Moving Day...

January 22nd, 2008

Joshua and Josiah were finally moved to the capital today in Addis Ababa from the Soddo region. This is a major step towards bringing them home. It also means that the Addis Ababa orphanage recently had children adopted and taken home by their new families to create space for our sons.

We rejoice over this creation of new families and pray that their transition and adjustment period goes quickly and smoothly.

Now we wait for the final three steps to occur. First, the children will need another complete medical exam and testing. Once cleared, our paperwork will then be submitted to the court system and we will wait for a court date. Once the court date occurs with our agency representing us there, we will then have the US embassy appointment set, where we can plan our travel dates to coincide with the twins visa's being ready for our pickup.

In all, we're probably 90 days away from traveling, give or take a month.

A little piece of Ethiopia in Austin :)

November 19th, 2007

Today we all went to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church for lunch. It was such a blessing to meet so many people from Ethiopia and have them love and care for us. They touched our hearts with their kinds words and appreciation for us adopting those in need from their country. They shared our joy and excitement as we told them the details about Joshua and Josiah. The young people that were there reached out to Jessica and Christopher and included them in their group.

What a beautiful picture of heaven to see people from distant lands sharing and loving each other worshiping the Lord of Lords and King of Kings.

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.