The Ethiopian courts closed in late August and this quiet period has been hard, to say the least! It’s funny when you get to the point of wanting contact so bad that you get excited simply to be asked for more paperwork!

We can’t complain though because these months have been full of blessing upon blessing.

We received a court date the day before the courts closed for the rainy season and that date is only 10 days away. October 19 is slowly approaching and we are praying that on that day we will become the forever family for our children in Ethiopia.

We have also been very blessed by families from our agency who have travelled to Ethiopia and taken pictures and video of our children. We have even received personal accounts from people who have spent time with our children.

This has already been an amazing journey! In the beginning we thought it would be 12 – 18 months before we went to Ethiopia and now it could actually be only 8. In early June we were obsessing over two beautiful children wondering how we were going to come up with a huge sum of money. Now we are looking back at four months marveling at how quickly everything has come together. Through gracious gifts from friends, family and strangers, as well as extra work, pinching pennies and selling things we never really needed God has provided over 83% of the financial need.

Then, we learned last week that Lifesong for Orphans has committed an Adoption Matching Grant of $3000 to help us raise the remaining funds necessary to bring our children home. Lifesong will match dollar for dollar, contributions made in our name. Needless to say, we are elated at this news and continue to marvel at God’s goodness.

If you would like to be a part of this and contribute to this grant with Lifesong please click here to see how.

We also encourage you to read a letter from Lifesong supporting our adoption.

Thank you and God bless!

Tags: adoption

Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work.

One day, as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone who would dance to the day, and so, he walked faster to catch up.

As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, and that what he was doing was not dancing at all. The young man was reaching down to the shore, picking up small objects, and throwing them into the ocean.

He came closer still and called out "Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?"

The young man paused, looked up, and replied "Throwing starfish into the ocean."

"I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?" asked the somewhat startled wise man.

To this, the young man replied, "The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don't throw them in, they'll die."

Upon hearing this, the wise man commented, "But, young man, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can't possibly make a difference!"

At this, the young man bent down, picked up yet another starfish, and threw it into the ocean. As it met the water, he said, "I made a difference to that one!"

adapted from The Star Thrower
by Loren Eiseley
1907 - 1977

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Yesterday we learned that our Home Study has been approved by the state! We were told, "it never happens this fast" and this wasn't the first time we've heard this! Many times paperwork has moved unusually quick. We are very encouraged at each step and even more excited!

At this point our whole packet will go to Washington DC for approval and then on to Ethiopia for translation and a court date. This is where we need your prayers. As we have said before, we hope to get in before the courts close for the rainy season. So far, they seem to be staying open longer than usual and we are hopeful that we will receive a court date before the end of July! Of course that could mean that we travel in early September, which means I should start packing immediately!

One more step this week is our appointment with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). We go to Denver on Thursday with more paperwork and need to get our special fingerprinting done for $80 per person! Thankfully, the charge is not per finger.
We are very grateful and humbled by the outpouring of support, both in prayer and in financial help. So far, we have raised and covered over one-third of the expenses towards this adoption. We are very encouraged by this. We have more to go, and we remain faithful that God will see this through. Please email us if you would like to receive a copy of our fund-raising letter and a picture of the children.

In case you noticed the name change on our blog today, do not be concerned! We took the names of the children off of the website because we learned that the Ethiopian government 'frowns' on their children's names used online to raise money. They also do not appreciate the photos online, that is why we mailed photos rather than posting them online. We are still anxiously waiting to bring the same two children home and they become more a part of our family every day.

Tags: adoption

When we started this website we intended to post regularly about all the exciting family/adoption news in our life. That was about three weeks ago and all we have done since is paperwork! Here are some updates on our process in adopting from Ethiopia.

The reason for the rush:

The simple answer is that we have the pictures of two adorable children on our refrigerator, in my purse, on Xavier’s desk, computer and telephone and basically always in front of us, and we want to go get them ASAP!

The other answer is that the rainy season in Ethiopia is fast approaching. This period in Ethiopia can be two to three months long and involves such heavy rain that the power is frequently out. With the power on and off much of the time the courts simply shut down. We don’t know when they will close or how long they will stay closed as it varies each year. If we can get our paperwork to Ethiopia before the courts close we have a good chance at traveling in September or October. If we don’t make it in before court closure we could wait until November or even longer. After this week the paperwork will be out of our hands and we will be praying that it moves quickly through Washington D.C and Immigration, arrives in Ethiopia to be translated and we get a court date before the courts close. We will not be in Ethiopia for the court date but that is the date that the kids could become officially part of our family! We are looking forward to that day!

Also in the last few weeks our wonderful social worker worked incredibly hard to get our home study done for us. She spent four and a half hours with us one Saturday! I don’t know how she felt but we were exhausted!! The big news is that our Home study is complete! We signed it today! Reading the fifteen pages was a little like reading a book about ourselves and a little strange. It was also kind of humorous to read another's perception of us!

Now that we are done with the paperwork we are focusing more attention on raising support. We have been overwhelmed by the kind encouragement we have received from friends and family. We are also incredibly grateful for the support that has come in through Kingdom Kids Ministry. We are truly blessed by the generosity of so many! We do not yet have a list of contributors so we cannot thank each of you personally – yet! Please know that we are extremely appreciative of your support! Now that our homestudy is complete, and the dossier is almost finished we are excited to be two really big steps closer to bringing these children home!

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