Good news!

Hi all! I arrived home in Tulsa late Saturday night. We found out on Friday, the 11th, that Sammy had all his waiver paperwork back in and we were able to leave the country. We cancelled our flights with Britsh Air (which we had learned needed a transit visa to go through London per Sammy's Ethiopian passport) and went to the travel agency to change our tickets to Turkish Air so we could leave that night, at 2 am.

The trip to Ethiopia was very good. The beautiful sights and abject poverty we saw were very sobering. The disparity between the rich and the poor in Addis was sharp. But the people were beautiful. We enjoyed spending time with the four other families staying at the guest house during portions of our stay, and we very sad that the two other families traveling with us, were not able to leave Friday like we were - we were waiting on waivers for four kids between the three families - only two children received their paperwork back on Friday, and the other child was waiting for his sister's paperwork, so his family was not able to leave.

It was, of course, so good to see my family at home. Graham looked bigger than I remembered - I guess that comes from carrying a 17-month old around for two weeks.

So much to say, maybe I'll try to post again, once my head is a bit clearer.

Oh, and the day we left Ethipia, we learned that Lidiya Sissay passed court and is also officially an "Emory". I'll try to post some photos of her and Sammy later in the week. We got to meet her family in Ethiopia, two aunts (from mother and father's sides), two grandmothers, her half-sister, and her young three-year old cousin. so many women in her life, but no men. Her parents died about six years ago. While we don't understand why her aunt could not care for her; although she is relatively poor, we are honored to have her in our family. And yes, she does have the most delightful smile you've ever seen.

So good to be home! We were gone right at two weeks - left Sunday morning after Thanksgiving and returned Saturday night almost two weeks later. Couldn't have hoped for a better turnaround on our paperwork.

Oh, plans changed quite a bit!

We decided, probably immediately after that last post, that I would travel with my mom at this time to get Adam Samuel and hopefully Todd can travel with the entourage in January to get big sister.

It was pretty stressful trying to figure out how to juggle grandmothers helping with traveling at the same time - kids to school, etc. Also wasn't too excited about both of us being away from the two little ones for a long period of time. Don't think we've both been away from them for more than two nights. Elise was pretty distraught about us going. She's still not happy about it, but I tried to assure her, while it is a long time that I will be home and before Christmas!

So, I leave Sunday, the 29th, travel to Dallas, then London, then a short stop in Jordan and to Addis, arriving like 2 am on Tuesday (they are 8-10 hours ahead of U.S. time). Our embassy date will be the following day. Hopefully if all the paperwork is finished, I, my mom and Adam Samuel will travel back December 15th, arriving around 11pm on December 16th in Tulsa.

While there -
We just realized last week that an Ethiopian mandate is in effect which doesn't allow us to take our newly adopted kids out in public. How did I miss this? But we will be able to, hopefully, take a trip to big sister's town and visit her family (an aunt and half-sister) that we know about. We will also visit the town where Adam was found (assuming his home area, although he was found abandoned). These cities are pretty close to the capital city of Addis Ababa, but did require malaria treatment and a yellow fever inoculation. Addis is at a high altitude and doesn't have a lot of mosquito problems, while these towns are more low-lying. The towns we will visit are Debra Zeit and Nazareth (Adama).

So, we will have a lot of time bonding at the guest house. Hopefully big sister will be allowed to join us there. She has her court date December 11th - so we will hear the good news about her passing a bit quicker since we'll be in Ethiopia at that time. :)

All of my siblings are coming into town for Thanksgiving (with the other 15 grandchildren) - so I probably won't post again until I'm in Ethiopia, provided I can find that internet cafe!

Happy Thanksgiving!

They know about us!

Hi all,

We received word a few weeks ago that the kids didn't know they had a family yet, because our "welcome gifts" had not been delivered yet - they were to go with a staff member of the agency in August. Turns out it was this Monday when they were told we were waiting for them!

We received a beautiful photo yesterday of the kids together. (They are at the same orphanage, but now know they'll be siblings). So exciting!

Poor Lydia Sissay had a bald head - I guess there was a scalp infection that some of the kids had and they shaved some heads. Wow, orphange life isn't all it's cracked up to be, eh? She still looks lovely - now who can say that with a bald head!?

We also realized about a week ago (or two) - man, time flies! That the courts in Ethiopia ARE going to close - I guess they stayed open a bit into the rainy season to try to catch up on some pending cases - but they will be mid-August until October. Don't know if they may decide in the interim to grant some court case dates for when they open back up. Wouldn't that be cool!? So, we could possibly have our first court date in October, but it's just a guess.

Oh, I so want to say they'll be home by January - I guess every case is unique - so we'll just keep praying.

Okay, on the Tulsa-home front... the three kids at home started "real school" last week. I am loving this school thing. (I've been homeschooling at least one of them for the past four years). We have a wonderful neighborhood public school - so that is helping a lot. Graham is in pre-K (full-day), Elise, 1st, and Lydia 4th. The kids are all enjoying it as well. God is good. And I'm able to get some things done. God knew I needed this time to organize, work, etc. I just wasn't so sure. Did I say how much I love having my kids in school!? Okay, I'll stop - don't want to make any of my homeschool friends feel badly - but yeah, I'm still working two part-time jobs - I guess there's only so much one person can do! I do hope to be homeschooling again in the future - maybe for middle-school ?

One last great news item - one of the other nine-year old girls at our kids' orphanage has a family now. We had considered adopting her, but, of course, Lydia S. won our hearts. I'm so excited for her to have a new family! Now, we need to find a family for the six-year old girl and the two-year old boy we were also interested in adopting!

Okay, I guess that's all for now! Faith

Apparently courts won't close! :)

I understand that the Ethiopian courts will not "officially" close this "rainy season". Not sure why, I hope it's not because there is little anticipated rain. That would be a very bad deal for them, since they are greatly in need of rain. But for our adoption, it might mean us getting a court date, sooner than later. So good news, all in all.

Still need to pray for their infrastructure. They have blackouts for many hours of each day - up to 18 hours and thus businesses have been greatly affected. Some can't stay in business because of these major problems.

For a country that has had so many struggles, it's really bad news. I remembered when I traveled to Bulgaria in 1990 with YWAM that there were periods of the day when the family we stayed with had no electricity. At age 20, I couldn't really understand how a country could deal with that inconvenience. But the more I learn, I begin to understand more than half the world's population deals with such inconveniences/problems everyday.

We have it so good here! God bless the U.S.A. - bless us and help us count our blessings and in turn, bless others. That's my prayer.