We Received A Court Date!!!

Pam ~ Yesterday, we received the phone call we have been waiting for the past few weeks!!!! Nathan and I have a court date scheduled in Ethiopia on Tuesday, August 14th. Praise the Lord!!!!

We have to arrive in Ethiopia no later than Saturday, August 11th, in order that we can spend time with our daughter before attending our court appointment, so we need to leave Des Moines on either the 9th or 10th. Our travel plans have just clicked into high gear. There is a lot to get done in just one week!!!!

I thought it might be helpful to explain a little about what we will be doing during this first trip to ET (at least, I'll try to explain as best as I know!!!)

The purpose of this trip is to meet our daughter and then to appear before an ET court judge, tell the judge that we have met our daughter and spent time with her, and that we do want to adopt her. The judge will then ask us some questions. There is a lot of paperwork that has to be completed by the time of our court date (a lot of it is paperwork that the ET government is responsible for and nothing that WE can help with) and if all that paperwork is ready and in order, then at the end of our meeting with the judge we will be told that we have passed and that "K" is now legally our daughter!!!! However, if ANY of the paperwork is missing, we will be told that we have not yet passed and "K"'s paperwork will need to be completed. This DOES happen, so we are already praying that God will see fit to have all the paperwork there on time!!!!

(Our court appointment will most likely be during the morning of the 14th. Because ET is eight hours ahead of us here in Iowa, please be praying as you go to bed on Monday night, the 13th, and/or if you wake up during the night.)

Regardless of whether we do or do not pass court on the 14th, we will not be able to bring "K" home with us :-(. Once we have passed court, paperwork has to be filed with the US Embassy and "K" will have to first be "submitted to Embassy" and then "clear Embassy" before we will be able to make our second trip to ET and bring her home. This second trip will be anywhere from 4-16 weeks after we pass court.

While we are in ET, we will be visiting some of the government-run orphanages, trying to see some of the cultural places in the capital city, doing a little shopping, making a long day trip to see the orphanage that "K" was originally brought to, meeting with "K"'s living birth parent, and spending as much time as we can with our daughter!!!! It will be a busy trip!!!!

Prayer Requests:
  * That travel arrangements will go smoothly and that we will get a good price on tickets. They are currently ranging from $2,000-$3,000 per ticket.
  * For peace of mind as I gather what we need to take and then pack it all
  * For the Ethiopian government and our adoption agency as they work on gathering the needed paperwork (it's a little hard to explain, but there are a couple of VERY important things that need to happen on August 7th, so please be praying on the 6th and 7th!!!!)
  * For Nathan and I as we prepare to meet our daughter and as we prepare to become parents!!!!

I hope that I have been able to explain all of this clearly!!!! Please feel free to comment and ask any questions you might have!!!! We are so very thankful for all of you readers who have been praying for us and encouraging us through our adoption journey!!!!

New/LAST Goal ~ Trip #2

Pam ~ We have just one more financial goal to achieve on this crazy adoption journey we have been on.  It has been pretty amazing to see how God has provided for each of our financial "goals".  And now we are eager to see how He will provide again :-).

I want to again mention that we are estimating how much money we will need for each of these trips.  The cost will vary depending on what time of year we travel, if we are bringing home one or two children, how long we stay in Ethiopia, etc.  I have taken the estimates that our agency has given us and estimated on the high side in each area.  I would rather have a little money left over at the end to put toward buying donations for the orphanages in Ethiopia :-), than to not have the money we need to purchase our tickets.

Here is the estimated break-down of costs for Trip #2.

Airfare (2 adults) ~ varies ~ $4,000
In-Country Travel Package (2 adults) ~ varies ~ $2,000 estimate (as with our first trip, this amount will cover our housing, transportation, food, etc. for the time we are in Ethiopia)
Visas (2 adults) ~ $40
Airfare (2 children) ~ varies ~ $2,000
Visas/Embassy Fee (2 children) ~ $808

This brings the our new financial goal to a total of $8,848.

God has already provided over $30,000 towards our adoption via donations from friends/family, fundraisers, overtime pay, and a lot of scrimping and saving on our part :-), and we are confident in His ability to provide this last amount!!!!!!

We honestly never thought that we would still be waiting for our referral.  We officially started this journey via the "paper-chasing" part of the adoption 1 year, 10 months, 3 weeks, and 5 days ago.  That's a long time!!!  We have been on the official waiting list for 1 year, 4 months, and 4 days.  That's a long time to be waiting for a special phone call.

Thank you for all of your prayers and encouraging words!!!!  They are what is getting us through this waiting!!!!!

Trip #1 SAVED!!!!

Pam ~ After Nathan updated the budget tonight, I decided to see where our adoption savings was at because I was pretty sure that we were very close to having saved the amount we have estimated that we will need for our first trip, and, are you ready for this?????  We have $3 more than what we have estimated that we will need!!!!!!

Our Thermometer is FULL!!!!!!!!

We are praising the Lord for His faithfulness and provision!!!!!!!

Our next goal will be for our second trip to Ethiopia.  I want to "re-figure" the estimated amount (because it's been a year since I last figured the amounts) and then I will post our new and FINAL adoption financial goal!!!

Travel Expenses Trip #1 Thermometer

Pam ~ We have just passed the 50% mark on our thermometer marking our savings for the travel expenses for our first trip to Ethiopia!!!!  Praise the Lord for His goodness and provision!!!!

Three Things

1) You should vote in our poll (located to the right of your screen).  How much money have we raised via soda cans/bottles?  GO VOTE!!!

2) We have FINISHED our Lifesong matching grant!!!!!  Just over $3,000 has been donated towards our adoption expenses and Lifesong for Orphans has MATCHED that amount with another $3,000 to give us a total of $6,000!!!  Thank you to everyone who helped us reach this goal!!  The deadline to raise the money was tomorrow, so we just made it!!!  Praise the Lord!!!

3) Check out our updated thermometer!!!  We already have $1,167 (18%) of our 1st trip travel expenses saved!!!!  We have a GREAT God!!!

New Goal - Trip #1

Pam ~ As I so very calmly explained in my last post {insert sarcasm} we have met our referral goal of $9,785!!!!  I still am in shock that God provided the full referral amount in just over 3 months time!!!  Who are we to ever doubt His provision for His children?!?!?!

I have updated our thermometer with our new goal ~ Travel Expenses for Trip #1.  As a reminder, we will be traveling to Ethiopia TWICE before the adoption is finalized.  The first trip will be to meet our children and attend Court, and the second trip will be to attend Embassy and bring our children home {I can't wait for this trip!!!!!}.

This new goal amount has to be estimated because there are variables that can and probably will change.  Specifically, the cost of airfare varies almost monthly and since we don't know when we will be traveling, we have to estimate how much we will be needing.  Here is the breakdown of costs.

Airfare (2 adults) ~ varies ~ $4,000 estimate
In-Country Travel Package (2 adults) ~ varies ~ $2,500 estimate (this will include our housing, transportation, food, etc. for the time we are in Ethiopia)
Visas (2 adults) ~ $40

This brings the total of our new goal to $6,540.  After our referral goal amount of $9,785, this doesn't seem so daunting :-).  God is going to provide and we are excited to see how He will do that.

We are still in the waiting period of our adoption journey.  We have been officially waiting for 3 months, 2 weeks, and 2 days.  The uncertainty is hard.  Will we get a surprise phone call this next week with a referral for our two children (that surprise call has happened to other families that we personally know), or will we continue to wait for many more months?  Only God knows, and we want to be faithful in this time of waiting.  We will continue to work hard, fund raise where we can, and marvel in the greatness of our God.  Thank you for all of your prayers, and please keep them coming!!!!  We couldn't do this without YOUR prayer and support!!!!!