Yod Abyssinia

Our last night out before we were to travel south was a FUN night! We went to a restaurant very rich in the Ethiopian culture and traditions, "Yod Abyssinia." Our group sat around a small round table that was only big enough to hold our drinks. We had to hold our plates. While we ate our dinner, the restaurant had a group of dancers that performed some traditional Ethiopian dances and songs. We had so much fun that our friend, D.J. Matt (who was really a D.J.) played his tunes back at the guest house and we had our own dance party...American style (we tried some Ethiopian moves and trust me, it is harder than it looks!). That footage is in a vault for us only LOL!



Coffee galore for the coffee ceremony






We LOVE Ethiopian food!


So you think you can dance...Ethiopian style?

Traveling Ethiopia

Parents adopting their children from Ethiopia are required to make two trips the ET. A family's first trip is usually spent meeting and spending time with their children other than the court appointment. Our particular group had a different scenario. Our children were not in Addis Ababa, they were seven hours south of Addis and we were not able to see them until we had a particular document signed. We had about four days until we our travels south to sight see and enjoy the culture and beautiful country of Ethiopia. We would have rather been with our children, bonding and spending time loving on them, but looking back we are grateful for the opportunity to learn more about our daughter's birthplace. The day after our court date, our group traveled north of Addis Ababa about two hours to a beautiful gorge called Debre Libanos. When we arrived in the later morning, the fog was so thick we couldn't see how deep or how beautiful it was until the fog lifted about an hour later. We started walking on a path of big-honk'n rocks that just about twisted our ankles and this path led us all around the gorge. The pictures don't even do this place a bit of justice, it was just gorgeous!


Mark & I on the edge (literally) before the fog lifted


The fog lifted and we could see the beautiful deep gorge that we had been climbing around all morning.


Pretty but don't touch...






Aloe plant


Baboons in their natural habitat...pretty cool! I kept my distance : )


Ethiopian cuisine...Yummy!


This is injera bread (it's rolled up & feels kind of like a pancake) Ethiopians serve this at every meal.

Celebrating

We were all emotionally spent after our travels and court hearing, but very happy! We went back to our guest house for some time to relax. One lady that worked there made us coffee for the traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony. Coffee was first discovered in Ethiopia and just about everyone there drinks it. I was not much a coffee drinker before this trip, but since we drank it so many times and after meals I grew to like it more. Here are some pics of our post court celebrating/relaxing...






Our dinner celebration!


Our driver, David, taught us many words in Amharic.

August 4, 2011

I couldn't believe it! We were finally in Ethiopia! We had longed to be there to meet our girls and this was a crucial event in our adoption to get our girls home...our court hearing. We got ready (minus most of our things in our lost luggage) and headed down the stairs of the guest house to gather around one big table for breakfast. That is when we met the other families who had been there prior to our 3 a.m. arrival. So represented around the table were four other families who were all in the same situation as us. Our children were all in the same orphanage together and today was a huge step toward bringing them all home. We were all anxious, but hopeful. We finished our first Ethiopian breakfast and packed in an old van to get to the courthouse.

The waiting room at the courthouse was just a large room that filled up quickly with birthparents and adoptive parents. We sat underneath a window on some sort of a step on the floor. There were chairs around the room against all the walls so that everyone was facing one another. This was the most humbling moment I have ever been in. We knew that our daughters' birthfather was supposed to be there and we knew that he was blind, so we were trying to prepare ourselves for seeing him. It wasn't long after we arrived that we saw him and immediately knew who he was. He was sitting directly in front of us across the room. I could tell right away that from our girls' pictures that they looked alike. He was sitting very calm and patient. I almost felt guilty for staring at him, knowing that he could not see me, but I didn't want to forget what he looked like. I almost lost it, and we were still waiting to see the judge, so I was trying to keep myself together. I couldn't help but think, "Who are we that we can be in such a position to be able to adopt?" Sitting all around us in the very same room are birthparents who look burdened with life and so terribly sad, who in most cases, love their child, but are in a situation that gives them no options but to relinquish their very own child! It was literally heartbreaking. I didn't feel worthy of the position I was in...I still don't. No one chooses the situation or location that they are born in. It was so unsettling to see the unfairness of life.

We waited for a couple of hours (that seemed like forever), when they called our daughters' birthfather into the small room that the judge was working in. He wasn't in there for very long. Our power of attorney was with him as well, and informed us that their birthfather had forgotten his identification, which thankfully wasn't too far away. This could have been devastating if he didn't have it nearby because he is from a small village 7 hours away from Addis Ababa and it would have been pointless for us to see the judge and even fly to Africa if his identification was hours away. This was taking place on a Thursday, and Friday was the last day the court would be open for a couple of months (which is part of the miracle of us getting this court date).

Not long after he left to go get his identification, all of the families in our group (except for Mark and me) were called into the judge's room. We knew why we were waiting, but the waiting was not easy. Our friends came out with tears of relief and joy as they announced that they were declared the legal parents of their precious babies, of whom they had still not met. We were so happy and excited for all of these new parents, but we had also seen some other hopeful adoptive parents come all the way to ET to hear the judge say that they could not get legal custody at that time for whatever reason (paperwork or birthparents not showing). That is not the news you want to hear when you go all the way to a foreign country longing to bring your child (who you already love) home. We hung out in that waiting room for almost two more hours getting to know our new friends, staring at the door, praying, freaking out, and watching for the birthfather to walk back in. He came back in with his escort when the room was pretty much empty. We were on the edge of our seat when we watched our girls' birthfather, along with our P.O.A., his escort, and an interpreter (their birthfather spoke a tribal language that not all Ethiopians know) walk back in to see the judge. We waited... and waited... The feeling that we had WAS NOT GOOD! Why was this taking so long? It had not taken anyone else this long. All I can remember is a very bad feeling and the urgency to pray, so that is what we did. My nerves were shot by the time they all finally came out. I watched our hopefully soon-to-be daughters' birthfather, the only living parent they had, walk out of the courtroom wondering if I would ever see him again or if we would get the blessed chance to meet him and speak with him. There was no time for that because we were immediately called in to see the judge.

The judge was a young woman. She was sitting at her desk with tons of files stacked around her. She asked us to come in and have a seat right next to her desk. She asked us 5 questions:

~Do you plan on teaching the Ethiopian culture to your children?
~Do you currently have children of your own?
~Have you seen the two children you are hoping to adopt?
~Are you aware of the identity crisis that could occur later in their life?
~Do you realize that adoption is a binding and permanent contract that cannot be revoked?

Once we answered the questions, she said the most precious words that I will never forget, "Okay, they are yours." These two precious girls were ours (legally in the country of ET.) This was the biggest step we had made in our unpredictable adoption journey.

We returned to an empty waiting room, all except the other families with us. Mark and I asked our P.O.A. If we could meet our girls' birthfather...so he led us back downstairs to the busy streets of Addis Ababa to find him. He wasn't far, in fact he was just right on the corner of the street from the court house. He was with his escort, who we learned was one of his brothers. We had our P.O.A. translate us speaking in English to Amharic to their translator and he translated Amharic into their tribal language. We wasted no time and were told to keep it very brief. We introduced ourselves and tried to express that we would not forget to tell our new daughters about him and where they come from. We wanted him to know that we loved and knew Jesus and that his girls would too. It is so strange, joyous and sad all at the same time, that at just a judge's words & ruling that these precious girls went from being his daughters that his wife, who passed away, gave birth to in their humble home, and were now in the country of Ethiopia, legally ours. I can't get it out of my head, "Who are we? Why are we in this position?" I know we don't deserve it. I know we live in a fallen world where sadness is rampant. I know God loves us all, but He has different plans for each one. So the plan He has marked for me, our new daughters, our three children at home, our whole family, we will live it for His glory, the best we can, I pray. We finished our conversation quickly and I gave the only father our daughters had known a hug and customary kiss on both cheeks to show him our grattitude. He was so kind and had a big smile on his face. He was just doing his best to take care of his daughters. I had held it together until then and when we walked away and got back into the van I couldn't hold it in any longer. What an emotional (emotions of every kind) day for us all.

We found out later from our P.O.A. that back in the court room (when it was taking forever and we decided to pray) there was some major confusion during the translation between everyone in the room. He said for awhile there it sounded like their birthfather wasn't going to relinquish them after the judge questioned him. But after some more understandable translation it was clear he understood and relinquished his rights for his daughters. We believe it is very possible and real for Satan to try to stop or make difficult the good that is in this world. I know he wants it to be hard and trying to adopt, so less children will be united with families and be shown the love of God. I also believe that he will try to stop good TO.THE.VERY.END! God was faithful to us and helped us win that battle. There were still more obstacles to come, but our victory that day was bittersweet!

Psalm 9:1-4 & 9-10 "I will thank you, Lord with all my heart; I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done. I will be filled with joy because of you. I will sing praises to your name, O Most High. My enemies turn away in retreat; they are overthrown and destroyed before you. For you have judged in my favor; from your throne, you have judged with fairness. The Lord is a shelter for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. Those who know your name trust in you, for you, O Lord, have never abandoned anyone who searches for you."

Brogan the Brave

We finally had some decent weather recently after a loooong winter. It was a great day to be outside, so we decided to take the kids to the park. We were only there for about ten minutes when Brogan started screaming. He had tripped and hit his face right on his cheekbone. He really freaked out when he saw the blood. The cut was gaping and looked as though it might need stitches. Mark took him into the E.R. and the doctor said he would glue it instead of stitching it. They had a long wait and Mark had prepped Bro to be brave & hold still. I'm pretty sure Bro didn't mind all of the special treatment. When the doctor walked in and asked if he was ready, Brogan eagerly replied, "I'm ready NOT to whine!" He was brave and hilarious! I love that kid!

World Travelers (sounds classy...HA!)

I really believe that adoption is the heart of the Gospel. God talks about orphans & widows throughout His word. So it would make sense that Satan would really be opposed to something that God commands us as believers to do. We really felt the opposition prior to our trip, but maybe we were more aware of it on the trip. First obstacle, making it to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia according to our scheduled itinerary time of 12:30 A.M, August 4...OUR COURT DATE! We had to appear in court at 8 A.M.


Mark eating Qudoba at the Indianapolis Airport. Next stop...JFK Airport, New York.

We were enjoying our time before our first flight until we saw that our flight was DELAYED and this meant that we would not make our connecting flight in NY. First panic of the trip... PRAY! Called my family & friends to pray & my sister blasted it on Facebook and we immediately had our pray warriors! Mark talked to the airlines and we ended up getting a different flight...Amen!

We made it to JFK Airport at night very tired. From there we were on our longest flight to Istanbul, Turkey. It was about 9 hours. Turkish Airlines were very nice! Landing in the Turkish Airport was another story than the flight. Once we got there, it was very confusing. There were people EVERYWHERE! We had to hurry, we got a little lost and help was very hard to find. We finally stood in line to ask for directions, while in line I met a girl about my age from France and she was going to Ethiopia as well. So when we figured out that we were losing time to make it to our flight to Ethiopia, and we finally had a direction where to go, Mark, me, and a nice girl from France RAN (just like in the movie HOME ALONE LOL...no really we did)! I am not exaggerating when I say that we literally made it to the security line to get through to minutes later board our flight to Ethiopia. While in the security line, we were looking for another lady from our agency that was adopting and flying with us. We would be with her throughout the entire trip. I was just asking Mark, "How are we going to find, Judy, if we don't know what she looks like." Like a couple minutes later a lady ahead of us in line, asked us if we were the Trump's. She had just said a prayer to find us and we were right behind her. So we quickly got acquainted before boarding our flight.


Just met our friend, Judy, just 10 minutes prior to this pic! Her daughter was in the same orphanage as our girls. We are celebrating getting through security on time...BARELY!


Turkish Cargo Plane


Istanbul, Turkey


Finally in Ethiopia!

Praise God we actually made it to Ethiopia! It was LATE...we were TIRED, but we couldn't find some of our suitcases...


Fun times at baggage claim!

Yep...we were missing a couple major pieces of luggage, well mainly me, which explains why I wore the same outfit A LOT! It could be worse... : )


Just a few hours to sleep (literally) until our big court date!

We arrived to see Ethiopia in the dark. Our guest house owner picked us up and took us to our destination. We finally got to bed at about 3 A.M. and we had to get up at about 6 A.M. to get ready for our most important day of our adoption. This court date will make it, or break it. Thoughts of this night: Jet-lag, no sleep, excited, nervous, belly ache, loud- howling dogs...

The next morning we met the other three families that we would spend the rest of our week with, spend the next 6 months fighting for our children with, spend time on phone calls and sending emails with and will forever have a special place in our hearts. What an intimate situation to meet total strangers in. We all had this common bond and is was so easy to get to know one another. We were all tired, happy to be there, but anxious. We were all in the same situation: same agency, same orphanage, same fate. We ate our breakfast together at one table and crammed in an old, beat-up mini-van together heading to the court house in Addis Ababa...together...

Receiving Our Court Date Miracle

When I was blogging a year & a half ago, one of the last few posts stated that we had received a court date appointment for August 4, 2011. This was just purely a miracle from God that this happened. Let me recap the events prior:

-We had a court date appointment for June 3, 2011, but a couple of weeks before we were supposed to leave for our first trip to Ethiopia, it was canceled, due to our agency being investigated by the Southern government of ET (the area where our daughters' orphanage was).

-After the bad news of the canceled court date, in July, the investigation charges on our agency were lifted...This was great news because then we would just wait for our turn for our court date.

-Just a couple of days after the good news, we received devastating news: that our daughters' orphanage was shut down (because of fraudulant practices) and our director told us that she was very sorry, but that they did not know where our daughters were or if we will ever find them, let alone adopt them.

So at this point in the adoption process, we had this terrible news, but we still continued "our best" to trust that God would work this out. We hoped and prayed that someone would help us find our daughters, who were already our daughters in our hearts. July 31, 2011...we were on our way to take one of our kids to the doctor, when we got a call from our director. We found out that some of the nannies at our daughters' orphanage, had told someone from our agency that they traveled with the children to their new undisclosed location. So the nannies had told them where all the children were taken. Our director continued to say that another couple with our agency were staying in Ethiopia and their daughter that they were adopting was in the same orphanage as our girls. So they decided to travel down to the Southern government of Ethiopia and beg for their daughter since they had already passed court and in Ethiopia their baby girl was legally theirs. This ended up working for them and the Southern gov't signed the correct documents they needed and they were able to take their daughter out of the orphanage and with them. So this was going to be our game plan...IF we could get a court date...not likely.

So great news...they know where our girls are & we could miraculously get a court date and have to leave in the next day or two. But we didn't know if we had it for sure so we had to wait on pins & needles for 20 hours. In Ethiopia they have what is called a "rainy season." During this two month or so period, the courts are shut down and all adoptions are at a halt because of the conditions of roads etc. in Ethiopia. So we had to get a court date that week or we would have had to wait two months and who knows where Malia and Ruthie would have been by then.

We had just gotten home from a weekend trip to the lake and we had to unpack and pack again, if we were to leave and get to Ethiopia on time. We had to "faithfully pack" not only for ourselves, but for Malia & Ruthie, because they would hopefully be in our care for most of our trip. WE. COULD. NOT. SLEEP. AT. ALL.!!! We were to find out for sure first thing in the morning around 6 am. Mark woke me up with the news... yes, we have a court date, August 4,(my Papaw's birthday). Praise God! It felt like living in a dream.

So now we had to book our flights and get to another part of the world by 8 a.m. August 4th. If we didn't already feel like this adoption was a spiritual battle, we were about to be hit in the face with it.

Press Play

Wow! A year & a half has come and gone. God has truly blessed us & has continually been faithful through all of our highs & lows. There are many reasons that caused me to hit the pause button on blogging, one being that it got very overwhelming and emotional, especially after our first trip to Ethiopia. I wanted to start writing again to record as many details of our adoption as we can remember, for God's glory and for our family to know. There are so many amazing things that He did. I have never felt so close to God because I have never had to look up & seek Him like I did during this process. I understand why He allows trials to come, because it really is for the good of our soul. I will be rewinding to finish the details that got us to Malia & Ruthie. I am not only sharing about our adoption, there is so much more than just that. Not only was God taking care of us then, He is taking care of us now.

All Things ARE Possible!

Many thanks to those of you who have prayed for our Malia & Ruthie and who have continually encouraged us!  We are experiencing a dark valley completing this process to bring our sweet (& I mean sweet) girls HOME!  We are leaning and trusting on our MIGHTY GOD as always!  It is so easy to praise God when everything in life is going great, but we are learning to continually stay faithful even when we do not understand and cannot see what the end result will be.  

In Mark 9:14-29 Jesus heals a father's demon-possessed son.  The father said to Jesus in verse 22, "Have mercy on us and help us.  Do something IF YOU CAN."  Jesus replies, "What do you mean, 'If I can'?  ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE if a person believes."  The father instantly replied, "I do believe, BUT help me not to doubt!"

That passage really hits home right now...we know and believe that Jesus can DO ANYTHING!  But in the small & big details of life, it gets blurry and hard to stay faithful to the course.  We are so close to getting the girls, but we have such a huge hurtle to get them it seems IMPOSSIBLE at times.  But ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE WITH GOD!  

So we are requesting all prayer warriors to advocate for our girls and many other children without a family (and there are willing families that Satan is trying to stop)!  This is a spiritual battle and we have to get involved...we are Christ here on earth. 

Thank you once again for your prayers in this battle!

Another verse we are clinging to...

Luke 18: The Parable of the Persistent Widow

 ¹And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. ²He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. ³And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, 'Give me justice against my adversary.' ⁴For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself,'Though I neither fear God nor respect man, ⁵yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.'" ⁶And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge says. ⁷And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? ⁸I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

Been Busy...

Hey Family & Friends!  We have been busy since we have been home.  I don't know when I will sit down and type about our trip....so until then you can read about it from our new friends that we spent the entire week with.  This is a link to our friends' blog, Justin & Bonnie Myers.

http://www.teammyersathome.blogspot.com/

We would appreciate your continued prayers for our family as well as many others in our situation.
Thank you!

Our Miracle from God!

Quite a lot has happened since our last post.  A month ago we heard some awful news, then two weeks after that devastation, we got a wonderful call,  "Be ready to leave for Ethiopia!"  We had to wait 20 VERY anxious hours to hear if we were going to go for sure.  Finally, our miracle straight from God, "Yes, book your flights!"  I still can't believe all of this has happened, what a gift and blessing from God.  We are now home from the most wonderful trip to Ethiopia.  I don't know how much to say on the blog at this point, so we will keep it broad for now.   Thanks & Glory be to God... WE PASSED COURT!  We thank you, wonderful family & friends for your many prayers!  There is so much more I would like to say, but will wait for a better time.  Please pray for all of the other families who long to meet and be united with their children.  My heart hurts for some of my friends that have waited just as long as us and are still waiting to hear good news.  This is such an emotional journey, so thank you for your love and support.  We are expecting our wait to be roughly 8-10 weeks until we will be able to take our second trip and get our beautiful daughters!  We would appreciate your continued prayers that everything will go smoothly for this to happen!  

Psalm 20 was a very encouraging passage that spoke to us while on our trip.

"May the Lord answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.  May he send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion.  May he remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings.  May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.  We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will lift up our banners in the name of our God.  May the Lord grant all your requests.  Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed; he answers him from his holy heaven with the saving power of his right hand.  Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.  They are brought to their knees and fall , but we rise up and stand firm.  O Lord, save the king!  Answer us when we call! "  

Reality Check

This video puts it all into perspective.  Many of us (too many) have no clue as to how good we have it!  Why did God bless us with wealth?  You may even be thinking that you are not that wealthy... watch this video for a much needed reality check.  
http://vimeo.com/13831236

Angel Road

Have you ever seen an angel?  According to the Bible in Hebrews 13:2, some have entertained angels without even knowing it.  You may or may not have seen one, but my daughter, Grace, HAS!  This is the story of the"Angel Road."  I was driving on it today when for some reason the idea to share it popped in my head. There are NO added details from this real experience so you can take my words for whatever they're worth to you.  But God showed his power to us that warm & beautiful July evening.

It just happened to be my birthday.  Mark & I had enjoyed the afternoon at home playing with our two little ones, Grace, just turned 2 and Lane, was only 6 months old.  Mark had asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday.  It was getting late, but we felt like going out and for some reason I just really wanted to go to the county fair (kind of a tradition around my birthday & yeah- I'm a bit of a country girl).  After we made the decision to go, we were outside when my cousin had stopped by to say hello, so we chatted a bit.  Once she left, I knew time was getting away from me, so I packed up the entire house (at least it seems that way when you have babies), put it in the car and got the kids ready.  Diapers changed...check, kids in the car...check, diaper bag...check, stroller...check....  husband in the car...NOPE!  I pulled out of the the garage to have absolutely nothing left to stall us except Mark.  When I found him I was surprised to see him talking to one of our neighbors that we had never had a chance to speak with since we had moved in our house (2+ years prior).  And NOW of all the times to get acquainted with one another!?  I was actually very patient, the kids were great, but I was just worried at this point about whether it was too late to go or not.

Mark finally jumped in the car and I was driving since I had pulled out already.  By now it was around eight o'clock.  We still just really felt like going, so we went on.  This is a silly detail, but I remember listening to the same song on the "Wiggles" CD that Grace wanted played over and over.  It was actually a calm, tropical sounding song so we didn't mind (that song brings back that night every time I hear it).  So I had just turned right on a road as we were "jammin" to the Wiggles.  Immediately we saw a child walking on the road.  I slowed down and then stopped the car.  What we saw was a little (and I mean little) girl around three years old walking bare foot on the road.  At the time it didn't hit me, but Grace, who had just turned two years old a month earlier, was behind the passenger seat in the back, sitting low in her car seat.  It would have been really hard for her to see the little girl from how she was seated.  When I had slowed down, we heard her say, "ANGEL MOMMY, ANGEL!"  Now up to this point in her life she didn't know what an angel was,  let alone say that word and we had never heard her say it before.  But at that moment it didn't register with us.

So I quickly pulled to the side of the road and Mark jumped out and picked her up.  He brought her over to me and we were both wondering what was wrong with her eyes (for some reason this also did not click with us in the moment), they just looked different.  We looked all around us for an adult or just ANYONE, but no one was around.  Mark asked her where her mommy was.  She kept saying, "Krysta, Krysta."  Finally (at least it seemed forever), a lady came out from a house and came over to Mark and took the little girl saying (VERY NON-chalantly), "Oh, there you are (with a giggle)."  We told her where we found the precious little girl and she gave the excuse, "Oh, well, this isn't her house and she's blind."  WHOA! STOP RIGHT THERE!  WHAT??? She's BLIND!  Then all the more reason to really watch her, in an unfamiliar area when she doesn't have sight!!!  What was going on here?

The woman, whom the girl recognized and went to (we thought she may have been a step-mom, aunt, friend etc), thanked us and took the little girl inside.  We were dumbfounded and frozen.  We sat in the car in the same spot where I stopped.  What?  That was it?  Why did we feel so uneasy? We called the police to report it just incase.  They did check it out, which eased our minds, but we couldn't stop thinking about it for the rest of the night.

Then we started putting the pieces together...
-Were all the things that happened right before we left just a coincidence (our neighbor & my cousin stopping by)? Why did I just really want to go to the fair even though it was so late?
-We remembered where she was walking on the road.  She was at the top of a hill on the same side that a car could have been cruising up the hill & wouldn't be able to see her until it would be too late and could have easily hit her.
-Then we remembered (finally) the fact that little Grace had just shouted, "Angel, Mommy, Angel!" And we knew she didn't know that word.

We realized that God had orchestrated every detail.  I truly believe that Grace saw one of God's angels protecting a little girl who was barefoot & blind on that road.  I know these kind of stories are hard to believe for some and sometimes I stop and think, "Did that really happen?"  And it did!  Then my faith strengthens.  We will never have proof that Grace actually did see an angel of God.  But I do know that there are angels here to protect us and I know that God worked out those circumstances for us to get that little girl off the road, if anything.

Grace and Lane do not remember that happening, but they do know the story.  Every time we drive on that road they recognize it and ask, "Is this the angel road?"  It is an awesome reminder of who's really in control. 

Hebrews 13:2 "Don't forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it!"


Matthew 18:3-6, & 10-14 "I assure you, unless you turn from your sins and become as little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.  Therefore, anyone who becomes as humble as little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.  And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me.  But if anyone causes one of these little ones who trusts in me to lose faith, it would be better for that person to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around the neck."


"Beware that you don't despise a single one of these little ones.  For I tell you that in heaven their angels are always in the presence of my heavenly Father.  If a shepherd has one hundred sheep, and one wanders away and is lost, what will he do?  Won't he leave the ninety-nine others and go out into the hills to search for the lost one?  And if he finds it, he will surely rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that didn't wander away!  In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father's will that even one of these little ones should perish."


TO GOD BE THE GLORY!

Needing Prayer

Hi Family & Friends!

We are still waiting for updates or news about our court date.  Waiting for God to take care of this obstacle is getting a little bit harder.  We would really appreciate your prayers for us to get our girls as soon as possible.  Here are some specific things we are praying for:

-for this obstacle/delay to be resolved so that Malia & Ruthie & many other children can be home with their new families

-for my mom, who is planning to take care of our kids during our ET trips, she needs a significant surgery very soon and we are just praying for God's perfect timing for her.

-for us to get a court date sometime by the end of July (b/c if we don't get one by then, it won't be until at  least Oct. because they shut down the courts for Aug. & Sept. for the rainy season b/c of flooding etc.)

-for our continual faith & trust in God

Thank you so much!  Thank you for your continual encouraging words and for simply asking us how everything is going.  Your generosity & support has been amazing!

~Holly

Just read Matthew 14:22-33 when Jesus walks on water and tells his disciples, "It's all right, I am here!  Don't be afraid."  Then he goes on to tell Peter, "You don't have much faith.  Why did you doubt me?"  Just trying to keep those words in my heart as though he is saying them to me.  Just thought I'd share.  

Change of Plans...

Most people have heard that adopting is like riding a roller coaster.  We definitely knew that from the get-go, however... that doesn't make it any easier when some of the bumps in road come along.  We had all the arrangements to be leaving this Sunday for Ethiopia to finally meet Malia & Ruthie.  A week and a half ago we got a call from our director.  Plans have changed in Ethiopia.  I cannot give details on here but I can tell you for now, our court date is postponed.  We don't know how long for sure, but we are praying hard that it won't be too much longer.  Would you please pray for us and for our girls???  Pray that God would move this process along so that we can have our family complete.

Above all, we know that God is always in control and all we can do is to put our complete trust in Him at all times.  He is the one who led us here and I know His plan is perfect.  Thank you for your prayers!