Almost Here!

We found out late last week that we cleared Embassy and that our appointment at the Embassy was confirmed. So we'll be off to Ethiopia soon to see our kids again and to bring them home!

Please continue to pray for us for:

• safe travel and for peace and comfort for all five of us during long flights
• for a joyous reunion with Asni and Ollie
• for supernatural help in communicating despite the language barrier
• for patience and guidance through this monumental transition for all of us

One More Milestone!

Today we learned that our file has been sent to the US Embassy in Ethiopia for review! Within just a couple weeks we should hear back and learn what the next steps are going to be - possibly getting our travel dates! Every step in the process now is huge!

We're so excited to bring our kids home. The reality of what it means to have them here is starting to settle in. Along with the excitement, I'm realizing there are so many things I don't know about how to help them, how to guide them, how to parent them, how to guard their hearts, even how to communicate with them well. We don't really know how to prepare, but we want to be prepared so that we can help them experience the love we're storing up from the first moment we're with them. Please pray for patience, wisdom, and understanding for all of us, as we transition from being a family spread across the world to being a family in the same house.

One Step Closer!

It was a big day at our house! We received the birth certificates for our children, listing us as their parents! We had no idea when they would arrive and actually expected it could be a couple weeks before we got them. So this is an excellent surprise!

There aren't too many steps left in the process. Hopefully, it will just be a few weeks before we get permission to return to Ethiopia and bring them home!

They're Ours!

Soon after I finished my earlier post, I got the call from our social worker that the MOWA letter arrived and we have passed court! As far as Ethiopia is concerned, Asnakech and Alemayehu are officially our children!

Unfortunately, the letter from the court was mis-dated, and that date will need to be corrected before the process moves forward. But the slow down at the Ministry of Women's Affairs (MOWA) will not affect our timeline from now on!

And We Wait...

Thank you for your continued prayers, words of encouragement, and support. We had an amazing trip to Ethiopia! Our kids are kind, smiley, and wonderful! We created a bit of chaos at the care center, while we got to play with about 40 children at the same time. And we had some sweet moments with our children, too. Although our trip was not designed to introduce us to them as their family, we're confident that they figured it out.

Our trip to court was very efficient, and everything went well with the judge, except that not all of the paperwork has been completed by the Ethiopian government yet. We traveled with 5 other families, and the paperwork was not ready for any of us that day. (So far, 2 families have gotten word that it's been completed since we've been home.) After our appointment with the judge, we had a very emotional and very memorable conversation with our kids' birth mom. It was an incredibly humbling experience, but she is a very warm and loving woman, and we're so grateful to have met her!

We have already experienced several times the hurry-up-and-wait nature of adoption, and we are in another waiting time. It was wonderful to meet our kids, but difficult to come home not knowing when we would be able to go back to get them. Nothing can move forward in our process until the paperwork (the MOWA letter) is submitted to the judge in Ethiopia.

Please continue to pray for us...

* for peace as we wait.

• We're desperate for information and desperate for the process to move forward. We trust that God's timing is perfect, but struggle to trust that Ethiopia is operating on His time. =)
• We want the paperwork to be completed quickly, so there is not a further delay in the court process.

* for our kids...

• in Africa... for health and patience as they continue their stay at the care center with even less of an awareness of the process than we have, that their hearts would be ready to receive us, that they would enjoy this time with the friends they've made and with the nannies who care for them, for comfort in the midst of the confusion and grief they experience.
• and for Brianna... as she deals with the frustration of having to wait alongside us and for all she needs as she continues to prepare to share her home, her heart, her stuff, and her parents with a brother and sister she hasn't met yet.

*for all of us to see and experience how God is present with us in the midst of the waiting and what He is doing in and among us - even in the moments when we feel like there's nothing happening at all.

Big News!

We have received our Ethiopian court date!  We will be traveling to Ethiopia mid-March. The purpose of this first 5-day trip is to for us to appear before an Ethiopian judge and answer questions about our intention and desire to adopt these children.  We will also have the opportunity to meet and play with our children!  = ) 

After this first trip we will return home and wait for our paperwork to be finalized in Ethiopia.  This process usually takes up to 2 months.  Once all of our paperwork is finalized we will make our second trip to bring our children home.  They will hopefully be home with us by the end of May!

Prayer requests:

* Pray for our children, that God would comfort them as they continue to grieve the loss of their family.  Pray, too, that they would sense God's presence and would have peace, hope and joy while they wait to find out if they are going to be adopted.  (They will not be told that we are planning to adopt them until a few weeks before our second trip.)

* Pray for Brianna as she prepares to share her home, her things and her parents with two other children.  Pray that God would protect her heart and spirit through this transition.

* Pray for us as we anticipate this huge change in our lives.  May we sense God's peace in the midst of the anxiety, the unknowns and the "what-ifs" (this one is probably more for Kris than Brian!  = ).  Pray, too, that we would have peace and patience during the next couple months as we are just so excited to finally meet our children!

Our Children!

We accepted a referral of a precious brother and sister in Ethiopia last week! 

Our daughter, Asnakech, is 7 years old; our son, Alemayehu, is 4 years old.  When Brianna saw the pictures of Asnakech & Alemayehu, she said, "Yes!  That's my brother and sister!"

We will hopefully be making our first trip to Ethiopia sometime in February or March.  During that visit we will meet our children for the first time and appear before a judge in court.  It is also likely that we will have the opportunity to meet Asnakech & Alemayehu's birth mother during this first trip.  Two months later we will travel back to Ethiopia to bring our children home!  We hope to have them home with us by June, 2011. 

Prayer Requests:

* There has been an outbreak of measles in the area where Asnakech and Alemayehu are living.  At this point 4 (of the 38) children at the orphanage have had measles.  Please pray for protection for all the children.

* Pray for us as we prepare to be a family of 5! 

Asnakech, Age 7

 Alemayehu, Age 4

 Big Sister Brianna, Age 8

 Mom & Dad!