Bringing Nathan Home

Submitted to Embassy

2012-02-05T23:36:00.000-05:00

After more than seven long weeks of waiting we were finally submitted to the US Embassy on Wednesday, February 1st!! This was a big step toward bringing Nathan home! At this point we are waiting for the embassy to clear us to travel and get his visa. If all goes well we hope to be traveling in 3-4 weeks. We are really praying that Nathan will be home by his first birthday which is March 14th. If the embassy does not think that our case is clearly approvable it will be sent to Nairobi to be reviewed there which could add 1-3 months to our wait to bring him home. Please pray that our case will not be sent to Nairobi and that Nathan will come home SOON!! We are so thankful for all of the support and encouragement we've received during this very tough wait!

Dubai

2011-12-19T01:55:00.000-05:00

We made it to Dubai early yesterday morning. Our hotel is really nice and the beach and weather are wonderful! It is also really nice to not have to worry about food being safe to eat and water being safe. All Will wants to do is "dig, dig, dig". We spent a couple hours on the beach in the early afternoon allowing Will to dig and look for seashells. Alison and Will even got to take a quick camel ride along the beach! From the beach in front of our hotel we can see the famous Burj al Arab hotel and the Palm.

Will took a good nap after the beach then we took a cab to the Dubai Mall. It has an aquarium and underwater zoo and an ice skating rink inside and is the biggest mall in the world. We had a good time walking around there. Right by the mall is the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. We watched a fountain show in front of the Burj Khalifa...a dancing water show synchronized to the song "Thriller". Will loved the dancing water!!

We couldn't resist the Krispy Kreme in the shape of a snowman!!

Today is our last day in Dubai. We plan to enjoy the beach and the pool and just relax! Early tomorrow morning we will be on a 12.5 hr flight from Dubai to New York then on to Columbus. It has been an amazing trip!

Harar and Dire Dawa

2011-12-18T07:04:00.001-05:00

Here are a few pictures of our trip to Harar and Dire Dawa (pronounced Drey Dow). It was a beautiful and paved road on the drive to Harar. The countryside was gorgeous, but very dry. There is a severe drought in the Harar region. We passed by a couple large damp grasslands which our guide told us were lakes not long ago. We saw several small villages and many people walking along the road...many using donkeys or camels to haul materials. Many of the streets in Harar are very narrow and are just traveled on by foot.

Here is our awesome travel coordinator/translator Job, who joined us on our trip. He was a wonderful guide and was incredible with Will.

Saturday morning we took a small tour of Dire Dawa before heading back to the airport. We walked through a large market...here is a picture an adorable little girl at the market.

Will has been very funny about cats on the trip. He tells us several times each day that he misses his kitty Tod. Will got excited every time we saw a cat in Ethiopia. He would call them Tod and follow them around. Unfortunately cats are not nearly as healthy and cared for as in the States so we had to try to keep some distance between them. Here is one such Tod sitting in a hole in the wall.

Our flight on Ethiopian air was good but pretty warm! It was just about an hour back to Addis. Christmas music was playing at the end of the flight. It was funny to be sitting on a hot plane in Africa listening to 'Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow' and Mariah Carey's 'All I want for Christmas is You'! We went straight from the airport to see Nathan. We sadly had to say good-bye to him for the trip. We knew this would be tough, but it was a lot tougher than we thought it would be. We are praying the paperwork is taken care of quickly and the US embassy will clear his visa very soon! We are really hoping Alison can return in late January to bring him home! We then quickly packed up the rest of our things at the guest house and headed back to the airport for our flight to Dubai. Here are a few pictures of our final visit with Nathan before we left Ethiopia.

Thanks again for all your support and prayers for our journey to our son!! The main focus of our prayer right now is getting home safely and that Nathan's paperwork will be completed and submitted to the Embassy soon. This usually takes 2-5 weeks. We are hoping/praying we will be on the shorter end of that time frame. Once submitted, the embassy has 10 business days to either clear us, request more information or for difficult cases...the case is referred on to Nairobi. So we still have a couple more phases of waiting left to do but we know that all will be done in God's perfect timing. Nathan was also very wheezy and on antibiotics once again while we were there. He has been sick almost the entire time we have known about him so we ask you to pray for his health and safety until we can bring him home!

Last Night in Ethiopia

2011-12-16T12:36:00.000-05:00

It is hard to believe but it is already our last night in Ethiopia. We made it to Dire Dawa by a little after 9am this morning, made a quick stop at the hotel to drop our stuff off, then off on about an hour drive to Harar where Nathan was born. It is really nice to see this part of Ethiopia as it is very different than Addis. Even though Dire Dawa is the second largest city in Ethiopia it is far different than Addis. The drive to Harar was through the mountains and several small villages. Harar is a very old town and we spent some time walking around there. It is much warmer here and very dry. The internet at this hotel is pretty slow so no picture update tonight.

We leave here around 11am tomorrow to fly back to Addis... it is only an hour flight. Once in Addis we hope to stop by the Transition Home to say goodbye to Nathan, then stop at our hotel there to grab the rest of our luggage, then back to the airport to fly to Dubai. We leave Ethiopia about 7:30 tomorrow night. It's a 4 hour flight to Dubai but we lose an hour due to a time zone change, so we'll get into Dubai about 12:30am Sun morning which would be 3:30pm Saturday in Ohio. Will has been amazingly good for a 2.5 year old boy and makes friends with everyone we meet. We are just happy that he has been healthy!! Not really sure what his little puking episode was yesterday morning, but we're thinking he must have just choked on something as he was fine before and since. Hopefully his health will continue.

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers! We love getting emails too!

Our last full day in Addis

2011-12-15T09:51:00.000-05:00

Another great day! First thing this morning Will got sick which had us pretty worried...but luckily he acted like nothing happened after that and did great on our long, adventurous day. We were picked up early this morning by our Compassion guide and drove to the other side of Addis to visit a Child Survival Program run by Compassion. This program has 35 mothers and their young children/babies. It was awesome to see the work they are doing. One of the things that the program provides is skill training for the mothers. In the first picture, a few mothers are skill training. Will enjoyed playing with the little ones. Also on the compound is a kindergarten. The children sang Jesus Loves Me and Old MacDonald to us and then we played with them a little and even blew some bubbles for them.

Will loved hanging out with our guide the last two days, Fekadu

After our visit to the CSP we had a couple hours to spare so we had the driver drop us off at the transition house to see Nathan as this may have been our last chance to see him before we leave. We are hoping to be able to see Nathan again on Saturday before we leave Ethiopia, but it all depends on our flights being on time.

How would you like to do all this laundry??

Our final stop for the day was to meet our sponsored child Erimyas. He is 8 and lives with both parents and a little brother. They kindly invited into their little home for a coffee ceremony. What an incredibly sweet family! They had our family photo framed and on top of the TV set!!

This will be our last night in Addis. At 5:30 tomorrow morning we are going to fly to Dire Dawa and then drive to Harar in hopes of meeting Nathan's birth family and the orphanage he lived in. We are not sure if we will have internet access there...so we may not post again until Saturday afternoon before we head to Dubai.

We got to meet two of our Compassion kids!!

2011-12-14T10:09:00.000-05:00

This is Hiwot. She is 10 and lives with her mother and two siblings in Addis. We were able to visit her Compassion project and her home where we also met her mother. All of the staff was wonderful! They even had bread, popcorn, coffee, Cokes, and roasted barley and peanuts for us. Hiwot greeted us with flowers!! Charlie and Will got to break the bread!! We had an awesome visit with them. At Hiwot's house she showed us letters and pictures we had sent her over the last couple of years! Compassion currently has 82,000 kids in their sponsorship program in Ethiopia! The project we visited today was one of over 100 in Addis alone...the need is huge! The program director said that about one sponsor a year comes for a visit to one of the children in his project. We are so happy to finally visit a Compassion project!!

We also got to meet Setena today! She is 13 and lives with her grandmother, two siblings and two uncles . She traveled with one of her uncles and a project worker more than 11 hours on a bus to visit with us. It was both her and her uncle's first time in Addis. She came to the guest house where we are staying and visited with us there. She blew some bubbles for Will. We have been sponsoring Setena for about 4 years! She is an incredibly sweet, beautiful girl!!

Tomorrow we are spending another day with Compassion as we have one more child to visit and we are going to visit a Child Survival Program we support as well!

We were able to spend a little bit of time with Nathan to finish off our day! Here he is making a funny face. The picture of Will is by the sign for our agency, America World...we look forward to seeing this everyday when he head out to see our children!!

After Court

2011-12-14T00:31:00.000-05:00

Here are a few pictures that we took with Nathan after court. Today we are meeting with a couple of the Compassion kids we sponsor and will hopefully be done with that in time to see Nathan a little bit.

It's Official... We're a Family of Four!

2011-12-13T03:17:00.000-05:00

We passed court! Enjoy the pictures!

Introducing Nathan Mosler!

Our first family photos.

Silly boys

Court Tomorrow

2011-12-12T09:04:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is the big day...our court date! Hopefully while you are sleeping tonight the judge will approve us as Nathan's parents!! If that is the case we will be able to post pictures of both of our boys on here tomorrow! We had another great visit with Nathan today. He may be even more easy going than Will...which I didn't think was possible. He is very calm and loves to watch what's going on around him. He and Will are really cute when they interact! Today we also met with Nathan's doctor. He has had MANY upper respiratory infections, ear infections and is on antibiotics once again. Poor little guy hasn't been healthy much at all during his short life so far...hopefully that will all change soon! Will slept through the entire shopping experience which is pretty incredible considering how noisy the street was. He is still asleep as we veg before dinner. Will and us are gradually getting used to the time change... which means we'll be home soon! Looks like we're missing some cool weather back home... it's been very pleasant here the whole time.

Sunday

2011-12-12T01:07:00.000-05:00

We had a really good day on Sunday! We went to an international evangelical church after breakfast which was great! We then went out to lunch and off to the transition house. Nathan was sweet as could be once again. Will is so funny...he asks for his baby brother all day long. We only spend a couple hours there each day and the rest of the day Will is asking when we can go back and see him again! This time while we were there we visited Will's old room at the transition house and his nannies remembered him. I think we had him pretty confused though...he seemed worried like we were going to make him stay there with Nathan! Today we are headed back to the transition house to see Nathan again then shopping this afternoon.

Dubai

2011-12-11T01:46:00.000-05:00

Just a few pictures of Will enjoying his time in Dubai. Will found Santa and some mango juice at the Dubai airport. The final picture is Will enjoying his time in business class...he was spoiled rotten with toys, a backpack and pictures from a few friendly crew members!!

We had a pretty good night, no problem falling asleep...but Will and Alison have been up since 4am. By breakfast time Will was ready for a nap. We are headed to church, lunch then back to the transition house to see Nathan. Will has been asking for his baby brother since we left yesterday afternoon!

In Ethiopia!

2011-12-10T22:31:00.001-05:00

Hello! Well, you all are just getting started with your day, but we're ready to sleep! We just got back from getting to see, hold, and feed Nathan! We were with him for about 2 hours. We got into Addis, ate lunch, and went right over to the Transition House. He is an extremely content baby. He didn't fuss at all and by the time we left he was smiling and getting excited. He did very well eating what looked to be pureed rice and vegetables from a spoon. Will was very good with him, he gave him hugs and kisses without needing to be prompted and said he could come home, but for Will the big hit was kicking a soccer ball and running around with the older kids at the Transition Home. It wore him out as he fell asleep on the very bumpy 15 minute ride to the guest house and is sleeping very soundly right now.

How was the traveling you ask? It really wasn't too bad at all. The worst part was the 9 hour lay over in New York. Will did well on all the flights, but didn't seem to think too much of the sleeping arrangements on the plane Thurs night. We got into Dubai last night no problem and got shuttled to our hotel for a late dinner ( although we'd already had 3 meals that day) and bed... it was definitely nice to spread out for 8 hours or so. Then it was back to the airport this morning for an 8:30am flight. We got lucky and were upgraded to business class somehow which was very nice...almost full recliners, with plenty of space to walk around... too bad it was the 4 hour flight instead of the 12 hour flight, but oh well, it was defintely very nice and Will was able to sleep much easier, though we had to wake him to land. While we didn't see much of Dubai at all, what we did see seemed pretty nice.

Hopefully we'll get some pictures transferred to the laptop later tonight or tomorrow for sure and send some of those. We can't send any of Nathan yet, but can send you some of Will. Hopefully, if all goes well at court on Tuesday we can share all kinds of pictures.

How fast time flies

2009-11-20T00:07:00.003-05:00

It's hard to believe that we've been home for 2 1/2 months already. Will has been absolutely wonderful. He has really been putting on weight... he's up to 17 lbs. He was only 10 lbs when we brought him home in September! He is a very happy little guy. He babbles and coos almost continuously and is only fussy if he is hungry. We've not yet convinced him that he doesn't need to wake up to eat in the middle of the night, but he's getting better... now lasting 4-4 1/2 hours instead of needing to eat every 3.

Will got to take is first big road trip in October. I attended the national advocates conference for Compassion International in Colorado Springs and then we headed up to Yellowstone and the Tetons and finally Montana before heading back home to Ohio. We drove over 4000 miles in 12 days! I was definitely nervous about how Will would take being in the car so much, especially since he went the first 5 months of his life never seeing a car seat. He did great! He was perfectly content sitting in his car seat for many hours a day. It was unusually cold in many places we visited in Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. We drove through a lot of snow and were slightly limited in our National Park adventures due to closed roads. I'm attaching a couple of pictures from our trip.

Now, regarding the last post I made shortly after we returned home. The day before we left on our road trip we received a call from America World saying that we would not be able to adopt Will's sister in Ethiopia. She has an uncle living in Ethiopia who wants to take care of her so she is not available for adoption. We were very devastated to receive this news. I have put off posting in hope that I would have better news to share regarding her. We know that God knows what is best for her and we can only trust that this uncle of hers will love and care for her. We continue to pray for her daily and trust that if it is God's will- she will join our family someday. If that doesn't happen, we know that God will provide for her.

It's not over yet!

2009-09-17T11:03:00.002-04:00

We have been home for almost 2 weeks already! Will has been wonderful. He is such a happy, loving baby. It's so hard to imagine how things were before this little angel entered our lives... God is great!

While in Ethiopia, we mentioned we were able to meet Will's birth mother, grandmother and sister. What we didn't mention was that following this visit with his birth family... we were asked to adopt his 4 year old sister as well! She is a beautiful, lively little girl. His birth mother is struggling to take care of her and has been ill also making it difficult... she wants her children to stay together and both have an environment when they have more opportunities. We have been pretty overwhelmed by this, but we have realized that God's plans are always better than our own. We have been praying for this little girl since we first found out that Will had a sister, but we never thought things would unfold like this!

We have since begun a little more paperchasing and have another home study visit coming up later this month. We really didn't think we'd be going through this again so soon! Luckily our paperwork is still in date we just have to update some of it to state we are requesting 2 children instead of just one. Our agency assures us that the birth mom will receive more counseling to ensure that this is truly what she wants. If all goes smoothly we could be traveling back to Ethiopia yet this year!

This is going to be a huge transition for our family and even more so for this little girl... Lily. We have decided that Lily will be her name once she here with us... it just seems to fit her in so many ways! Please pray that things progress smoothly and that God prepares us to parent this little girl and give us patience as we help her through this major transition. Please also pray for Lily as she will deal with being separated from her mother and adjust to a completely different life in a place so different from what she's used to and with people who don't speak her language. Finally pray for the birth mom.. we cannot imagine how hard this decision has to be for her. God is good and we know that things will happen as they should... we are just anxious to find out!

Stay tuned... hopefully soon we'll have a new referral and be starting our blog for Lily's journey home! Once again, thanks so much for your prayers and encouragement! It is very evident to us and we feel so blessed!

2009-09-08T09:53:00.000-04:00

We made it!

2009-09-08T09:39:00.002-04:00

Hello!
Sorry it took us so long to let everyone know we made it back to the states. It is so good to have Will at home with us! He was an angel on the long journey back to Ada. The pressure changes on the plane and the ride in a car seat didn't phase him a bit! He must be hard wired to be happy no matter what.. lucky us!!

Since home, he is having a little trouble adjusting to the new time zone. He falls asleep early in the day and is ready to be up when we're ready for bed. We're making small improvements every day though, so soon we should be in sync.

Thanks so much to everyone for their prayers and support. We are thrilled to be able to raise Will with such a wonderful support system. He is such a blessing. Can't wait for everyone to meet him! Ethiopia was an amazing adventure full of so much excitement and joy in the midst of poverty and loss of hope. We hope to be able to return to Ethiopia again real soon! Although we cannot change the world, we can change the world for one child!!!!

Heading Home

2009-09-04T10:18:00.000-04:00

In about an hour we'll be leaving the Guest House to head home! This has been an amazing experience, but we're excited to finally bring Will home! Please pray that Will is a happy traveller for the next 29 1/2 hours!

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV)

Compassion. Releasing children from poverty in Jesus' name. Sponsor a child today.

Clear to come home!

2009-09-03T13:32:00.001-04:00

Will passed the last big hurdle today with flying colors. He got his US visa and passed his paperwork stuff at the US consulate here. He'll be traveling on his Ethiopia passport, but by both of us being here and doing the embassy stuff today it basically means he is clear to travel home with us and that he will essentially be a US citizen once we land, although technically we have some final paperwork to fill out once we get home. He has been just about 100% angel since we have had him. He has been sleeping quite a bit, especially yesterday, but is very good at entertaining himself and falling asleep pretty much by himself as well. I guess considering where he is coming from that's not a big surprise. It'll be interesting to see if he becomes "needier" once he figures out all he has to do is cry a little and we come running. Not much planned for tomorrow other than a "sleep-in" day (if Will allows) and some final shopping and then the long flight back home. We should be back in Columbus around 1:40pm Saturday which will be about 23 hours after we are supposed to leave the airport here. He has travelled on the bus very well, granted a lot shorter distances than what we face coming up, but we're hoping that's a good sign. Well, he is out, so I guess we better get going to bed too. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers!

Wednesday Update

2009-09-02T12:05:00.001-04:00

Will had a very good first night with us. He went to sleep around 8pm, we thought for just a short nap, but he didn't think that way. He woke up briefly at 10:30pm, just long enough for us to put him in his sleeper and swaddle him up tight. Then he slept until about 3:15 and woke for a quick bottle and back to sleep until 7:30 this morning. He has slept a lot today. He just kind of woke up for a bottle now, but not really. According to Alison's count he has had 6 naps, and the current one is going on 3 hours, with that brief half bottle break.... so who knows.. maybe he's down again for the night. There should be 4 pictures attached to this message, 1 is of the 3 of us on the bus ride from the transition home yesterday (our "forever day"), one of him with his Aunt Rachel (who has been a huge help) with him, and then two more of him from today. The power has been pretty hit or miss today, but the generator is running now. Tomorrow is our big day at the US consulate... hopefully by the time you wake up we'll be official. I'm being told it's time to get going so we can eat... spaghetti is on tap for tonight. The last two days we've been eating breakfast and supper here at the guest house and then going out for lunch with everyone. Of course there are several other families here as well, so we see them for breakfast and supper. Our group is too big (15 families) so unfortunately not everyone is here, but we've been seeing them each day. Thank you for all of your continued prayers.

We Have Him!

2009-09-01T13:41:00.001-04:00

There is a little bundle of joy snoring in our room as I quietly type this! It's crazy! We got to meet his birth mom, grandma, and big sister today. That was pretty emotional, but they were all three extremely thankful and grateful that we will be his parents. I must admit I was nervous about meeting her, but Alison knew we needed to all along and it was definitely a good decision on her part. Then we pretty much grabbed Will and ran... it was kind of funny how rush rush everything was to leave, but we were a bit delayed compared to the rest of the group since we met his birth family. So then we've been back here at the guest house since about 5pm local (10am EDT). I have to laugh because he's snoring away still. Anyways, we gave him a bottle and he pretty much went to sleep. He's used to a very regimented schedule of 130ml of formula 7 times a day, so we don't really know how long he will sleep at once, but Alison has him all swaddled up and sleeping soundly at the moment. Tomorrow is a visit to an orphanage and then our day at the embassy got pushed back until Thursday since we have such a large group. It's hard to believe that we'll be leaving in 72 hours. If today is any indication Will will not be any problem on the plane. He has been quite happy and smiley and very cognizant of his surroundings. As Alison says he couldn't be anymore perfect. Thank you all for your continued prayers, it really has been an amazing journey.

picture attempt

2009-09-01T01:15:00.001-04:00

Forever day

2009-09-01T01:05:00.001-04:00

It's Forever Day! We've waited for this day for a long time! Things are going really well here. We are one of 15 families from our agency here plus there are quite a few families from other agencies staying at the guest house as well. It has been wonderful to share this experience with all of them. Yesterday was fantastic! Will was an angel. Rachel took over 500 pictures of all the families and seemed to really enjoy every minute of it. We can't wait to see him again today. The best thing is that he leaves with us today!! We've been trying to upload pictures without any success. We'll update again when we can!

We Met Will!

2009-08-31T10:49:00.001-04:00

We made it to ET just fine, no problems, long time to sit on one plane though! Got in about 7:40pm local time (12:40pm back home) yesterday. But all that is just blah, blah, blah!

We met Will!! We got to spend a little over 2 hours with him today. It was amazing. He is just how he looks in the pictures, but definitely not as big as he looks in his pictures. They are right and he is probably only about 10 lbs. We also got his birth certificate and his DOB is 3/26/2009. The same day as his cousin Ella, but she has him by 4 years. Alison even got to feed him a bottle. He was very happy, only started to cry once when his mother was holding him, but he calmed right back down as soon as Dad stole him back!

We go back tomorrow to pick him up for good! It's still hard to believe, but today has definitely made it a lot more real.

Alison is off being pampered and getting a massage with most of the rest of the new Mom's. Rachel and I are sorting through the 500+ pictures we've taken since being here... the fast majority of those within about 2 hours. I want to get this posted and then try to get pics uploaded... this is the first time we've been able to get on the internet.

One Week

2009-08-25T17:44:00.002-04:00

Our Forever Day (Gotcha Day) is just one week away! Next Tuesday Will will leave the transition house with us and be a part of our family forever! Although it's been 14 months since we began this journey, it seems like it's gone so fast. We have been so blessed that it has been a pretty smooth process so far and are praying that it finishes just as smooth. We depart the US on Saturday and arrive in Ethiopia Sunday night. We hope to be able to update our blog from the guest house we are staying at. This has been an amazing experience so far and the best part is yet to come! Thanks so much for experiencing this with us! We are so blessed to have such a wonderful support system.

A special thanks to Sarah for sharing some love with Will and taking a few photos for us.

Update!

2009-08-20T12:28:00.003-04:00

Much has happened this week so far. Monday we found out that all of Will's post court paper work went through... thus we were able to confirm our travel dates and booked our flights. We leave August 29th, just 9 days from today!! Charlie and I are so excited that my little sister Rachel will also be able to make the trip (as we return before Ohio State classes begin). She will be invaluable to help with video and pictures, capturing these precious moments!

Just today we received an update on Will. His curly hair is sure growing! He has put on a little weight but not much. The update says that he is very happy and smiles a lot! Thankfully he has remained healthy as well.

2 more weeks!

2009-08-16T13:15:00.004-04:00

While it's still not 100% official, it's looking more likely that we'll be over in Ethiopia in 2 weeks (if not sooner!). It looks like we're only 1 of at least 10 families will be making the trip then from our agency... including at least 3 other families from Ohio! Thanks for all the prayers!

We Passed!

2009-08-07T13:20:00.004-04:00

We passed court today which means Will is officially our child! We still do not know for sure when we will be traveling, but it will probably be late this month. This was (hopefully) the last big hurdle for us though. This decision today also means that we can finally share the 2 pictures we have of Will (in case you somehow missed them, they're above!). Thanks so much for all your thoughts and prayers!

4 More Days

2009-08-03T22:50:00.002-04:00

We are just four days from our court date. To say we are a little anxious is a major understatement. On Friday, the Ethiopian judge will decide on custody of Will. We heard from our agency that approximately 60% of families pass court their first try. If we do pass court, we will plan to travel at the end of August to bring him home. If we do not pass court, we will be scheduled another court date. One more issue to add to our nerves is that the courts will be closing at the end of August thru the end of September due to the rainy season. So, if we do not pass court on Friday we may have to wait until October for our second court date.

We are so thankful for all of your prayers and support. We know that it is all in God's control. Please continue to pray that court will run smoothly, that we can stay calm and hopeful, and that Will is healthy and well-cared for. We are so excited to bring him home! Ethiopia is 7 hours ahead of us, so it could all be over by the time we wake on Friday. Thanks again for your prayers. Keep them coming!

Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.
~ Romans 12:12

2009-07-22T23:43:00.000-04:00

I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry.
~ Psalm 40:1, NLT

Three weeks ago today we received the news of our beautiful, three month old litle boy. Our referral came exactly one year after we took that first step and applied for an adoption. God truly does know the desires of our hearts. This little angel is exactly what mine has been waiting for. Adoption is such an amazing gift that joins husband and wife longing to be parents with a child in need of a home. This is a perfect example of how we are all adopted into God's kingdom.

"He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God--children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God."
~John 1:11-13

We are once again waiting. This time for our court date on August 7th. If we pass court, we will be traveling to Ethiopia approximately 2-4 weeks later to bring home our precious Will. If we do not pass court, we will wait for them to give us another court date. About 40% of families do not pass court the first time. Please join us in praying that everything will run smoothly with court and that we will be able to bring Will home.