a post of randomness

So this month we moved one spot last month. We are number 

66

We have been on the waiting list for 9 months so far.  It's looking like we still have a ways to go as you can see.  We are hoping that the referrals start to come a lot faster now.  We are trusting the Lord's timing and enjoying Eden and our boys. 

Eden is three months old today and is doing great.  She is starting to smile and hold her head up.  She is trying so hard to coo at us.  She sleeps most of the night now and takes a 4 ounce bottle every three hours.  She likes her groceries a lot.  She still hates tummy time and only wants her pacifier when she is hungry.  She is the easiest most laid back baby we have ever had.  Thank you, Lord.  

Pray with us for those at the top of the waiting list who have been there for a very long time that they would get the call that they are so desperately wanting. 

Thanksgiving and Christmas are already here which is really crazy.  I haven't even started Christmas shopping yet.  

On another random note the low for today is 27 degrees!!! Really?? I thought we lived in Louisiana.  

We are still selling tshirts and bracelets and necklace charms so let us know if you are interested for Christmas gifts.  I am all about buying handcrafted gifts this year.  Gotta support the small businesses and the uniqueness is awesome. 

He's a SHE???

So, it's about time I tell the exciting story.  We had just had a super cute little gentleman's shower the night before for Malachi. So, keep in mind that I have received monogrammed stuff, boys clothing, and had a Malachi puzzle as well.  Our birth mom had had a Dr's appointment the day before, so I was just waiting to hear how her appt went.  At some point I looked down at my phone and saw that I had a missed call with a voicemail.  It was from the attorney's office.  In the message she said she had something to tell me but just added "All I'm gonna say is, I hope you didn't buy blue paint."  At this point I was in total shock. Did she say what I thought she said?  I called Casey immediately and told him what the message said. I kept trying to call her back and didn't get an answer. Was this true, could it really be a girl and not a boy.  I was hyperventilating, in case you were wondering. :) I did eventually get in touch with her and confirm that we were talking about the same birth mom and that the Dr also confirmed that it was indeed a girl! So, back to the store I went and exchanged all the blue for pink and can I tell you how much fun it is to buy girl's clothing? I had a blast. I took all the monogramming off the blankets and such and bought a new puzzle. So, we are now in girl mode. We are frantically trying to get her nursery done in these next 5 weeks before she is born. We'll see if we can do it.  So Malachi Davis is now Eden Elise, and we can't wait to have her in our arms.

We also had an awesome garage/rummage sale where we made over 3,632 dollars.  Such a blessing.  We have mailed our August check and only have to pay for one more month. We are in the home stretch.

Ethiopian adoption news.  It has been an incredible month of referrals for Ethiopia. We should get our new wait list number tonight and should move a lot of spots. Will let you know asap what that number is when we know.

Thank you to everyone that has prayed and supported us through this amazing adventure of adoption.

The Houghs

June Number

Our number this month is:

There was actually a family that dropped out of the program because they just adopted domestically a beautiful set of twins. So that makes us actually at 92.  Glad that we moved a few spots. Wished it had been more spots, but still thankful :)

May Number

Our new number for the month of May. We thought we would only move one spot so we were very thankful to find out that it was four. This month I really had a peace about waiting. I think I have gotten used to this wait list thing. Hah! Remind me of this in 10 months when I'm pulling my hair out about the wait time. We are working on our 3rd month on the waiting list right now.  We received a check last week from a friend for $5000. Wow. The Lord is moving in the hearts of His people for orphans and for our child/children.  Praise God! We have raised most of what we need for one child, but we put on our application that we would be happy with two kids, so we are going to continue to raise support. We feel like the fact that the Lord has raised what we need for one child so quickly that maybe He has two in mind for us. Who knows?  If we only get one child what will we do with the rest of the money, you ask? Well, we are planning to adopt a waiting child from China after our Ethiopian adoption is complete, so if we only get one child then we will use what we have left to start our second adoption.

We are still selling the large and small Africa bracelets, and we have more tshirts on the way and will have children's sizes again for anyone interested in those.  We are also planning to have  5K walk/run on June 1st. More details will be coming on that soon.

Just wanted to share one little fun story from Carter this past week. I bribed him to try to ride his bike without training wheels last week. I told him if he would do it that I would go buy him a treat from Walmart. Well, when we were pulling up to Walmart he tells me "Mom, don't you dare use any of Willow's money to buy my treat.  That is her money and we need to save it!" Love that sweet boy. He loves her so much already. Needless to say, I told him that we aren't using her money for anything and that we had our own money to buy his treat.

Wait List Number

We got our wait list number.  We are..... 

This is about what we expected it to be. Things have been moving pretty slowly with relicensing at West Sands as well as with many orphanages in Ethiopia. There was some concern that some agencies would not be relicensed, but our agency was not one of them, praise the Lord.  

The way our list works is that everyone is on the same list whether they want older children, younger children, girls, boys or special needs, so you don't have to get down to number one to get your referral. 

We are thankful to be on the list even if our number seems forever away. We have much to do and much money to raise before we are ready for our sweet girl, alway.  

Thanks for your Prayers. We are praying for patience right now.