ETHIOPIA, Ready or Not Here We Come!!!

The last few weeks have come and gone.  The days seemed long and the weeks were silent.  I coined them as "Another No News Week".  We FINALLY received our document we have been waiting on from Homeland Security earlier in the week.  That was a HUGE praise and I breathed a sigh of relief knowing it was here and on its way to represent our family in Ethiopia!

We resigned ourselves to the fact that we would not be in Ethiopia for our anniversary(May25th), sometime last week!  The trends have been ranging around 3 weeks out from hearing your court date, so we calculated out and realized we would be sitting here in Idaho, trying to enjoy the celebration of 10 amazing years.  We booked a hotel room for a couple of nights and decided we would take a couple of days to refresh, recover, and reconnect!

Today marks SEVEN weeks since we officially signed our referral for our sweet son!  We have received LOTS of amazing pictures of his sweet face and many families have told us how sweet and joyful he is!  I've tried going on with my daily life, tried to not ache to hold him, tried to put on a smile and put the wait out of my mind!  If you have ever waited for ANYTHING, you know that is so much easier said than done.

Well - today I heard the words we've been waiting for - "We have a Court Date for You!".  I was ecstatic and a little teary eyed as I took the call.  I was waiting to hear a date for mid June.  When she told me our court date was on JUNE 1st!!!!  I felt excited, overwhelmed, teary, AHHHH!!!!  That is in 15 DAYS!!!!!  Are you kidding?????

I spent the day on the phone and email with travel agents trying to book flights!!  Memorial Day weekend made it a little tricky to find flights!  Thankfully we are traveling in May, before the flights take a price hike for the Summer season June 1st.  We were planning on leaving the end of Memorial day weekend, spending a week in country and then traveling home.  Because of the holiday, however, it was MUCH cheaper to leave a little earlier....

SO.....we fly out NEXT Friday (In 8 DAYS!!!!).....and that date is none other than MAY 25th!!!!  Yes, that is right - our TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!!!  So, although we don't get to be in Ethiopia over our anniversary like we had hoped....we get to be heading to meet our son, with our 3 little blessings by our side.

God is so good and His plan is always PERFECT!!!  Please pray for us as we present ourselves before the Ethiopian government to claim our son as our own!  Our paperwork we were waiting on still needs to make it to Ethiopia and in our file in time for court.  There are always delays and unknowns in a 3rd world country court system - so PLEASE continue to pray for us!!

Please pray for safe travels and for us ALL to stay healthy!  Pray for our son's heart as he meets his new family!  Pray that God gives him peace and comfort and prepares him for the changes to come.  Pray for our children traveling with us - that God would reveal His heart to them as they witness the people and the culture where their brother lives.  Pray for our son's birth mom as she travels to Addis and appears before the courts next week(May 22nd).  Pray for her safe travels and that God would give her peace and comfort!

Pray for us over the next 8 days as we prepare to head out of the country with 3 kids!  The kids and I have never traveled out of the country and the kids have never even been on an airplane - it is going to be quite the experience.  In the next 8 days we have lots to get packed and prepared....we also have....6 baseball games, 4 days of basketball camp, kindergarten screening, training for work, report cards to finish, a Beth Moore conference, graduation party, and it is the last week of school for the kids and me!

We've got lots to do - and the time will fly by!!!!  Before we know it - we'll be with our SON!!!!!!  Feeling so blessed!