A couple days ago Ethiopia’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MOWA) closed for two weeks.  We understand these types of events are not uncommon, but we are in a bit of limbo at the moment.  Our court date is Wednesday and, if MOWA processed our recommendation, we should pass court.  However, if they did not finish the paperwork on our case we will most likely have to wait for another court date.  And for now, there is no way for our agency to find out if they finished the work on our case.  We’ll know Wednesday when we find out if we passed court.  God is in control.

We received a phone call just before noon today telling us our court date is July 15!!!  After we pass court (and the kids are ours in the eyes of the Ethiopian government), they’ll schedule an appointment with the US embassy in Addis Ababa.  The earliest possibility is August 18, but we won’t know until after we pass court.  Please pray for: 1) we pass court on the 15th of July, and 2) expedited embassy appointment.

Praise God – we’re still waiting, but it’s a new phase of waiting!!!

We just got home from a fantastic afternoon/evening event hosted by a family that recently adopted a boy from Ethiopia.  There were many families in various stages of the adoption process (including several who already had their kids with them).  It was so nice to discuss our stories, and how God called each of the couples/families into adopting Ethiopian children.  And, of course, playing with and holding these precious children was the highlight.

We finally met the Kerrigans, whose blog we’ve been following.  We enjoyed meeting Caleb and Eli after months of praying for their arrival home! 

Thank you to the Markquarts for hosting.  We had a great time.

Since it’s been two weeks since we told you we’d have a court date “this week” we thought we should provide an update.  Unfortunately, there’s been a delay in assigning our court date.  We don’t know precisely why (“we’re working with a newer orphanage” is the explanation given) and we don’t know how long to expect the delay to be. 

We appreciate those of you who have asked about an update (and, in case you’re concerned, we do NOT mind fielding the questions).  We also continue to covet your prayers.  We’ve acknowledged from the start that the timing is in God’s hands.  Since that’s true, we’re not worried about this but we are excited to get the boys home.  And, like most people, we prefer to know how to plan so we would like to know the court date. 

That’s all we know for now.  When we get our court date, we will:

1. Call Sarah, Kyle and Janel
2. Post the court date on this website
3. Make other family calls

So… check back daily!

We were notified this morning (Monday, June 1) that we will learn our court date this week!!!  Our file has been opened in the Ethiopian courts and they are scheduling it even now.  Praise God and please continue to pray that He will work out the details.  With all the variables (Randy’s job, Sary-Jo’s school schedule, final training, school for the boys, Sarah’s and Janel’s schedule, and more), we are so grateful that God not only knows what will be best for us, but He is also in control!

Of course, we’d prefer an early court date.  So if that is not what He has in store for us, please pray that we will recognize His hand and be grateful in all circumstances.  But we are anxious!!!  We want to bring our boys home ASAP.

For those not totally familiar with the process… after we pass court (which should not be a problem, but one never knows), our agency will make an appointment for us with the US embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  We will travel there for the embassy appointment and come home with the boys.  Then we can post some pictures of our complete family!

May 31 was the “First Annual Ethiopia Night” at Bonney Lake Community Church and we were invited to attend.  The pastor, Jeff Butler, had traveled to Ethiopia with the team from Adoption Ministry (our agency).  The purpose of the evening was to share what God is doing through the ministry and to encourage support through travel, giving, adoption and/or prayer.  We were totally blessed by our time there and moved to tears more than once.

At one point, Pastor Jeff shared about seeing the orphanage director (Tezera) praising God because she was learning that two orphan boys were receiving a new family.  He showed a picture of Tezera that was taken at that moment.  The picture and his description of it were very moving and, to top it off, he was describing the moment that Tezera and our boys were learning that they’re going to be part of our family.  It was pointless to try to maintain composure.

I just returned from the post office, where I mailed off the last set of documents needed to process our adoption.  This included the formal referrals and acceptance documents, as well as the final payment to the agency.

While we have recognized that this process has been in God’s hands from the beginning, it’s now a bit different in that we have nothing to do except prepare for travel.  Our attorney in Ethiopia will get a court date as soon as possible; once we pass court, he’ll get an appointment for us at the US Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  We need to show up and answer any questions they might have of us.  Then we come home with our boys!!!

On Friday, we got our first round of vaccinations for travel to Ethiopia.  We got three shots; we’ll get three more next Friday, and one a couple weeks after that.  After a couple nights sleeping on our right sides, we’re looking forward to being able to sleep on the left side if we want to tonight!

Praise God that in less than one week, our dossier:

• Left Puyallup for Washington, DC
• Was authenticated by the US Department of State
• Was processed by the Embassy of Ethiopia
• Traveled by FedEx to the Children’s House Internataional (CHI) office in Ferndale, Washington
• Got bundled with other dossiers (and notarized copies of ours)
• Left for Ethiopia via FedEx

We would like to thank Laura Morrison (the Assistant Stork) in Washington, DC.  Her courier service made this possible.  I cannot overstate our appreciation (think about it!  the US government and the Ethiopian embassy processed the 20 or so documents in our dossier in just a couple days).  The process in DC went so quickly that we weren’t really ready on this end.  We had to scramble to get the notarized copies to Ferndale in order to allow CHI to bundle it all together and get it sent off this week.  And while we were scrambling, the Adoption Ministry and CHI scrambled with us to complete this miracle.  We had failed to sign and notarize one copy – Gayle at the Adoption Ministry office took care of that quickly.  Then CHI held their weekly package to Ethiopia for a day so that our packet would be expedited.  Another big thank you to each of them!

All in all, it’s been a great week.  From here, timing is in the hands of the Ethiopians – as directed by the sovereign God of the Universe.  We trust His timing and pray that he will cause people to move quickly.  We’re told to expect that our court date will probably be at least four months away.  Of course, we would like the boys home as soon as possible.

Continue to pray for:

• God’s hand in the timing of our court date
• Protection and encouragement for the boys (waiting is hard on them too!)
• Randy’s future employment

With our documents

Our completed Dossier was mailed off to DC today!!  We have spent countless hours working on the documents since January and double/triple checking everything.  The dossier, a collection of some twenty documents, is on its way to the State Department and the Ethiopian Embassy.  Once authenticated there, it returns to our agency.  They look it over one last time and then send it on to Ethiopia for translation and submission to the courts.

This is a huge emotional step for us.  Until this point we’ve been trying to do all we can do and to trust God for the results.  After this, there is really nothing for us to do as we wait completely on God’s timing.  We know His way is best, and we are confident that He is in control.  But we can’t deny that we are somewhat impatient human beings and want these boys home as soon as possible.