We just wanted to give everyone a overall update on our current status. It is a testimony of God’s grace that we were able to complete our home study and send our dossier off in a matter of 6 weeks. He has been so kind to us in allowing us to get this far with only minor difficulties.
Last week, our dossier left for Ethiopia. Our dossier is basically a set of documents, along with a power of attorney, that will represent us in Ethiopia as we seek to adopt the two boys. For the next three weeks, our dossier will be translated and then we will be given a court date. Our court date in Ethiopia should be about 3 -4 months out. When the court date is set, our power of attorney will represent us before an Ethiopian judge, who we pray will make the decision to give the boys to us. If everything goes well in court, we would travel approximately one month after the court date to pick the boys up. We are estimating that we could travel as early as June. However, we realize that anything could happen and the process could be extended due to unforeseen circumstances.
At this point, we have worked our total expenses of $23,000.00 down to around $16,000.00. (We had originally estimated $20,000.00 but there were some expenses we were unaware of.) God has been so good to us in providing close to $7,000.00. Most of this has come through the generosity of friends and family. We share this to make known what God has done. We never expected such an outpouring of interest and support when we made the decision to rescue these two orphans.
Pray for us as we wait! Once the documents left our hands we began to feel extremely precarious. We went from thinking we had control over the process to realizing we have absolutely none. Things have been relatively easy for us up until this point and we are well aware that things could get tricky from this point forward. Please continue to pray for the many things that will start to unfold in Ethiopia without us even knowing they are happening. Pray that we would continue to hope in Christ as we wait for these two boys to officially be called our sons.
Our hearts have already grown to love these boys as we pray and wait for them. We have committed ourselves to their good no matter what that might mean for us in the days ahead.
