Feeling Gloomy, but Hopeful

I am sad tonight. It is still weeks away from our court date and only God knows how it will all go. If it goes as planned we will travel at the end of October, but we will see....All I want is to hold my kids and bring them home safely and there are so many miles and difficulties separating us. Today was my birthday and my family gave me the most precious gifts: Binkies, bottles, sippie cups, a rattle and baby spoons. These gifts gave me hope, but at the same time I feel like crying. I have said that adoption is like bungee jumping for God, but this is the longest free fall EVER!!!!
In the meantime things are coming along with Project Impact. A facility is secured for the fund raiser and the date is set for October 4Th. We will send out 120 invitations to key colleagues, friends and family. We are praying for a windfall of funds to come in that night to secure the transition house and orphanages with much needed supplies. Although we were hoping to send a container of product things are looking bleak. It seems the Ethiopian government requires a tax on most imports including food and supplies even for non-profit organizations. Many times this tax is more expensive than the actual products. We have one last hope that the Orthodox Church in Ethiopia might be able to help us, but it is a long shot. As a result we will focus our attention on the fund raiser. There is much planning to do in a very short time, but with God's help we will accomplish this task for him. Pray for our strenght and determination as we set about putting this night together and for it's abundant success.

Gaining Momentum!

After posting about Project Impact on the AWAA yahoo group today there was a generous outpouring of support! Many families have e-mailed their desire to help. We will be doing a large fund raiser at the end of September to raise monies either for shipping product over to Ethiopia or buying supplies in Ethiopia for the transition house and orphanages AWAA works with. My heart is full of praise as God uses his people to take care of these orphans. We are still seeking non-profit status in Ethiopia so this container does not get hit with taxes. One organization is looking into cooperating with us by receiving our shipment in Ethiopia in exchange for us shipping some product for them. We will see if this is possible. Others have suggested other organizations that might be able to help in this area. God will bring in what we need so we can help these little ones who are so vulnerable. We are still looking into where to have the fund raising event. We could use prayer for this. We will keep you posted as the events unfold. We are excited about what God is doing and feel grateful so many others want to join with us as we watch a miracle happen!!

Such Sad News!

One of the AWAA families that recently received a referral of a beautiful baby girl were given the worst kind of news today. Their precious daughter had recently been in the hospital with pneumonia and did not make it through the night. It is a stark reminder of the vulnerability of all these little ones. As this family unravels the grief and the whys we lift them up in pray. May they have peace in their time of need.

Project Impact!

As you know our family did not make it through court along with the other three families last week. We appreciate all the prayers that were lifted up on our behalf. I struggled with the fact that we were before a judge seven times and still no success. I asked God why...and his answer, "I have more that I need done. You can do more to impact Ethiopia than just bringing two children home."

My husband has been in the grocery industry for thirty years and many people in the industry have watched our family grow through adoption and have been very interested, but never have offered any help and we have never asked. But in the last two-three weeks our family has received enough offers from various vendors to fill either a 20ft or 40ft containter (depending on logistics)with supplies for the transition house and orphanages that AWAA works with in Addis. Diapers, formula, wipes, peanut butter, peanuts, almonds, beef jerky, powdered milk are just some of the items that have been committed. ( For those of you adopting older children I am sure you have noticed the lack of protien they are receiving in their diet! Another footnote: After a golf tournament Ray was in three weeks ago they gave our family all the left over snacks: cases of peanuts, protien bars, Cliff bars, and candy. My garage is full of these products! How random is that! We have a lot of kids, but we could not eat that many peanuts!) We received two large finacial donations that would cover a potion of the shipping costs or simply be used to purchase supplies in country.Please understand that we never asked for any of these items to come our way. This is why we believe this is a movement from God. I have been in contact with our family coordinator and the costs to run the TH have skyrocketed since the "Green Famine" has impacted the country! If we could get this container into Ethiopia we could ease the burden for quite a while. The big question is "IF". I ask anyone who reads this to pray about what God is doing here. Ray and I have never shipped a container overseas and the process is very complicated and expensive. God is putting us in contact with very knowledgeble people that can get this done, but we need wisdom about all this. At the same time we are investivaging the possibiliity of raiseing funds for some much needed items like cribs and clothing for the kids. AWAA is setting up a separate account for the funds to begin to be collected for this project. Our desire has always been to help those who really need help. We certainly do not feel qualified to accomplish this task although we know if it is of God it will be accomplished.

Our prayer is for wisdom with what God is asking us to do. Do we ship a container or just buy the supplies in country? We also ask that many people in both the US and Ethiopia would be impacted for God because of his mercy and grace in this project. Let us know if you want to get involved.
Here is another article to help explain what the "Green Famine" is and how it is effecting the Ethiopian economy.

No Go......

Sadly the outcome of our last ditch effort to pass through the Ethiopian court system before it closed for two months failed. We now resort back the October 8 court date. We have been on an emotional roller coaster ride along with the other families that have been trying to pass. If these families had passed yesterday six kids would have come home to their forever families this month. Unfortunately we must all wait. Their are several other families that have their court dates on October 8 as well. The good news is that if we all pass in October we will probably all travel together and what a party that will be. I must remain positive even with this apparent setback. I will tell you I had a good cry this morning. My heart longs to have my children safe with me, but God knows this and he will see this through. We are still gathering donations if anyone wants to participate in this process let us know.

It's Not Over Until It's Over!

How bazzar is this.... Our paperwork has now been before a judge six times now and each time the answer is, "Wait until another day." This time the judge was unavailable so another judge said she would hear our case on Friday. My motto has been all along, "It's not over until it's over!" So, we are in waiting and praying mode once again until Friday. For those of you praying as well, Thursday night while you sleep is Ethiopia's Friday. So think about it as you fall asleep and I will post on Friday as soon as I hear. Hopefully I will be able to show everyone our beautiful daughters' pictures. Our director reminded us today that seven is a holy number and in 2 Kings 5:12 Naman needed to dip into the water seven times before he was healed.

Court News and Updates!

Our coordinator has informed us that we have been given a court date of August 6th. We were very surprised and are waiting prayerfully for a positive answer. If we are successful we are hoping to travel at the end of August. Please join us as we pray for success in court, not just for our family, but for the three other families that have this same date!
We also received an update on our children today. Their medical issues are still bothering them, yet they are very resilient and happy. Both girls are eating and sleeping well. We are told time and again that Beautiful E has such a sweet heart and is so helpful with the babies. She has a wonderful sense of humor and is doing great with her English. This is such good news as it will make her transition that much easier. Baby M wakes once at night for a feeding and generally has an easy-going personality. She has extremely long and beautiful eyelashes...lucky girl!!
We are wanting so much for them to be home with their forever family! Please pray for peace for us as we wait for the judge to make the final decision to give us our children now or in the fall. We will wait on the Lord and we trust him for the protection of our girls during the most challenging phase of our adoption.