WE GOT A COURT DATE!!!!!!!!!

I can't believe the day has come, we were given a court date. I received the call at 9:49am on the home nubmer. It was Aneata with IAN and she said "I have a surprise for you" I could hardly stand it and felt like I was going to faint. She said "We have a court date for you of Wednesday April 27th" I could not believe my ears. Finally a date to look forward to. A milestone, something to shoot for. It is a miracle!!! Thank You God!!!!!! It also happens to be Donovan's birthday, so it is a double blessing...This day 22 years ago my Son was born, and this day 22 years later we find out the "due date" of our two beautiful Sons...God is good.

Amharic Word of the Day

Handsome - meul-keu meul-kam

Amharic Word of the Day

Dad - a-ba-ye (ah-bah-yay)

2 Books Down 2 To Go

So I finished reading My Fathers' Daughter by Hannah Pool and what an amazing story it is. Hannah Pool was adopted from Eritrea Africa by a British family as a baby in 1974. The book is about her journey to meeting her biological Father and Siblings as an adult. Beautiful and inspiring, I would recommend it to everyone.

I also recently finished This Is a Soul The Mission of Rick Hodes by Marilyn Berger. This fascinating true story is about Dr Rick Hodes who traveled to Africa two decades ago to help the victims of famine, 28 years later he is still there. What an incredible person this man is, his heart is so big and he lives every day to help more and more of Ethiopia's beautiful children.

I am now reading There Is No You Without Me and will write about that as soon as I am done...
 

Amharic Word of the Day

The boy's speak Amharic so we bought a phrasebook online called "Ethiopian Amharic" by Lonely Planet. It is OUTSTANDING!!!! With that said, everyday I will post a new word as it is said in English and Amharic...

Mother - e-nat ( eh-knot)

I've made a decision

As you may or may not know when we go to Ethiopia for our court date that is only the first step to getting our Boys home. The second step is to then go to Embassy which is approx 6-10 weeks after our court date. After a lot of soul searching and conversations with my Hubby we have decided that after court Jimmy will fly home but I will STAY in Ethiopia until Embassy!!!

I am so excited for this adventure. I will stay at the guest house where there will be families coming and going at a constant pace. I get to keep the Boys with me at all times, they will not have to go back to the orphanage!!!

We will have weeks if not a couple of months just the three of us to bond. I am so looking forward to living there for that time, to be submerged in their culture, learning their language, learning about their foods, traditions, everything...I will be able to use this time to teach them English and to prepare them (as much as you can anyway) for waht is to come in America. There is so much I am looking forward to it is hard to put into words.

Don't get me wrong, I am also very nervous. I don't know the language, I have never traveled abroad without Jimmy, and I will have two little angels to look after who's English is exceptionally limited at best. Talk about stepping outside of my comfort zone...It is a challenge I am both terrified and over the moon excited to embrace.....

I will take the laptop so that I can skype with the family back home. This will be the Boys first introduction to Ryan and Kennedy. I want their faces and voices to be familiar to them when we finally come home. Jimmy will stay in Ethiopia after court for two weeks, bonding with the boys, and then, as with Kennedy and Ryan the boys can skype with Daddy too.

Now if only we would hear about our court date!!!!!

Feb 11

Ethiopia is 10 hours ahead of us, so it is already February 11. This date is important because there are four families whose adoptions have been held up due to their children comng from the Selam Orphanage (the same as our Boys). If the Judge rules in their favor this will mean the issues with that orphanage are all resolved, finally....What this means for us is that there is nothing left to hold up the process of getting our court date.

I now tell myself that we wont hear about a court date until April. Doing this allows me to get through my days with no expectations. When you live your life waiting for a phone call day in and day out it can be pretty miserable. So with this newfound perspective life is really pretty easy...Why didn't I do this a long time ago?

Lets see if I am right

I had a dream the other night that we received our court date, it was February 21st...

One Day Closer

Yippee!!! It is February 9th and we are 1 day closer to our Son's...No we did not get a court date yet but in the spirit of thinking positive, each day that passes truly is one day closer to them. I went through a bit of a depression but I snapped out of that horrible place to be and am good as new.
The boys room is finished and I am working on the playroom now, and having a ton of fun doing it. I forgot what it was like to decorate a young child's room and at first was stumped. Now the ideas are coming to me left and right and it's great!

I'll take what I can get.....

I found out today that the orphanage approval for all of the cases from the Gambella region (this is where our Boys are from) will be presented to the Ethiopian Courts on February 11...I am not sure if we will be notified of our court date after that time or before.

We also recived an update on the Boys and they are doing very well. It was said of them both that they are very polite, respectful,  and social. My little men are already making their Mama proud.

God thank you for the many blessings you have so graciously bestowed upon me. I surrender to you and to your will, what will be will be. Please keep my children safe and send upon a breeze a whisper in their ear that they are loved and will be home soon... 

Will sleep ever come?

And here I am again 11pm and I should have been asleep long ago. I can't sleep anymore, I can't focus when I am awake, I feel like I am going a bit mad. This wait is starting to take a toll on me. I don't know which was worse, starting the process in July knowing we would wait, or now knowing that any day we can recieve a call with our court date. I obsess over my e-mail now, in the hopes there is news...I stare at the phone as if I can actually will it to ring, with news of a court date on the other end...And at night I lay awake tossing and turning thinking about my boys who are on the other side of the world (literally) and wonder what they are doing at that exact moment...I try to force myself to sleep but that is simply an exercise in frustration becasue it does not come....So here I am wide awake but exhausted, wondering how my Boys are, what they are doing, when will I get to meet them and when will they be home....

God please give me the strength I need to get through this, and the faith I seem to lack, that you do indeed have this under control.

Waiting...Waiting...and more....Waiting

I know that this waiting will come to an end but on days like today it seems as if the end will never be here. I feel anxious and like nothing can satisfy me. I want my Son's home. I have completed their room and now have to work on the playroom but no matter how much I do I can't quench this need to have them home and in my arms. I am frustrated today and depressed and feeling like I can burst in to tears at any moment. I know that this journey is so completely out of my control and that when God says the time is right the time will be right. To know that is one thing, to live it is something completely different.

We are waiting for a court date and are praying that we hear something this week. 

Lord please give me strength and patience while the wait to bring our Sons home continues