Timeline

Well, I obviously have not kept up with this blog for day-to-day updates, but now I'm going to have to buckle down. Hopefully I can use this to keep all of you informed on our wonderous journey to pick up our sons. How exciting! As a run-through for where God has brought us:

Last week of March our paperwork was finally turned in.

First week of April our paperwork reaches the right people in Ethiopia.

April 6 - Both Andenet and Dagim arrive at the orphanage.

July 20 - I got a sink and dishwasher in my kitchen. Greatest accomplishment so far on this kitchen remodeling project. Then I got a call while out shopping at Target - our agency has 2 boys they would like us to take a look at! Amazing! What a day! Burned into my mind forever!

August and September (and half of October) Ethiopian courts are shut down for the rainy season.

October 14 - first day the courts reopen is our court date. Yeah! Unfortunately dad is in surgery for his leg. The stress of waiting for 2 major life issues is a little wearing. Dad pulls through with flying colors, we get no word - not positive or negative. Learning yet again that we just need to rely on God.

October 15 - finally get news. WE PASSED! On the first try! Wow!

October 30 - hear that some families are heading out the 9th of November. Wow! That's soon! but our immigration update (to bring kids into the US) is not in Ethiopia yet, so we can't go with that group. Sigh.

November 18 - I learn that though our National Visa Center sent it the week of November 9, the e-mail somehow never made it to our embassy in Ethiopia. Aaargh! Spent a few hours that day and the next getting it re-sent

November 20 - our paper is there and we have permission to travel! Hooray!

So here we are now - packing frantically and getting ready to fly out on Wednesday. Praise God!

Something went right!

Great news - our paperwork made it through the Secretary of State and the Ethiopian Embassy! It is now back at Adoption Associates. So this means it's getting forwarded to Ethiopia and we'll soon be in line!

The Ethiopian Flag

Alyssa's still praying for two sisters. Praying hard. I told Chris that he's going to have to have a good talk with God if he has any hope of a son :).



Yesterday I started - ugh - looking at minivans. Sigh. The stigma is killing us. But the practicality with three kids... and then the dog, and the luggage, and the camping gear... I guess this is to pay me back for all of the years of jokes about minivan moms (sorry all of you who are reading this!) Right now we're maybe considering a Town & Country or a Caravan. Hmmm...



So the next step for us is waiting for our place in line. In about a week(ish) our "overnighted" paperwork should get to the proper person in Ethiopia. Then we start getting some slight idea of what our wait might be. We're also looking for an easy phrase guide for Amharic.

Thank you for your prayers - and please keep praying for health, safety, and that the wait would be VERY short!

Planting season

Today our paperwork made it through the Secretary of State and is spending the night at the Embassy of Ethiopia. Last hurdle US side... We’re praying hard!

It’s also planting time.


We’ve started cold frames this year and have lettuces and spinach growing well already. We’re a little late on a few other things – planting the seeds for our tomatoes and peppers and such. We’ll see how they do.

Every time I plant things now, or even look at our garden, I wonder… at what time in our growing season will we pick up and leave and come back a completely changed family? Supersonic early, just after the tomatoes are planted in June? No, that’s a little too early. When things are starting to produce, in July? Harvest, in October? What will God’s timing be?


Last night I was up late reading some of the travel things from our agency and articles on Ethiopia that I found in the internet. I’m trying to grasp true poverty. I’ve always felt an unrest, a yearning, a calling, to help, to do something, to start righting the scales. But to actually see it… I don’t know if I’m ready. The things we call poverty in the states – there’s no comparison. That’s riches in Ethiopia. I’ve never been hungry without knowing there was food waiting. I’ve never had only one meal a day – and that’s if they can manage to get the aid. This is going to be a tough trip.

In the more immediate front, we are moving along with the kitchen finally. It’s time to start sanding the cabinets! Hey, if that’s a love of yours, we’ll be doing it for a while – drop by and we’ll provide some dinner! Chris is then going to move the fridge and stove out of the kitchen, seal things off even better, and spray paint all the cabinets right in there. Hey, there’s no surface that won’t eventually be redone, why not?

I just had to add this picture - it's the only view I ever have of Alyssa any more. And all conversations entail, " just one more page/chapter/book."

Alyssa's growth and car shopping

Alyssa has been growing like a weed lately - except that they don't get cranky and sleepy from it. She comes home from school "starving" and will hunt down any food in the entire house until she heads to bed. She is also really becoming graceful. Alyssa entered ability-grouped ballet this year, "big girl ballet." For the first half of the year we ballet moms laughed at our children as the ballet instructor did these graceful deep knee bend, twirls, and leaps, and our girls flopped around after. Now suddenly Alyssa is slowly and gracefully bending and leaping and twirling and... wow, I know she didn't get all that from me!






Miss Caitlyn is Alyssa's ballet teacher. Alyssa adores her.














Warm-ups at the bar (barr? I'm so un-ballet savvey still). She's really getting it now! Her best friend Emily takes the class with her and there, like everywhere else, they are inseparable.











For one class the girls broke into groups of three and choreographed their own short dance, using what they knew. I was quite impressed!






In other news, we are contemplating cars. If you've seen our rides lately, you'll know we have a Ford Ranger (fits two comfortably when one is in a booster seat) and a Hundai accent (fits four if two are in carseats). Seeing as Alyssa will be in a carseat for six more months, and any more children will be in carseats, this presents us with a challenge. So today we started thinking about vehicles. And I'm sorry those of you who have a minivan and love them, we REALLY don't want to own a minivan! We're going into this kicking and screaming! We looked up minivans and small to mid-sized SUVs and crossovers and all kinds of things. Sigh. There goes our awesome fuel economy. Any thoughts on the perfect kid-car for us? We appreciate comments on this big decision!

The paperwork is done!

Well, a lot of you have been praying for us and writing recommendations for us and so many other things - thank you. Our part is done! Wednesday afternoon we had the last corrections signed and notarized and yesterday I went to the Office of the Great Seal. Yes, the title is quite something, isn't it? I've been reading too much fantasy lately, I think. I felt like I should be going on a quest to "search for the Great Seal," which would magically make all of our papers completely correct. And it did! In truth, I drove up to Grand Rapids and sat at the Secretary of State in Centerpointe Mall for a few hours. Then a wonderful, beautiful woman came out, pronounced all of our notaries correct, and gave me back all of my papers with big gold stickers on them. Oh, the wonderful gold stickers!

Next up... Well, as soon as I got those I put everything in order and headed to FedEx. There I overnighted the huge stack of papers to The Assistant Stork, a courior service in DC. I took a few pictures of these papers - all our work. We won't see these again. Wow.

Look at all those stickers!

Filling out the forms. Can you see the stack of papers I'm sending?

The Assistant Stork will bring our papers through the Secretary of State and the Embassy of Ethiopia on Monday, and then overnight them back to Adoption Associates! Things may finally start moving a little quicker here! Then the Adoption Agency will overnight it to Ethiopia (I think overnighting across the world takes about a week), and we'll hear where we stand in line for children. Things shouldn't take TOO long for us, since we are just asking for two children anywhere from 0 - 7 years old. No specifics on boys or girls or anything like that.

How can you be involved?

1) Please Pray for our children. Pray that they will be protected physically, mentally, and spiritually. Pray that they will have enough healthy food to eat - there is much, much malnurishment right now. Prices are skyrocketing everywhere and poverty is getting even worse everywhere.

2) Please pray for us. Pray that we will be ready. We're through the monotony of doing and redoing (and redoing and redoing) paperwork. Now we're expecting! Yikes! Pray that we will have patience in our wait and will be ready for a greatly expanded family. Also that we would get our kitchen ready!

3) If you'd like to help a little more tactically, we could use help in our kitchen... I guess there's an actually deadline comeing now... :)

4) Infant formula cannot be bought in Ethiopia. It is so expensive, and with repurcussions from the China milk tainting still coming through... our agency's orphanages cannot get formula! So our agency is collecting formula and every time someone goes to pick up children (there are quite a few kids going through the court process and all right now) the family brings a case or two of formula also. If anyone would like to help donate formula we would be overjoyed to collect formula and bring it up. This may be our children who need the nurishment!

Praise the Lord! Things are moving!