We have a court date!!!!

April 14th, 2008

We finally have a court date!! We received an email from our case manager, letting us know that our adoption will be presented to the judge on April 23rd. After waiting for so long, it’s such a blessing to know that we will finally have our day in court.

On this date, our agency’s Ethiopian staff will present our case to the judge. We are not anticipating any problems, but we also know that the road we’re traveling is bumpy at times. We are asking our faithful friends and family to join us in prayer on the 22nd and 23rd. Because Ethiopia is ahead by 7-8 hours, we expect that just as we are going to bed on the 22nd, their day will be about to begin. Sometime during the night, our case will be presented to the judge and he will make his decision. Please join us in praying that there will be no surprises and that we pass court on the first try. I doubt that we’ll sleep at all that night and anticipate that we’ll be on our knees in prayer.

After the adoption is approved, our house will go into “warp speed”. There is MUCH still to do and very little time to get it all accomplished. We’ve anticipated our travel date to be somewhere near May 23rd. So, we’ve booked our flights and, through some generous friends, were able to secure our round-trip tickets. We fly out of Austin on May 23rd, arriving in Addis Ababa on May 24th and return home to Austin on Sunday, June 8th.

e’ve made many Ethiopian friends along the way and are excited to meet their families while we are in Addis. Another really cool “God-thing” that we discovered is that Matthew’s childhood Dr. (and family friend) and his wife are currently living in Addis Ababa, doing mission work over there. We’re excited to know that we have friends from College Station that will be living in Addis while we’re there. I’m especially thankful that we’ll have access to medical care through Dr. Segrest, should we need it (though I’m praying we DO NOT).

God has known all along about my fear of going to a third-world country with my diabetes and this is one more way that He has shown me that He has every thing under control. One small corner of my heart was still afraid to travel to Addis and God whispered into my ear. “Child, I am the Most High God and I will take care of you.” I also have to snicker a bit at the fact that I secretly thought I could keep those thoughts all to myself. As if the Lord doesn’t know what I’m thinking…nothing could be further from the truth.

Thank you for keeping us and our journey in your prayers. As we near the end of this part of the journey, we are humbled to know that friends like you have made this journey with us. Joshua Emanuel and Josiah Abenezer WILL KNOW how God used every one of you to bring them home to us. I can’t wait to share their story with them about how much they were loved before we ever even knew who they were.

We’ll send out an update as soon as we hear something from our case manager. She has warned us that they don’t always receive word immediately, so it may be several days before we know something. Please remember to pray for us on April 22nd and 23rd.