Cleared for TRAVEL!!!

Yesterday we got the wonderful news that we were cleared for travel! They gave us three dates to choose from July 14th, 18th and 19th. We really really really didn't want to have the 18th or 19th as that would put us ANOTHER week out before we left!
Today we got news that we got the earlier appointment date of July 14th!!!
So we will be leaving here July 6th!!

We are leaving so early because we have planned to do the birth family trip. 'A' was born in a small community near the town of Awassa, Ethiopia. So we are travleing 200 miles on Friday to go see that area and possibly meet with her birth family.
We are praying this will happen. As it stands now there are some doubts as to weather the orphanage will coordinate the meeting (like they usually do) because of some issues they have with our agency. I understand both sides of the issue but we just really want to meet her birth family! We have so many questions we want to ask them and want to answer any questions they may have for us. So please pray that this will work out. We won't know if it will until we are actually in the town and they say yes or no. So we're going hopefull. But if it doesn't work out we will still get to visit with the kids in the orphanage that she was in from age 7-11 months old.

Then we will travel back to Addis on Saturday and pick her up FOREVER Monday
July 11th!!!!!!! Our embassy appointment as I said is on July 14th and we plan to leave the 15th or 16th (still working those details out with our travel agent) and then home on the 16th or 17th!

Praise God we are finally bringing her home! Can't wait to hold her in my arms again!

At the end of the process

So my plan with my blog was to be open and honest with our process through adoption. However I realize that I have allowed it to be a place to complain and be negative. Almost always I feel this way after bad news but a few days out and the Lord shows me something new about our situation.

These last few days have been hard, I won't lie. It's tough to be so close after such a long journey only to be held up again. I have questioned why we decided to adopt, why put ourselves through pain and heartache. Then I got an email from Stephen yesterday that again reminded me of why we are doing this.

Adoption is AMAZING! There are children all over the world that need homes. These children need someone to fight for them, to say "I'll go through pain to end the sadness you feel everyday".

Is it easier to have children biologically, most of the time, YES! Adoption is slow, hard, you have little control over how your case is handled. And in the meantime your heart is growing more and more in love with this one precious little picture that you have been given. It takes the statistics of 147 million orphans and makes it REAL. They have real faces, real pain, real emotions.

God loves life. He loves redeemed life. Lives that were destined for sadness, loneliness being changed forever! But there still is an enemy, his goal is to seek to kill and destroy. He stands in direct opposition to the heart of adoption.

As christian families we have more than anyone to offer these children. A lifetime of not only hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ but seeing the gospel lived out everyday of their lives.

So we decided to adopt knowing it would be hard. But in the mist of it, it's easy to lose your focus and be consumed with the pain. Yet if I will just step back and remember why we are doing this it puts everything into perspective.

We're going through this for the Lord.
We're going through this for the love of a sweet child.
We're going through this because God's Word says 'Love your neighbor as yourself'

God has a special place in His heart for adoption. The idea was His to begin with.
As Christians we know we can't earn our way to heaven. That has been once and forever paid for by the blood of Christ. Yet the scriptures also tell us that TRUE and UNDEFILED religion (the service and worship of God) is to 'care for orphans and widows in their distress'.

So I want to apologize for being negative and allowing my blog to become a place of complaining and whining. Yes this is hard, I won't deny it. But this isn't about me!
It's about HIM! He went to the cross for me and endured unbelievable pain, I can most certainly handle this temporary and fleeting pain! It will come to an end! Before long I'll be able to post pictures for the world to see our beautiful sweet baby girl!

Until then please continue to pray for us as we attempt to finish this journey strong!

Prayer please

So at some point in this process you would think I would have learned to stop assuming that we couldn't possibly hit another bump in the road.

BUT.....

We just heard word that the embassy is already booked for the week of the 4th so even if we get cleared this thursday (which everyone says we SHOULD), the best date we could hope for will be ANOTHER week away. Another family just got word that they are booked through the 7th so as it stands today the 11th is the earliest.

We are just beyond frusterated that we are again being held up. Our little girl is going to be stuck in the orphanage for ANOTHER week. She has been watching all of her little friends one by one go home with their families. She has now been there for almost 10 months! Along with maybe a handful of other families our case has been one of the longest...not something we were hoping for!

We just want to get her home and it seems everything in the world is standing in the way of letting that happen. I'm again feeling that creeping feeling like I felt when we started going through our court nightmare, that this will never ever end. Just when we feel like okay we're actually making progress and following the 'normal' timeline we get hit and then again and then again.

Please join us in praying that the Lord will open the doors for us to travel soon. To not get hit with more bad news. The He will comfort us the way ONLY He can do. That our sweet little girl will be protected and that He will be a mommy and daddy to her until we can get her home.

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!!!