Praying, praying, Praying

We received a call from our agency today. All of Baby E's information was submitted to the embassy yesterday. We are praying for clearance and for a confirmed embassy appointment the earliest date possible, so please pray with us. It looks as though we could only have about 72 hours notice before we will be boarding a plane to Ethiopia. We are praying our baby will be home within the next few weeks.

Missing our baby

We still are waiting for a phone call to inform us of our embassy date. I can't sleep. Every time the phone rings I jump, hoping it is the agency calling us with good news....still no phone call. Our agency told us to plan on a 4-8 week timeline for the second trip. We are currently week 3.

I miss my baby so much my heart hurts. I so badly want to hold her in my arms again...to smell her, touch her, kiss her, just hear her sweet voice.

I feel like I any moment I may burst into tears. It is like I am walking on a tightrope and even the slightest breeze may knock me over. I didn't realize that this wait would be so difficult.

Praying, praying, praying that we will receive a confirmed embassy date very soon, so we can bring our daughter home.

Beautiful toes

Here is a sneak preview of our sweet little girl.

We are still waiting for our embassy date call. We are praying we will receive it early next week. Then we will be able to go back to Ethiopia and bring our daughter home.

As long as everything goes as planned, our baby will be home within the next 4 weeks. :) I can't wait to have her in my arms again!

Back from Ethiopia

We are back from our first trip to Ethiopia. I have to say I am speechless in many ways. I don't even know where to even start with our story. What an amazing journey we have already had! I can't wait to go back and bring my daughter home!

Day 1 - We flew into Addis Ababa, Ethiopia after a 26 hour flight. Needless to say, we were exhausted! We were picked up from the airport and taken to the Riviera hotel with 2 other couples from our agency. Our room was nice and to our suprise we had hot water.

Day 2 - We met our beautiful baby girl. She is just precious! Baby E was easy to smile and giggle. Within minutes of meeting her, I was holding her; C was playing with her and she would giggle and talk to her daddy. It was so amazing to hold, see, and talk to this little girl that we have been praying for for nearly two years. She is just such a blessing! I am so thankful that God choose us to be her parents.

Day 3 - Last night due to jet lag and I think our baby high, we didn't sleep. Well, I slept for 2 hours and C didn't sleep at all. We went down for breakfast at 7:30am and then left for Hannah's Hope at 9:30. When we arrived all of the children were outside. Baby E's special mother was giving her a bottle and immediately gave her to us to finish her bottle and lay her down for a nap. Today we were able to watch E with her special mother, who does a great job. If we were holding Baby E and her special mother would walk by, the baby would immediately light up and start to babble to get her attention. It is so good to know that Baby E has bonded with her special mother and that her special mother loves her. This was easy to see when they interacted.
We spent nearly 4 hours today at HH. We were able to see a lot of E's day. We gave her bottles, changed her, and gave her a bath, which she loved. After our visit we returned to the hotel and took a much needed nap. In the evening we had our cultural dinner, which included a traditional Ethiopian meal and dancing. This was so much fun!

Day 4 -Today was a verybusy day. We were picked up fr om the hotel at 8:30 and heading to court. At court we appeared before a judge, an Orthodox Christian woman, who asked us questions about our baby. This was a very easy process. The only words we had to utter was 'yes.'The judge even spoke English. We passed! Baby E is legally ours, now we must wait for our U.S. embassy appointment. We are praying God will grant us the December 27th date. After court we went shopping. We wanted to buy E many gifts to celebrate from her "gotcha day" to her wedding present. We left with many beautiful gifts for years to come for our precious little girl. After shoppping we eat at an Italian restaurant, which are very common in Ethiopia due to a large Italian population. The food here was all homemade and delicious. This restaurant also sold Ethiopia art work created by local Ethiopian artists. We purchased an unique painting of Addis Ababa here. We then visited the orphange our baby was brought to before HH; it currently housed 53 children. It was full of small rooms lined with beds. There was one decent sized play room. The children were not afraid of strangers; they would come up and just want a hug or to be held. As I set in the playroom holding a child while hugging as many I could, I wanted to cry. This was difficult knowing none of these children had families yet. It was overwhelming seeing all of the children. I just prayed over any child that I touch that God would bring them a family to love them very soon. Finally we were able to Hannah's Hope for a quick visit. This was a very quick visit we had about 15 minutes to play with our daughter. Then back to the hotel for supper and to skype with our son. The internet wasn't very reliable, but we were able to skype with our son every day, which was great.

Day 5 - Today we had to say goodbye to our daughter for a few weeks; our hearts were breaking. I was able to have an incredible conversation with her special mother, which I will never forget. She is such a sweet person, who I know takes excellent care for our daughter. Before we left, Wasse was in the room, he speaks Amharic and English, so he was our interpretor. C and I know that God is going to protect E for us. We will be back to Ethiopia soon to bring her home. Leaving her behind was not easy and is still not. She is part of our lives and will be from now on. I didn't change my watch from Ethiopian time, so that I may look and have an idea of what E is doing at the time, whether sleeping, playing outside, or taking a bath. I know our time to be reunited as a family will come soon. I continue to pray that God will give us strength and peace during this time.

Day 1 and Day 2 - Meeting Baby E.

We were able to chat with my sister and brother-in-law yesterday, after they had met E. for the first time. Baby E. was very friendly and happy from the get go! She is absolutely beautiful. They say she has two big dimples, as does our entire family so she will fit right in! And she has tons of curly black hair! Within minutes of meeting her, Chad had her giggling. She is a very smiley and happy baby, and we are so lucky to have her in our family!

Karmen was able to email me her blog post for their 2nd day in Ethiopia:

Day 2

We spent some more time today with E. She was happy to see us, all smiles and giggles. Chad rocked her to sleep today, she loves to have her head buried in your chest when she sleeps. She is such a talker! When you talk to her, she will babble right back!

We ordered some coffee for gifts...2 kilos. This doesn't sound like much, but if we were cocaine dealers, we would be RICH! So coffee for EVERYONE! (for the next 30 years.)

We had our cultural dinner tonight. The food was amazing! Chad was a big skeptical at first...shocker. The dancers were amazing.

Tomorrow we have a full day! We have court right away in the morning, shopping, lunch, time with E., and a visit to the Balthazatha orphanage.

Please be praying that God will give us strength to say, "see you soon" to baby E. in 2 days. I am already struggling.

Finally in Ethiopia

My sister has asked that I update her blog if she is unable to while in Ethiopia. They just landed in Ethiopia a few hours ago, and we were able to skype while they were at the hotel. They talked to their son, G. and are going to get some much needed rest after a long flight. Tomorrow, they will be able to meet baby E. for the first time! They are very excited to be finally be there!