SERIOUSLY?

Weather today in Addis Ababa Ethiopia: 109 degrees, feels like 112degrees. With sand.
Weather the day we are to arrive: 67 degrees, rainy with thunder
CRAZY!

Preparing for "Mighty Mo"

Our kids with the help of cousin Keegan

(and extra help here from neighbors) sold

pop and otter pops out on the street corner

yesterday to raise money to buy supplies for

Mo's orphanage for us to bring with us. They

made $117!

The day was also full of packing, and cleaning up baby gear that my friend, Julee, has loaned to us. Here is Maria trying out the newly cleaned stroller.

We are so thankful that Mike has a 3 day weekend. We made a lot of progress on the huge "to do" list and Mike did an amazing job being a cheerleader for the fund-raising project while being careful to keep a distance so the kids could be in charge.

We did buy our plane tickets on Wednesday. We fly out of Seattle 1pm Friday the 10th, change planes with a 2:30 layover in Amsterdam and arrive in Addis Ababa at 8:45 pm July 11th. We will have the 12th to hang on our own and explore a bit. The orphanage is only a couple blocks from our hotel but we will not be allowed to go there until the 13th. On the 13th we get to go to Hannah's Hope (where sweet Mo is) and meet the workers and receive him into our arms. That afternoon we have an appt at the US Embassy as part of the process to get the documents needed to bring him back to the US with us. There is some flexibility with the rest of our time there and right now we are unclear if and who any other families will be traveling with us. There are quite a few families through our agency who have recently passed court but may be too late to get this July 13th embassy appt. We fly out of Addis at 10:25pm Thursday the 16th. Again a layover of about 4 hours in Amsterdam and then straight through arriving in Seattle at noon on Friday the 17th. This will be 2 days short of Mo being 4 months old. Amazing.

We are going to Ethiopia!

I just got the call confirming that we will have an appointment at the US Embassy in Addis Ababa Ethiopia on July 13th. That means that we need to arrive there by the evening of the 12th. Right now we are looking at tickets that would get us there the evening of the 11th which cost significantly less than tickets that would get us there on the 12th. We will then leave Ethiopia on the Evening of July 16th and arrive in Seattle around noon on the 17th with a not quite 4 month old baby boy in our arms! Amazing! I have an incredible amount of things to do to get ready but what will I be doing today? Playing at the waterslides in Chelan with my kids of course! I have a dear friend visiting in town who was one of my best friends in high school and first made me aware of how Jesus loved me. She and I will be there with 7 kids between the 2 of us. Thank you Lord for the blessing of children!

It's A Boy!!

We got a huge surprise of a call today. Our caseworker, Christy, called and I was hoping to find out when our court date is going to be. I did find that out; it is June 24th. She called to say that at our court appointment TODAY we passed and Moges' adoption was finalized. Yahhooooo! Now we are waiting to hear confirmation on when our appointment at the US Embassy in Addis Ababa will be. That is an appt that we will need to be at with Moges. Most likely we will have an appointment on July 13th!! That is 6 days before Moges will be 4 months old. We are elated to think of bringing this precious baby home so soon and not missing more time with him. Our minds are spinning with preperation thoughts of bottles, diapers, clothes and all that but we are praising the Lord in his goodness and even see his grace in us not knowing that today was the court date and not having that stress of anticipation. He even prompted me yesterday to put that post and refocus our prayer for a court date soon. I had no idea it was to be the next day!!

Waiting for Moges

I have neglected any new posts, hoping to have some news. But, we have no news. We are still waiting to receive a court date that will be the finalization of Moges' adoption. In Ethiopia courts close for all of August and September so we covet your prayers that we would receive a court date soon, before the closure.
We are in this reserved place of hoping and trusting the Lord yet not preparing in any hands on way. The pain of Samuel still too fresh to embrace our excitement over Moges more fully. We are so excited and eager to bring Moges home, at times my arms seem to physically ache for him, but we are just waiting. The Lord is good and our hope is in Him.

Our New Journey Begins!

The Lord has been so good to us as He has prepared us to receive new news for our adoption journey even while mourning the loss of Samuel.
So we are ready to embark on our new journey. We have accepted a new referral for a BABY BOY! We did not start this journey picturing a baby yet it feels right and we are going for it. Our heads are spinning at the thought of night feedings, bottles, car seats, crying, pacifiers, rockers and all! It feels like an amazingly sweet gift from God. His given name is Moges and he is 2 months old today. If things go as is likely we should bring him home before the end of summer. If things go otherwise.........well, as we have already learned, anything could happen. Yet, we are choosing to celebrate and prepare and leave the rest to the Lord.

Back on Waiting List

Mike and I have been so blessed by our community of friends as we have grieved the loss of Samuel. Thank you so much. We continue to grieve even while we trust God for what is next. He has given us peace about going back on the wait lists. So, we are now in the #1 positions on the boy and the sibling lists. They have a huge waiting list for girls and few for boys and we have been preparing for a boy so we felt good about not going back on the girl list. We have added a few other stipulations that could slow down the referral process but it seems likely that we could receive a referral by the end of the month. We shall see. Please continue to pray with us for Samuels well being and for God's will in our family.