I'm Ready

I'm ready.....

 I am ready for a lot of things......

For my entire family to be under one roof.

 To not feel like someone is always missing. 

To not picture what every situation would be like if she were here. 

To not wonder if she feels loved. 

To not worry about her health. 

To not think in two different time zones.

 To not check my email every 2 minutes and in the middle of the night. 

To stop being busy with preparations. 

To stop thinking in timelines. 

To stop being jealous of families who are already bringing their children home and only find pure joy at the news of orphans finding forever families. 

For my boys to meet their sister.
To have an answer for them when they ask if Aven is coming home soon. 

For people to stop asking when she is coming home because clearly she is in my arms. 

To have her in her precious room I have been having so much fun preparing for her. 

To finally introduce her to so many people that have prayed and supported her home.
To not feel weak, but act strong.

For her to. be. HOME. 

And to know that no matter how hard it is once she is here, that she will absolutely know she is loved and has a family forever. 

The Latest....

I have hesitated even writing this post. I want to just tell you that Aven is coming home. But there is another delay. I am tired of writing about delays. As I sit here debating on whether or not to tell you about all of this, I am reminded of how so many of you have prayed so hard for this process....for us...for her. And how so many of you are emotionally invested in this journey. I have promised all along the way to be transparent and to show you as much of this process as I can. As tired as I am of these delays, I know all of them have been small. As frustrating as it is, I know it could be much worse. And each time we have seen a delay, we have also seen the Lord work and get it resolved quickly! So I am praying for that again.

Monday we received an email saying that the Embassy wanted to interview a specific person related to Aven's case. This is completely routine. A message was sent to the village where this person lives and the staff was asked to locate this person so they could set up an interview. Wednesday we found out that there was a power outage in the village and they would not be able to hear back from the staff about whether or not they had located the person for the interview. We were told the power would be back on Saturday. So I prayed really hard that the power would be restored sooner! And it was restored on Thursday night! However the news we heard was not great......the person could not be located. Apparently this is not uncommon. I mean, we are talking about Ethiopia. And its been 9 months since Aven was placed in an orphanage. Who knows what has happened in 9 months with this person. So now we wait. Some more. The agency will notify the Embassy on Monday that they cannot locate the person for the interview and then the Embassy will decide what they want. A few things could happen.....They could decide they want to interview someone else. Or they could send our file to the USCIS in Nairobi, Kenya for review. Or they could just clear us on the information they already have. Obviously we will be praying hard for them to just clear us! Either way, they will more than likely want a police report stating that this person cannot be located and so we need to pray that the police will write this report up quickly!

Thank you for your continued support and prayers as we continue to wait,
Jana

Hillridge

Each year we make at least one visit to Hillridge Farms. It is something I remember doing growing up and now my boys are enjoying it as well! My mom and I took them while Brian and my dad were in the mountains camping. They had such a fun time! They are turning into such good buddies and playmates.

One Year Ago....

On October 10th, 2011, we sent in our first applications to start this journey. What a year it has been! A year where the Lord has taught us more about Himself and the Gospel than we ever could have imagined. A year of learning to trust the Lord when you have no control. A year full of highs and lows. A year of learning about how the Lord provides when you follow His calling. A year where we have learned about the amazing love and support of our family and friends. It has been a year we will never forget! And a year that we cannot wait to tell Aven about one day!

Our case was submitted and ACCEPTED to the US Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia this morning. Praise the Lord!!! What does that mean? That means that the Embassy will review our case and eventually clear us to come get her! We still dont know for sure when we will be going to get her. A few things will happen. We will get a couple more emails updated us on the progress of them reviewing our file. Then in a week or 2 they will more than likely schedule an interview with the person that found Aven when she was abandoned. The interview will take place probably 4 weeks from now. On the day of the interview we will get EITHER the "All clear" to come get her, or they will decide they need more information on her case and send her file to the USCIS office in Nairobi, Kenya. Usually that takes around 2 weeks to clear! So, our biggest prayer right now is that our file will not be sent to Nairobi. But most of all we are praying that the Embassy will clear us in record time! We are looking at 4-6 weeks more than likely. One of my sweet friends that has been walking this journey with me, was cleared by the Embassy last week after only one week and they did not request an interview with the "finder" of her child.....Just sayin'! It can be done! Who knows...maybe we will get the all clear in a week!  We are praying for each person that will look at our file! S

And lastly, Yesterday we got a call from an organization called Caroline's Promise. They are awarding us a grant of $2,500 towards our expenses to bring Aven home!! Praise God!

The Difference A Day Makes

Yesterday, was another hard day. I do well as long as I don't hear any updates on our case (as weird as that may sound). I think its because I can HOPE things are being done and that we are one day closer to have Aven home. When I get an update that things are not happening the way I would like them to, my hopes are dashed and it takes a day or two for me to begin "hoping in the Lord" again. Yesterday, we were told that it was going to be harder to get this report fixed than we initially thought. We were told that the Orphanage director from the original place that Aven was placed at just a few weeks old, would have to request that the report be reissued. So that would mean that our agency's staff in Ethiopia would have to talk to the orphanage director and have her talk to the police officer and have him issue the report. Ethiopia is SLOW. And that is a long line of people that have to get this done. Our agency director told us that he was considering hiring an investigator to go get this report for us since it looked as if it may be awhile. I still knew that by hiring an investigator we were looking at weeks before this is resolved. So yeah...not a good day yesterday.

THEN...TODAY....we receive an email that our report has been issued and is on its way to Addis to be translated and we will be submitted to the Embassy on Wednesday!! GOD WORKS!! Even when nobody knows it! I have been reminded time and time again throughout this journey that the Lord continues to work even when humans tell us otherwise!

PRAY PRAY PRAY that we are submitted to Embassy without a hitch on Wednesday and that our file is accepted!

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!