We Are Coming For You!!!

Ok, you know that if I am updating more than once in one month it is with BIG news!!!!

 In our last post we were so excited to share how God had moved mountains to accomplish what could have taken 2 months but only took 2 weeks. This gave us more hope that we *might* be able to receive MOWA approval before rainy season closure. We were given a date of July 24th, yesterday, as a deadline for MOWA to review our case and give us a positive or negative comment. Let me be clear there are many times these dates come and go with no comment from MOWA. There are perhaps even more times that the comments are negative. Requesting updated Dossier documents, additional evidence in the child's case or any number of other reasons for another delay. While many people began to speculate that this could mean we could possibly travel before closure we just didn't think it would happen.  As our agency rep told us "Do not get your hopes up.".

It would take a miracle!!!

We would receive our first miracle just 4 days later when Nati would receive a positive comment, from MOWA, 2 weeks BEFORE the deadline for them to review his case. At this point we began praying for a court date to be issued before rainy season closure but we still held this information back because it still seemed unlikely. As that week came to an end with no news our hopes dwindled even more. We were told we would probably know by Monday and then by Wednesday and then hopefully by Friday. We were feeling pretty discouraged by the time Friday morning rolled around. 

However, on Friday morning I received the call we had been waiting for. Nati had a court date for this coming Thursday. When taking into account the need to be in country a couple days before court and a needing a few days to get there it did not leave much time. We immediately called our travel agent and asked her to start looking at flights. We called our guesthouses of choice. We told our kids. We told our friends and family. And just 48 hours after receiving that call we will be on our first flight. We are flying out of St. Louis at 10:57 in the morning. We will land in DC by 2 pm where we will get to rest a little and meet up with friends for dinner. And then on Monday morning at 11AM we will take off on the LONG flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We will land in Ethiopia at around 7:15AM local time (We will be 8 hours ahead of you guys) and will hopefully be holding Nati in our arms for the first time just a few hours later. The tears are definitely flowing as I type that. It feels like we have labored for forever to get to this point and yet just like that the wait is over. 

God is Able. He is Faithful. He is Good. 

Would you please cover our entire family in prayer? We are so thankful to know that we have so many interceding for us and our children. Please pray specifically for safe/smooth travel. That our family would stay healthy. That Nati's case will be wrapped up and his visa issued quickly. Pray for the four little hearts at home that are working hard to understand what is coming. We had tears from all 3 girls tonight as we said goodbye...there were a few from Momma too. It is so hard when we cannot give them a day I will for sure be back home. As always please pray for Nati. Pray for that little man's heart. that it would be open to the love of a family. That God would be protecting him as he has big changes coming that he can not possibly understand. As always this is a time to remember that adoption always involves loss. While our little man will be gaining so much next week he will also be losing again and that is just too painful for me to ignore. He will be losing his caregivers from the last several years, close friends that honestly are more like siblings and the loss of all things familiar. Please pray for him and for us to have wisdom to know how to make the transition a bit less painful. 

I am hoping to be able to keep you guys updated as much as possible through this blog while I am gone. 

We cannot wait until we can share pictures of Nati finally in our arms!!!