Our Number Update - Precious Reflections

We got our number update today from Julie at AGCI (Kiersten is still out of the office but will be back on Monday).  Our new number is 46!  Now, I'm sure you're thinking, "isn't that the same number as the atomic number for Palladium?"  And of course, it is.  So for now, we share a commonality with the metal Palladium.

Palladium is a rare earth metal often called a "precious metal."  The number represents our wait for a "precious" girl from Ethiopia.  A precious girl that God is preparing for us and us for her.

Palladium is used for making jewelry due to its naturally white properties.  Although our daughter won't be naturally white, she will be more valuable than fine jewelry to us.  We look forward to the beauty she will add to our family.

The majority of the world's Palladium is produced from mines located in just a few locations, including South Africa.  In the same way that mining involves much work, it will also take much work for us to bring our little girl home from Africa.  We look forward to going over to Ethiopia to "mine" our prized daughter out of the deep darkness of poverty and abandonment.

So for now, the number 46 represents the number of protons in the Palladium atom and our number in line as we wait for our little girl.  There are 45 other families ahead of us in line with our agency.  Most are waiting for infants, and therefore we will slide ahead of many of them.  We don't know how many of these people are also waiting for toddlers.  So for now we wait, not knowing how long our wait will be, but knowing the wait will be worth it when we hold our precious African jewel.