our last step...

So we are still waiting. This should technically be the last leg of waiting for our family. It has been a difficult one. Much more difficult than I anticipated when we started it. I honestly thought that the fact that we had FINALLY met our kiddos coupled with the fact that this was our last long wait would be enough to help me endure the wait with patience and a great attitude...that worked for the first month. Now, it's the end of November. Our travel dates over Thanksgiving have passed and we wait to see if we made the Dec 8th Embassy appointment. Our papers have been filed, we are only waiting for the offices to look over our case and decide if we have all the necessary papers to be eligible for an appointment on the 8th. If they decide we need more documentation, then they will table us until we get the necessary paperwork filed...and we will hopefully get the Dec. 22nd Embassy date.

So that's the waiting update.

We need to hear from the Embassy this week. I would LOVE to hear from them on Monday. If we are granted the Dec. 8th appointment, that would give us a week to finalize travel plans and buy tickets and square things away here in Rome before we leave for a month. One week doesn't give us much time for that either, but it's more than a couple of days! We'll have a lot more details to work out for this trip because...we are thinking that for this trip, we will be taking the whole family to Addis, and then go straight from Addis to the States. We are considering this for a number of reasons. First, we have gotten little to no assurance that Italy will grant our Ethiopian children a tourist visa--and even if we manage to get one, there's still a chance that they will be turned away in Rome. Second, our childcare made other plans and we would have to scramble to get others to fill in, disrupting many lives at the last minute. Third, it would be really great for the whole family to be together when Canaan and Eden join us for good. Who knows if we can make it work out? Well, that's a silly statement, God knows, but you know what I meant...it is going to take a mighty work of the Lord to make all the details and the money come together for this--in one week. But we are hopeful. We serve a mighty God.

In other news, I'm still pregnant :-) I go in for my first doctor appointment on Tuesday morning. I've never met this doctor, but I have a friend that uses him and really likes him, so I am hopeful. It will be nice to see how things are going, to get a better estimate on how far along we are (9weeks? 10 weeks? 11 weeks?)...and I think I might even get an ultrasound so we'll be able to see the baby :-)

Please continue to pray for our family. There's a lot we may be facing this week. Pray for the details to come together in amazing ways that richly display the hand of God. Pray for my doctor's appointment: that all is well & baby and momma are healthy. Pray that we receive the Embassy appointment that God wants us to have.

Thank you for holding the ropes for us. We love you.

Changes Changes Everywhere...

So now the Embassy has decided that Eyerusalem's name should be spelled "Yerusalem" So we had to do all our documents again. Yipee! :-P Hopefully we'll still be up for the December 8th Embassy date...PRAY PRAY PRAY!!!!

when my husband shares his heart...

it blesses me so much.

I hope it will bless you too.

http://thestumblingseeker.blogspot.com/2010/11/but-tension-is-to-be-loved.html

slowly but surely...

We are still waiting for news of our secure Embassy appointment. The passports should be ready by Monday, and the medical exams need to be completed and other things finalized then they will review our file and assign us an Embassy appointment...we narrowed it down to either the day before Thanksgiving (Nov. 24th...how fitting!) or December 8th.(the day before Jared's 32nd birthday!)

Sorry to not keep you updated, but I've been a bit under the weather...downright puny...and it probably won't lift for a few more weeks...because, well...we found out that, surprisingly enough, we are expecting our SIXTH child...sometime in June maybe? I don't know...I haven't been to a doctor yet. The english-speaking ob/gyn everyone goes to here is now moving to Thailand, so I'm stuck at the moment. I've done this before though and everything seems to be progressing normally so I'm not concerned. I'll get to a doctor soon enough ;-)

The trouble is, that this time I have HORRIBLE "progesterone poisoning" (as my favorite prego guidebook calls it). All day I am nauseous and all evening I'm gurping...I'm really hoping for some relief soon! It's taking a toll on the family--not mention me! So please pray for me in this...pray that my sickness will lift by the time I need to be strong to go to Addis for our kiddos!

Oh and I must say that this whole "there's not an actual birthdate for your child because nobody keeps track in Ethi" really bites. In just 2 weeks our little boy in Addis has gone from being 2 to 3 to now, 4! We've changed his birthdate 3 times according to what doctors in Addis are saying. Having spent time with him, we were very sure he wasn't 2 like his paperwork...but he is very much like Judah, our 3 year old, soon to be 4 yr old. So we gave him a birthdate just after Judah's to keep Canaan Eyasu in his grade level in school, but not shake up Judah's expectation of birth order. And then we get the news that he HAS to be 4 right now...so we gave him a NEW birthdate a couple of months OLDER than Judah. Judah doesn't really care...but I selfishly wanted to get to celebrate Canaan's birthday with him soon after he came home! Anyway, it's all fine...just another of those unexpected 'things' that are typical in this convoluted process. ;-) So now we have a 7, 5, 4, 3, and a 1 year old (she'll be 2 in April).

Just tidbits for you to keep you checking in and not forgetting us!!! Keep praying for the Lord's timing in our Embassy date and for us to get a good deal on last minute tickets (it will take a miracle!).

Thank you for walking with us through this!!! Through your prayers, we are BLESSED!!

Oh and one more fun fact...we discovered that if we ever end up in Hollis again for a school year we'll have Iliana and her cousin Shelby in the same class (they were born on the exact same day) and Canaan, Judah, Blaze(cousin), and Miriam(cousin) will all be in the same class too...as will our new baby and my sis-in law's new baby Charlie (that I mentioned in a previous post)!! CRAZY, huh??? I never got to grow up around family and I think that going through school with your cousins and siblings like this would be SO fun (difficult at times too, of course) but AWESOME!!! So we'll see how all the cousins take to each other, hopefully at Christmas...it should be a riot!!