Hi! We are getting ready and will be leaving on a jet plane... I love Peter Paul and Mary songs. Anyway, Caleb and I are getting packed. Malachi and Josiah are going to stay with Grandpa and Grandma. Hopefully they get to catch another game that Levi plays at. We plan to add posts via email. Hopefully it works :).
Caleb is pretty excited to be flying on a plane. I hope it does not get too stale :)
I think I am more excited :)
Keep us in your prayers. God bless!
Mari
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
In Tennessee
Well, the weather turned beautiful and sunny here in the Nashville area for our arrival on Saturday. This is day four and I still haven't finished our paperwork to bring with, but hopefully tonight it will be done. Kent finished the part 1 of our kitchen floor re-linoleum project. The kids are playing outside in the 90 degree weather. It is summer here! Grandma and Grandpa are taking good care of us as are Kent's brother Kip's family. We had a great day hanging with the four neices and nephews at their place yesterday and we got to see Levi hit a triple and bring it home. Not to mention he pitched that game! Whoo hooo Levi!
Well, signing medical releases for my kids staying behind, filling out I-600 etc. papers and packing.
Another real blessing is that we got new pictures and she is smiling! She can walk assisted, she plays with two year olds at the transition home and she likes to climb. God is so good.
Until next time, God keep you and make His face shine upon you.
Marion
Thursday, May 28, 2009
I smell like floor sealant :).
Ahhhh, yes the beauty of wood is so great. However, the price to get it beautiful is great. So I smell like floor sealant. 5 hours last night with my polyurethane and now another five this morning. Eeeps. It takes a while to do a good job. Well it looks really pretty. Thanks be to God! Can you imagine all of these hours (for just the first coat) and then not to have it look good. Anyway I hope you all are having a less floor examining day than I. I can't wait until they are done though.
God bless!!
Leaving for TN in two days!!!! For ET in seven days!!!!! Counting down!!!
God bless!!
Leaving for TN in two days!!!! For ET in seven days!!!!! Counting down!!!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Our Travel Dates!! June 4 - June 13
We finally have all of our documents in both in Ethiopia and here in the US. What a trip :). We have been packed since last week as we thought we would be traveling for Memorial day weekend. So with nothing else to do, we decided to refinish the floor in our front living room and bedroom. Well Kent is no less gun ho, as he is going to try to re-laminate our kitchen when we leave for TN. Well, it will be like a being given a new house. As well as a new family when we get home :).
God bless! Off to clean my home :)
God bless! Off to clean my home :)
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Exhausted but safe... in IL not ET :)
It was Thursday when we found out that we might travel to Ethiopia on Memorial day weekend. Yes that left us 10 days to plan everything and finish our paper work. Totally intimidated, it started to work all our fingerprint papers started moving via an amazing immigration official who adopted me. Then after spending a half hour dialing NVC and then a half hour on hold we got to talk to NVC people and it looked like we would get our information in. (that process was repeated every day this week). So, I have three kids at home, Caleb is traveling with us and the others are traveling to TN from Chicago to stay with grandma and grandpa. We got all packed on Tuesday and headed out by 2pm (after the conference call was supposed to start for that travel group). The call was delayed an hour and we decided to just hit the road.
We are driving to TN (normal for me, probably 4 times a year) when the traffic started backing up (normal for Chicago during 4pm rush hour) but it wasn't a car accident, it was a MAN HUNT! So they shut down I94 for hours and we ended up getting off the road. By the time we were headed south again on a more circuitous route, I realized we wouldn't arrive until 3am. Well... that wouldn't work with rest stops and a four year old. So we headed to my parent's home, (one hour closer to TN than we are). Spent the night and tried again the next morning.
Though I was up at 5, we didn't get out until 8, thankful and happy from a warm breakfast with my mom, who stayed up late to help me repack the night before. Again morning rush hour, (not too bad when you are used to it) slowed us down. About three hours into our drive I call my man and he checks the email (not a normal activity of his, he doesn't like web mail :) and finds the email from our agency AWAA informing us that we can not travel this weekend. We were just 30 miles from a cool farm with cows and a museum type of thing (Fair Oaks Farms, IN) We hung there for three hours trying to help the kids to realize that after 11 hours of driving we were still not getting to grandma and grandpa's for another week and a half.
Praises of course include only being 1/3 of the way to TN, Kent checking the email, and AWAA's email coming when it did. I am so glad we didn't get all the way there on Tuesday... sigh.
I am glad to have a couple more weeks to think though, that was a crazy mad rush, I don't know if I even read a book to my kids a couple days there.
We can't wait to go. I am calling our travel agent as soon as it hits her time zone.
God bless!
We are driving to TN (normal for me, probably 4 times a year) when the traffic started backing up (normal for Chicago during 4pm rush hour) but it wasn't a car accident, it was a MAN HUNT! So they shut down I94 for hours and we ended up getting off the road. By the time we were headed south again on a more circuitous route, I realized we wouldn't arrive until 3am. Well... that wouldn't work with rest stops and a four year old. So we headed to my parent's home, (one hour closer to TN than we are). Spent the night and tried again the next morning.
Though I was up at 5, we didn't get out until 8, thankful and happy from a warm breakfast with my mom, who stayed up late to help me repack the night before. Again morning rush hour, (not too bad when you are used to it) slowed us down. About three hours into our drive I call my man and he checks the email (not a normal activity of his, he doesn't like web mail :) and finds the email from our agency AWAA informing us that we can not travel this weekend. We were just 30 miles from a cool farm with cows and a museum type of thing (Fair Oaks Farms, IN) We hung there for three hours trying to help the kids to realize that after 11 hours of driving we were still not getting to grandma and grandpa's for another week and a half.
Praises of course include only being 1/3 of the way to TN, Kent checking the email, and AWAA's email coming when it did. I am so glad we didn't get all the way there on Tuesday... sigh.
I am glad to have a couple more weeks to think though, that was a crazy mad rush, I don't know if I even read a book to my kids a couple days there.
We can't wait to go. I am calling our travel agent as soon as it hits her time zone.
God bless!
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Trust in God :)
I was reading this morning Mark 10:17-31. It struck me that when this adoption started in 2003, I was faced with whether I would give my conveniences for the greater gift of serving Christ through adoption. I had two children then and they were great, but I was a young mom and did not know much. Kent and I decided that God was worth giving up our ease to pursue adoption.
Then came Malachi, what a joyful surprise and he was full of his own additional struggles and joys. In the end as with the first two, our lives were blessed abundantly more than we could have asked for. What a joy to have these three boys!! Then again in March of '07 the call came to Kent to adopt. This time I had been mothering much longer (seven years :) and the risk was much greater, could I do this? Could I be a mom of more than my three boys? It was as if Jesus looked down on me and loved me, and said there is one thing you lack, go and give all you have and give it to the little ones without parents and you will have treasure in heaven, then come and follow Me.
Might I have misunderstood Him? Yes, but I know that He loves the needy and the children and those who are fatherless will have families. Lord let us be a family that loves these little ones.
In this context, the immigration agency passed our fingerprints!! They have mailed the form to NVC but we need it faster :), (ever the Americans eh?) to travel this weekend, yup, Saturday. So again God moved in the heart of our cool immigration agent and she is willing to fax it. However is NVC willing to accept it? Will they take a fax? Will they enter it? Can we travel this weekend?
It is interesting how risky it is to desire something greatly, I think it is the weight of the desire that causes the value to increase in the object that we value. So here I am valuing this travel time to go get Anna, my daughter, partly because it is the only time my mother can accompany Kent, Caleb and I. Partly because God has done so much for it to happen, who am I to say He isn't behind it.
I just talked to NVC, they can't help me until tomorrow. I am calling again. Maybe this time I will receive God's favor.
Amen and amen,
Mari
Then came Malachi, what a joyful surprise and he was full of his own additional struggles and joys. In the end as with the first two, our lives were blessed abundantly more than we could have asked for. What a joy to have these three boys!! Then again in March of '07 the call came to Kent to adopt. This time I had been mothering much longer (seven years :) and the risk was much greater, could I do this? Could I be a mom of more than my three boys? It was as if Jesus looked down on me and loved me, and said there is one thing you lack, go and give all you have and give it to the little ones without parents and you will have treasure in heaven, then come and follow Me.
Might I have misunderstood Him? Yes, but I know that He loves the needy and the children and those who are fatherless will have families. Lord let us be a family that loves these little ones.
In this context, the immigration agency passed our fingerprints!! They have mailed the form to NVC but we need it faster :), (ever the Americans eh?) to travel this weekend, yup, Saturday. So again God moved in the heart of our cool immigration agent and she is willing to fax it. However is NVC willing to accept it? Will they take a fax? Will they enter it? Can we travel this weekend?
It is interesting how risky it is to desire something greatly, I think it is the weight of the desire that causes the value to increase in the object that we value. So here I am valuing this travel time to go get Anna, my daughter, partly because it is the only time my mother can accompany Kent, Caleb and I. Partly because God has done so much for it to happen, who am I to say He isn't behind it.
I just talked to NVC, they can't help me until tomorrow. I am calling again. Maybe this time I will receive God's favor.
Amen and amen,
Mari
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
More prayers answered!!
So in order to go and pick Mihiret up we have to jump through two sets of hoops. One set involves three government agencies and the other involved six! These are updates to paperwork that expires over time during the adoption process.
Praises!
First that we passed court, this was not a trivial thing.
Second, we got an appointment on Friday for our immigration fingerprint update (gov't entity 1 of 3)
Third our fingerprints came back from the background check (gov't entity 1 of 6)
Fourth that we have a great social worker at ECFA who is running in the background for us and a wonderful agency at AWAA who is doing the incountry work.
Fifth: that our little girl Anna is in a safe place as she waits for us. Praise God.
Could God desire that we travel in May rather than June?
Time (and the speed of gov't entities will tell) :)
Praises!
First that we passed court, this was not a trivial thing.
Second, we got an appointment on Friday for our immigration fingerprint update (gov't entity 1 of 3)
Third our fingerprints came back from the background check (gov't entity 1 of 6)
Fourth that we have a great social worker at ECFA who is running in the background for us and a wonderful agency at AWAA who is doing the incountry work.
Fifth: that our little girl Anna is in a safe place as she waits for us. Praise God.
Could God desire that we travel in May rather than June?
Time (and the speed of gov't entities will tell) :)
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