Hey friends, I wanted to send everyone an update and let you all know where we are! First, I'm sure most of you know Kenny and I made a last minute decision in June, for me to join an amazing team of people leaving for Ethiopia in two days, yes you heard right, just two days to prepare! I had felt The Lord nudging me about a week before to go, but of coarse it sounded crazy and just the logistics of it with the kids made it all sound impossible! But I thought, if I'm suppose to go, I'll go! So my sweet husband cashed in all his frequent flyer miles and bought me a ticket and my amazing friends said "yes" to my kids without hesitation. 😳 To say I was a nervous wreck was an understatement! Since I purchased my flight so late I had to fly out alone and stay an extra day alone! 😳 Everyone was in complete shock and told me how brave I was. But honestly, I was a momma on a mission and I KNOW there isn't a momma on this planet that wouldn't go to the end of this Earth for their babies! So I wouldn't say I was brave, I almost felt desperate. I was desperate to touch him, hold him and to really know he was real. It may all sound weird, but my heart just needed it At first I was told, no way could I tell him I was going to be his mom. Our case was still touch and go and not much was certain. But by the end of the day they called me back and said, "yes, you can tell him." They felt that it would be more confusing to him by not telling him, then telling him.
My time with Beza was amazing, fun, joyful, so much love and a little reality set in too! There were two fears that I had, would he like me and would be even want to leave the orphanage? Granted he's been there for 6 years! But, God heard my prayers because that little boy is so anxious to come to America and the staff commented on how well he warmed up to me! Praise God!! I can't tell you how much joy he is going to bring to our life. He is so full of energy and spunk! He has a laugh that is so contagious that you can't help but laugh with him. He craves the love and affection that he so desperately deserves!
This blog post is long overdue and honestly I started it several days ago! I kept thinking of all this stuff I wanted to write about. To tell you about our days together in Ethiopia, but it is so painful. It has been a long and hard 5 weeks away from our boy. I have been able to email the director and keep in touch to see how Beza is doing. As much as I love to get those emails, there also so hard. The first one after I left, I was informed that he wasn't doing well. He was very sad and wants to know when I will return. Truthfully, that was most of our conversations. He desperately wanted to know when I will return and deserves an answer! But, when you can't give him one it is heart breaking. I finally told him, I don't know if it will be 1,2,3 months before I return, but I PROMISE I will be back! There have been many days where I thought, why did I even go, my heart is broken and I KNOW his is! But I know I was meant to be on that trip and even if there are days when I don't understand it all, God does!! We met some amazing people there running some incredible organizations. And if that was the reason for going, to make some connections and call them friends then it was well worth all this heart ache. But I know there is so much more to it then what I can see with my own two eyes.
I've been doing this summer Bible study and there's a passage that rings so true for me, right now.
It says: When I'm in a particular negative mood, three thoughts come to me: Faith can be work. Love can be labor. Hope can get long. We hear much hairsplitting over faith and works, but does anybody else occasionally think that faith is work? Believing what we cannot see can sometimes be the highest high in the human experience, but at other times it's like inhaling fire. And just try to convince me that love is never labor.
The NIV translate the phrase as "your labor prompted by love," but multiple translations cast love as part of the labor. One scholar translates the Greek as "toil of love." That's even better. Sometimes loving comes easy. Other times, it nearly kills us. Does your heart feel like a nail to a hammer right now? Uh, YES!!
So to update you all to where we are in the process is we have been given our first court date for our lawyer in Ethiopia next Friday the 1st. So please be praying, praying, praying. We do not attend this one. Our lawyer will meet with MOWA who will in turn give us a comment. Which is their approval of the adoption. Then we will be immediately issued our court date. But they have up to 10 days to issue this comment. The timing of all this is so critical because every year the courts close for 2 months for rainy season and this closure could happen any day. We are still very hopeful as they have not released the dates. So this is our biggest prayer request, that we get a court date before closure! Many people have asked where we are financially and Kenny and I have been working on making lists, contacting travel agencies for quotes and punching the calculator! So here's the nitty gritty!
Plane tickets-costing $2000-2500 a piece times 4
Beza's one way flight- $1500
Room stay-$80 a night
driver fee per day- half day is $40, full day is $80
Food per day $30
Our visa's upon arrival-$20 per person
We based everything off of 7 days.
We will also have some fees to pay for the adoption-
Beza Visa-$230
MMR-$30
Total is between $12,000-$14,700
We are trusting God with every penny of that! But literally we don't have a single penny of it! Haha! We are still occuring monthly care fees and we are just able to keep up with those. We had an awesome yard sale the beginning of July and we made $1100! Thank you to everyone who donated! We were able to catch up on our care fees of $900 and then we had to mail off a $183 check with our PAIR letter to DC! God provided!! In the coming weeks we could be in major crunch mode, pending the court date so if anyone has any fantastic ideas to help raise funds, let me know! Also, when we get the word to leave we will be taking up donations for Beza's orphanage! They are in desperate need! Formula, diapers, clothing, balls and there are several older children so anything that they like would be helpful.
Doctor visit-$85
Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. They were glad when it grew calm, and he guided them to their desired haven. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind. -Psalm 107:28-31
