Some thoughts while we prepare....

As I pack our bags and begin to prepare to go see our girl, my mind is constantly going back and forth between, "I cannot believe we are going to be holding our baby girl in ONLY 11 days! That is SOON!"  

to  

"This is going to be the longest 11 days of my life! Its going to be FOREVER until I see her!" So yes, I am feeling slightly bipolar these days:)

We are leaving on July 31st and returning on August 8th. We will have a few days of traveling, but we will actually be IN Ethiopia for 6 full days. We will be seeing our baby girl for the first time on August 2nd and going to court on August 3rd. 

This trip is going to hold one of the BEST days of my life and probably one of the WORST days of my life as well. I don't want to think about our last day there. Its excruciating to think about even now, so I can't imagine what its really going to be like once we have spent a week with our girl. We will be leaving on a plane without her. We will come home and wait for probably 4 months while the U.S. Embassy works to clear us to bring her home. After August 3rd she will legally be our daughter, but she will be our daughter living on the other side of the world. It's not right. It's not the way it should be. But this is just the way it is....And we have known that from the beginning. It doesn't make it any easier though. There is no way to prepare my heart, for what I am going to have to do.... except to pray that the Lord would grant me peace, patience, and grace to get through each day while we wait to bring her home for good!

I am choosing to not focus on the HARD parts of this trip. The Lord will give me grace for that day when it gets here. That day is not today. And I am going to have 6 wonderful days holding, snuggling, kissing, and loving on my baby girl! I am going to soak up every minute I have with her as a 7 month old, because when she comes home she will probably be almost one year old! 

How you can pray:

1)Pray for safety traveling and that we will not miss any flights!

2)Pray that every piece of paperwork that is supposed to be at our court appointment will be there!

3)Pray that we will hear those words "She is YOURS!" on August 3rd

4)Pray that the Lord would protect us from sickness while we are there

5)Pray for us as we leave our daughter in another country and fly home without her.

He is Faithful!

WE ARE GOING TO SEE OUR GIRL!!! 3 weeks from today a Judge in Ethiopia will hopefully be telling us that she is ours:) Im still in shock that we have a court date. We were told it would be 2 weeks before we were assigned a court date. I was hoping we would possibly hear NEXT friday (which would still be early).  In the 6 months we have been with our agency, I have never seen a court date given out so fast! The Lord has heard our prayers and we are so thankful that he has moved mountains so we could see our baby girl before the court closure!

Last night I spent the night at the lake with my parents in their new camper. I brought Levi along to "try out camping". We love camping and I wanted to see how he would do. Well...I will spare you the details, but it didnt go so well. Needless to say, I was exhausted so I went back to sleep while Mom and Dad took Levi on a walk. When I finally woke up, I checked my phone to see what time it was and I saw a missed call and voicemail from our agency. My brain was still foggy and I was trying to process why they would be calling me. It went something like this...

"wow, mom let me sleep late"

"I have a missed call from a Georgia area code"

"our agency is in GA!!"

"why would they be calling me?"

"It couldnt possibly be for a court date"

"It's WAY too soon"

"I hope nothing is wrong"

All of this while fumbling around trying to push the right buttons to listen to the voicemail from an unknown Georgia number. Then I heard my adoption coodinators voice and her say "Hi! I have good news!"

Best. Words. Ever!!!!

I barely heard the words, "you have a court date of August 3rd", before I started sobbing uncontrollably! I think I have been guarding my heart against getting super excited about possibly seeing our girl so soon. I have been hoping in the Lord that He would do this for us. But I have been trying not to get my hopes up in the event that the Lord decided something else was best for our family. All of the emotions that I have been holding back came flooding out, as soon as I heard that voicemail!

We were assigned a court date of August 3rd. We will fly to Ethiopia a couple of days in advance. Pray with us that all parties will have the needed paperwork at our court date and that we will PASS! 

Thank you SO SO SO much to all that have faithfully prayed for us and that we would be able to see our girl before the courts close!

SUBMITTED!!!

God has heard our prayer for the last 3 months or 12.5 weeks or 89 days (however you want to look at it!) We were SUBMITTED TO COURT yesterday! We are praising the Lord for taking us to this next step!

Whats Next?

We wait for 1-2 weeks to hear what date they will assign us for court and then we get on a plane HOPEFULLY 2 weeks later to GO. SEE. OUR. DAUGHTER!!! Which means HOPEFULLY we will be with her in ONE MONTH!

How Can I Pray?

The courts close Mid-August for 6 weeks. We desperately want to get a court date and see our girl before the courts close! If we don't get a court date in August, we will most likely go in early October, which is entirely TOO LONG TO WAIT! Pray that the Lord will allow us to go see our girl soon. I cannot stand the thought of her being 6 weeks older or having to be in Ethiopia any longer than she has to be. She needs to be HOME!

The Lord has not let us down yet, He has continued to answer our prayers,  so we are confident that He will not dissapoint us now! We covet your prayers and are so blessed by the amount of people that are joining with us in praying our baby girl HOME!

"But God has surely listened and has heard my prayer. Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!" (Psalm 66:19, 20 NIV)