SHOWHOPE GIFT!

Steven Curtis Chapman’s Orphan Care Ministry (Showhope.org) awarded us a very substantial financial gift today for our adoption process which means that our “need to meet” number has been reached. Thank you, God! The call from a delightful woman named Kathy from their offices was an incredible blessing as we weren’t sure what the chances of our receiving a gift from them was. We are truly amazed at God’s amazing way of “making the way straight” for our adoption process...we have so much to be grateful for.

We love you all and are so humbled by your partnership on this journey. We will keep you posted!

COURT!

The email below (from our wonderful Christian World Adoption Case Manager, Sue) says it all:




Thank you so much for your prayer with us. We are blessed and overwhelmed by God’s goodness to us. What a ride! We love you all and will keep you posted.

COURT DATE!

We found out from our Case Manager this week that we received a court date! July 3rd! That’s less than two weeks from now! Just to remind you, the court date is when our kid’s “case” will be in front of the judge for his or her determination of whether or not the circumstances around their arrival at the children’s home causes them to be considered for adoption. We do not attend that court hearing in Ethiopia but the Christian World Adoption Staff does.

Please pray for July 3rd and that we would “pass” court this first time. If there is a paperwork “glitch”, we run the risk of running right up against the court recess deadline (which begins in early August). Our Case Manager reminded us this week that while July 3rd doesn’t leave us much “wiggle room” for paperwork trouble that could happen that God doesn’t actually need any “wiggle room”. That’s a very welcome reminder as these days of waiting feel nearly endless.

Thanks so much for your prayers and your encouragement...they mean the world to us. We’ll keep you posted!

Court Date & The Kids

So our paperwork is awaiting the assignment of a court date in Addis at the moment. We are praying and are optimistic that we could learn that court date this week (please, Lord!). Thanks for joining that prayer with us.

We also just learned that the kids were moved to Addis last week! That’s fantastic news as it’s one step closer to them coming home, as where they are now is where we will get to pick them up from when we finally get to go get them!

We’ll keep you posted...and are so grateful for your prayerful partnership.

Waiting...

So we’re now just in the holding pattern for a court date in Addis. We thought our paperwork was submitted for a court date request a couple of weeks back, but there was a missing document on one of the children that had to be tracked down. As it turns out, that document was indeed tracked down, translated, and then determined to be the incorrect document. We understand that they now have the correct document and will be submitting for a court date very soon.

Thank you for your prayers for us as these “waiting” days are quite difficult...we just want to get our kids home as soon as we possibly can!

We love you and are so grateful for your partnership on this journey.

DOSSIER ARRIVES IN ADDIS!

Thanks so much for your prayers over the past week as we watched our dossier progress around the world! We got a little nervous when it sat in Dubai for the whole weekend, but were relieved to “see” it get an early flight out of Dubai on Monday. It arrived in Addis later Monday afternoon and was delivered late that same day to CWA’s offices.

Please pray that the translation of our dossier into Amharic goes very quickly and that our request for a court date would be processed quickly. We’re praying for a June court date (please Lord!) which means that if we “pass” the first court date (another prayer request!) that we could possibly be picking up our kids in August (and July would be even better!).

We love you all and are so grateful for your prayers and for your financial support which has brought us this far toward the finish line.

DOSSIER!

So our dossier shipped to Ethiopia on Wednesday! So far its track has been seen making the “villes” tour: Hendersonville, NC; Asheville, NC; Greenville, SC; Louisville, KY, and finally Philly, PA where it was last scanned on Thursday AM at 8:35 for departure...to where, we have no idea...stay close for more riveting details of the Hopkins’ Dossier Journey Across the Ocean!

Thanks for praying that thing to Addis safely!