growing HOME

We are home

2009-10-04T18:35:00.000-07:00

We are home from an amazing trip to Ethiopia. We have been touched by all the amazing people we met while we were gone. So many people who have given so much to help the most vulnerable kids in Ethiopia. There's so much to be done. So many needs to be met. If you are ever interested in hearing how you can help, we'd love to introduce you to our new friends from Yeseleum Minch. They do amazing work keeping children in extended family relationships through a sponsership program. They also have two homes for children who have no one else, these kids are in need of families to love and adopt them.

As for our family, we are all settling in here. The kids have all been amazing these past three days. Simon and Anna have welcomed Meselech and Bizuneh warmly. Meselech and Bizuneh seem to be really happy. We have all had two good nights of sleep, something I didn't dare dream would be yet...

So very good!

We all went to church this morning which was so nice. It was great to see many of you and look forward to seeing many more of you in the coming weeks. We are so thankful for all your prayers and support. We have seen many prayers answered. Thank you for remembering us in your prayers.

Ryan has been posting pics on facebook, so check those out!

We are so amazed

2009-09-27T10:29:00.000-07:00

What a wonderful God.

Tami is singing "B" to sleep right now while she is rocking him. He seems kind of scared. "M" is in bed and should be sleeping soon. Tomorrow we have our embassy appointment. We are staying with a very sweet family that is helping us translate. While we were eating dinner, M said she was so happy that she and her younger brother are with us. She also asked if we loved Jesus because she loves Jesus very much. That brought tears to our eyes. She is very precious. We will continue to keep everyone posted as much as we can.

It is after 8:30 PM here, so it is obviously time to sleep.

We are leaving!!!

2009-09-24T21:13:00.000-07:00

We leave today! It's 12:15 a.m. so it's officially our travel date. The bags are packed (for the most part). I think we are ready to leave. I've been full of emotions today. It just such a "BIG" thing. I can't really describe all that we are feeling and thinking.

Please pray for us, for safe travel, for a joyful meeting on Sunday with Meselech and Bizuneh. Please pray that we can comfort them if they are fearful and sad.

Pray for all of us to be healthy.

Pray for Simon and Anna. I'm sure they are going to have a great time. They have been looking forward to their week with Grandpa and Grandma VW.

(But they still might miss us a little...)

Pray for Grandpa and Grandma too.

We return next friday and will be spending the next few days at home, letting the kids get acquainted and helping Bizuneh and Meselech adjust to home. After that....we will see!

travel update

2009-09-06T19:21:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I last posted. We are currently awaiting our travel dates. We have been told that most likely it will be towards the end of the month. We may get as much as two weeks notice or as few as 3 days notice! With that said, we are trying to get everything together. It's been amazing to think of all the little things that are needed to add two more kids to a family. I was making a list the other day that included things like pajamas, socks, toothbrushes, bikes, shampoo.... lots of little thinks and a few big things.

The biggest thing that we would like to share is a HUGE thank you! We met the match with LifeSong and actually exceeded the matched amount! Thank you to all who were able to help us out in this way. Adopting is (unfortunately) an expensive endeavor. But God has shown us once again that he will provide. Praise God! He is good!

Thank you for being a part of this.

Praise God!

2009-08-19T15:13:00.000-07:00

Join us in praising God for the awesome news we received today! Meselech and Bizuneh are officially our children!!!! We are so excited. Words cannot express how amazing this is. I'll write more later on all the details. For now, I just wanted to share our wonderful news!

for all you prayer warriors....

2009-08-17T18:59:00.000-07:00

For all you prayer warriors....

Our case goes to court (again) this wednesday the 19th. Before closing your eyes Tuesday night please pray for our children in Ethiopia. Pray that the court decides favorably and we are able to begin making plans to bring Meselech and Bizuneh home. We are eager to hear some good news and pray that this time our case makes it through court!

The Court Date

2009-08-14T12:10:00.000-07:00

Our Ethiopian court date is on Wednesday, August 19th. Please start praying now that the court will approve everything and that we can go get the kids SOON.

Thanks.

update

2009-08-09T07:05:00.000-07:00

So many of you have been asking; "What's new? What's going on now?"
The answer is that really nothing is going on for us now. Nothing changes until we hear the results from our next court appointment on August 19. We are praying that this time all will be successful and our case will be approved. At that point the kiddos will be ours officially (already ours in our hearts....) and we will begin to make travel plans. We should be able to travel to get the kids 4-6 weeks after court approval.
Thanks for all your continued prayers. It's hard to wait, knowing that the kids are without our care and don't know that they are loved by us and so many of you already.

waiting...

2009-07-31T07:05:00.000-07:00

We received word late last week that our next court hearing is not scheduled until August 19. This is greatly disappointing as we had hoped to be traveling then, or possibly even home with the kids by then. We are learning the lessons of patience and waiting on God's timing once again. We know that God's timing is perfect but it is still hard to understand why. We will make the most of the extra time before traveling by getting a head start on school work and getting Simon and Anna into a routine.
We appreciate all your prayers and support!

Oops....

2009-07-27T19:26:00.000-07:00

You may have received a letter from us(that's how you knew this blog was here) and there's one little problem. One number is off and if you are sending a donation to LifeSong to help us out you'll need to know about it. The zipcode is wrong. One little number needs to be fixed. The correct zipcode is 61744. You will also find the correct zipcode on the bottom of the letter from LifeSong. (Many thanks to my aunt Ruth who found the problem and let me know.) Ryan says that the post office will work very hard and will end up delivering the miss marked mail, so no worries if you've already mailed out a donation. But if you are thinking of sending one and have not yet mailed it out, please fix our mistake so the post office does not need to work so hard!
Thanks!

another family adopting

2009-07-14T18:09:00.000-07:00

We got together with another family tonight who are just beginning the process to adopt from Ethiopia. It was great to share stories and hear how they have come to decide to adopt internationally.
It's amazing how just about everyone who hears we are adopting from Ethiopia already knows of another family (or more than one) who have already brought their children home or are in process. I think this community will have a pretty large group of adopted Ethiopian children soon! What a great thing!

new blog

2009-07-12T18:34:00.000-07:00

We decided that it might be a good idea to post some updates for all of you who care about our growing family to follow along with us on this journey. Check back as we hope to update this page with info on the process of finalizing our adoption.
Today we are asking for prayer for a successful court date tomorrow. It will be our third time for our papers too be in court seeking the finalization of our adoption. We are hoping it will the the final time!
Can't wait to get the call that we are officially parents 2 times over again!
Next step will be to begin making travel plans!