Long, Long Ago...

A prayer from Ephesians 1 from my dear friend, Rebecca, this morning...

"Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.

Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we're a free people - free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free!

He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possible need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth."

Several months ago, a wise Newsonger, Jaipaul Swamidass told me, "There's nothing like adoption that's more like God." This morning, I understand that more than ever. And we're off...

**If you'd like please post PRAYERS as your comments to this blog. It'll serve as our strength, perspective, and focus as we go WITH our community to meet our children.

A Million Details. One Purpose.

Since we found out 6 days ago that we'll be leaving for Ethiopia in 2 days, we've been at Mach 2. Immediately 5 pages of lists started forming to get "things-to-do" out of my head and onto a checklist.

"Overwhelmed" doesn't begin to describe how Brian and I have been feeling. Overwhelmed at what we need to do to get on a plane. Overwhelmed to figure out work stuff while we're gone. Overwhelmed at the reality that we'll be holding our babies a couple months sooner than we anticipated. Overwhelmed at how God's re-written systems and policies enabling us and other families to be united with their babies sooner. Ovewhelmed that we might have a Christmas miracle in the form of the kiddos home! Overwhelmed at the prayers, comments, texts, calls, tweets, and messages from people like you exclaiming celebration, hope, prayers, and belief. Overwhelmed at a few incredibly sacrificial gifts allowing us to travel without any debt. Overwhelmed at the manna God's providing us every day. Overwhelmed at ridiculous offers to help us get outta here and get the kids' room ready. Overwhelmed that this is REALLY happening!!!

We are taking off for our trip on Thursday, and if you'd like to pray us through the journey here are a couple ways:

• Our court date on the 10th - pray that all that needs to happen in court on that day would be successful and that'd we'd become Lil' A and Baby T's legal parents that day.
• Bonding with our kids - we get to spend a few hours on a few days with our kids. Pray that God would knit our hearts together and allow that time together to to begin connecting our family together.
• Stayover in Germany - Brian and I have been gifted with a couple days to spend in Germany after Ethiopia. We hope to use those couple days together to celebrate, rest, and process our time in Ethiopia with our kiddos. Pray this time would be well spent, fun, and enlivening as we officially begin our journey as co-parents.
• Smooth Logistics - this isn't the most important thing, but obviously problems with flights, hotels, transportation, language, or courts could be really discouraging and unnecessary in our trip. Pray that satan wouldn't have a foothold in any of that stuff and we could have a smooth trip.
• Health and Rest - I've been fighting a cold for the past several days. Both of us haven't been sleeping well. We've found ourselves wide awake in the middle of the night. Needless to say, we're tired and a little under the weather. Not the best way to start a 24-hour trip to Ethiopia.

We hope to post while we're in Ethiopia. See ya on the flip side! :)

SHOCKING COURT DATES

God is ridiculously good! We received a court date - NOVEMBER 7th!!! The judge approved our 2 Ethiopian court dates to be combined into 1 date!!! We are leaving to see our babies next week!!!!! Unreal. We are in shock.

Here's my best attempt at coherently communicating our news today...

• TODAY :: Received a phone call at 8:00 this morning from our case manager letting me know of our court dates. They normally just email this information, but because it's so last minute she needed to call me to see if it's even an option to go this soon. I screamed on the phone and then started crying! Of course, we said "if it's at all possible, we'll go!"
• November 4th :: We plan to leave next Thursday for Ethiopia. CRAZY! A very generous person has gifted us with miles to pay for our tickets. Overwhelmed by radical generosity.
  
• November 8-9th :: We will visit our kiddos for sure, but we'll spend as much time with them as we are allowed.
• November 10th :: COURT! In the morning, the judge will see the police or any bio family to confirm these children are eligible for adoption. We go to court in the afternoon to testify before the judge. We hope to become their legal parents on this day!
• November 11th :: We will fly out of Ethiopia.
• November 11-13th :: We will take a 48 hour layover (or so) somewhere in Europe together. We want to use this moment in time to wrap our heads and hearts around our new family as a couple. We feel like taking a couple days before we step back onto U.S soil, to baby preparation craziness will be good for our souls and family.
• Court to Embassy Timeline :: Our case manager told us this morning that it's "very realistic to believe that we'll have them home by the end of the year". It's been taking between 4-6 weeks between successful court dates and Embassy to bring them home. This reality is beyond me. Mountains being moved. Systems being changed. Policies revisited. Amazing act of God. Having our adoption finalized in 2010 has been our prayer for MONTHS, but I really stopped believing it could happen! We were told in August not to expect court dates until 2011. So all this is a huge mental shift...exciting and overwhelming and sooooo good!
  During this 4-6 weeks, our kiddos will receive their U.S passports, visas, birth certificates, immunizations, and prepared to come home.
  

Pray for the seemingly hundreds of things that we need to do between now and next Thursday. My mind is swimming. My face is glowing. My heart is racing. Amazing. THANK YOU for your prayers and support.

I can't believe I get to hold and kiss Baby T and Lil' A in less than 2 weeks. Shaking with amazement...