Is this worth it?

Is this worth it?  Much to my dismay, these were the words I heard uttered from the mouth of one of my very tired children yesterday morning while waiting for our 13 hour plane ride to end. How could this child of mine think that?  And yet, after a grueling two day plane trip across the world, how could I not accept the humanity of this comment.   As much as I would like to believe that I have somehow trained my children to be selfless and self-sacrificing,  they are still children.  How can I possibly expect them to totally understand or embrace what we are doing. And yet, that is what I am asking of this child.  I am asking this child to trust me and to trust God.

This is worth it. The six hour car ride is worth it.  The grueling plane ride is worth it.  The long visa line is worth it.  The gathering and shipping of donations is worth it.  The missing work, school, athletics, etc. are worth it.  Why?  It is worth it because every child deserves a family. It is worth it because every child needs to feel loved and cherished. It is worth it because God has said in His word that caring for widows and orphans is worthy.  And for our family, caring for widows and orphans means adoption. 

So, after our visit with E and K at the Transition Home yesterday, I asked my child if it was worth it.  With a big smile, the response was "Absolutely."  I believe that God is up to more than just our family adopting these two little girls.  He is also interested in molding and shaping the hearts of my children.  And whatever God wants to do so that my children's character and lives will reflect more of His, I believe it is worth it.

We Arrived!

After many flight delays, travel headaches and God bail outs, we finally made it onto our flight to Addis and survived the 13 hour plane ride.  What a journey! 

We made it through the line for Visas and the wait for baggage and the chaos through customs.  Thank goodness it was busy because no one seemed to care about our 9 pieces of luggage going through the scanner.  We finally arrived outside and were met by Jonas.  He is amazing!  We drove right to the Yesabi Guest House, checked in, cleaned up a bit and then we went to meet our girls.

We Meet!
We were the only family there, so we had the whole porch to ourselves.  The girls are sooo beautiful...beautiful smiles, beautiful eyes, beautiful faces, beautiful sweet spirits.  We are so excited to finally meet them.  We are finally able to put our arms around these precious sisters and tell them we love them and that we will be their family.  We were only allowed a short time with them today, but tomorrow we will go back and be able to spend more time.

The rest of our week looks like this: 
Monday:  Transition Home (visit E and K)
Tuesday:  Meeting with doctors, visit Transition Home, deliver care packages
Wednesday:  Transition Home, Court apt, Traditional Dinner
Thursday:  Meeting at Transition Home

Please keep praying for us.  Thank you.

Here we go!

We are sitting in the airport in Rapid City waiting to board the first leg of our flight.  Already we have felt God's Hand on this trip.  Right off, the baggage handler took us under his wing and escorted us up to the United check-in.  Of course, through visiting, he found out we were adopting and revealed that he and his wife were foster parents.  He was 68 years old with a 7 year old foster daughter.  :)  Also, as we waited, Jay discovered that he was from Montana, near Plentywood.  He even knew some of the same people Jay knows.  It's such a small world.

Our check-in took quite awhile.  The United agent had a real challenge with her computer and eventually she had to only charge us $25/bag instead of $35/bag.  We weren't arguing with her. One of our blue tubs proved to be "suspicious" too. So that was opened and unpacked, checked thoroughly and then re-tied.  Apparently, all that toothpaste, hand sanitizer and other medical supplies are suspect.

As we finally cleared through security, we heard that the flight from Rapid to Denver was cancelled because of mechanical.  That was the other flight we considered taking.  We are so thankful the Lord led us to fly through Chicago. 

We should be boarding soon.  Here we go!

Packing!!

Here are a couple pictures of all the stuff we are bringing to Ethiopia.  We are amazed at how much stuff we are bringing and how little of it is for us.  All of the tubs, duffel bags, and the two red suitcases contain donations.  We have some food interspersed in the red bags, but most of our personal items are in carry-ons.  What a job!  I have renewed respect for all those who have gone before us.  It is quite a task.

Jay has been working like crazy to get started with the seeding/spraying/rock picking.  He has managed to put in 350 acres of field peas with the help of a couple guys from our church.  We are so blessed to have some amazing guys who are taking time away from their work to help us in the field.  We are so blessed to have such good friends!



The next time I post, I hope to have some pictures of our girls.  We just received another update from the Transition Home with new pictures.  Anxious to put my arms around those little ones!  Soon,  Soon. 

Please pray for a sweet visit. 

Court Date!

Our Court Date is May 8th!  

We have been waiting and waiting for this court assignment and now that it has come, my head is spinning. 

We had to take a quick trip to Rapid City yesterday to renew our fingerprints for the 2nd time, so we took advantage of the drive to call Golden Rule Travel on the east coast and make flight arrangements.  By the end of today we had secured our flight, bought a lap top computer (ours died a couple years ago and don't ask me why we didn't purchase one a couple years ago), and had cancelled all appointments for our week of travel.

God's timing is soo perfect.  I am so grateful that Olivia will not have to miss her beloved HS Choir Concert (we are leaving after it) or her first HS Prom or her A.C.T. test or her AP Psychology test.  Although she would have gladly given them up to travel to Addis to meet her new sisters, I am thankful that she doesn't have to.   Logan takes Algebra I and Science at the Middle School and his teachers have been so accomodating as well.  The only event the kids will miss is Band Day.  We have all decided that no matter what events would have had to be missed, this trip was more important.  All other activities deemed important by our world, definitely pale in comparison to life changing moments such as these. 

We will find out the rest of our travel plans by the end of the week and on Monday we have a travel conference call with America World to answer any questions.  In the meantime, I will be praying, packing, and praying some more.  We are so excited to meet our sweet girls.  Soon I will be able to show you their beautiful faces.


Summary of our journey:

DTE:  5-6-11 (time our paperwork made it to Ethiopia)
RR:  12-17-12 (date of our referral for two sweet girls)
MOWCYA:  4-17-13 (date for approval of adoption by Ethiopian Gov't)
CD:  5-8-13 (date of personal court date)

Recommendation letter

Praise God!  We received a positive recommendation letter today from MOWCYA.  This brings us one step closer to receiving the personal court date where we will travel to Ethiopia to meet our girls.  We are so ready to go. (Well, actually not really.  I am in alittle bit of a panic now that it is becoming real.  You know what I will be doing this weekend.) 

Within the next day or two we will receive our personal court date and will be making plans to travel. I will keep you posted.

MOWCYA Date!

We just received our MOWCYA/Birth Parent court date for April 17th!  This is the date that MOWCYA is subpoened for our recommendation letter, and a birth parent is requested to appear to give their consent for the adoption. 

Once our letter of recommendation is written we can be expected to travel within 2 weeks!  I have already decided to be partially packed and ready by April 17th...just in case. 

We are super excited!