Another video

As we were frantically trying to get Patrick ready for his youth Skiing trip to Canada we received the video of our 3rd son, Josiah. It was such an encouraging tape! He looked so much better since he has been in the orphanage for a while and off the streets. He had on clean clothes, and they had cut his hair so he was looking very sharp. He was all smiles as my friend showed him our pictures and told him we would be his new family. He gave my friend a big hug and told her peace be with you. He also immediately put on the new baseball hat we gave him. If anyone would like to get their pictures sent to them just email me your address and I can send you one. Until they are officially our children we cannot post their pictures on our blog. We also received their measurements and the 2 younger ones are the exact same height which is 2 inches taller than Emma. Noah, the oldest is 4 inches taller than the 2.

I-600A

We finally got our immigration paperwork off to homeland security. I almost sent it to the wrong address! Thankfully a friend caught my error before we sent it. Pray that it goes through quickly because it could take a long time.
We are also almost done with our dossier. We have a few things to get notarized tomorrow and then we can send it off. We are hoping to get a little bit more money in before we send it. I have applied for 4 grants and we have friends and family that have been helping which we are so very grateful to see how God uses them in this mission!!
We also got the paperwork for Ana's adoption so you can also pray that that goes through pretty quickly also!

New video

Hello, everyone! We received the first video of Noah and Caleb, the bio brothers. They were being told for the first time that we would be their new parents, and they were given our photo album that we made for them and the presents we sent. It was neat to see that they were more interested in our pictures then the gifts! They were all smiles. They were also told of their new brother, Josiah, and they seemed to even know who he was which is very likely since they are from the same area.
The hard part was seeing how hard it was for the mom. She was very excited to hear her boys had found a home and that the dad was a pastor because she feels Caleb would make a good pastor. However, it was very hard also because she was having to let go of her boys which I can't even imagine. My friend prayed with her on the video with the boys for courage and strength as she has made this very hard decision. We have also been praying for her as soon she will have to say goodbye to her boys forever. Please pray for her with us.

I-600A?

Well, we have run into our first hiccup in the adoption. The Secretary of State's office called today. They have to authenticate 2 of our documents in our dossier. Well, in WA there have been several families that have done the same thing we have done through the same office and the same agency but they want to be difficult with ours. Our case manager is trying to smooth things out so pray that that happens because otherwise it could become longer and more expensive.
Also my kiddos are better but my purse got stolen on Sunday night right in our garage so we are a bit discouraged by that because we had to change our locks because my other set of keys were in my purse! We could definitely use prayer just to help with encouragement!!!!! Thank you everyone for your support during this time.
OH, also we heard our boys are doing really well. The mom of the 2 brothers was really encouraged to hear her boys were going to a pastor because she thinks the youngest(Caleb) should be a pastor. We also had to sign some paperwork for Josiah, the one that is unrelated to claim him so he could be moved to another better orphanage so that was exciting to actually claim him!!! Well, my other 4 are calling so I must go!!

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.

After Christmas Sale

Well, I had a chance to sneak away while my mom watched the kids, and Patrick and my dad were working on putting up lights in our living room so I went shopping! After shopping for 5 girls, I was finally able to shop for boys clothes! I was so excited. I started picking out 3 of everything the same and then it dawned on me that boys probably didn't like dressing alike like girls do so I had to start over. I did buy them all the same red baseball hat that is similiar to Patrick's hat. My friend is going over to Ethiopia in a couple of weeks and she will take each of the boys a care package from us and I am sending the hats with her. We will also send a photo album to show them our pictures and where we live.

Ana & the Lights...the pretty lights!

Ana came home from the hospital today. She was having a hard time keeping her oxygen levels up but now she is back to her normal split personality - extremely happy one second and possessed the next.

On a more enlightening note we installed recessed lights in our living room. We have been lighting our living room and dining room with lamps for the past two years so it is nice to actually have lights hardwired into the house.

Hospitals, Toilets & Brownie's Oh My!

Ana went to the hospital with flu induced asthma, we installed a new toilet and ate some yummy brownies...all in a days work!

Genna ~ Christmas in Ethiopia

We couldn't help but think of our boys on this day of huge celebration here in the US. Emma pondered, "I wonder if they have a tree as big as ours?" It got us to thinking about Christmas in Ethiopia and what it is like. We know that culturally Christianity is very different in various parts of the world, so what would it be like where are boys are? A little googling turned up quite the insight.

To begin with, Christmas isn't celebrated until Jan. 7th! And their celebration is sooo different from our own.

On Christmas Eve the husband will buy a chicken, sheep, or goat and will slaughter it early in the morning. While the father is slaughtering, the mother prepares coffee over a small charcoal fire in preparation for the coffee ceremony that I wrote about earlier in the blog. During the coffee ceremony, the father will ask a blessing from God and then cut a large wheat roll called henbasha for the family to eat. It sounds very ceremonial.

Here in America most churches shut down for Christmas...it is very different there. They have an all-night worship service where people move from one church to another celebrating the coming of the Messiah. Favorite worship spots are usually the ancient church sites which were carved from solid volcanic rock!

They form up concentric circles with the men siting separately from the ladies. A choir sings from the outside circle. Usually candles are given to worshipers as they come into the church.

Later the next day the young men traditionally play a game similar to field hockey and they eat tons of food. Traditional Christmas dishes includes Injera, a sourdough pancake like bread, which serves as both plate and fork along with Doro Wat, a spicy chicken stew served in ornamented baskets, dulet which is made from sheep’s stomach and home made beer called Tela or honey beer called tejie.

It wasn't a big surprise but I read that gifts are not a big deal in Ethiopia. It kids get anything it is usually clothing.

There are so many dialects and cultures in Ethiopia that you will find various ways of celebrating Christmas - but what is true of them all is that worship, dance, color, food and music play huge roles.

Legend has it that the king bearing frankincense was King Balthazar of Ethiopia, so infusing frankincense in the celebration is a must. The locals throw in spices or nuts to flavor the frankincense which was traditionally a gift suitable for only a high priest.

And for Emma's musing - they do not typically use a "Christmas tree" as part of their celebration.

Regardless of the tradition, it tires me out just thinking about it!

Christmas Eve

Today was fantastic. We had a lot of fun worshiping with our brothers and sisters at VBC today. The sermon prep was surely freed up from my own sinfulness as many people were convicted and encouraged by the message and in turn blessed my socks off as they encouraged me with their comments. One of the older men in the congregation actually shouted out "Excellent Sermon" and people applauded. I can assure you that I have never had anyone applaud one of my messages so that was, at first, a little bewildering and then VERY encouraging. I really felt like the Lord was moving among us as the Spirit, dwelling within us, was encouraging the Body of Christ at VBC. Our current Worship Pastor changed songs at the end of the message to something that flowed with the tone and rhythm of the message. It was a wonderful way to reply to God's Word and I was especially encouraged by it.

I wondered throughout today what the boys were doing? What does Christmas Eve look like in Ethiopia and how would they respond to a totally different culture here? I am also excited to have them hear me preach and to teach them the ways of God. The entire day was encouraging with a great worship time, great lunch with family and friends, a great nap, and great fellowship with Jennifer's parents. Emma and Granddaddy prayed some deep and worshipful Christmas prayers for us and we are ending the day with great anticipation for tomorrow.

I asked the girls if they were excited about opening gifts tomorrow fully expecting the child-like answer of YES! But instead I was promptly reminded by Kayla and Emma both, "Dad! Remember, Christmas is about Jesus' birthday and not about opening presents!" So I said, "Well, you can be a excited about tomorrow's birth and the presents." They both beamed, "Then yeah, we are excited!" They probably won't sleep a wink tonight.

Blogging Delayed

Jennifer's parents are visiting us this Christmas so blogging will be slow to nil until more time gets freed up. We are busy playing dominoes and working on home projects, so I will see ya after the 30th.

(I will be journaling offline until then and will update the blog very soon)

Christmas Eve, Eve

We had a great time with family today - we were able to talk about a lot of things and really clear the air in many ways. It's amazing how assumptions you make about others can derail a relationship and corrupt any intimacy that may have possibly existed. I spent some time getting ready for my message on Sunday and I think that working through some of the relational issues really bared some ingrown sin and helped me think more clearly.

I am also realizing how important it is to have the support of family in pursuit of an adoption - not just financially, but prayer and love that only a family can give. I feel like we have the full support of all of our family now and are working through "wisdom" issues as we proceed. God is soo good when you least expect it.

"Cowardice asks the question, Is it safe? Expediency asks the question, Is it politic? Vanity asks the question, Is it popular? But conscience asks the question, Is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him that it is right."

~ Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

What are We Doing!?!

For those of you who I have not talked to, this blog may be a little confusing so let me bring you up to speed.

Jennifer and I are pursuing three boys from an orphanage in Addis Abbaba. Two of them are brothers and one is a street orphan.

Zelalem(11) and Yosef(9) are brothers who are in the 5th and 3rd grade respectively and who know some English. Their father had died of HIV and their mother is dying.

Bamura (10) is a street orphan who has lost both parents and does not know where his siblings are located. He has been living on the streets for the past few years working as a day laborer by carrying luggage at the local bus station.

It has taken quite a bit of prayer and heart searching for us to arrive at this position. A great Korean Pastor that I once worked for told me that parenting is the best method of discipleship, so we are heeding that counsel. It is a dangerous and crazy journey but we are trusting the Lord to lead us as He has done in the past. Faithfulness to follow seems to be the tricky part ;)

I will be posting up some specific prayer requests soon. I am not able to post pictures of the boys up because of the hostilities between Muslim's and Christians in that area. Contact me for more info.

Shaohannah's Hope Grant

Jennifer applied for this grant yesterday; it is the first grant that we have really applied for. You can read more about it here. The site is a great resource for global adoptions and I am adding it to my steadily growing list of "reading" I need to do.

It's 2:22 in the morning right now - Bri is sitting on the couch watching a Barbie video because she is having a hard time sleeping with her asthma flare ups; everyone else is sleeping soundly. I am keeping myself awake by researching Ethiopia.

I added a map and also a weather script to the site so that we can watch the weather over there. The boys will be in quite a shock when they see how long our winters are and what snow looks and feels like.

Current McConnell Pics

We took this picture last week at church before I preached.

Clockwise: Patrick, Jennifer, Ana, Emma, Kayla, Bri