ill, malnourished or poverty stricken.We are thinking of this family and other families that have to give their children up for adoption, for reasons beyond their control. It is hard to place ourselves in their situations, looking at our children and thinking of having to go on living without them is inconcievable. We pray for all of these families. Maybe our daughter has not been concieved as of yet. In any circumstance, we already know that we will never be complete without you! Many well happy healthy wishes to everyone!!!

We are officially waiting!

So we get an e-mail last week saying that our dossier is back from Washington and that we are officially waiting. We are on the list, finally!! Our official date on the list is May 1 2009, just imagine 7 years ago I was thinking about having our first baby. Now we are waiting on our 4th baby.We are 108 on the waiting list as of May 1. I hope this number will change very frequently. It's amazing how much changes in such a short/long time. In some ways it seems like just yesterday we were expecting Max and in some ways it seems like an eternity ago. It is hard to imagine life with just Kent and I. I am so thankful to have the wonderful children we have and looking forward to the day that we will be complete with our daughter.
I tried to upload a photo slideshow, just to showcase what we have been up to the last little bit, I am not the computer genius of our family so we will see if it works or not. We will update as we know more. Thanks for following along on our journey!

Slow going.

Well, not much to say here. We are waiting for our dossier to arrive back from Washington D.C. and then we will obtain our long awaited "place in line". Things are good here. The weather is beautiful, Max is playing baseball. He had his first homerun tonight. Kent is getting ready to finish up teaching his classes for this semester. Emma is enjoying gymnastics and preparing for kindergarten roundup. Samuel just loves every sport and is so happy if he is dressed in some form of athletic equipment, be it a baseball helmet, soccer jersey, basketball shirt or baseball glove. I guess what I am getting at is that we have our hands full and life passes us by way to quickly already, so how can I want for the months to fly by. It is hard to comprehend in my mind that in some ways, the faster the days go by the closer we get to our daughter, but the more grown up our children our. I am not complaining about the wait, because I am so happy that there are families wanting to adopt children without families and give them one. God will know when it is our time, and we are walking by faith.

The answers to why would you adopt a child, when you already have three?

Because we believe that this life is not our own.
Because we believe that in the end, it won't matter what career ladders we climbed or financial investments we made or what gadgets we could afford. It will matter that one life was saved.
Because we have seen hopelessness in Ethiopia and elsewhere, but believe in all hope that each child is a child of God.
Because we believe that the orphaned street child who plays street soccer on the rough pavement of the streets of Addis Ababa is no less valuable to the Creator than the polished child on a suburban soccer team here in America.
Because we see nothing more worthy of our focus, time, resources, and lives.Because injustice is a wrong worth righting.
Because the poor child is still a child.
Because we know that, while adoption is not the solution in and of itself to the orphan crisis 143 million times over, we have seen with our own lives how it rescues the lives of those who can be adopted.
Because we believe that Jesus died for redemption, not just for eternity, but for our lives on this planet and we believe we can be vessels of that redemption for children's lives here.
Because we know that, if it were our own flesh and blood, we would want someone to love them and call them family, too.
Because, really, these kids are no different from your own. Not at all.
Because it's just not okay with us to say no to a child who needs a home when we have one.
Because it's just not okay with us to say no to a child who needs a family when we have one.
Because it's just not okay with us to say no to a child who needs room to thrive when we have room and can make room.
Because it's just not okay with us to do nothing.
Because it won't be okay with them if we do nothing.
Because it's just not going to be okay to do nothing.
"Rescue the perishing; don't hesitate to step in and help. If you say, "Hey, that's none of my business," [i.e. "that's not for me"] will that get you off the hook? Someone is watching you closely, you know— Someone not impressed with weak excuses." -Proverbs 24:12 (The Message)
"Once our eyes are opened we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows that we know and holds us responsible to act." Proverbs 24:12

Yet again, I did not write this, I copied it off of a blog that I had read. When I read this blog it spoke directly to my thought process. I have told so many people that having my children, and knowing that we are so blessed is what has really made the urge to adopt a child grow in me. How can I look at my healthy, well-fed, clothed , comfortably living with beds and pillows, and loved ever so much children and not think of all of the orphaned children in this world. It breaks my heart to know that there are children the same age as Max, Emma and Samuel, out there in this big huge world, without a mom or dad to call their own.
Pray for God to watch over our orphaned daughter while we try our hardest to make our way to her!

You know your an adoptive parent when...

1. The fact that there are 143 million children without a parent to kiss them goodnight has made you lose sleep.
2. You realize DNA has nothing to do with love and family.
3. You can't watch Adoption Stories on TLC without sobbing.
4. The fact that, if 7% of Christians adopted 1 child there would be no orphans in the world, is convicting to you
5. You spend free time surfing blogs about families who have experienced the blessing of adoption
6. It drives you crazy when people ask you about adopted child's 'real' parents.
7. You have ever been 'pregnant' with your adoptive child longer than it takes an elephant to give birth.(2 years!)
8. You had no idea how you would afford to adopt but stepped out in faith anyway, knowing where God calls you He will provide.
9. You have ever taken an airplane ride half-way around the world with a child you just met.
10. You believe God's heart is for adoption.
11. You realize that welcoming a child into your heart and family is one of the most important legacies you could ever leave on this earth.
12. You know what the word 'Dossier' means, and you can actually pronounce it!
13. You have welcomed a social worker into the most private parts of your life.
14. You shudder when people say your child is so lucky that you adopted them, knowing full well you are the blessed one to have him or her in your life.

I actually read this off another site and decided that I needed to copy this, so that I could remember that I am not the only person that feels this way!