Well our Ethiopian court date is quickly approching. Several families from our agency had their court hearings today. I've read about five posts on our agency yahoo group which posted great news of their passing court and three other families that did not.
There was also an email for our agency owner sent out today that stated that the electrical power situation is currently averaging an outage "every other day" so please pray for a miracle and pray that there is power in Addis tomorrow!
Praying for our daughter to be in our arms very soon!
Monday, June 29, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Letters Straight From An Angel
Opened our mailbox today and was greeted with a very pleasent surprise. There was an 8x10 envelope addressed to Juan and I. This could only be one thing (a letter from Letarik), well I was wrong, there were FIVE letters from our beautiful daughter.
She wrote to her sisters, her dad and to me. She made her sisters bracelets made her dad a manly looking one (with blue and yellow beads) and made me a beautiful purple necklace. She said mentioned she loved us about a zillion times and also traced her foot on a piece of paper for me. See she wants to make sure I get her the correct size in shoes when I pick her up! She is a total RIOT!
She said she was waiting for me to go to Ethiopia and she wants me to go now. She wrote a letter to Juan that asked "Dad are you going to Ethiopia too?" "Can you please adopt my two friends they don't have a family"..... OMGosh this girl is amazing!
Anyhow, what a wonderful surprise just three days before our court date. God please help our case pass court on Tuesday!!!!
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Faith Must Prevail!
Seven Day Count Down
Our soon to be daughter’s adoption case will be heard in an Ethiopian court in just seven short days. As I ponder the possibilities of our court decision, my newly found faith takes over. Just a few short years ago I would have prayed for our case to pass and my prayers would focus on my personal wants, needs and agenda. All those self wanting needs have turned to something different. I now pray for the Lord to place His all-mighty hands on our case and to allow our case to pass if it is His perfect time for her to join our family within a few months.
Many things have become very clear to me in the last few months. The first would be that He has guided our lives towards adoption. He has ensured that I witness His true miracles in so many ways. Our two son’s adoptions were done because of His will. I struggled with our son J.R.’s delayed case, my need to be in total control, but He needed that to happen so I would establish a wonderful relationship with the attorney during that drooling hurtful wait. I later assisted this Guatemalan attorney with the placement of TEN Guatemalan children including my son Julian without the use of an agency.
Our decision to adopt from Ethiopia was surprising to many of our friends and family (they should have learned to never underestimate us!) Our family is large we both have extremely demanding professional careers and care for handicapped parents. However, the Lord touched us and once again, and we responded by requesting to adopt an infant girl. Our initial plans were shaken up when He again spoke to me and lead me to an older waiting child. The idea adopting an older child was something I would have NEVER considered several years ago. The possibility of raising a pre-teen with possible attachment issues would not have “fit” into MY plans.
Well, here we are today, as I sit here praying for Him to place His hands on our adoption and that He affords me the opportunity of traveling to Africa to met and bring home our 11 year old daughter. He, however, wanted me to understand that this was not about me. Once again, He directs my attention to the fact that this is His plan and not ours. On Sunday night I received a wonderful woman that adopted Letarik’s friend in Ethiopia. She was someone that I had met via our agency’s yahoo group and have been communicating with since we began our adoption. She has afforded me valuable information, has sent me amazing pictures of our daughter and has been a great source of support. Well, she advises me that she received a phone call from a family asking her about older children adoptions. She wrote that this family had fallen in love with a waiting child at the beginning of this year. They had begun their paperwork when tragedy struck their family. They suffered a devastating house fire that required their adoption be placed on hold! Guess who the child they feel in love with was? Yes, that’s right it was Letarik! They diligently prayed for God to find this girl a family that would be able to proceed with her adoption. This happened April 2nd and we accepted her referral April 10th. God’s hand was all over this!!!!
I was provided that families blog addy www.ifyoutrulybelieve.blogspot.com and was told to read their entry. My best friend (sister) had posted a prayer request in her amazing blog. This family had found her blog and read that prayer and were shocked to find that Letarik now had a family waiting to bring her home. I was able to email them and provided them some closure. They are now finishing their home repairs and actively trying to complete their home study process as they are still going to proceed with an older girl adoption. The daughter God wants them to have.
So, yes, as I sit anxiously awaiting our June 30th court date, I ask for everyone's prayers and I remind myself that His perfect plan will overcome anything. She will join our family on His perfect timing.
Our soon to be daughter’s adoption case will be heard in an Ethiopian court in just seven short days. As I ponder the possibilities of our court decision, my newly found faith takes over. Just a few short years ago I would have prayed for our case to pass and my prayers would focus on my personal wants, needs and agenda. All those self wanting needs have turned to something different. I now pray for the Lord to place His all-mighty hands on our case and to allow our case to pass if it is His perfect time for her to join our family within a few months.
Many things have become very clear to me in the last few months. The first would be that He has guided our lives towards adoption. He has ensured that I witness His true miracles in so many ways. Our two son’s adoptions were done because of His will. I struggled with our son J.R.’s delayed case, my need to be in total control, but He needed that to happen so I would establish a wonderful relationship with the attorney during that drooling hurtful wait. I later assisted this Guatemalan attorney with the placement of TEN Guatemalan children including my son Julian without the use of an agency.
Our decision to adopt from Ethiopia was surprising to many of our friends and family (they should have learned to never underestimate us!) Our family is large we both have extremely demanding professional careers and care for handicapped parents. However, the Lord touched us and once again, and we responded by requesting to adopt an infant girl. Our initial plans were shaken up when He again spoke to me and lead me to an older waiting child. The idea adopting an older child was something I would have NEVER considered several years ago. The possibility of raising a pre-teen with possible attachment issues would not have “fit” into MY plans.
Well, here we are today, as I sit here praying for Him to place His hands on our adoption and that He affords me the opportunity of traveling to Africa to met and bring home our 11 year old daughter. He, however, wanted me to understand that this was not about me. Once again, He directs my attention to the fact that this is His plan and not ours. On Sunday night I received a wonderful woman that adopted Letarik’s friend in Ethiopia. She was someone that I had met via our agency’s yahoo group and have been communicating with since we began our adoption. She has afforded me valuable information, has sent me amazing pictures of our daughter and has been a great source of support. Well, she advises me that she received a phone call from a family asking her about older children adoptions. She wrote that this family had fallen in love with a waiting child at the beginning of this year. They had begun their paperwork when tragedy struck their family. They suffered a devastating house fire that required their adoption be placed on hold! Guess who the child they feel in love with was? Yes, that’s right it was Letarik! They diligently prayed for God to find this girl a family that would be able to proceed with her adoption. This happened April 2nd and we accepted her referral April 10th. God’s hand was all over this!!!!
I was provided that families blog addy www.ifyoutrulybelieve.blogspot.com and was told to read their entry. My best friend (sister) had posted a prayer request in her amazing blog. This family had found her blog and read that prayer and were shocked to find that Letarik now had a family waiting to bring her home. I was able to email them and provided them some closure. They are now finishing their home repairs and actively trying to complete their home study process as they are still going to proceed with an older girl adoption. The daughter God wants them to have.
So, yes, as I sit anxiously awaiting our June 30th court date, I ask for everyone's prayers and I remind myself that His perfect plan will overcome anything. She will join our family on His perfect timing.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
We Have A Court Date - Prayers Needed!!!!
Friday was a wonderful day for our family. Our agency advised us that we have a scheduled court date for Letarik's case to be heard. Our BIG day will be June 30th, we will know if we are officially her parents by the end of that day.
We are asking all our friends and family to please keep us in your prayers. It seems as if lots of cases are not passing on their first try at court. The Ministry Of Womens Affairs (MOWA) in Ethiopia must review the case before the scheduled court date and must write a recommendation/approval letter. This letter must be in the file before the case is heard or your case will not pass court, additionally, her birth mother must be present in order for her to pass court. She has been at Layla House for almost two years and I have not idea if her birth mother will be found easily.
If you don't pass court the agency must reschedule the case for another court hearing. So, if we don't pass court this time around we may still have time to have our case heard one last time before court closures. Ethiopian courts close from August till October, due to the rainy season so we would need to wait till Ocotber to have our case heard again!
Our family was lead to this child and this was done by His hand. We know God wanted us to find her and we are giving this to Him. We pray for her to come home at His perfect time. What is perfect for us may not be what is perfect for Him! I have learned to let go and breath. This is a true testament to my faith and how I've grown as a believer.
I do ask for your thoughts and prayers. I can't wait to have the ability of being Letarik's mom!
We are asking all our friends and family to please keep us in your prayers. It seems as if lots of cases are not passing on their first try at court. The Ministry Of Womens Affairs (MOWA) in Ethiopia must review the case before the scheduled court date and must write a recommendation/approval letter. This letter must be in the file before the case is heard or your case will not pass court, additionally, her birth mother must be present in order for her to pass court. She has been at Layla House for almost two years and I have not idea if her birth mother will be found easily.
If you don't pass court the agency must reschedule the case for another court hearing. So, if we don't pass court this time around we may still have time to have our case heard one last time before court closures. Ethiopian courts close from August till October, due to the rainy season so we would need to wait till Ocotber to have our case heard again!
Our family was lead to this child and this was done by His hand. We know God wanted us to find her and we are giving this to Him. We pray for her to come home at His perfect time. What is perfect for us may not be what is perfect for Him! I have learned to let go and breath. This is a true testament to my faith and how I've grown as a believer.
I do ask for your thoughts and prayers. I can't wait to have the ability of being Letarik's mom!
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Updates
Hi everyone,
Let me start by apologizing for not keeping my blog up to date. I've been distracted by many things mainly keeping up with Julian who is a total handful and also by our pending adoption. Julian is a crazy kinda kid. He is a chubby guy but man is he agile!!! I try and spend all of my free time with the kids rather than online.
I had foot surgery on Friday. I had a bunion on the side of my foot that kept getting worse by the day. I decided to bite the bullet and have the surgery. Everyone kept telling me how painful that was see a bunion is nothing more than calcium build up on the bone so the bone needs to be shaved and the ligaments on your toes need to be tightened. Let's just say that it HURTS like nothing I've ever felt before! I've been in bed since Friday and with my foot up and iced down. I'm on pain meds so I'm not responsible for any misspelling on this post ok! I'm hoping to be better in a few days.
Now for the best news of all... We have been assigned to a Group. We are part of GROUP M. Our agency assigns you to a group once your dossier has been submitted to court. This basically means we have been approved to adopt in Ethiopia and now we will be assigned a court date (we should have the date withing the next two weeks). We are estimating that our court date will be for sometime in the end of June or the very beginning of July. Then we will need to pass court. This is challenging in itself. Your birth mother will need to be present and all the documents will need to be in perfect order. If we pass court we will be able to travel to pick her up in about six weeks. That would be a miracle and oh so sweet!!!! Please pray for us and pray for all things to line up just perfectly so she can be home soon.
I have left everything to Him, I know God wanted us to find her and He will have her home in His perfect time.
I did receive some new pictures of her and she has sent us four letters with traveling families. She is a wonderfully sweet girl. She has asked for me to go get her as soon as I can. I felt so helpless when I read that line. I wish I was able to jump on a plane and bring her home tomorrow. I will really need to dig deep and breath praying for God to give me patience.
So in closing, I have tons of pictures to post but can't get to my Mac to download. Promise to do so sometime this week. As soon as we pass court, I will post tons of pictures of our new daughter.
I will be posting our court date as soon as we know when it will be and asking for your prayers.
Let me start by apologizing for not keeping my blog up to date. I've been distracted by many things mainly keeping up with Julian who is a total handful and also by our pending adoption. Julian is a crazy kinda kid. He is a chubby guy but man is he agile!!! I try and spend all of my free time with the kids rather than online.
I had foot surgery on Friday. I had a bunion on the side of my foot that kept getting worse by the day. I decided to bite the bullet and have the surgery. Everyone kept telling me how painful that was see a bunion is nothing more than calcium build up on the bone so the bone needs to be shaved and the ligaments on your toes need to be tightened. Let's just say that it HURTS like nothing I've ever felt before! I've been in bed since Friday and with my foot up and iced down. I'm on pain meds so I'm not responsible for any misspelling on this post ok! I'm hoping to be better in a few days.
Now for the best news of all... We have been assigned to a Group. We are part of GROUP M. Our agency assigns you to a group once your dossier has been submitted to court. This basically means we have been approved to adopt in Ethiopia and now we will be assigned a court date (we should have the date withing the next two weeks). We are estimating that our court date will be for sometime in the end of June or the very beginning of July. Then we will need to pass court. This is challenging in itself. Your birth mother will need to be present and all the documents will need to be in perfect order. If we pass court we will be able to travel to pick her up in about six weeks. That would be a miracle and oh so sweet!!!! Please pray for us and pray for all things to line up just perfectly so she can be home soon.
I have left everything to Him, I know God wanted us to find her and He will have her home in His perfect time.
I did receive some new pictures of her and she has sent us four letters with traveling families. She is a wonderfully sweet girl. She has asked for me to go get her as soon as I can. I felt so helpless when I read that line. I wish I was able to jump on a plane and bring her home tomorrow. I will really need to dig deep and breath praying for God to give me patience.
So in closing, I have tons of pictures to post but can't get to my Mac to download. Promise to do so sometime this week. As soon as we pass court, I will post tons of pictures of our new daughter.
I will be posting our court date as soon as we know when it will be and asking for your prayers.
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