Friday, October 1, 2010

FINALLY!!

{ok, i realize that to those of you who know us in real life that this is old news, so sorry for the delay!!}

IT'S
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BOY!!!!!!!!

yep, that's right folks - on tuesday afternoon, ryan and i received our long-awaited referral for our kiddo from ethiopia!! a sweet, adorable and totally kissable, 10 month old little guy! we are completely thrilled and excited to finally know who we've been praying over for so many months now.

*details?
i know some of you are waiting for more details on our sweet little man, but unfortunately, i can't give a whole lot right now {including showing his cute pictures} because we are not yet legally his parents. however, here's what we can tell you...

-our little man's amharic {ethiopia's predominant language} first name is nathanel...pronounced "nat-ten-nell", and most likely called "natty" for a nickname. we are digging his first name, but have many nathans, nates, and natheniels in our lives so have decided to make nathanel his middle name. whenever we finally get to adopt our little guy, we'll be changing his legal name to:
Greer Nathanel Sweeney
we've been praying and thinking about this sweet guy for so long, and for some reason always just figured he'd be a little boy. we have had the name greer picked out for some time, but never could decide on a girl's name so i guess we had a gut feeling :) i'm hoping that if it's not too confusing that we could possibly keep his nickname of "natty" too.

-he is at a great orphanage outside of addis ababa that we've heard a lot of really great things about. it's a partner orphanage to where we'll be staying when we go for our two trips. most likely once we are getting closer to traveling to meet him for court, the orphanage will transfer him to addis ababa so that we can more easily visit with him and spend time getting acquainted with one another. knowing that he's well taken care of and loved makes the wait for him a little easier, but we still can't wait to get him in our arms forever!

-his 1st birthday is quickly approaching. ryan and i are hoping to have some type of little celebration in his honor even though he can't be with us. not sure what that will look like yet, but we're happy to take suggestions!! greer's birthday is also the day after my little brother stuart's birthday and is the day before my uncle chuck's birthday, who passed away 2 years ago from cancer. so, unfortunately for him, this means sharing a birthday {i know all about that!!} with some of our favorite relatives :) also, it looks like his birthday is a little over a month shy of christmas which stinks for presents sake, but i'm sure we'll shower him with gifts all year long so he probably won't mind!

-from all the medical exams and paperwork, he looks to be perfectly healthy. while we know that there are always unknowns, we're happy that so far he's gotten a clean bill of health. in one of his pictures, he is drinking a bottle so it was good to see that he was at least able to hold it up on his own. also, his paperwork says that he weighs about 15.6 lbs, which puts him a little on the small side but that's fine by us. i'm sure we'll be able to chunk him up a little bit once he joins our family!

overall, we're thrilled and still haven't come down from cloud 9!! the Lord obviously knew that our little greer was totally worth the wait and His timing is perfect once again.

"I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."
-1 Samuel 1:27


8 comments:

Unknown said...

PRAISE GOD!!!! Sooooooooooooo EXCITED for you and your son! :) I can't wait to see pictures of him in your arms!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Jana said...

I have been stalking the blog everyday waiting to hear news! I am so excited for you both, and for baby Greer! God is GOOD! :)

Barry and Amy said...

How awesome! SO very happy for you guys! What a precious little blessing you have coming!

Danielle said...

Praise the LORD! Awesome news. Congrats to the new Momma and Daddy! Cannot wait to meet little Greer. Mady and Greer are a month apart!!! Play dates!!

Meliski said...

OH MY GOODNESS! YAAAY!! I love your bible verse too-- it is perfect.

"I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."
-1 Samuel 1:27

Ugh! I am so in tears of joy for you right now! :)

Anna K. said...

Congrats! So very excited for you - What a great name you've chosen!

Unknown said...

Wahoo!!! That's awesome news! Congrats on your new little boy!!! :)

Anonymous said...

Yay! Congratulations!!
I look forward to the day when I can announce our lil' one to be. :o)