Ethiopia Day 1 & 2

We had such an unbelievable experience in Ethiopia! We had an amazing 6 days that will forever change our hearts and we long for the day when we will soon return...


We arrived in Ethiopia on Wednesday night at 10pm. After a 19 hour flight with an 8 hour time change, we had just enough energy to check-in to our guest lodge and walk down the street  to grab a pizza at Bruno's, which ended up being one of our favorite places to eat. When we got back to the guest lodge, we were welcomed with a power outage (in true Ethiopian style). Thank goodness we listened and brought a flashlight. I looked at Jordan and said, "This is Africa." We went to sleep with such anticipation, knowing the next day we would be meeting our precious boy for the very first time.

Here are some pictures from our guest lodge and the streets of Bole in Addis Ababa. We loved this friendly neighborhood and all the local eateries and shops around it.

The view from our room at Afro Land Lodge. To the left are families' homes,
and along the streets are shops and local businesses. And, of course, everywhere
 you look is the beautiful Ethiopian background of mountains and
clouds that go for days.

Jordan on the lodge rooftop. I am in love with this man!

"You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains will burst
 into song before you, and all the trees in the fields will clap their hands."
Isaiah 55:12

THE PEOPLE OF BOLE, ADDIS ABABA

The produce stand on the corner.

The local hangout.
Love how affectionate everyone is towards one another!
Everywhere you turned there were people embracing each other.

Ethiopian woman preparing a meal for her family at her home.
We enjoyed getting a bird's eye view into people's day to day lives.

Enjoyed watching the neighborhood children play at their homes.
They were so incredibly cute! 

Ethiopian woman washing dishes.
These women work so hard from sun up to sun down whether it be washing
and hanging out laundry, preparing and cleaning up meals, or taking care of
their children. 

Friday morning came around quickly. We woke up to a wonderful breakfast  prepared by the guest lodge with some amazing coffee! (puts my morning coffee at home to shame) Before we knew it, we were told by the front desk that our CWA driver had arrived to take us to the orphanage to meet our son. We were the first of 3 families picked up that were also in Ethiopia meeting their children for the first time. It was such a relief meeting other families that were in the exact same position as we were, and it was great to be able to share our feelings about everything going on! We couldn't have asked for better families to travel with and walk along beside us through this part of our journey. I will never forget traveling the streets of Ethiopia. The traffic is absolutely crazy, and the streets are filled with people.

THE STREETS OF ADDIS ABABA

Imagine NYC traffic without traffic lights, stop signs, unmarked roads,
and people and donkeys everywhere you look!
The driver kept telling me to close my eyes!



Typical Ethiopian building. Everything was so colorful!

The streets of Ethiopia.

Almost to Acacia Village, the orphanage of our sweet boy.
Everywhere you looked the scenery was breathtaking.

We arrived at Acacia Village and were greeted by a few of the nannies that took care of our boy. We were escorted into a play area, and the reality hit me all at once that after 2 years of praying and waiting and longing and holding on to God's promise, we were FINALLY going to hold and love on our sweet boy in just a few moments. A little boy that had no idea how much he had been prayed for and how much he was already loved. A little boy that God set apart before he was even formed in his mother's womb. As we stood there in anticipation the nanny walked in with our sweet boy in her arms. He had just woken up from his morning nap and just looked at us intently with those big brown eyes, and I immediately stretched out my arms and embraced my precious baby boy for the very first time. I had waited for so long for this one moment, and it was so worth it, I would have waited a million more. He was very warm towards us and kept laying his head on my shoulder. I love that he loves to cuddle! We walked into the playroom and played on the floor with him. All I could do was just watch him with amazement that I was here in this moment. We made the most precious memories that morning of introducing him to his momma and his daddy! I absolutely adored watching Jordan become a father once again and falling in love with his son.

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." Jeremiah 1:5

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come for you." John 14:18

After awhile of playing and getting acquainted with our son we were taken on a tour of the beautiful Acacia Village. We were able to meet all of the nannies that were caring for our sons, and I felt so relieved seeing them interact with him with such love and kindness. And as if my heart wasn't full enough, we were introduced to all of the other children waiting for families that lived at the village. We got to interact and play with all of the children there, love on them, and get a glimpse of their daily routine. I was so overwhelmed with emotion, but was also trying to take in every little thing about our boy...his smile, his giggles, what he liked to eat, how he liked to sleep, how he liked to be held, what toys he liked to play with, and so forth and so forth.

Beautiful acacia tree outside the orphanage.

Beautiful Ethiopian scenery from Acacia Village.

Next, it was lunchtime, so we were invited into the dining area to feed our baby and a coffee ceremony. We noticed a lot of Ethiopians serve popcorn with their coffee. I loved that! Jordan was holding our boy as we were feeding him, and he looked up at Jordan's eyes and just close his eyes and fell right to sleep. It was the most precious thing. We were able to cuddle him a little while longer and then walked him to his room and lay him down into his crib. The entire room was full of little infants sleeping in their cribs. It was so quiet and peaceful! I didn't want to leave, but I leaned over and gave our sweet sleeping boy a goodbye kiss knowing that I would see him again in a couple of days. Our hearts were completely overflowing! We had fallen in love with precious little thing, and we were just in such amazement that God chose and entrusted us to be this sweet boy's parents. There was nothing better than seeing my husband overflowing with love for this sweet child. It made me fall in love with him all over again.

That night, we had quite the adventure in a taxi cab trying to find the Island Breeze restaurant that we were meeting up at with the other families. Luckily, when we were about to tell the cab driver to take us back to the guest lodge, Jordan looked up and saw the restaurant. That night we also discovered that Ethiopia is a place where the streets have no names, so google map really doesn't help when it comes to directions. It was so great to be able to talk with the other families about meeting our children for the first time and experiencing something that not too many people get to experience.

We went to bed that night, so in awe of God and His plan and His journey that He laid out for us, and in awe of the joy and love that came flowing into our lives by walking His path. Our hearts were full and it was just two days in. We had no idea what was ahead of us and how this place and these people would take a piece of our hearts and always be a part of us.

Court Update

We are leaving today at 4:20 and will arrive in Ethiopia tomorrow at 9:10pm. We heard from the agency this morning that our court date that was supposed to happen on May 14 was adjourned to May 22nd. This is the same date as when we will appear in court for the second court hearing. This commonly happens if they are missing documents that they need. We are waiting on a very important letter from the MoWCY that we have yet to get. Please pray that the letter comes in time before court, so our court date can actually happen!! It is very important that we get this letter. We hope to have some Internet in Ethiopia, but it is uncertain. I will try to post as much as I can if we do have Internet. Thanks so much for all of your prayers. Please keep them coming!!

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FIRST COURT DATE WAS TODAY!

Today was our first court date in Ethiopia. We didn't have to be at this hearing, but it was basically the MoWCY(the people in Ethiopia regulating the orphans being matched with families) confirming whether or not, that there is enough information to determine that baby Michael is indeed orphaned and he can legally be adopted into another family. 

Unfortunately, there are power outages going on in Ethiopia right now, so our agency has still not heard about what happened during court. Our status is still pending until we hear back from them.

Hopefully we will hear good news tomorrow morning that we passed court, and yes, we can adopt baby Michael, and our second court date (the one we are traveling to go to) will remain the same and on schedule!

PLEASE PRAY that all of this happens. Pray that our court date is not moved and pray that we receive word before we get on the plane on Wednesday. We still trust in God's sovereignty and timing through all of this, no matter what that may be, and we know He is working for our good.

We still have hope, so, in the meantime I will get back to ALL of my packing!

Mother's Day

2 years ago, Jordan and my kids gave me the best Mother's Day present I could have asked for. 2 years ago, we were taking the first step of our adoption journey by filling out our application to work with CWA, our wonderful agency that has led us through our entire process. Now, we are leaving in just 3 days! In 3 days Jordan and I will be stepping onto a plane that will be heading to Frankfurt, Germany, and then to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to go and meet our son. My head is still spinning and everything still feels so surreal!

We have greatly appreciated everyone's prayers, support, encouraging messages and words. It's as if every single word that has come our way, came at just the perfect moment when we needed to hear it! Jordan and I were discussing the other day comments that have been made about us "doing a good job" or "us deserving this." Here is the thing, we didn't do any of this and we definitely don't deserve any of it. There is nothing that we have "done" to qualify us to embark on this journey. We are completely unworthy of being able to live this story out that God has written for our lives and the only way that we got through this entire process  and the only way we are living out God's plan for us is with Him leading us every single solitary step of the way. Apart from Him, we have nothing. We bring nothing to the table. But with Him, we have everything that we need. Hallelujah, that we don't have to be qualified to live out His plan. Praise God, that He uses ordinary people to live out his extraordinary ways. Thank you, God, that I am made whole and made righteous through YOU and what you sent your son to do for me. And, that is the only qualification that is needed. This whole thing has truly been as simple as, we felt the call from God to embark on this journey and we said YES. We have clung to His promise of Him being with us always, giving us what we need, and never leaving us, and that is why we are where we are today. It hasn't been an easy road. It has probably been the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. But, He has kept His promise through it all. And, by saying yes and walking with Him daily, He is getting all the glory and we are getting this amazing blessing in the form of a little one-year-old boy that has the biggest brown eyes I have ever seen.

To all my prayer warriors that want specific things to pray about, we need you to rise up and intervene for us! 

-Pray that God protects us and provides for us the rest of the way. 

-Pray for our health. Satan has been at work in that department the last 2 weeks!

-Pray for our safe travel and that we have a smooth trip with no hold ups.

-Pray for Stella and Max and my in-laws, since they will be staying with them while we are gone!

-Pray for our court dates, May 14 and May 22. 

-Pray for the judge and all the other people involved with our case.

-Pray for our sweet baby boy. Pray for his health and his heart as he is about to meet his momma and daddy and has no clue who we are! (Scary for a little one)

We truly appreciate and feel all of your prayers.

We made our boy a little book of pictures of our home and family so that he will be able to look at them and get familiar with us. Here a couple of pictures from the book. :)

Happy 1st Birthday, Precious Boy!

Today has been 4 weeks since we got our referral for our sweet baby boy. The time has flown by it feels like as we are busy preparing for our first trip. It is extremely overwhelming trying to plan for an international trip that is coming very soon and we don't even have specific dates yet. All we know is that it is soon. We should be hearing of our court date any day now (I am hoping for tomorrow)!

When most people plan a trip, the first things would be to book a hotel, plane tickets, and then start packing and writing an agenda. Well, we are doing it all backwards. Like I have said before, the adoption road is a curvy, crazy road! Booking our flights and guest home will be the last thing that we do. We do have our itinerary for our court trip which will consist of 4 days.  The first 3 days we will be able to go and visit our son for 2 hours a day and get to take in everything and anything we can. (i.e. what he eats, how he sleeps, his daily routine, what he likes, what he doesn't like, etc.) All of the things that you figure out as a parent in your child's first year of life. The rest of our time will be filled with immersing ourselves in our new adopted culture and exploring the beautiful country of Ethiopia. The fourth day we will go to Ethiopian court and there, the judge will hopefully consent to our adoption of our baby boy. We will leave to come home from there and then after that, MORE WAITING! It never ends in the adoption world. We will be waiting to hear from the courts to tell us that baby boy is a Michael and that we can come and pick him up to COME HOME. 

If meeting your son face to face for the very first time isn't overwhelming enough, we also are preparing our bodies, minds, and hearts for visiting a third-world country. A country that has become a part of me. A country that I cannot wait to go and see and take in. So what have we done so far? Jordan and I have been vaccinated (6 shots each, ouch!) and educated about all the potential health risk of traveling to Ethiopia. We have been re-fingerprinted through the FBI to update our boy's visa approval. We have been busy gathering donations that we will take to our son's orphanage and also putting together a couple of gifts for baby boy to leave with him while he is waiting to come home. We have been researching Ethiopia and all of the things we want to see and guest homes that we are looking into staying at. We have started making a packing list that consists of bug spray, flashlights, and yes, toilet paper! And, we have also decided to throw in another garage sale before we go to offset some of the embassy and visa fees. Like we didn't have enough on our plates already. Anything to make the time go by faster.

In between all of that, I can't help but think of my boy every waking minute of the day. The other day I read this verse and it spoke so much truth and validation into my life right now. This is what God has in store for me and my life, right now, at this very moment.

"May the God of hope fill you with all the joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13

 

Now that I have all the things done that I can possibly do for now, I find myself having idle time, so I made a list of things that I CAN do in the meantime, as we wait and wait some more.....

I can pray for my son.

I can pray for his birth family and their situation.

I can pray for the nannies at the orphanage that are caring for our boy while we can't.

I can pray for the courts and everyone involved with our case.

I can pray for our transition.

I can love my little guys that I have right here in front me.

I can talk with them about what it is going to be like when baby brother arrives.

I can prepare our home.

I can advocate for other orphans to find a forever family.

I can use our story to encourage others to walk in faith.

I can show more grace and mercy to the people God has put in my life at this moment.

I can fundraise.

I can enjoy the last months of being a family of 4.

I can lean on my husband and friends and family for support when the waiting gets too hard.

I can grow more in Christ.

I can let the hope of God overflow out of me and onto others.

I can....

Today is our sweet boy's first birthday. Even though he wasn't with us, we decided to celebrate from afar and make some memories for him.

Happy Birthday, sweet baby boy! How we wish you could be here blowing out your own candle today, but we will settle for, at least, being under the same sky. We long to embrace you and kiss your sweet face and will be coming to you soon. We pray that God pours out his love on you, and he gives you hope that your family is coming for you.

 Love, your momma.

"A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families." Psalm 68:5-6

Can't Get Enough of Those Big Brown Eyes

I can't believe that we have our referral. I serve such a faithful and loving God. So honored to be His and to travel down this adoption road that he told us to go down 2 years ago. I have actual pictures of a beautiful baby boy that will hopefully soon be ours! My head is still spinning from last Tuesday morning when we got the phone call.

I was at home with the kids in the morning before I went to work, and I looked at my phone and saw a missed call from Christian World Adoption. I called our fantastic case worker back immediately and then she dropped the good news that we were the next waiting family on the list. She said that there was a little boy for us and wanted to know if we wanted to see his referral papers. I immediately called Jordan at work and could barely get out the words, "babe, we got our referral!" Sweet Stella came up to me and said, "mommy are you ok? Why are you crying?" Then I got to share the news with her that we get to see pictures of her baby brother right now. Jordan and I decided that we would wait to look at the pictures together when we got home from work that evening, but I couldn't help myself. I had been waiting for 13 months to see this sweet baby's face and I couldn't wait a second more knowing the email was sitting in my inbox. So, I opened the email and me and the kids looked at the pictures. (and for the record, Jordan was not upset!)They were both smiling from ear to ear. Stella said she just wanted to pinch his cheeks and kiss all over him and Max came up and said, "Awwww, who's that? He's cute!" I called Jordan and fessed up and then sent him the email. He opened it while he was still on the phone with me and we got to share that moment of pure joy together. It was such an amazing day, and I swear, I stared at the pictures every free second I had. It was great when we were all home together and celebrated the referral of our newest addition as a family. In my adoption community a lot of the parents I had talked to said that you will know that the child is yours when you see him. You will have a feeling. I have to admit, I had a small amount of fear thinking, what if I see pictures of this baby and I just don't feel it. It was not the case at all. I saw those beautiful big brown eyes staring back at me, and I knew that he was ours. I asked Jordan that night, if he had a feeling that he wasn't the one. He responded,"not even for a second. He is ours."

So, what's next......

We accepted the referral of our sweet baby boy and have completed all the paperwork to get the ball rolling on getting a court date. In the next couple of weeks, we will hopefully hear from the Ethiopian courts giving us a court date. Once we get the court date, we will start making arrangements for our first trip to Ethiopia to attend our court hearing. We are looking at late May, early June for our first trip, approximately, Maybe even sooner. We will be there for a few days. The first trip we will be able to go to the orphanage and meet our little guy in person for the first time. Yes, I will finally be able to hold that sweet little guy and give him so much lovin' that I have been longing to give him for so long now. I get teary eyed just thinking about it! We will attend court and if all goes well, the judge will allow us to be his parents. We will have to then leave our sweet boy and wait for word from the courts as to when we can come and pick him up.(usually around 4 weeks in between our 2 trips.)

We still have a ways to go before he is home. There is still a possibility that someone can come for our boy out of his family to care for him and he won't be ours. It is EXTREMELY hard not getting attached to this baby boy. What the heck am I saying? I already am attached to him. Please join us in praying in the rest of our journey. Prayer for our sweet little boy who is across the world from us, who at this moment is sleeping in his crib hopefully having sweet dreams of a momma and daddy coming to get home and bring him home. Pray for his birth family and their situation. Pray that we hear about a court date soon and that we will be approved without any humps along the way (that is practically impossible with international adoption, but hey, my God does miracles!) Pray for Jordan, the kids, and I as we try to orchestrate all of this not be overwhelmed and to completely put our trust in God. Also, continue to pray for financial provision for the crazy expenses of 2 international trips back-to-back that are very last minute, making it very expensive. He has provided thus far and I know He will not leave or forsake us now!

It has been such an unbelievable blessing to hear all of our loved ones giving us so much support and sharing in our joy. We honestly could not have gotten through any of this without your love, prayers, and support. They are so encouraging!!! LET'S GET OUR BOY HOME NOW, FOR REAL!!!!!!