Sunday in Ethiopia

We are just about ready to leave for church. We slept good until about 3:00 a.m. but finally were able to go back to sleep around 5:00. Isaac and Matt are outside playing soccer while I take some time on the internet. Matt is really sweating! It was about 80 degrees when we arrived yesterday. 

Michelle, we have had some good laughs here about your stay and the stories you have told me. I have passed on greetings from many of out to Birtukan and Nesibu. They say hi to their family back in the USA:) Beth, I have your letters ready for "Z", Jill, I have your bag ready to go to YM and Kim, I have your release and camera ready to go to Shalom if we go there tomorrow. 

Shadley they have fond memories of you and Esias. Nesibu said, you have never met her but you are such good friends?? He said, you just talk over the internet? So funny how our friends are all in our computer! 

The other family staying here mentioned Lori and Holly and how helpful they have been. The Bethany forum is such a great connection for us. 

We had a good breakfast of french toast and peanut butter toast. Thanks everyone for praying for us!!!! 

Keep up the prayers for our safety here. 

Love 

Matt, Andrea and Isaac. 

Ethiopia

Hi Everyone

We are in Ethiopia after a very long trip. We are all tired and looking forward to sleeping all night tonight. It is almost 7:00 pm here and we are getting ready for dinner. The people from Bethany and our guest house are wonderful. It puts my mind at ease. 

Isaac is doing good, just tired. He is quite a world traveler now. Emirates airlines was great and Dubai was amazing. Probably between there and Ethiopia we have had some of the best coffee in the world!!

The flight was long but it was interesting to fly over places like Turkey, Iraq, Kuwait and the Persian Golf. Today we went right over the Red Sea. 

We know we will be well taken care of at our guest house. They are great Christian people who have 4 children. Right away even though exhausted Isaac wanted to PLAY!

We have met one other family from Colorado who are adopting two kids. We will meet our children Monday morning. 

It has been such an experience in the country and we only drove from the airport to the guest house. The poverty is overwhelming and caught me off guard even though people said to be prepared. 

This trip is truly a "complete trusting in God experience." Several times I have had anxiety over things that normally would not bother me. I sing songs and quote scripture over and over in my head to bring peace. Jesus brings true peace!!

Well we want to share the internet time so we will write more soon.

Love from Ethiopia

Very Thankful

We have our new passport! What a relief.
This journey if filled with ups and downs. We are thankful Matt caught the passport issue before we left or the entire trip may have been postponed. We are thankful for a great hotel in Detroit last night and the people who issued Matt a new passport in the same day.
If you are traveling outside of the US, check what they require as far as passport expiration. We had never heard of a 6 month rule before. I just want future adoptive families to be sure and look into this.
So wasting a day and a half to fix something we should have known about a long time ago has set us behind!!! Tomorrow is a new day and no matter what everything will get done.

Needed Prayer for Travel!

We are asking you to pray for us today. Matt's passport expires in April 2010. Our travel agency knew that when they reserved our tickets last week.
Saturday while reading over some information they FedEx to us Matt saw he needed a valid passport 6 months from travel. Unfortunately, he did not sleep well Saturday night! The information we have states Dubai and Ethiopia adhere to this strict 6 month policy.

Matt called Emirates airlines on Sunday and the lady he spoke with said he would be able to board in New York because we were just having a short layover in Dubai but our destination was Ethiopia.

This morning the travel agent emailed us back and basically said she was unaware of his expiration date, which is not true because we have the email I sent them, and she thinks we should risk trying to board, but if we can Matt needs to get a new passport.
Matt called the airlines again today and this time the man he talked to said he would NOT be allowed to board in New York!
So...
This means we would have to go to Chicago and get an expedited passport sometime today, tomorrow or Wednesday.
PLEASE pray for Matt. He has work, meetings, things to finish before leaving and now a possible trip to Chicago.
He feels overwhelmed knowing he has to go because without him I could not bring Y home as he is the petitioner for adoption.
We never knew about any of this expiration stuff and it is something we should have known and would have been easy to take care of.
Pray things get worked out very quickly. We do not want to ask Ethiopia for an embassy date further out because they could already be full and who knows when we could go get our little boy.

Testing

Just testing out blogging from my email. Only 6 days left before we will be on our way!!

Leaving Soon

We are excited to announce our travel to Ethiopia will begin next Thursday! After over 2 years of being in the process of adoption we will meet our little boy.
Yesterday we confirmed our flight arrangements and guest house reservation. Now for more paperwork to get in order and more packing.
Since our son is going we can take 6 pieces of luggage. Two are stuffed with donations and at least two more have some donations and gifts in them. Another piece my mother-in-law and her friend are filling with donations. The last one will carry our clothes, which I will split up a bit in case something got lost.
We have several people who are taking care of things while we are gone, plowing the driveway, checking the furnace, taking care of our fish, getting groceries, cleaning our house, taking us to the airport, making meals etc, watering plants etc...
Thankful for everyone who is praying for us and supporting us through our journey!!

Passed Court!

We are excited to announce we passed court on January 1st. Here is what Bethany is telling us will be done now...

The next step for this family is to again….wait. Our staff in Ethiopia now
will work to get a new birth certificate (5 days minimum), passport (5 days
minimum) and other required medical tests, vaccinations, etc. Once these
documents are all in order, an application is made to the U.S. Embassy for
an appointment on the family’s behalf. A response from the Embassy for an
appointment takes a minimum of 14 days. Thus, your family can expect to
hear from us about their Embassy date (and an invitation to travel) in the
next 1-2 months. Family’s typically get 2 weeks notice of their Embassy
appointment (although there is no guarantee and notice times may be shorter
or longer).

Thanks for all your prayers. We will be first getting our donations together along with our gifts. It is a busy and fun time!