Okay maybe this is the last bump.....

So I forgot to post on here but last week we got news that the embassy had overbooked appointments, so they told our agency that they have to reschedule our case for the June 23th. A full week later.

I know a full week doesn't seem like much but when you've been working so hard to bring your little girl home (8 months and counting now), it feels like forever!

Our suitcases are packed. A's stuff is ready and waiting. We bought tickets that we had to change. Our friends that will be watching our kiddos had to change their plans. So we are praying hard that this will be the last bump in the road and that next Thursday we hear the words, "You've been cleared for travel!".

If things do go the way we hope they will (at least this is what our new tickets are for), we will be leaving Knoxville on June 29th EARLY morning. Returning on July 9th with our precious baby girl!

One last bump

Well we seem to have hit the last bump in the road. The embassy wrote us today, explaining that they need a few more documents before they will clear our case. So our agency said that it all should be taken care of on thursday. We're praying that we will hear news at the end of this week for travel next week! That would give us a little more time to prepare to leave.

Submitted to Embassy!!!

So Tuesday we waited and waited to hear that they had secured A's passport and submitted us to the embassy. See we we heard early that week that they needed a few more documents. Well we rushed like crazy to get the necessary paperwork to our social worker in enough time for her to send it to Grand Rapids and then onto Ethiopia. Well our papers did make it JUST in time! So the Ethiopian team has all they need to submit us to the embassy. They only submit cases once per week so if we missed this week we would have to wait till next Tuesday.
We got news early in the day that they did get her passport but no news about embassy. We were bummed! And a little confused since they had everything.
So we made asked our social worker to look into it. Well we got an email later that evening that there was a mistake made and that we WERE submitted to embassy!
We are so excited. This is the 'should be' the last big hurdle we have to cross before they clear us to go get A! There is a small possibility of having the embassy chose our case for further examination, but it's small.
If everything goes as planned we will be getting a call in the next week or two to pack our bags (as if they weren't already=) and go get our baby girl!
There is so much to do and I'm praying the Lord will help me to all that I NEED to do before we leave.
The kids are so excited to finally get to meet their sweet new baby sister! The car seat is in the van and her clothes are hanging in the closet.
Finally on our last step of waiting!!! We're coming sweet baby girl. We love you and can't wait to be with you again!

Passport!!!

We got news early this morning that the Ethiopian team has gotten A's passport! This is the last step before they can submit us to embassy!!!!
We are still holding out hope that we would get submitted today, but it might not happen. Our agency only submits cases to the embassy on tuesdays. So if we don't hear anything today we will have to wait till next tuesday.
Our fingerprints expire middle of July along with our homestudy so we are REALLY praying hard that we get submitted soon so we can avoid having to update all that stuff or cause possible paperwork hold-ups.
But praise the Lord we have her birth certificate and her passport now! We're getting so close!!!

Age adjustment

As far back as when we got our first update on our little girl, Stephen and I both have had serious doubts about the accuracy of her age. From all the pictures we saw and from families that had already traveled and met her in person, everyone said she isn't over 2. According to the official documents she is almost 28 months old.
When we got in country and met her for the first time we both said, "No way she is 28 months old". When we met with her nurse she brought up to us that she didn't think she was 28 months old either and was going to look into it.
Well we just got confirmation that a mistake was made on her paperwork (when adjusting to our calendar). So she is only 15 months old!!
We just knew she was much younger than was stated. It's an answer to prayer to find this out now.
As it was we were going to have to have bone tests done to figure out what her real age was. But now it's fixed and was just a paperwork error!

Bethany is happy to know she is the big sister (by 6 months)!
No doubt that will be brought up as they get older=)

Birth Certificate!!!

After only a week we already have a birth certificate!!! YEA!!! Now to get a passport and then submitted to embassy...then TRAVEL CALL!!!

Our trip to Africa

So I've been trying and trying and trying to find time to update my blog and give a full play by play of all that we experienced, but I've been forced to realize, I just don't have the time! We didn't expect to pass court on our trip, thus giving us a few months once we came home before all the excitment of our next trip. But Praise God we did pass!!! So now we are scrambling to get everything done in a few short weeks that we had planned to do over the next few months. Not to mention I have that wonderful nesting/anxious feeling with all I need to do to get ready for our baby to come home!

Our trip was AMAZING! Maybe one day I'll have time to say a little more about it but for now I'm just going to post pictures from our trip and blog about our 1st meeting with A. Thank you to everyone who has prayed for us during this process, please continue to pray as we wait to get the final documents and get the final call to bring her home!
























Our first meeting with A was good. We waited outside while our guide went into the orphange and told them who we were there to see. Next thing we knew we were being ushered into livingroom of the orphanage. My good friend Mandie so blessed us by videoing our first meeting with A. When I walked in I saw her sitting on floor playing with some toys. Everything in me wanted to run over pick her up and love on her. But we have had the last 7 months to memeorize her face and long for the day when we get to meet her. For her we are just another set of faces (staring and making goofy faces at her). So we both sat on the ground next to her and stephen gave her his glasses, which she LOVED, and kept them the entire time we were there.
Finally I felt like she warmed up enough and I picked her up, she fussed a little, but then calmed down. It felt amazing to finally be holding her! I knew stephen wanted to hold her so eventually I handed her over to stephen. Well she was not too happy with this! She cried and cried but again eventaully calmed down once he gave her a lollypop=) She found stephen's beard very interesting since most of the men over there don't have facial hair. We had about 2 hours with her the first day and it was perfect, when it was time to go she was tired and ready for a nap.
In all we got to spend 4 days with her!
The last day was terrible. She had really warmed up to us and came kept reaching for me. I was able to feed her a snack and her lunch. Midway through Lunch Abel our guide showed up and we knew it was time to go....
I stood up and hugged her and told her how much we loved her. She's a snuggle bug so she enjoyed snuggling with me and I just lost it. I couldn't keep back the tears. Eventually I handed her over to one of the nannys and walked away. I couldn't look back..... I walked outside and mandie was standing there and she hugged me and I cried and cried and cried. It was so hard! Most of the trip we all were joking and having a good time but this day our hearts were so heavy that we did very little talking. The call to come back and get her can't come soon enough!





























We were also able to visit Yezelalem Minch, the ministry run by Birtukan and Nesibu (the guesthouse owners). What an amazing ministry. We knew alot about this ministry before we came but we were so humbled by the passion they have for the orphan children in Ethiopia. On saturday we got to help out with the feeding program for the children.







The last day was hard knowing that we were leaving and didn't know when we would be back and exciting because we were going to be able to see our kids back in the states. Stephen talked me into getting my hair braided a few hours before we left. We had an amazing group of people we traveled with and we had such a good time!