Travel Confirmation!

We got confirmation of travel dates! FINALLY!!!! We're excited. Bringing home our little girl soon! We got an update; it's quite...."interesting" to say the least.

Here's what we read:
She is sweet and adorable, but she knows her special mothers really well and she is very attached to them. She does not willingly go to anyone she is not familiar with. Furthermore, she is pretty fearful to look at white faces, let alone go to them. We are prayerful that she will be able to transition smoothly with her adoptive parents. Otherwise, she is delightful, sociable, playful, and has a mind of her own. She is standing with support and has great coordination.

Did you read that? "...she is pretty fearful to look at white faces, let alone go to them..." Ummmm....I'm fairly certain this could be problematic for the return flight, which is a short 20 hours...

And then, from the orphanage director (we asked a different question, but this was tacked on at the end):
But please tell them that she is very fearful of white faces so their initial transition might be difficult. This is because of the bond that she currently has with her special mothers.

I get it...I'm gonna be the favorite guy on the flight(s) home.

If you were to assign a point value to "whiteness", I may possibly be the holy grail. The powerball jackpot-type level.

So, I guess if she learns to love me, all the other "white faces" will be much more manageable...

BUT, the major points I'm skipping over is that she's delightful, sweet, etc. How cool is that? We only know her face, but soon we will MEET her and her little personality!!!!

WE PASSED!

Amen! We passed court! Thank you for all of the prayers and encouragement! We cannot wait to bring OUR little girl home!

Psalm 118:23 "The Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes."

Waiting

Psalm 27:14--
Wait on the LORD: be of good courage,
and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD. (KJV)*

And now we wait. There have been "waits" during this process....getting on the list, getting updated waitlist numbers, getting a referral, getting a court date. All of these could happen at any time in the future, and when they did, we rejoiced.

In THIS situation, the "event" has already happened. Now we're waiting to see the outcome. It's past tense now.

It's not uncommon to wait 1, 2, or even several days to find out the outcome. I suppose the court doesn't decide right there in front of the orphanage director. Once they decide, they issue a court decree which is delivered to the orphanage in a few days. If ours is there, we've passed. If it's not in the bunch, we wait.

So that's what we're doing. But we're still praying, pretty much constantly. Please continue to pray!

*Thanks to my high school friend Andrew for giving us the encouraging verse!

Court Tonight!

Since it's midnight, the title of this post is correct!

We have court tonight, August 11th here in the US, August 12th in Ethiopia. Please pray for us that we pass this first time through. We're prepared (not really) for not passing, but asking God for the miracle of passing the first time and bringing our little girl home.

Psalm 109:27
Let them know that it is your hand,
that you, O Lord, have done it.

Paisley found Africa at the zoo:



Majil found a thing of lipstick, unattended:


Please pray with us and the other families going to court today and tonight! Thanks!

Birthdays and Trundle Beds

It's been a weird time here at our home....just waiting. We're fervently praying for our little "T", thinking about traveling to get her, wondering about us and the girls adjusting to her being home. But, it's been peaceful waiting.

Majil, the baby (at home anyway!), turned 3 yesterday. The balloon fairy brought 3 balloons overnight for her to see when she woke up. Against the balloon fairy's better judgment, he/she went with the "two-legged, obese horse" balloon instead of the My Little Pony, hoping Mae would LOVE it.


Fortunately, she did.

We asked her where she wanted to eat for dinner, to which she replied, "How about Applebee's?" They sang her Happy Birthday and she graciously shared the brownie and ice cream with Paisley (whose birthday is in a month and wants to eat at Applebee's too!). We came home and had family over for a party, including some out of town family who were here which was great. We all had lots of fun!




The funniest part, to me anyway, was that I had to run to the store for icing to write on her cake. Jana's mom makes the girls' birthday cakes every year, which is awesome. She's done bunnies, a bear, the Backyardigans, and Tinkerbell. Majil just wanted a plain pink cake with pink frosting and a pony, which is exactly what she got. We wanted to write her name on it, so I tried my hand at cake decorating. The picture says it all, but needless to say, I'm by no means a cake decorator (perhaps qualifying as a "wreck-erator"), but it was delicious.


Majil got her own cake to eat, which she did in style:




Also, we moved Majil and Paisley into the same room on a trundle bed. The first few nights were rough, but they've adjusted well and really like being close to each other at night. They're pretty funny, whispering and giggling together.



Our court date is August 12th (which is the night of August 11th here in the US), so please pray for us and the other families who have court this week as well. We're praying to hear this week that we've passed, SHE'S OURS, and receive our travel dates! We'll reveal the name we've chosen for her first name once we pass court.

Any guesses? Hint: type of foliage you might find at a nursery...(which has nothing to do with WHY we chose this name; we just think it's pretty...)