All you can do is chuckle...

Well friends, we have some “yippee!” news and some “ugh, darn it” news.

 

First, the good news! Our dossier has been translated and is ready to be reviewed by MOWA!

*Yipppeeeee!!! Yahhhoooooo!!!!*

 

Now, we’re just waiting on MOWA’s positive recommendation letter AND a court date!! Eeeek!

 

……………………………………

 

BUT.....

That’s when the "ugh, darn it" news comes in.

 

Guess who is out on vacation all week?

 

The judges secretary.

 

Why does that matter?

 

Because that’s who schedules MOWA reviews and then the court dates.

 

I know, I heard your collective “Gah! Seriously?!”….

 

Yes, seriously guys. All I could do was laugh when I read that information from our coordinator.

 

I mean, our dossier got to Ethiopia and translated in record time! We could’ve known our court date by tomorrow!

 

And then…… 

VACATION   *said in Seinfeld’s voice as he says ‘NEWMAN’*.

 

 

Honestly, you just laugh, and then kind of bang your head on your desk. Rinse and repeat.

 

Hahaha! Seriously. I have a pillow in my office for this exact situation (and other work related issues, but that’s another matter entirely…).

 

A part of me is beginning to get crazy and antsy and is thinking zany thoughts while making funny faces in my office. Kinda like this.

 

 

The other part of me is just chilling, leaning back in my chair and propping my feet up. Because, we’re pros at this point guys.

 

PROS.

 

I feel like Jesus is crazy proud of me for trusting Him and not F-R-E-A-K-I-N-G  O-U-T!!!

 

He’s like “Hey! That’s ma girl! You got this cuz I got this!"

 

Go ahead and chuckle. I enjoy being able to make you guys laugh. And anything to keep me from thinking too much about it and eating ice cream.

 

At this point, we’re just SO excited that we could be seeing our girl in about 3 weeks.

 

Plus, in case you missed it, we actually got our October update last week. We got to see new pictures of our dear Bertie. AND we had a minute and half video of her looking at our faces for the first time. I’m so beyond excited that they recorded her looking at her family and her house.

 

And man, hearing her say Mommy and Daddy put us on such a high…. I’m sure we’ll manage to get through the next week of waiting for a court date. We got this.

 

We should hear something early next week. As soon as we do, we’ll be sure to let you guys know. Until next time amigos!

 

 P.S. I'm eating a slice of coconut cream pie right now as I type this. 😁

 

Good news and GREAT news!

First, the good news.

 

Our dossier is on its way to Ethiopia (for the 2^nd time)!!

 

Woooooooohhhhhhhhhooooooooooooo!!!!!!!! *happy dance*

 

It should get there by Monday or Tuesday. We’re hoping and praying it makes it to MOWA/MOWCYA by Friday the 26th so we can get our positive recommendation letter and that we get a court date by September 29th/30^th.

 

Friends, in just about a week and a half, we’ll finally know when we’re going to see our girl. Talk about exciting!

 

I’m sure you’re thinking if that’s the good news, what’s the GREAT news?

 

Remember how we sent a photo album full of pictures of us and our home so they could introduce us to Bertie before we arrived?  

 

Well, it finally made it to the orphanage. Our girl knows who we are. She’s seen our faces and the faces of her brothers. She’s seen pictures of her new home and her bedroom.

 

She will recognize us when we show up at the orphanage to pick her up.

 

Guys, she’ll know us.

 

KC and I cannot tell you how happy our hearts are right now.

 

And if that wasn’t great enough news, we found out that they took pictures of her seeing us in the album for the first time. They’ll include those in our next update that we’ll get in the next 2 weeks.

 

We get to see pictures of her seeing us.

 

We’re on cloud nine right now.

 

I’m a little nervous about seeing those pictures though. Her reaction may not be what we’re expecting. Haha!

 

But I’m just glad that we won’t be strangers when we walk into the orphanage to bring her home.

 

Seven months after seeing her face for the first time, she’s finally seeing ours.

 

Now, when people ask us if she knows who we are, it’ll be nice to finally say,

 

Yes, yes she does.  ❤️

   

 

Dossier Update: Part Tres

Our dossier FINALLY shipped from DC! It should make it to Michigan tomorrow afternoon. 

 

Thank you Jesus.

 

So where are we at now?

 

Well, our agency isn’t going to make us wait until Friday to send our dossier to Ethiopia. They’re going to send it out tomorrow if they get it early enough in the day; otherwise, they’ll send it out on Wednesday morning. It will take 3-5 business days to make it to Ethiopia, so we’re looking at next Tuesday. 

 

Mr. F in Ethiopia is standing by with translators to have our dossier ready to send to MOWCYA/MOWA within 2 days. They’ll hopefully have it by the end of next week. Once we get our POSITIVE letter, we’ll be issued a court date (it’s looking like we’ll get that date around the 26^th or 29^th).

 

At this point, court will likely be opened back up. We’ve been holding onto hope that we’d get a court date of the 21^st or 22^nd; but it’s looking more likely that it may be later and that we may not be traveling initially with the Clarks.

 

Our disappointment with that is definitely diminishing as time goes on. We’d LOVE to travel when they do, but we don’t want to be there an extra 10 days before our court date. It just wouldn’t be financially prudent for us to spend an extra almost 2 weeks there only so we travel with others.

 

We’ll still get to stay with them at the guest house, we just may not be traveling to the orphanage together.

 

And that’s okay.

 

At this point, we’re just continuing to add cushion to our account and are praying that we still get a court date around the 3^rd week of October.

 

I’m amazed at how calm I’ve become this last week. It took a lot of quiet time with God, but I’m coming to the realization that God isn’t going to make something happen for me just because I really, really want Him to.

 

It’s still hard; all the unknowns. But it’s a bit better knowing that He has a plan – one likely bigger and better than ours.

 

We knew this journey would be wild as soon as we said yes to Him.

 

We just couldn’t imagine how wild.

  

 

Well....

I'm sad to say that after two and a half weeks, our dossier still has not left D.C. 

I'm sure you guys are tired of hearing me lament about our bad news, but guys, we're even more tired of sharing it. 

We honestly have NO idea why D.C. still has our dossier after they were paid extra to expedite it. 

Not a single clue. 

And it's killing me. 

I know it'll all work out and we'll travel when we're supposed to, but guys this really sucks. 

I'm not as angry as I could be, and I'm thankful that I've been praying hard this week. 

**Update

Our coordinator will contact D.C. on Monday if it doesn't get shipped out today. So that's a bit of good news. 

I'm also thankful for Holly Gerth and her words of wisdom:

{In other words, release control. Realize that you can’t keep yourself safe. You can’t fix this problem. You can’t be strong enough on your own.

Yes, you can partner with God, but in the same way a baby partners with a parent—in trust, obedience, and surrender....

[So] Lay your head on his chest. Tell him you’re afraid and weary. Tell him what you need. Then let your heart rest.}

http://holleygerth.com/even-darkest-night-leads-dawn/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dayspring%2FaSfH+%28Heart+to+Heart+with+Holley%29 

Please continue to keep us and sweet Bertie in your prayers. We want to make it to our girl fast. ❤️

  

  

Dossier Update: Part Two

Our dossier did not make it back from D.C. today. So it did not get sent off to Ethiopia like we were hoping.

Turns out, it hasn't even left D.C. yet.

I want to tell you that I took this news like a champ.

But that would be lying.

I cried.

I got angry.

And frazzled.

And then sad.

Guys, I'm tired. I'm not going to pretend like I'm not.

This whole thing has been tiring.

The constant delays and hiccups and emotional ups and downs...

They're tiring.

I told KC just this morning that I feel drained. I feel like I've got nothing left.

My mind feels so fried from the constant battles going on.

The adoption battle.

The family battle.

The work battle.

The finance battle.

The everyday, mundane needs battle.

I have barely slept the last 3 weeks, and I can only assume it's because my mind is on stress overload right now.

After explaining this to KC as best as I could, he said "like too little butter on too much bread". I loved the LOTR reference, and I loved that he understood.

I'm praying for rest. I'm doing my best to not think too much about the future - it's out of my control and it's too hard to try to control it.

We had a meeting with Caed and Ollie's teachers to explain about the adoption and let them know we would be out of the country for 4-6 weeks. It was hard getting through that without crying - since I still don't have a definite travel date yet.

We came home, and I just fell into bed. KC told me to spend some time in our room alone while he and the boys straightened up the house.

I couldn't help it. The tears of frustration I had been holding in all day fell fast.

I stared at Bertie's face on my lock screen and cried even harder.

It's hard. Crazy. Hard.

And that's how I know, I need rest. Not just the let's-relax-at-home-for-the-weekend-and-binge-eat kind of rest; but the deep supernatural rest that comes from our Father.

Some days, it takes all the strength I can muster to just say "Please Lord".....

I'm not sure if I've ever fought so hard for something; I'm not sure if I've ever been fought this hard about something.

.........................................................................

Our coordinator said they would try to send our dossier off next week as soon as they got it. In all honesty, I'm almost too scared to hope that it get's sent off before Friday.

Each delay hits us hard. REALLY hard.

But as scared as I am not to hope to hard, I'm even more afraid of not stepping out. Even with each delay and each prayer that God answers with a "not yet my dear", I have to keep putting myself out there.

I have to take those leaps and trust that He will catch me.

So right now, even though I KNOW that He's got this, even though I know it's all in His timing, even though I know we'll travel when He wants us too....

Right now, in this moment, this delay still hurts. It sucks. And I'm allowed to say so.

So long as I don't allow these delays to skew my view of Him.

He has done SO much for us. More than I can write down in a blog post.

He sees Bertie.

And He sees me.

And I know He is looking out for us. <3

Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 

Matthew 11:28 

  

  

Dossier Update: Part Uno

Okay guys, so we spoke with our coordinator and they have not received our Dossier from Washington D.C. yet.

 

BUT she is confident that she will get it tomorrow morning and will be able to send it out to Ethiopia tomorrow afternoon. It’ll kill us to have to wait an entire week before even sending it off. Well, not literally, but it’d sure feel that way! 

 

If our dossier gets sent to Ethiopia tomorrow, there’s a very good chance that we could have our court date given to us late next week or early the following week! That’s a HUGE step! 

 

Also, I had asked our coordinator if she knew how far out court dates were being scheduled. I was trying to see if there was still a chance to travel with the Clarks.

 

The last case they submitted to court was almost 3 weeks ago. Their court date was the 20^th!! That means there’s still a chance we could get a court date on the Monday the 20^th or the Tuesday the 21^st! The Clarks have their court date on Thursday the 16^th.

With a court date on those days, we could leave here on October 10-11 to make it to Ethiopia with enough time to take the 4 day trip to Bertie's orphanage. We need to make it there before court so she be with us. 

 

I wish I had a bit more news, but since it’s been over a week, I thought I’d update you. I hope to update you tomorrow with even better news!

Dear friends, we know your prayers are working. We can see evidence of that every time we speak with our International Team. So please, help us continue praying. I know He hears us.

 

Thank you sweet friends. We couldn’t do this without you.