Introducing Our Ethiopian Princess!

Isn't she the most beautiful thing you've ever seen? We found out at about 7:00 this morning that we finally passed court! So she is officially ours according to the country of Ethiopia. Now just to get her home! Here are some wonderful things you should know about our daughter (I can allow myself to say that now).

Her name is Yemiserach (Yemi) Ruth Weatherford. We are going to keep her first name as her Ethiopian name since she's already 2 1/2 years old. She is living in our adoption agency's transition home where she appears to be very well taken care of and loved. She likes to sing her ABC's and "spiritual songs," as they put it. She can climb on climbers and the nannies say she is funny. She is a good eater and she likes bananas and oranges (John and I haven't eaten an orange in years, so someone will have to show me how to pick out a good one), injera (Ethiopia's version of bread) and macaroni.

I know many of you are wondering what's next. They are going to get her visa together, which takes 3 weeks. Once that has been finalized, then we should know our travel dates. They told us it could be anywhere between 6-12 weeks from now. We have a lot to do in that time, but we are obviously so excited! I know with all my heart that everything has worked out with the most perfect timing for a purpose. She is going to fit into our family just the way she is supposed to. Thank you for all your continued support and prayers. Continue to pray for her health and safety. Pray that we would be able to prepare for her well and that we will be able to bond with her right away.

I'm so glad to be able to share her picture with all of you now. I think she's gorgeous! I can't wait until you can see her in real life!

Some news, but not the big news...

Well, some stuff has happened in our lives since my last post. We still haven't passed court, but our next court date is April 8th. The Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs in Ethiopia did write the recommendation letter we needed from them, but it was missing one of the clearances we needed to be in it. They will rewrite the letter and hopefully we will have everything we need to pass next week.

For some good news though, John is working at the puzzle company again. They haven't hired him back full time with benefits, but we are still praying for that to come. But in the meantime, he is working (actually 6 days a week because he spending Saturdays at the art gallery still). I know this helps his psyche and we are able to save some more money before we leave for Ethiopia, which is a good, good thing.

We made tee-shirts to raise money for the adoption and they came in and look marvelous! I will be giving them to people who ordered them soon. John is so talented!

Thank you all for praying with us. We were disappointed that we didn't pass court last week, but not discouraged. I have complete faith that God is doing something so great in our lives right now and He is going to bring our family together at the exact right time. In the meantime, please pray that our little girl will continue to stay healthy and safe in the transition home. That the nannies will love on her and she will be able to bond with one of her caretakers. Pray that God will continue to prepare her heart for her new home and that He will prepare ours for her so that we can all bond perfectly as if she was with us all her life.

Not Yet

So, our third court date was today. Its result was the same as the two before it. The lady from the adoption agency said that Ethiopia is getting ready for elections there and it delayed some of our paperwork. It is yet another reminder that we have very little control over this process. I often wonder how we would be dealing with this if we hadn't gone overseas for the summer in 2002.

Before leaving for that trip, and throughout the summer, God taught us that we are not the ones in control. It is easy to remember overseas, especially when you are not in a Western country where you don't speak the language. Things are done differently and our time frames are not their time frames. We knew all this when we decided to adopt internationally. And even though we are not adopting from East Asia, the fact remains- we have no control. We do not have the right to time frames or to expect our paperwork to be worked when we want it to. I had no idea that this process would take over three years when we started, but I've known for a while that God only shows us one step at a time. He does that in his wisdom because we can't handle the whole picture at once.

I think in America we have gotten a lot better at acting like we are in control. We drive our own cars because mass transportation is too unpredictable (at least in the cities I've lived in). We make sure we have choices and we are entitled to things. We are entitled to have things "our way" and when we want it. We will complain when things are not the way we expect (remind me to tell you about a man at Taco Bell who complained to the manager because his nachos did not look like the ones in the picture). But it's all just show. We really don't control as much as we like to believe. And John and I have no control over this adoption.

The comforting fact, and one I have to constantly ask for grace to remember, is that God IS in control. There is nothing that happens outside him allowing it. And he loves our little girl way more than we can and yet he allows her to stay in the transition home away from her forever family. How can that be? Shouldn't he just teleport her home so we can start our lives together? While that would be nice in theory, I know he has something better planned. Her time there is shaping who she will be. And what He is doing in our lives right now is shaping how we will parent. And what I am most sure of, is that at the end of this whole thing, His name will be praised more than I have ever praised it before. My faith will be deeper, His truth will be more real and my reliance on Him will be stronger. And while I call him Jehovah jireh now in faith and hope that He will provide, I know that someday soon I will be shouting that from the rooftops because I have seen it happen in unexpected and phenomenal ways.

And then we can tell our daughter of the amazing things God has done in our family to bring us together. How we wanted her and thought about her and prayed for her for over three years before we even got to see her in person. We can tell of how he provided $5000 from nowhere so we could bring her home (actually, more like $20,000) and how he gave her dad the perfect job at just the right time. So while it is disappointing that we have to wait 2 more weeks to see if we pass court, God already knows when it is going to happen. He has things timed out in such a way that He gets the glory and not us.

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21

Court Date Phone Call

I told you that I would let you all know as soon as we knew our court date, so here's the post. I didn't lie, this is the first time we found out about court, but it turns out that it already happened. We had our first court date today (Ethiopia time). Apparently we got missed on the round of phone calls or something because when the agency called this morning to let us know that we did not pass court today, they were trying to give us the news gently. I was more confused than anything because I didn't know if they were talking about our court date or some other thing that I didn't know about.

So, we didn't pass this time, but our new court date is on February 9 (so be praying that we pass then). The reason we didn't pass has nothing to do with our paperwork or us, so that is good news. Because of our daughter's family circumstances in Ethiopia (which I can't give the details of) the judge requested additional paperwork to prove that she's actually okay to be adopted. Ethiopia is very careful that the children they are sending out of the country have not been abducted, etc.

The lady at the agency said that they expect to have everything they need by the ninth and that they will call to let us know how it goes. So, court is coming up much fast than we thought. She said there is no way to know just yet what our travel dates will be, but most families have been traveling 5-6 weeks after they pass court. That would put us at mid- to late March! Crazy! That means we have a lot to do and a lot of money to get in a short amount of time. Luckily, with the week of prayer and fasting, God has really calmed my heart about everything and is showing me that he will provide what we need for her to get home.

Thanks so much for praying, I will keep this updated with any more news!

So tonight we were getting everything ready to send in to USCIS (immigration) to get our clearance updated. When we originally filled out our clearance forms, they were for a child from birth to 24 months. Since our child is now over 24 months, this will not work. They literally won't let her in the country if she does not match our paperwork. So, we were sending in the necessary items to get this updated to 3 years of age. While going through our paperwork, we discovered that we never sent in the updated homestudy that we had done in November. Each update you do has to get sent in to USCIS as well.

So, we had a bit of a panic attack when we realized this and were trying to figure out if this was a big deal or not. We don't actually know for sure, so we would like you all to pray that USCIS will get everything they need on this attempt and our oversight would not delay the process. We think that it will be okay because our homestudy (as far as immigration goes) was not actually supposed to expire until June or so. Please pray that this will go smoothly!

We have not heard about a court date or travel dates yet, but hope to hear sometime this week. I will let you know when we do. We are praying for our little girl a lot this week- that she remains as happy as she looks in her pictures.

Referral is here!

I didn't update this right away because there were so many people we wanted to tell in person. Then time just got away from me I guess. We got our referral on December 23, 2009. A referral is when they refer a specific child to the adopting family and they can either accept that child or not. They send medical records and pictures and what they know about his/her background. So John got a phone call from our adoption agency, America World, the day before Christmas Eve to let us know that they had our referral and they would be emailing it to us that day. It was so great that it happened that day because it was the last day the office was open until after New Year's!

John called me to let me know because I was out with my mom's side of the family having our annual Women's Holiday Lunch. We checked the email later that day together and got to see pictures of what might possibly be the most beautiful little 2 year old that ever lived! Until she's officially ours, we can't post details about her, but we will put pictures up as soon as we can. She has beautiful big eyes and she looks sooo happy in her pictures. We are ecstatic of course and mailed back our acceptance letter as soon as we could!

So, what now? Well, our agency is setting up a court date in Ethiopia. This is where a judge will look over all our paperwork and decide whether we can be this child's parents. We don't have the date of when this will happen, but we should know very soon. Then our agency will set our tentative travel dates (we don't actually book travel until we pass court of course). We travel 2-4 weeks after we pass court.

My mind has been going crazy lately about all this. I'm so excited to be able to finally have a face and a name to go along with all my daydreams and prayers. When you don't know how old your child will be when you get her, it is hard to imagine things (Will she be walking yet? Will she need a crib or a bed? Will she still drink out of a bottle?) Now that I have an age and face, I have been imagining so much more. Also, John is still looking for employment that is full time and as the time draws near we are both getting more anxious about it. I go through waves of believing that God is going to provide something right at the right time- he will show his glory in a way that only he can! And at other times, I will admit I'm frustrated that he hasn't done it in my timing. I only allow fleeting thoughts about what it will look like if John doesn't find something soon- but I feel deep down that God put a desire for me to be able to be the primary care taker of my daughter and he will provide a way for me to do it.

This week is the 6th annual Week of Prayer at our church, Second Mile. The whole community prays and fasts together. I really feel like God is going to reveal himself to John and me more than he has before, especially on this issue. I read a blog yesterday of a family that used our agency and adopted a one year old last year. It was amazing to see their videos and read their thoughts and experiences. One thing that stood out to me was how well taken care of the children seemed to be at the transition home. Their nannies love them and really showed it. That makes me so happy I start to cry every time I think about it. Even if we can't go get her for a few more months, she is in good hands. The kids seem to be individuals to the people taking care of them- not just another child. This makes me soooo glad!

Thank you for praying for us during this time. Remember to pray for a way of provision for our family and for our little girl to be loved and healthy while we anxiously wait to bring her to her forever home. Please also pray that I would really process this all during this week as I do have a tendency to ignore things that are hard. Let me feel the full emotions that God has for me, this week especially!