And I will give you a new name...

I love the stories in the bible where God changes someone's name. Abram to Abraham. Jacob to Israel. Simon to Peter. Saul to Paul. All of these name changes were more than just something different to call them. It was life-changing, eternity-altering moments. It was new life for those men. A new purpose.

The bible also tells us when we believe in Christ, He gives us a new name too. We just don't know it yet. It is waiting for us in Heaven (Rev 2:17). But once again, it represents new life. New purpose. New identity for us as believers.

So what better way to symbolize this precious baby becoming a member of our family than by changing his name?

 When we first began the adoption process many people asked us what name we had chosen. But we just never felt right picking a name before we saw a face. We also wanted to be sensitive to the fact that our child might have a name that was chosen by his birth parents and we wanted to honor that. So we waited. And then came baby J. But here's the deal. The "J" name is just a name the orphanage has given him to identify him. It's actually a precious name (and a family name), but we assume that it probably wasn't chosen with much thought or love. He deserves more than that. He deserves the same laboring over names that we all give our biological kids. And we wanted to pray for him by name. We want you to pray for him by name.

So enough rambling....the newest Fickey will be named:

We love the name Josiah. It is a strong name. A manly name he can carry for the rest of his life. But don't you dare call him Jo. Or Josie. We will all ignore you if you do (I will teach him that). When he is ready for a nickname, we will call him Si.

We believe he will make much of the name Josiah!

Michael is my precious father's name. He is very ill right now and struggles to comprehend much of the world around him, but he does understand the plight of this sweet boy. He doesn't speak much anymore, but when shown the picture of Josiah he said "sweet baby boy".

So Michael is in honor of the sweetest man I know, my father. He will carry that name on well, I'm sure of it.


So there you have it!! If you hate it, don't tell us! We don't care!! :)

So pray for Josiah Michael by name now when you think about it. Pray for him to stay healthy. We have heard of many families losing their babies to malaria or other preventable diseases before they have a chance to get to them. I can't even imagine. Please join us in praying protection over his sweet little body until we get there!!

Kind of a big deal....

Guess what?

Something kind of BIG happened today.

At 8:15 am we had a conference call with our agency and a liaison in the Congo and we received our REFERRAL!! 

{In non-weirdo adoption terms-

this means that our paperwork in the Congo was reviewed and we were matched with a child! }

Annndddd....

A baby boy to be exact.

7 months old and precious. 

Meet baby J....the 6th Fickey!

{Excuse the dumb heart. For privacy reasons, until we pass court and he is "officially" ours we can't show his face. 

But trust me. He is adorable. }

Aacck!! Let the rejoicing commence!!!

We don't know much about his story, but what we do know is heartbreaking. He was abandoned and found by some street kids. The social worker in the Congo searched for a family with no success. I can't even imagine how that must have felt for that mama or daddy. To leave behind this precious baby.  I will never judge that decision and would ask you not to either. We live in a different world and we can in no way think we would think or do differently when faced by terrible circumstances. 

We know that God intended for that sweet baby to be with his birth parents. But the path he is on is different now, and Mitch and I are overjoyed {overwhelmed} and eager to love this boy like he has never been loved before.

We can't wait to squeeze his belly and kiss his toes. 

The timeline from here is not totally clear.

His paperwork and our paperwork will be filed and a court date will be scheduled. If the judge approves, we will then have a 30 day mandatory waiting period to see if any family members come forward to claim him. Then we will apply for his visa, do some other immigration paperwork and then we can schedule our travel. So, our best guess is June (??). However,  we are going to pray it goes crazy, light-speed quick, and is the fastest adoption in DRC history.

 But, we will have to be content to wait a little if that doesn't happen. But it should. But it probably won't.  Erg. 

We have been waiting for this day for a long time. And God exceeded our expectations. 

He is good. Like real good. 

Thank you for those of you that have held on the last two (almost three) years, asked us questions, cried with us, prayed for us. We love that you now get to celebrate with us and someday soon kiss some toes too. (or is that just a mama thing?)