Just a Few Pics

We made it!

Just wanted to write a quick note to let you all know that we made it home to NC.  It was a long and tiring trip of course, but we are home and everything made it.  We'll write more later.

Family Picture

 

We were in the van on our way to Embassy appointment this afternoon and had to make a quick stop. We pulled out the camera and one of the other mommy's took a picture for us. We just realized it's our first family photo! 

Proud Parents with their boy!

Our Last Day

Today is our last day as a family of five. We celebrated by wearing our Ethiopian outfits to church!

Almost Done

Six action packers, 1 carry-on, 1 suitcase, and 5 book bags are just about packed. Our house is picked up and readied for us to leave it for 2-3 months. We feel pretty good about where things stand tonight. We just have a few things to do in the morning before church. We'll finish everything up after church and then head to the airport around 3pm tomorrow afternoon. Our flight departs at 5:45 and lands around 7:45. We'll be picked up and taken to our guesthouse. Then Monday morning we go sign some papers and then we get to go pick up our Ezra!!

We can't tell you how excited we are! Last night Ruth ran to her bed and as she climbed in, she said, "I'm so excited!" I asked her what she was excited about and she said, "Ezra!" Then I asked Dinah if she was excited and she said, "YES!" I asked her what she was excited about and she said, "Ezra!" And she hadn't heard my conversation with Ruth. So, then I went to John's room to tell him goodnight. I asked him if he was excited, and he said, "YES!" I asked what he was excited about, and he said, "Ezra!" Talk about excited sisters and brother! We are so excited for them to meet!

Please continue to pray for us as we have a lot of traveling ahead of us and a lot of bonding and attaching to do with Ezra. We are super excited to see a lot of you while we are in the US! Here we come! See you soon!

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie...

 We had some excitement this afternoon in the midst of packing. The kids and Nathan went to deliver something in our neighborhood and while they were gone, there was a teeny tiny mouse outside our back door. I told Nathan about it when they got back, and he found it in our storage cabinet. He rigged up this container and caught it so the kids could look at it. He even gave the mouse a piece of cookie.

I couldn't get a good picture looking through the tape so he took the lid off for me. I guess this mouse didn't want any milk with his cookie because he was out of there just a few seconds later. It ran right over John's foot. Quite hilarious. Nathan caught it again and they all took him to the field next to our house. Wonder how long it will take him to find his way back again. Maybe he'll be wanting some milk to go with his cookie next time...

Wordless Wednesday

Cleared!!!

We got word this afternoon that we are CLEARED to TRAVEL!! We are leaving early Monday morning, yes this coming Monday, assuming Nathan was able to book the tickets!! We have an appointment with the US Embassy in Addis to get Ezra's visa on Tuesday! Praise the LORD!! We are beyond excited! Thank you all for your prayers so far!

Not Yet

We received an email from the US Embassy this morning. They asked for 2 more things. Apparently his birthdate doesn't match up on a couple of documents, and his name is misspelled on one thing. They asked for these things to be fixed. Supposedly it was fixed this morning and was being taken to the Embassy this afternoon. Now, we are back to waiting again. We'll keep you posted. Hopefully this will be it.

Submitted

We found out a couple of hours ago that our case has been submitted to the US Embassy in Addis. PRAISE the LORD!! Now we are waiting for an email from the Embassy. And we are praying the email is an acceptance email. We need an appointment with the US Embassy in Addis for them to grant Ezra a visa to the US. They typically email back within a few days to 1 week. We believe it was submitted the end of last week. And our friends, the Kopps and the McAlpines traveled about 1 week after they got their acceptance email. We could be on our way to get our Ezra next week! Please keep praying!

Check This Out, Too!

Still Waiting...

You know how Ezra's new documents were supposed to be turned in to the Embassy on Tuesday? Yeah. They weren't. In fact, they don't even have all the new documents yet. Needless to say, we are pretty bummed. Waiting to hear when they think it will be turned in now...

Smiling

Remember the McAlpines and Kopps that we asked you to pray for along with us? The Kopps are still waiting to hear from the Embassy. But the McAlpines found out this morning that they are cleared to travel to pick up both their children!! Praise the Lord!! It's so exciting to find out that children are coming home to their forever families!

Wordless Wednesday

Check This Out!!

Photo courtesy of Samaritan's Purse.

Look at my HUBBY! I just found this. Check it out!

Prayer and Praise

Prayer~

Nathan is in South Sudan with a team of Samaritan's Purse and AIM Air guys dropping food to a group of refugees. We don't know many details, but apparently there was some fighting between the North and South. The town or village where they had been getting food was destroyed and they have been without food since about mid-June. They are dropping food out of SP's DC-3. Yesterday they dropped about 5600 kilos of sorghum. And today they plan to drop about 19,000 kilos. This is a great trip for Nathan to actually be a part of what goes on. Please pray for their safety and endurance as this is going to be a long day.

Ezra's new paperwork is being submitted to the Embassy tomorrow afternoon. Please pray for grace and acceptance! We should hear from the Embassy in a few days with the outcome.

Praise~

The kids and I had a good day yesterday and today. And everyone slept all night last night!

Tuesday

We got word that the ad began running on Monday of last week. So, our documents should be ready to resubmit to the Embassy on Tuesday. At least that's what we are being told. Please pray that is the case. We were desperately disappointed this week when our case was not submitted. Please pray that everything the Embassy has requested is there, and they approve our case without further questioning.

The time frame from hearing from the Embassy for a resubmission is "normally" 2-3 days. If we are approved, they will offer us an appointment at the US Embassy in Addis to get Ezra's visa about 2-3 weeks from the approval.

Another Week

Seems as if we'll be waiting at least another week. Our case was not submitted to the Embassy today.  In fact, we don't even have all of the items that the Embassy has requested.  Imagine that.  We are now waiting on the newspaper ad to be run, trying to find out any information about our son's abandonment and previous family.  Yes, you heard that right...the newspaper ad that was supposed to be run about two months ago.  At least the Embassy has relented and the ad only has to be run for one week, instead of four.
We have been told that the ad has already begun, however we don't know when, or when our new info will be re-submitted to the Embassy.  We are told the same thing that we have heard for the last three months, "hopefully next week."

Please pray that this is actually the case this time.  We are tired and weary of this rocky path we have been stumbling down for the past few months.  Please pray that our documents really will be ready to submit next week.  Please pray for them to be accepted by the Embassy personnel.

Overall, please keep praying that we can go and get our Ezra soon.

(and Nathan)

And the Latest News...

We received an email this morning from the US Embassy in Addis in response to an email we sent on Monday asking if they had received our Visa 37. They did receive it from USCIS Nairobi. Very good! Praise the Lord!

However, I responded back and asked if they had an update on our case. They have not received the documents they asked for last week. We were hoping CWAE would deliver them yesterday but apparently that didn't happen. We are now waiting on a response from our case manager to see what is going on.

Please keep praying! Our Ezra is growing up, as you can see, and we are missing it!!

New Pictures of Our Little Man