Finding out.

The last blog post was a little overwhelming and  very full of information.  I told you the facts about our kids but not all of the story.  I wanted to take this time to share a little more of our Tuesdays morning.

 

We had been talking to All Blessing(who by the way are amazing!) for a couple of days and knew that they were going to send us a list of the waiting children soon.  We had been praying that God would somehow show us which child/children were ours.  We were told that there were six waiting children and had no idea how we would pick!

 

Side Note

Gavin and I played a little guessing game a few months ago.  We picked which day on the calender we thought we would get a referral.  If I won, I got a massage.  If he won, he got a massage.  Well Tuesday was the day I picked!

Hello relaxation!

 

So Tuesday morning we woke up and looked at our e-mail.  There was an e-mail from the Congo program director.  We quickly set up our video camera and opened the e-mail. 

 

In that e-mail were only the names of two kids!  I assume they are the two that the program directly thought matched us well.  Maybe she only showed us those two because they are living in a foster home together.  Either way...there were two.  Wow God sure answered our prayers!  We did not even have to make a decision.  Of course they would BOTH be our children.

 

First we saw the little boy who we will call Boaz Edward Pehl.  Boaz means in him is strength.  We picked it because of Boaz in the bible...he is such a perfect example of how we are to treat the least of these.  Edward is Gavin's middle name as well as his fathers name.

 

I have had my eye on this little boy for a couple months.  Even though we were waiting on a referral from Ethiopia, I was just not settled.  It really bothered me that we were waiting for kids to be found for us when there were all of these perfect kids waiting in Congo.  I had been talking to other families trying to find someone to adopt him.  Little did I know that someone was us!

 

We saw his face and were in love immediately.  He is just beautiful and looks exactly like I imagined my son looking like.  I squealed at his cute little hands and his shy personality. 

 

 

Next we saw that they had sent us the information on a girl!  We really thought because boys are more difficult to find families for that we would have two boys.  We were completely shocked!

 

Then we opened her pictures and were shocked again!  She is so pretty and so grown up!  I have to admit going from thinking we were getting babies to preparing for toddlers has been a little intense for me.  I think she came as such a surprise to us because she looks more like a kid than a baby. 

 

Either way, God gave her to us and we love her.  I can not wait to get my fingers in that hair!  I can not wait for her to have tea parties with her sister!  I can not wait to hear her sing(which I was told she loves to do).

 

Her name will be Isryelle Justine Pehl.  It means God strives for Justice.  It fits her so well.

 

We will have to start growing it out right away.  They keep it short for easier maintenance

 

 

 

 

We are on cloud nine and completely in awe of what God is doing in our lives.