Video of us meeting Moshe.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

48 hours...

...and we will be on our way! This just blows my mind! I feel nervous, excited, anxious, calm, emotional, and so many other things!! We are pretty close to being done with our packing, and our to-do lists are dwindling! Although, I keep thinking of things we should bring! I just need to zip that suitcase and let it be!!!! So, we are flying from Columbus to D.C. on Wednesday afternoon. And then D.C. to Ethiopia Wednesday night. A looooooooong flight!! Hopefully we will be able to rest and enjoy the flight! Please be praying for us as we are traveling! We are not sure yet if we are going to bring our laptop along. I guess it depends on how much room we have left! :):):):) Just think, one week from today I will have hugged and kissed my son! One week......

A Miracle has happened!!!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!! We got a call from our agency this morning around 11 am. Anna said the judge decided to bump up our case, so she saw it last night and..........WE PASSED!!! Hallelujah!!! This is NO DOUBT a miracle from God! He has heard our prayers, and he has answered us IN AN INCREDIBLE WAY!!!! So I invite you all to sit back and enjoy the video.......



Moshe Eyuel

A long 2 months.

It has been almost 2 months since my last post. There has been some progress made in our case, but we have not passed court yet. Moshe's birthmother was found, made it to court, testified.... and we still did not pass! Now all we are waiting on is a letter of recommendation from MOWA( the ministry of womens affairs). We need this letter to pass court. We actually already have a letter from them, but it was written for our 1st court date, and too much time has passed since it was written. SO...we have a new court date this month. Just wanted to put a little update on here, in case anyone is following this blog! :) Hopefully soon, we can post more!

Still....

Waiting.

Try, try again....

We did not pass again. We don't have another date set yet. God willing, we will know next week. Our agencey said to plan for mid- to end of June. So we wait on.

2 more days!

Only 2 more days until our 2nd try at court! I'm asking everyone I know to pray for us!!! I know that God has this all under control. I don't know why it's happening like this, but I know that "...everything works together for the good of those who love Him." God has a reason for this!! So, that said, we wait on. Praying and looking expectantly to what God has for us!

We did not pass

We did not pass court. The Ethiopia government as taking great caution to ensure that no child is trafficked, which I think is great. Except that they are now being very strict when it comes to passing court. They are asking for an investigation into our sons background. We are not the only ones this is happening too. 4 families went to court last night, and no one passed. This is so hard for me, because I so badly wanted to be with Moshe for his 1st birthday. We have a new court date scheduled for May 29. I really don't know if we will be able to travel June 6 still. I really don't remember too much of my conversation with Anna. As soon as she said "I wanted to touch base with you about your court date...." I knew we didn't pass, and went kind of numb. Please continue to pray for us! And more importantly, all the leaders in Ethiopia!! I know they take very seriously their role in protecting these children!!! Pray for guidance and wisdom for them! And pray for this investigation. I don't know what it will all entail. Josue and I are CHOOSING to trust God. I know that Moshe will not be in Africa one second longer than God has planned since before he was formed. But it is still very hard for us. May God get the glory for all that He is going to do!

Tonight is our Court Date

Tonight. I can't believe it. Our court date is tonight!! I'm so nervous about it! I know that God is in control and HE will determine the outcome of tonights decision. Please pray that all the necessary paperwork is there and that the judge will sign everything to FINALIZE our adoption!! I will post tomorrow as soon as I hear anything!

Tentative Travel Dates!

We got 'em! :) Our TENTATIVE travel dates! I emphasize this because it is all depending on whether we pass court or not if we can travel on these days! But, our dates are.......June 6-13! :):) Ohhhh, we can be with our son for his FIRST birthday! And to be in Ethiopia for this occassion is going to be an incredible memory! :) Now our dates are not set in stone, so we have a little leeway on when we will actually leave, but we will hopefully be home on the 13! Thank God!! That is only 4 weeks from today that we could be leaving! So great!!!!!!! But for now, PLEASE pray for our court appointment! Sometime during the night on Monday-Tuesday a judge in Ethiopia will be hearing our case! Thats only FOUR days!! WOW!! We should hear from our agency on Tuesday if we passed. Please, please pray that our adoption will be finalized! Thank you all for the support you have given us! We are blessed to have such wonderful friends and family who are so supportive of this adoption! Praise God!

Court Date

I have very exciting news!! Yesterday we received an email from AWAA telling us that our court date is May 12!!! Now, I was not expecting to have a court date until the end of May AT THE VERY EARLIEST!!! I am shocked and amazed that God has graciously given us this date! There are many other families that have been waiting longer than us, who have court dates at the end of May. I feel a little guilty that we got one so soon! But, God has perfect timing. And there is also no guarantee that we will pass court the first time. There are many factors going on here! Please be praying for us! There have been alot of power outages in Ethiopia right now. There have been times judges have not made it to work, or have not had time to see cases. There's just too many variables to say it's a slam dunk done deal!!! We have not been given our Tentative travel dates yet, but I expect them soon! Our email said to expect travel anywhere from 2-4 weeks after our court date!!! THAT IS SOON!!! We are going to be VERY busy in the next few weeks! :):):) PRAISE GOD!! I will post more as soon as I know anything!

Today is the Day.....

WOW. I can't believe this day finally came. We got our referral!!!! Praise God! At 11:34 am today we got our referral call! I screamed when I saw the caller id! Just last night my friend, Kristy, told me to set a different ringer specifically for our agency's number! And it was a great idea!!! As soon as I heard that ring it was aaallllll over for me! Although I didn't cry as much as I thought! I screamed. ALOT. Little crying. Alot of screaming. :):):) We conferenced Josue in and Terra told us the info she had on him. He is 10 months old, healthy, beautiful!! I had to wait until Josue got home from work to look at his picture. Luckily he got to leave early! :) We opened that email & looked at our baby's face!!! WOOOOWWW!!!!!!!! He is gorgeous! He's healthy, big beautiful brown eyes, bottom teeth, curly hair, chubby cheeks!!! I'm in love. Head over Heels!! I don't even know what to say!!! Awesome. Just awesome. I can't post pictures or any info on him until everything is finalized in court. Sorry!!! You will have to see his cuteness at a later time! We have an appointment tomorrow in Columbus with an International Doctor to go over his medical report. But everything looks healthy & Terra said he has the healthiest report she's ever seen! I'm just so happy! I don't even know what else to say! :):):):)

Still waiting.......

A whole week and a half still at #3!!!! This is the longest in about 5 weeks that we have stayed at one number! *sigh* I'm really feeling the wait. More importantly I am thinking about our baby! I'm wondering if he's healthy? How did he get to the orphanage? How is he handling all these different & new things in his life? Moving from orphanage to the Transition Home, getting medical tests, adjusting to nannies? This child is on my mind 24/7!! I feel so distracted while I'm at work! :) But, everytime I think of him I pray for him! And I pray that God will direct my thoughts & prayers to pray specifically for what he needs. So please keep praying, friends!!! Pray for this child as he experiences loss and transitions! Pray for peace in his little heart & health for his body! And then pray that we will see his face soon! :)

We are sooooo close!!

We are getting so close to our referral! We are now # 3!!! And yesterday we got our "on deck" email from our agency! Which basically means we are "officially" close to getting our referral! :) We could get our call anytime now! WOW. I can't believe it. Josue and I finished our Hague training last night. Nothing like cutting it close! It had to be done before we could get a referral! Haaha! The month of March absolutely FLEW by & all of a sudden....we're #3! So we hustled and watched a bajillion hours of training ! Okay, it was more like 10 hours, but close enough!!! :) After each video we had to take a quiz. It was informative, but a little boring. But we are finished.......so bring on the referral!!!!!!! :) Now I need to keep calm everytime the phone rings!!!

Congratulations to the Low Family!!

We are now # 6!!! Awesome!! And as great as this is, it's even better because it was my friends Matt & Kristy who got their referral! They are also fellow Ohioans. I have been praying that they would get their referral before our other Ohio friends travel to Ethiopia next week! Well, this morning I was like "ya know, I'm gonna pray it is TODAY that they get their referral!" Then at lunch Kristy and I were texting back and forth, and I thought "this is NOT a coincidence that we are talking to each other today." Well, low and behold I had a missed call from Kristy after work and I was like there is only ONE reason she would call me today!!!! So I called her back and yelled "Kristy why are you calling me?" And she yelled back "Cuz you're number 6!!!!" I said "Did you get your referral?" She said yes and I just started crying!!! Right there in the Walmart parking lot!! I wonder if anyone saw me! :) Oh well, I seriously DID NOT care!! I was just soooo overwhelmed at how God showed me how in control he is! And how he moved me to pray this morning & then WHAM answered that prayer within hours! Amazing. So I am over the moon with happiness for this wonderful family! And how God is continually showing that even when we wonder why & struggle with this wait, He is NOT held by our timelines & His plan is so much better than we can even imagine!!! Praise God for His faithfulness and loving plans for His children!

Ok, so I just found out we are now number 7!!!!! YAY!!! I have been praying to move up this week and God is faithful!! :) I am soooooo excited!! We are getting close and I am getting nervous! :) Well, more excited than nervous I guess! :) And some more good news, our friends Julia & Roscoe had their court date to finalize the adoption of their baby boy, Micah, last night! They passed and are going to be flying to Ethiopia SOON!!!! Check out their blog at www.richardsons2ethiopia.blogspot.com Micah is absolutely beautiful!!!!!! I can't wait to meet him! I am hoping that our children are at the Transition Home at the same time! How fun for them that they would have that connection!!!! :):) Can you tell by the exclamation points & smiley faces how excited I am????!!!!??!!!!!! :):):):)

Ocho

Yes, that's right. we are now # 8!!! We are in the single digits!!! I'm beginning to see the pinprick of light at the end of the tunnel! :) Thank God that January and February exploded with referrals! So keep on praying folks!!! We are getting sooooo close!

Number 10

Well things have been going well in referral-land! :) We are now #10 for a boy! YAY!!! I am so excited to be IN the top 10! I have high hopes for the month of March! Keep praying us on! I'll keep a better update now that we are getting closer!

Hooray for 2009!

There were 4 referrals given out today!! That's right.....FOUR!! 2 were for infant girls and 2 were infant boys! Still very exciting!! :) I was pouring over our list to count and re-count where we are in line.....as if it would change by counting it 3 times!! I'm pretty sure we are securely in the 18th spot now! There's a few families asking specifically for sibling groups or an older child and an infant, but I'm kinda not counting them! Maybe I should, but their wait might be longer since they are asking for 2 kids. ANYWAY, it sounds better to me to be 18 than 20! :) I was so excited when I read that there were 4 referrals!! I just started crying & crying! Thank you God for answering our prayers today! The families who were referred the infant girls have been waiting for 11 months!!! I am so happy for them! So......keep on coming referrals!!! We're ready!