Updated timeline

Hi friends! We have an update and we wanted to share with you all. As you know we recently passed court in Ethiopia and we are now waiting for our next step. The next step is where our family and paperwork gets submitted to the Embassy. We heard from our agency this last week that we will be submitted on either July 25th or August 1st. We recently learned they only submit on Wednesdays. Once we are submitted to Embassy the average time a family travels is 3-4 weeks after that. We of course are praying and ask you to do the same that we are submitted on July 25th! This would then have us traveling to get our son around the 3rd or 4th week in August. Of course our hearts are screaming the sooner the better but we know God's hand is in this and his timing will prevail.

We are busy getting things squared up around here that need to be done prior to him arriving home. We are fundraising to fund our trip, for his ticket home and for final adoption costs. We are filling his closet with clothes and toys. We have had some generous folks really bless us with hand me downs! We are getting ready to pick out who his pediatrician will be, start enrolling him in a elementary school here and getting room arrangements figured out for the boys. There is a lot to do in this waiting period and I think it is good as it keeps up occupied and not focusing on missing him so much :)

On this Wednesday I go in for intensive hip surgery in Billings and would love extra prayers. I will be on crutches or using a walk for 6 weeks and won't be driving for a few months in the midst of all we have going on. I am thankful I have great family and friends who will support me through this crazy time.

So again we thank you for your support of our family and we ask you be praying along with us that:

• We get submitted on July 25th and travel soon!
• That we will have enough funds to travel when the time comes.
• For a safe surgery for Jamie and a speedy recovery.

God Bless!

July 9th, Passing Court!

July 9th we officially passed court in Ethiopian and our son is officially ours!!!

Our trip was wonderful. We got to spend several hours with our boy every day we were there. It was wonderful seeing him again and seeing how he has grown this last year...which isn't much...he is such a little guy for his age :) That first hug was so precious as we have been waiting almost a year to squeeze him again! When he saw us around the corner he got a huge grin ear to ear...that look was priceless! He quickly in his broken english asked where the kids were and was a little disappointed that they were not with us. We then shared with him the videos the kids had made for him. He loved that and watched them several times throughout our stay there :) Towards the end of our trip he made a video for them which is absolutely adorable. (I posted it on my facebook if you haven't seen it)

We fell in love with the country, people and food. There is something about Ethiopia that draws both Daniel and I deeply. The weather was amazing there and our time was great exploring the city and meeting people. Several times on our stay we requested to skip the next thing on our itinerary and to stay at the orphanage to be with our boy and all the older kids. They are not supposed to let us, but they did! :) Our time together consisted of laughs, playing soccer, hugging, looking at pictures from the last year and trying to understand each other. Our boy was in wonderful spirits the whole time, that just seems to be his personality. It was fun watching him interact with his friends and to share the things we brought for him. We brought him a hat...he gave it away. We would give him a piece of gum, he would manage to share it with several friends. That is how the children are, giving, loving and all about the community they live in which is each other. He was not sad to see us go, it was way harder on us. He has seen this process with so many kids...the parents come, they go and then they come back for good. Again, our son has been in the orphanage since he was 3 years old...he has seen this process for 6 years. Praise God it is finally his turn to go!

We toured several orphanages while we were in the country and I have so many stories from there, some good...some very hard. Let's have coffee sometime and I will tell you more. One of the best stories was when we visited the orphanage that Wondimagagne used to be at. They have moved him since he is closer to coming home to the US to an orphanage they call a transition home. When we visited his old orphanage we did the whole tour like normal from the infant room to toddlers to where the older children stay. This day when we arrived the older children were at school. School is a one room classroom that has lots of dirt, very few school items but lots of smiles. We opened up the door and saw a dozen beautiful faces smiling back at us and then they all lit up and starting speaking in English...Wondimagagne's Mama and Papa they shouted! They shouted this over and over...our son had carried our pictures around this last year and so every kid knew who we were! It was one of the most surreal moments of the trip. It made our hearts skip a beat. I loved that he was proud of us and his new family and that he had hope this last year that we were coming back to get him. It was a fun time with those dozen older kids that day. One girl was having a birthday so they were celebrating in the way they could. The kids were making her cakes with playdough...I could of stayed in that room for a very long time. I felt like we belonged because of the way their smiles, hugs and laughs invited us in. Later in our trip we spoke with the nannies and they told us all the kiddos stay up at night in their triple stacked bunk beds and talk about who has a family and who does not...I am so very thankful that my son got to be one of the ones who did, who had the hope of having a family and I can't wait to see our future. We know we are not done on this crazy journey of adoption and adoption awareness. I pray God uses us again to bring a child or children home and that he uses us to help others do the same and that we can partner with folks here and there to change the reality for many children.

One last blessing to share...we met several families on our trip who were doing the same thing. It was great to be with so many other whose hearts were aligned for adoption! We got to see several families meet their children for the very first time!!! Now that was an experience full of tears and pure joy. Something etched into our minds deep. We met a few families we will stay in touch with forever. Just an added bonus on this amazing adventure.

We have so much more to share about our journey but we wanted to highlight our favorites and we look forward to returning soon. Please pray we receive our US Embassy date soon to go get him! On the average it is about 45-60 days after you pass court, but as anyone in the adoption world will tell you...there is no average!

Please feel free to ask questions about our trip, about adoption about supporting us and others. We are glad to share! We are still hard at work trying to raise they last amount of funds to bring him home. Due to circumstances beyond our control we are starting from scratch but we KNOW God will provide. If you feel led to support us and adoption and want to assist in bringing our little boy home you can go to the donate button on the top of this blog that says DONATE. God Bless!!!

All Christians have been adopted as children of God and freed from the law. To adopt a child is to follow the lead of God who has adopted so many. God use us and thank you for making us yours and letting us follow in your amazing footsteps of love.

But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. John 1:12

Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. James 1:27