News from Ethiopia

Hello, everyone! I just got an update of my friend that is in Ethiopia. They are back in the capital of Addis preparing to return home. I don't know details about our boys but I do know their trip was very productive and they were very encouraged. I am anxious to hear how the boys are doing and how they took the news that we will be their new parents. I am also anxious to hear how Bamura is doing in the orphanage. He is not use to routine and someone else calling the shots because he is use to taking care of himself.
You can also pray for my 3 asthmatic girls(Kayla, Bri, and Ana). I was up until 4 with Bri trying to get her breathing back to normal. I will probably be taking them all back to the doctor tomorrow. Kayla is doing much better. They thought she had pneumonia but thankfully she didn't. Ana I think is either teething or has another ear infection. Bri I am not sure but she seems a lot better this morning.
Thanks again for all of your encouragement and prayers! We would love to hear from everyone either on the blog or by email.

This is a BIG Week!

Our case manager left yesterday to head to Ethiopia. She is taking our photo albums and 3 gift bags that we made up for the boys. This is all very exciting because she will actually travel out to the orphanage to see the boys and tell them that they have a family waiting for them. We are hoping that she will be coming back with more pictures, video, and updated information regarding the boys.

My travel plans are still early summer between June and July. We have much to do until that time so we are plowing ahead.

Prayer Requests

1. Please be praying for the health, physically & emotionally, of the boys as they spend these last few months in Ethiopia. I am sure that the transition will be rather traumatic for them.
2. Pray for our case manager as she travels into Ethiopia. While Ethiopia is a pretty safe place to travel to in Africa, Americans can be a prized target among the terrorist world.
3. Pray for the boy's hearts as they hear that a family is pursuing them for adoption - a flood of emotions will hit them like excitement, anxiety, depression, fear, and doubt.

Thanks!

CWA & KK Adoption Training

We have finished our adoption training through CWA/Kingdom Kids. We spent this past Friday and Saturday from 8-5 each day going through the training. Although the days were long and we were both sore from sitting so long, we received some great training. We were hit with everything from cultural info to dealing with grief/loss issues. Some of it was repetitive for us because we have went through the Foster Care training but the cultural information was priceless. I know we have a lot to learn about Ethiopian culture and the issues that we will experience once the boys are home, but I feel like we are light years beyond where we were before the training.

We also enjoyed some Ethiopian food and other cultural items (hand made scarves, crosses, woven baskets, coffee, etc).

If you want to check out the training agenda you can see that here.

Gift Bags & Photo Albums

Jennifer was up most of tonight putting together gift bags and photo albums. One album to Josiah, one album to Caleb & Noah, and one to their mother. We are sending those with the CWA rep who leaves on Sunday for Ethiopia. This will also be the first time that the boys hear about us, so we are excited.

Training and more paperwork

We have started the task of trying to complete our dossier which is overwhelming. We have to get several things notorized. We are trying to take it one step at a time and imploring the help of our friends who have done this before. You can pray that we can get it done in a timely manner and that we are thorough in completing it.
We also have our adoption training this Friday and Saturday all day for both days. I am looking forward to it because it is a place to get a lot of our questions answered. We also get to meet other parents who have already adopted from Ethiopia and those that are in the same boat that we are in and that is waiting to go and pick up our kids. We will have a lot to blog after this weekend I am sure.