Ethiopia

Here are a few things you might find when you come to ET.
1 traffic is like a huge game of frogger, people and vehicles dodging each other with great skill, if its your first time you will find yourself white knuckled and gasping, oh and if you get car sick, forget it, oh and don't forget the fumes enough to make you choke.
2  They have a saying in ET: Americans have the watches but we have the time. So true and good in some ways but not so great when trying g to complete paperwork quickly.
3. The people are quieter here.  The street can be completely full and people all around and yet it still isn't loud.
4. Shoe shine boys are everywhere.  Your shoes can look like new for 30 cents.
5. its common to see herds of goats running down a four lane street.

I will post some more later as I think of them.  Please pray we get our letter today and get to take Cyrus with us.
Thanks Leigha

We haven't been posting as much because we've been spending all of our time at the transition home with our little guy.   Nothing else matters very much.  If the paper work goes as expected we will have legal custody on tuesday & will then be able to take him out of the transition home & keep him with us full time.  Until then we are basically just passing time.  Once he is legally ours we have to get a passport, pass a medical exam, and then get a visa to bring him into the US.  This should take 2 or 3 weeks, but who knows.  Little man needs to be home sooner than later, so this is all incredibly frustrating.  Please pray that the paperwork would go quickly so that we can bring our son home. Thanks!

BEN

I thought I would give you an update of what we've been doing in Ethiopia since we got here.  A normal day starts at the guest house it's kind of like a hotel we  have a bedroom, sitting room, a kitchen, and a bathroom.  We only have internet in the lobby so we spend a lot of time there with other families who are adopting also.  They fix us breakfast every morning.  I haven't had much of an appetite so many new sites, sounds, and tastes just kind of throws the system off.  We haven't been sick which is a blessing.  After breakfast we go to the transition home which is where Hamza (that his ET name) we plan to call him Cyrus.  We spend the morning with him go out for lunch then back to the transition home spend more time with Hamza.  Then we head back to guest house, venture out on the street to find supper try to Skype with the kids and then off to bed, to do it all over again.

we didn't pass

So we didn't pass court but the jugde is ready to sign the moment our letter from moyca arrives  the moyca letter is basicly like a letter from cps in the states.  The problem is the next step is embassy  and they only submitt to embassy on wed and because our letter won't arrive until tues there won't be time to do the nessary paperwork needed for embassy submission this week.  So it looking like we won't be submitted to embassy for another 12 days, which at this point feels like an eternity.   So outside of a miracle it looks like we will be here a while.
Leigha

Africa

We made to ethiopia.  We met Cyrus yesterday. It seemed
very surreal to finally be holding him in my arms. He seems to be laid back.  Though its hard to tell yet.   We have court on fri, that will be thurs while you all in the US sleep.  We would appreciate your prayers that all would go well. After we pass court we can post pictures. Thanks all we'll post more later.
Leigha

here we go again!!

If you don't already know we received a referral of a 10 month boy and we are leaveing today to go get him.  We should be in there 2-3 weeks.  We would appreciate your prayers.  We are looking forward to having Cyrus home.

My Heart, Her Heart

Isaac holding his new baby cousin Lydia

As I sit outside enjoying the early morning quiet, Isaac wakes up and comes to find me.  He climbs up in my lap and snuggles in close under the blanket.  I'm enjoying the sweet feeling of holding my baby, all his sweetness and love.  I am overwhelmed with the privilege of being his mother, of being the one to get all these moments, to see his smiles, to comfort him, hold him, to be the one he calls mom.  Then I think of his birth mother, what if circumstances had been different.  My heart feels heavy guilty even.  But then the Lord whispers, I have chosen you for him don't try to carry the weight of a decision you did not make. So I'll rest in that, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways...For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9. It's hard to reconcile her great loss with my tremendous gain.  So I pray for her and trust in the ways of my God.