Merry Christmas!

Wishing you a day filled with...

the things you find most delicious,

the sweet smiles of those you love,

joyful times with family and friends,

and most importantly,
time to remember the greatest Gift the world has ever received.

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

2 Corinthians 9:15

For Unto Us...

A(nother) daughter is given.


It is my privilege to introduce you to the newest member of our family, Zinash. We found out today that our case passed court, and that we are legally her parents (in the eyes of the Ethiopian government). Just think, in one more day, and it would have corresponded with a sacred family holiday.

Next steps, as you may remember from our process with Mihret, are even more waiting. We now get assigned a date at the US Embassy in Addis Ababa, and then begin working on travel plans from one side of the world to the other.

Already rockin' tie dye

Once in country, we’ll need to appear before the Embassy to file paperwork for her passport, then hang around for a couple of days until the passport is ready, then back on the plane for the return journey.

After being in the US for six months, we are then able to apply for adoption through the US government. Ah yes, bureaucracy.

We have no idea when our embassy date will be and when we will travel; we’ve been told to expect anywhere between six and eight weeks. Until then, we have a lot of preparation to do at home.

Please keep the four of us in your prayers as we celebrate both the holiday season and this exciting news.

Waiting

We are still waiting for news from Ethiopia regarding our adoption of Boo #2. We haven't heard anything since the email telling of our unsuccessful first court date. I find at times like this that I really struggle to relax and trust God with the outcome. It's silly, really, because there is absolutely NOTHING I can do to speed the process along, and even if there were, worrying and checking my email incessantly would not make things happen any faster. It's also silly because I am confident that God put Boo #2 on our hearts and I know that He is the One who is bringing our family together. I am trying to focus on preparing for Boo #2 instead of focusing on how hard it is to wait. Some days I do that really well; others, well...not so much. In any case, I am thankful that we serve a God who does not get stressed out by missing letters and court delays.

The last few days God has been reminding me that just as He used the delays in Mihret's adoption to prepare Chuck and me to be her parents, He is also using this current process to prepare each one of us (Chuck, me, Mihret, and Boo #2) to become a family. Not only that, but He is using this process - delays and all - to prepare our community to receive Boo #2 with great joy.

When we were waiting for Mihret, another mom-to-be, whose first child was also at Layla House with Mihret, wrote to me about her experience with "the wait." What she said meant a lot to me at the time and I have remembered it these past 2+ years:

Some days it seems easier and some days it is much more difficult. I have read a very good book which was helpful. It is called: Carried Safely Home. The author, who is a friend of mine, talks about the hidden blessings in the adoption process. One thing I really liked is that she talks about waiting as a time where the Lord increases our capacity for love in our hearts- like a stream that turns into a river. The capacity for loves grows deeper and wider while we wait giving us a true spirit of adoption.

That was helpful for me- to think of this waiting as a time for my heart to grow even more for my son."

Katie, adoptive mom, 9/4/07

And so we wait and our love for Boo#2 grows bigger and bigger. We wait and our trust in our great and loving God grows bigger and bigger. We wait and remember that God is indeed good.

Psalm 27:13-14

¹³ I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.

¹⁴ Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.

The Mind of a Child

The other day I accidentally tore my toenail. Mihret was looking at my toe and asked what was wrong with it. I told her what happened and she said, "My toe didn't get torn. Jesus put tape on it."

I responded with my usual, "Oh, really!?!" and she proceeded to point to her toenail and say, "See? Jesus put tape on it!"

Hmmm...I've never thought about that before, but I guess a toenail does look a little like tape.

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Last night we were driving in the car and Mihret was telling me a story about she, her dad, and Pepaw and Memaw Coleman putting on some special hats and going to see some bees. I asked her if they were going to get some honey and she said, "No, I don't really like honey from bees."

I said, "Oh? What kind of honey do you like?"

"I like honey from butterflies!"


(By the way, I asked Chuck later if he had ever told Mihret a story about he and Pepaw and Memaw Coleman going to see some bees and he said that he had. Did the original story include butterflies, you ask? No.)

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Today we were at Michael's doing some Christmas shopping. Mihret asked if she could play with a little plastic figurine of a cow while she was sitting in the cart. I told her that she could, so she was turning it over and over in her hands examining it. Finally she pointed to the udders and asked, "What are those?"

I was in the process of searching the shelves for the perfect stocking stuffer for one of my nieces, so to be honest, I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to Mihret but I told her that they were called udders and that milk came out of them.

She said, "Oh, you put a bucket under it to catch the milk."

I responded, "Yep, that's right," and kept on searching.

Then her voice got really intense and she said, "Quick, Mama! I need a bucket to catch the milk!"

Court Delay

Our case didn't pass court today for Boo #2. Our file was missing a letter of approval from an important governmental agency in Ethiopia that has to approve all adoptions. Their office was closed last Friday so none of the letters were written for the cases being heard for the first time today. Hopefully they'll get caught up soon and we will get some good news before too long.

Interestingly, the exact same thing happened with Mihret's case a little over two years ago. In her case, the situation was resolved fairly quickly and we got word a week later that our adoption of Mihret had been officially approved by the Ethiopian courts. At the time it felt much longer than a week, but when I looked back at our blog I realized that it was exactly a week later that we got the good news.

We're hoping that things will resolve quickly for Boo #2 as well and are trusting that God has the timing under control just as He did during Mihret's adoption.

Something Important

Today is World AIDS Day.

While there's been a lot of progress over the past thirty years, there's still a lot to do.

To get involved, you can look to the World Vision page for ideas on how to contact representatives in state and national government regarding this. Advocacy could involve additional medical aid, legislative changes, or even revisiting health care decisions in the States that limit the affordability of drugs for persons in Third World countries.

Another option, and one that's a bit closer to my heart, is to work with AHOPE for Children and support a young person in Ethiopia. It will change your life... and theirs.

Please. Don't be a slacktivist today.