September

September has come and gone so quickly! We stayed super busy with things like.......

Brody starting preschool again.....

one last beach trip.....

Weddings......

and a fun camping trip to the mountains with my parents....

 

The boys did great and loved all of the hiking, campfires, sleeping in the camper, and playing in the creeks. 

GOODBYE SEPTEMBER! HELLO OCTOBER!

Delay

I know that I have been quiet on the adoption front over the past few weeks. That's because there isn't much to say, unfortunately. Our case has stalled and I don't know when  it will pick back up. Hopefully this delay will only put us back a couple of weeks. Our file was ready to be submitted to the US Embassy to start the process for final clearance to bring her home....then a mistake was found in one of the reports literally hours before they handed our file over.  To me, this was so much worse....We had been told our file was going to be submitted so I was awake all hours of the night waiting for the Embassy to email me and tell me our file had been accepted. The email never came. Disspointed is an understatement.

Please pray with us that the person responsible for the mistake will fix the error SOON. Unfortunately, things in Ethiopia are SLOW. Nobody is in a rush to do anything. This error cannot be fixed by our agency...it has to be fixed by the specific person who wrote the original report when Aven was abandoned. So it will happen when he "gets around to it". Please pray that the Lord will prompt this person's heart to do it NOW. We know that although this is due to human error that our God is still sovereign over it all. Every day this report goes without being fixed, is one more day that we are without our daughter. Although a few weeks delay doesnt seem like much, when you are talking about the fact that we havent seen our daughter in 2 months, its an ETERNITY. We are asking the Lord to go before us in this! Thank you for praying with us!

Aven's Room

"Nine Months Pregnant"

I have never been so ready for a weekend to be over and a wednesday to get here. I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas....except I am afraid to get my hopes up and I am worried I will wake up to no gifts under the tree. Wednesday morning before the sun rises here in the U.S. we will hopefully receive an email from the US Embassy that says they have accepted our file and they will begin reviewing it for final clearance to bring Aven HOME! Needless to say, I probably won't sleep good that night and will be tossing and turning checking my email every hour. Our submission to Embassy (hopefully this wednesday) means we could be clear to bring her home in 4-6 weeks! We are praying for sooner, of course!

You know how in the ninth month of pregnancy you don't sleep a wink? You are so uncomfortable its impossible to sleep! Well, here we are in the "ninth month" (actually 12th month) of our "paper pregnancy". I will not be sleeping well from here on out. The US Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia starts their work day at 1:00 a.m. our time. So emails are usually received in the middle of the night. Forgive me if I am exhausted until I get that coveted email that tells us to come get our girl.......

Final Piece

And we have a medical report!! The last and final document needed! Our file is now complete and will be submitted to the US Embassy next wednesday! The Embassy only accepts files on Wednesdays, so I have to admit i was a little bit bummed when my adoption coordinator said we wouldn't be submitted tomorrow. I am still going to pray that we miraculously get submitted tomorrow, but am praising the Lord that we are almost a month ahead of schedule in the timeline that we were originally given. Whether its tomorrow or next wedneday, the Lord has had his hand all over this process and we are so grateful that Aven will be home SOON! Obviously we still have no clue when exactly, but we should be cleared to go get her within 4-6 weeks! And then its just a matter buying plane tickets and jumping on a plane as soon as we can:)

Whats Next....

We are waiting on one final piece of paperwork (medical report) and then our file will submitted to the US Embassy! The Embassy only accepts files on Wednesdays....so every time we miss a Wednesday, we have to wait an entire week to be submitted.  Please pray that we receive the report on either monday or tuesday or this coming week and are able to be submitted on the 19th!  Once our file is submitted we COULD be cleared to bring her home in as little as 4 weeks! It may be 6 weeks or more depending on how "clear" our file is,  but we are continuing to pray hard for every step in this process! Thank you all for your prayers!! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!