New Friends

November 11th, 2007

Matthew had the most amazing experience today. He was recently introduced to a native of Ethiopia, Mesfin Bekele, who invited Matthew to lunch today after church. They met at the Ethiopian Orthodox church, which Mesfin helped to start about a year ago.

The church is in a house on about five acres in Pflugerville, a suburb of Austin. While Matthew was sitting in the parking lot waiting for church to end, the door of the church opened and out came about fifty Ethiopian people, mostly families, dressed in traditional Ethiopian clothes. The men wear mostly American looking clothes, but the women wore lovely white linen dresses with white shawls over their heads. They asked Matthew to stay for a little bread and tea and were extremely warm and welcoming.

I have a feeling we'll be spending a lot of time at church, getting to know our new friends :)

Joshua Emanuel and Josiah Abenezer

November 6th, 2007

We settled on names for the twins! We feel very strongly that the boys should retain their connection to their wonderful culture and Ethiopian heritage, so we decided to give them American firstnames and use their birthname as their middle name.

So they will be called...Joshua Emanuel, Joshua being a biblical name that means "God saves" and Josiah Abenezer, Josiah also being a biblical name that means "God heals" or "Healed by God"We're continuing to wait for space to open up for the boys to be transferred to the transition home in Addis. Time seems to be dragging!!

Good News!

October 12th, 2007

The twins passed their additional medical test and we accepted their referral to begin the final stages of the process to bring them into our family.

We are now waiting for space to open up at the CWA transition home in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. They have to move to Addis to be able to complete the process through the courts.We are so thankful they are healthy in spite of all they have experienced. We pray for them daily and ask for prayers for them, their caregivers and their other family members.

Looking good...

September 27th, 2007

Today we received the paperwork on Abenezer and Emanuel, the twin six month old boys from the Soddo orphanage in the southwest part of Ethiopia. It was so exciting to read about them, their background and a little information about their family.

We were overwhelmed with joy and tears filled our eyes as we read all about them. We feel so humbled and blessed to be part of this plan that God has laid out before us. We don't deserve God's love nor could we ever earn it through our actions, but He has chosen to love us. He must feel the same excitement and joy that we feel now when another one of His children makes the decision to be adopted into God's family.W

e are still praying for wisdom, but are growing more and more confident that these two little boys should be part of our family. Their paperwork is good and they are very healthy.

REFERRAL DAY!!

September 26th, 2007

We have a referral!! Oh my goodness...I can hardly sit still :)

Our case worker emailed us today and asked about a note on our form. She wanted to know if we were or were not interested in twins. Of course we immediately asked if she had twins available and she said she thought they might be getting some information on twin boys today. Matthew laughed out loud about this. He knew I had put twins or siblings under the age of 3 on the form and, in his heart, suspected God would grant me my desire to adopt twin babies. He jokes now about how God answers my prayers more than his. (Which is so NOT true!)

We are so excited about the possibility of having twin boys. Jessica and Christopher were equally excited and asked all kinds of questions about what this might mean to our family. Please pray for wisdom in this decision. We can either accept this referral or wait for another. We need God to reveal His will for us and clearly show us if these are the boys He wants us to adopt.