We got the approvals!

Christmas came a little early at our house this year.  This week, we received word that the approvals that we have been waiting for (FOR OVER A YEAR) have finally come through.  Praise God!  We know this is a direct result of the prayers of so many of you!

So what does this mean?

"K" received the final approval from MOWA that we needed to receive a court date in Ethiopia.  Tomorrow our agency will have the assigned date (usually 2-4 weeks later) and then we travel to Ethiopia to appear in court and bring him home.  We could travel as soon as next week!  Eeeekkkkk!!

"D" received an important approval (regional approval) that we also needed to move on to the next step in the process.  This was huge!!  We are likely a year from bringing him home still, but happy to see that there is some movement.

We are beyond thrilled to finally be in the final stages of bringing "K" home.  As soon as we pass court we can tell you his real name and post pictures.  Please pray for him as his life is about to change in a big way and we know from past adoptions that these transitions are difficult.  We also ask for prayers for good health and safe travel as we will be taking Solomon and Joseph along too!

If you don't hear from us in the coming weeks, it is because we are frantically packing and preparing for our adventure.  Hopefully the next post will be from Ethiopia!

Until they are home,

Dana and Jack

Breakthrough

First of all - wow - thank you all for the support and prayers.  This past few years of waiting have been hard, but you all have really picked us up again.  Thank you for that!

Now for some good news......we did have a breakthrough on K's case this week!  We received a phone call from our agency Friday afternoon telling us that MOWA had reviewed our case and planned to give us a POSITIVE letter.  This.Is.Huge.  This is the first time in a year that we have had positive movement.  Your prayers answered!  Now our agency does not actually have the letter with signature in hand, because the person that needs to sign the letter was not in the office, but our hope is that the letter (which they said they have drafted now) will get signed this week.  Once the letter is in hand, our agency will submit it to court and a date will be assigned for us to appear in court in Ethiopia (likely 2-4 weeks later) to finalize the adoption.  We've taken a huge step forward this week and we are praising God for that.

Changing the subject, I wanted to answer a question that a lot of you have been asking.  Do K and D know that we are adopting them?  The answer is yes -  K does know.  He had to appear in court a year ago to state he wanted to be adopted.  He was told about us at that time and we have been communicating with him through letters and videos via our agency's social worker since that time.  Below is a picture of K's wall at the orphanage.  He has posted all of our letters and pictures on the wall in his room.  :)   As for D, he does not know that we are pursuing his adoption.  Since we are still so unsure of what will happen, he has not yet been told about us.

Please continue to pray them home with us.  We have seen movement this week, but we are not done yet!

Until they are home,

Dana and Jack

It's Time!!

Alright y'all.  It's time to let you all in on what has been going on in our life the past few years.  Some of you already know what I'm about to share, others may be surprised.  But we feel the need, now more than ever, to garner your support and ask you to storm the doors of heaven on behalf of our family.

Where do we start?  Well, I won't go into all the details in this post, but to make a long story shorter.....we are in the process of adopting TWO boys from Ethiopia!  The story is very complicated and honestly at this point we are not sure that one of the adoptions will end up going through.  However, we have committed to adopting these two boys and are confident that God hears our prayers and His plan will be perfect in the end.

In February of 2014, our hearts were stirred and we started pursuing the adoption of a (then 13 year old) boy named "D".  This was a boy very special to us and to our son, Solomon.  We had met D during our previous trips to Ethiopia and he lived at the same orphanage as Solomon.  Unfortunately, his paperwork  has not been able to be completed for a number of reasons over the past 2.5 years.   This sweet boy will turn 16 in 3 months, which presents a problem.  If a visa has not been applied for by the age of 16, then children are no longer eligible for adoption to the US.  In order for us to apply for a visa, he must first receive a local approval for adoption.  We have been waiting on this approval for over a year.  It is certainly coming down to the wire on this as D approaches his 16th birthday.  IT'S TIME we ask you to pray for movement in D's case!

So where does child #2 come in you may be wondering?  Well, about a year into the paperwork chase of D we realized that there would likely be a large delay in his case.  In the meantime there was a (then 15 year old) boy named "K" on  our agency's waiting child list.  We knew that this boy did not have a great chance of being adopted simply due to his age.  We also knew that there was a fight against the clock to file for his visa before the age of 16.  After much prayer, we jumped on board and started pursuing K's adoption in addition to D's adoption.

The good news is that we have made a lot of progress with K's adoption.  He has been given pre-approval for a US visa (PAIR approval) and K appeared in federal court in Ethiopia in November of 2015 to state that he wants to be adopted.   We are at the point where we just need one signature (from federal MOWA) in order to travel to Ethiopia for our court date to make the adoption official.  Once we receive this signature we will travel to Ethiopia for court in a matter of weeks.   The bad news is that we have been waiting ONE YEAR now for this signature.  This is where we need your help!  We need your prayers friends.  Will you pray with us that we will receive this signature THIS WEEK?  Poor K knows that we are coming for him, and if the wait is this painful for us, I can't imagine how hard it is for him.   IT'S TIME for K to come home!

Thanks for sharing in our excitement and joining us in prayer.  In addition to praying for movement in our cases, will you please keep D and K in your prayers - that God would protect their hearts during this long process.  We will update you all with more information as we receive it.