Seeking patience in the wait....

This week we (ok I) got the reminder I need that GOD is in control of this process.  We were very optimistic that we would be submitted to embassy this Tuesday.  Unfortunately, that was not the case.  We received an update from our agency on Monday afternoon that the tests necessary to receive her medical clearance are not complete and could take as much as two additional weeks.  I will admit that I was planning out the rest of this process in my head.  Yes, oh yes, I was!  I may have said "ignorance is bliss" when we got home and said I wasn't going to look at the calendar and try to calculate our timeline.  HA HA HA!!!  That did NOT happen!

I do not by any means believe that God is holding up our process for me to learn to surrender.  I do believe that His timing is perfect, the same way that it was with Nicolas' adoption and that all the frustration and sadness with the wait will disappear as soon as she is in our arms again (again, the same way it was with Nicolas).  God rewards those who trust in him with ALL their heart.  ALL OF IT!!  I cannot give certain things to Him and expect Him to let me handle the "small stuff".  He knows best.  He's got this under control.  He is keeping her safe until we can bring her home.  :)

In the mean time, we continue to be blessed with the love and support of our family and friends.  We have an amazing team of prayer warriors out there praying us through and surrounding our family in love.  Thank you so much!!!  Your gifts, both tangible and intangible, are such a blessing!!!

What now?  We wait.  We will find out in the wee hours of the morning on Tuesday August 6th if we have been submitted to embassy.  No expectations, other than that God is walking along with us through every step.

This verse gave me the strength I needed in the last weeks of waiting in Nicolas' adoption, and I am confident it will do the same now:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
-Philippians 4:6-7

It's getting REAL!!!!

This weekend marks a big moment in this process for us.  We have had M's room painted for almost 2 years now.  I picked out her bedding before we chose the paint colors.  I made curtains a few weeks ago.  We have been "ready" for a LONG time.  That being said, it got REAL this weekend.  My parents came this weekend to bring her crib (so generously lent to us by my sister and brother-in-law).  Kevin and my dad set it up and my mom and I got all the bedding washed.  While I was outside with the dogs, my mom put all the bedding on.  I walked into her room and had to collect myself.  THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING!!!  After all this time - all the prayer, all the tears, all the excitement, all the paperwork, fundraisers, and all-the-while relying on God to do what he does best - it is here!

God-willing, in a few weeks, we will be a united family of four.  Words cannot express how excited we are for that!

Here are some pictures!

The bedding was chosen long before we knew if we would have a he or a she.  I added some feminine flair with some spunky curtains :)

Soon there will be a beautiful baby girl in there!!!!

In the meantime, Wiley has lovingly offered to stand in :)

Her growth chart (custom-made by Grandpa L) is ready to track her as she grows!  The pink board is both decorative (because I had to put pink somewhere!) and functional as it is also a photo board.

Birth Certificate and Passport.....CHECK!!!!!! :)

Last Thursday, we were very surprised to receive an update notifying us that M's birth certificate and passport were done!  We were expecting the birth certificate, but not both!  After the completion of a medical exam to clear her for travel for her visa, our case will be submitted to the US Embassy!  The timeline from here on out gets a little fuzzy as the timelines vary greatly from one family to the next.  Cases are only submitted to Embassy on Tuesdays, so we will see which Tuesday will be our day!
Once we are submitted, the Embassy will conduct one final search to verify she is an orphan and then clear us to come get her!  We can hardly wait for that call!!!

7/4/13 - Welcome Home

We made it safely from Addis Ababa to Frankfurt and God continues to extend His grace to us!  We got upgraded to business class AGAIN!  Kevin and I can hardly believe it could happen twice on the same trip, but it was a huge blessing to allow us to get some sleep!  We stayed awake until after we refueled in Khartoum and then slept the rest of the flight to Frankfurt (about 5 hours).  When we arrived in Frankfurt, we went through the maze to get to our gate and, on our way, received a packet of mints from a worker that said Happy Independence Day.  Thanks Germany :)  We are looking forward to getting home!!!

Our plane from Frankfurt to Chicago was a 747 again, so we sat while they hundreds of people pushed their way to get on the plane first.  We really had no desire to rush to get on the plane just to sit.  When we finally decided to walk up to get on we scanned our ticket and literally laughed out loud when a new ticket printed for each of us – business class upgrade – AGAIN!  Three out of our four long flights we were upgraded on this trip.  What a difference it made, though, we actually landed home well rested and not completely exhausted.  Once we boarded the plane we ended up being delayed by 45 minutes.  We knew our connection in Chicago was going to be tight due to having to go through immigration and customs, but were hoping we could make up time in the air.  The fact that we were two rows from the exit door helped.  We knew that we could beat the majority of the passengers to the immigration line.  Immigration was a breeze and went quickly.  Getting our bags – not so much.  The first bag came out within the first 20 bags or so.  The second one we had to wait another 20 minutes.  And the time seemed to drag knowing we were cutting it close.  Once we got it we waited in a fairly long customs line.  Then, off to recheck our bags and get boarding passes.  We got to the counter and the agent said we have plenty of time to make our flight, so he printed our boarding passes and pointed us in the right direction to catch the train. Once at the correct terminal, we went through security AGAIN and mall-walked to our gate.  We, surprisingly, made it to the correct gate with about ten minutes to spare.

The flight back to Grand Rapids was a quick one with no delays.  We landed and were so excited to see Nicolas and Grandma P standing at the end of the ramp!  We each gave him a big hug and asked a million questions about how his week was.  We walked down to get our bags and only one of our checked bags came off the belt.  We had to go and fill out the missing bag report.  We rechecked it in Chicago, so we were pretty confident that it just missed our plane and we would see it soon.  Sure enough, it came in on the next plane and was delivered to our house four hours later.  Due to the time change we started crashing about 9 pm were all in bed by 9:30.  We slept amazingly well back in our own bed and woke up feeling great about 6:30 the next morning.

We made it!

While it will be hard to wait, we know that we will be able to bring M home within the next few weeks and pray God will continue to give us the patience and strength to wait it out!  Happy 4th of July!!!  Now it's time  to take Nicolas to his first fireworks show!!  Who knew that God would bless us with two amazing children in a matter of months....... :)

7/3/13 - One last morning with our Princess!!

This morning, we got up and had breakfast and lounged for a little bit before heading to the orphanage to see M one more time.  Our driver picked us up at 9AM and we were able to spend about 2 hours at the orphanage.  We played with and held all the kids in the baby/toddler room.  It was a lot of fun!  They are all very sweet (although 2 of the boys are a little naughty….) and snuggly!  M was very content today. We actually tried to hold some of the other children first because we knew we would gravitate toward her.  We were able to love on and take pictures of 3 other babies that have families at home as well, which was great!  While we were there, a woman from Illinois came.  She is volunteering for a month just coming in and loving on the babies.  She told us how sweet M is and how happy and peaceful she is as well.  Such a blessing!  I also didn't mention that on Monday we met two students that were signing up to volunteer at the orphanage.  They also came while we were there.  We are very lucky that not only is the nanny staff very loving and attentive, but there are also lots of volunteers that come and provide extra love!  Around 11:30AM, our driver came in and told us he was ready for us.  This is the moment I had been dreading……..having to say goodbye.  I held her tight and told her I loved her over and over again.  I kissed her head and told her we would be back.  I handed her to Kevin so that he could snuggle her one more time as well.  The volunteer from the states, sweet as she was, asked if we would prefer for her to take M so that we didn't have to lay her down and walk away…….YES PLEASE!!!  I gave her one more squeeze and I gave her to the volunteer.  I took a deep breath, grabbed my backpack, waved at her one more time and told her I loved her and walked out into the hall.  I made it about 10 steps before I started crying.  Kevin (so sweet) held me as I cried.  3 of the older girls from the orphanage walked by and asked “What’s wrong?  What’s wrong??”  I told them I was sad because we had to leave.  I don’t know that they really understood, but it was sweet that they were concerned.  I composed myself and we walked out the front door.  As we walked to the gate, I couldn't bring myself to look back at the window of her room.  I know that God will give us the strength to wait it out and I know that we will be back soon, but leaving her was one of the hardest things we have ever had to do.  Love you sweetheart!!!

After we left the orphanage, I dried my tears and we met Abel and the family who had embassy for lunch.  We had Santa Fe pizza for lunch and it was pretty good!  After lunch, we went with the other family to drop off donations at another orphanage and then we went around town to do some souvenir shopping.  What was interesting is that since Abel knows all the best places to shop, he took us to different areas of town for the different things that we were looking for.  We made 4 stops on our shopping journey and then headed to Bethany to pay our transportation bill before driving back to the guest house for our last dinner. 
Birtukan and her staff have worked hard to learn how to make a variety of different American dishes.  Tonight we had burritos and they were very good!  It’s funny that we ate more American food here than we did Ethiopian food, but the guest house felt like home. :)  After dinner, we said our goodbyes to the other family and to Birtukan and we headed to the airport.  

The main road by our guest house

Apartment buildings

Clean shoes are a sign of respect, so there are shoe shiners on every corner

Playing soccer in the road

Fast forward!  And here we are….waiting to board our flight to Frankfurt.  It’s hard to believe that our first trip to Ethiopia is already over!  We have had a wonderful time, made some great friends, and fallen head over heels in love EVEN MORE with our precious, precious girl.  We can’t wait until we can travel back to bring her home!!!

7/2/13 - Officially a family of FOUR :)

This morning we got up and had breakfast as a group and then headed to the Bethany office for our Ethiopian history and culture training.  The training was great!  Abel is a history buff and told us all there is to know about Ethiopia.  One very interesting thing we learned that I didn’t know was that the famine in Ethiopia in the 90s was avoidable.  Apparently the communist government was working to take down the north region, so they allowed the famine to devastate the area even though they could have provided aid from the south. 
The cultural portion of our training went over a lot of customs and social expectations, differences in the regions of Ethiopia, how to perform a coffee ceremony (these are done when people come to your home and for celebrations), how to make injera (Ethiopian bread), and how to make wot (stew).  We learned that it is a sign of love to feed an uncomfortably large bite of injera with stew to your guests.  Beware if you come over!!! :)  Very fun!  

Roasting the beans

Pretty strong - but we tried it!

Making injera

Injera with lentil wot (stew).  Delicious!!

After our training, we had a speedy lunch and headed to court.  The drive to court was interesting.  Court is in the center of Addis Ababa, so traffic is much heavier.  There are lanes on the road in some places, but they are not really used.  There are also lots of people (and animals) walking in the streets.  The drivers honk to alert the people that they are there and tell them to get out of the way!  

Wood poles are used as scaffolding and to hold floors up until the cement is dry

We arrived at court and waited in the room for about 20 minutes before being called in.  All three Bethany families were able to go into the judge’s office together.  She asked us maybe 10 questions and then said the words we wanted to hear “All of your documents are in order and your children are yours”.  PTL!!!!  I held back my tears (although a few still squeaked out!) because my crying never looks like happy crying and I didn't want to judge to get the wrong idea.  She is ours!!!!  SOOOOOO EXCITED!!!
After court, we dropped one of the families off at their guest house because they are heading home tonight and then dropped us off at ours.  We had dinner together and then sat around chatting for the rest of the evening.  One of the couples flew home tonight, so that left three couples at the guest house.  We also called Nicolas before we headed off to bed.  He’s doing great and having lots of fun getting spoiled! :)  Tomorrow is our last day here and our last chance to see M before we head home. :(

We passed!

7/1/13 - I can't help falling in love with YOU!!!

The day is finally here!!!!!  This morning we had breakfast as a group – french toast :).  After breakfast, we and the other adopting couple headed to the Bethany Ethiopia office to go over what to expect in the court process.  We also had the opportunity to buy some items made by women from one of Bethany’s local ministries for widows.  We then went to a French restaurant for lunch (I know, French food in Ethiopia?? :))  and it was very good!  After lunch we walked down to the orphanage to meet M.  Our hearts were pounding and we were anxious!  We walked through the gates and into the building.  

At the gate!

Walking up to the door!

It felt like we were walking so slowly.  The door to the infant room was closed.  Abel knocked and opened the door.  Most of the babies were asleep.

Walking into the infant room

One of them was not and I immediately recognized her.  It was not M, but our friend’s baby, K.  Sooo cute!  Abel told them we were there to see M and they woke her up from her nap.  She laid in her crib for a couple minutes to wake up.  We stood at the end of her crib talking to her and, of course, I cried a little. :)

Just WAITING to be able to pick her up

When she was a little more awake, one of the nannies picked her up and talked to her, then handed her to me.  Oh, what a moment!!  She was awesome!!  She wasn't upset or fussy, but calm as a cucumber!  As I held her in my arms, the tears started flowing again.  Three years of waiting, praying, and wondering for THIS VERY MOMENT.  Oh, what a blessing to snuggle her to my chest and kiss her head.  To tell her I love her and have her hear my voice.  Thank you, God, for this precious girl and the opportunity to bring her into our family!!!!  I did, of course, give Dad a chance to hold her too :)  

We spent probably the first 10-15 minutes or so in the babies room, and then our social worker showed up.  She spoke to the nannies and they let us go to a different room with her since all the other kiddos were sleeping.  We were able to spend 2 ½ hours with her just playing and talking to her.  She likes to talk and is quite the mover!  When the nanny changed her diaper, it was hilarious to watch her kick her legs like a little ninja!!!  As soon as her pants came off until they were back on, she was just kicking those legs as fast as you can imagine!!!  The nannies are very talented to be able to keep her still long enough to get one diaper off and the other one on!  Some of the older kids passed through while we were with her, as well as the nannies passing by and it is clear how much they love the kids.  The other older kids would come by and grab her hand or rub her head and talk to her and the nannies would come over and goof with her to get her to smile.  She was more serious with us than with the nannies, but she was all smiles as we were leaving.  Maybe she was trying to get rid of us??? :)  I cannot tell you how great it is to know, for ourselves, that she is happy, healthy, and tomorrow (God willing) she will be a Longstreet!!! 

After we left the orphanage (not crying, I think only because I know we will see her again before we leave) we headed back to the guesthouse for a little while before dinner.  Dinner tonight was at a cultural Ethiopian restaurant.  It was awesome!  Each group sits around a large basket table (sorry, I don’t know how to explain it better) and the food is shared among the group.  Different types of Ethiopian dishes are spooned onto a large platter covered in injera (Ethiopia bread).  Abel explained what each of the types of food were on the platter and then we dug in!  No utensils; instead you tear off injera and scoop up the different types of stew.  It was all very good!  We also tried a honey wine, which was definitely not like wine, but it was surprisingly good.  Just about the time we were done eating, the performance began.  They did a variety of different songs and dances from different regions of Ethiopia.  Very cool experience!!  Soo glad we did it!

Tomorrow is another big day!! Praying that court goes well and we receive our decision tomorrow as well!

They brought water to wash our hands right at the table

The injera rolls are around the edges and then the different stews are in the center.

Dig in!

6/30/13 - Our day of rest

Good morning!!!  Kevin and I both felt like we struggled to fall asleep.  I think it was all the excitement of finally being here!  Kevin woke up to dogs barking and to the rain, but I only woke up dreaming that we overslept for church (which we didn't).  The alarm went off, the sun was coming up, and we could hear prayers (we learned later it was the Orthodox prayer) that sounded like they were coming through a loud speaker.

Taking a shower felt great as it had been a LONG time!  We got around and headed down for breakfast before heading to church.  We had scrambled eggs (ok, I had eggs.  Kevin doesn't like them), banana bread, tea, and mango juice.  The Morning Coffee staff is taking such good care of us!

The view from the guest house

The view from the guest house

The view from the guest house

The outside of our guest house

At 8AM, we were picked up by a driver to take us to church.  Driving this morning was definitely different than last night.  There was lots of honking and a lot more people (and animals) in the streets.  Church was great!  We met some missionaries that have been living here for 15 years, some people from Los Angeles, a man that works with a ministry here to help impoverished women learn business skills, and another man who is here for a couple weeks working with him.  Everyone was so welcoming and friendly.  The service was in English and the pastor was a visiting pastor from Dallas, TX.  It amazes me how we can travel half-way across the world and experience a church service not that far removed from our own.

Another family was supposed to arrive at the guest house this morning.  We found out at lunch that Abel waited there for them almost all morning and now it sound like they might not arrive until tomorrow.  This is the difficultly with international travel and a 7-hour time difference.  Even if they contacted Bethany, it was the middle of the night, so they wouldn't have gotten the message to pass on to Abel.  Hopefully we will see them tomorrow.  There are also two families staying here that should be returning from visiting their children (in Awassa) tonight.  We are excited to have other families here with us.

Today for lunch we had spaghetti, Ethiopian style.  It was delicious!  After lunch, we rested for about half an hour, then Birtukan’s niece prepared a coffee ceremony for us.  The way she made the coffee for us was what they call Macchiato (coffee with milk).  It was about 1/3 milk and 2/3 coffee with sugar and it was good!  They also prepare popcorn for the coffee ceremony which is made with sugar.  Imagine the best kettle corn ever.  That’s what it tasted like!  While we were enjoying our coffee, Birtukan shared her testimony with us.  A-mazing!  I will not share it all here, but she was once a World Vision sponsor child.  She graduated from the program and then became a translator for World Vision, translating the letters written by sponsors into Amharic for the children.  It was a letter written by a sponsor that changed her life.  She committed to God that she wanted to change the life of one orphan.  Several years later, she is changing the lives of over 1400 orphans through Yezalelem Minch.  What an amazing testimony that, with God’s provision, one person (along with her husband Nebisu) can make an amazing difference!

Preparing the coffee

Also during our coffee time, Birtukan’s two younger sons and her youngest daughter came in and performed some songs for us – one in English and two in Amharic.  There was accompanying dancing as well.  It was great!!  So sweet!

After our coffee ceremony time, we tried to call home to talk to Nicolas.  I got to say hello….but that was about it.  Unfortunately, the internet connection did not want to cooperate to let us talk.  But, he was already playing video games at 8:30AM, so I’m pretty sure he is enjoying his time with Grandma and Grandpa G!  The internet has not been working since we got here, but we are hoping it will be up at some point so that we can let everyone know we made it here safely.

Around 3:00PM, it started to get pretty dark.  It is the rainy season, so it’s expected that it will rain fairly often.  It started to sprinkle lightly, then much harder, then it began to HAIL!  Not just a little. The ground looked like it had snowed!  The hail was probably the size of a pencil eraser, some larger, and it just kept coming down!!!  The girls said it has never hailed like that here before!  We apologized for bringing crazy Michigan weather to Addis!!  We did take video of the hail that we will be able to post once we are home.

A little before dinner, two other families returned from their trip to Awassa.  One of the families went to visit their daughter.  The other is actually doing missionary work in Kenya, but is here while they renew their visas.  We had dinner together and chatted about their trip.

I hope we can sleep well tonight…..tomorrow is a BIG DAY!!!!

It's beginning to look a lot like MICHIGAN!

If only we could have made it into a snowman.....

6/29/13 - So that's what it's like...............

Waiting in Germany seemed like forever.  We each slept a little in short 15 minute or so stretches despite the fact the seats we waited in looked like a pool lounger.  Unfortunately not as comfy as they looked……

Yeah, not so comfy.........

Finally, it was time to board our flight.  We waited in line and when it came for us to board, each of us received a new seat assignment.  Oh no…….did they split us up???  Enter God’s grace SHINING down upon us.  We got UPGRADED to business class!!!!!  Are you kidding me?  My mom and I just joked about how nice that would be a few hours ago.  Now, here we are reclining in luxury in a chair that a host of reclining options including a lay-flat sleep position (and did I mention it massages too??), ordering from a menu, drinking from real glasses, eating gourmet food on real dinnerware….it’s all very ironic.  Here we are, heading to a third-world country to adopt a beautiful girl.  This is something we have been saving (and many have generously donated to fund) for years and we are sitting in business class.  It’s a conflicted feeling.  Why were we the ones to be bumped?  My only answer is God’s grace.  After our meal, Kevin and I were both able to get a few hours of uninterrupted sleep – a blessing!!! 

Look at all that space!

We are now on the ground in Khartoum, Sudan refueling before we will take the last leg of our journey to Addis Ababa.  Definitely a different airport experience!  There was one runway and we had to turn around on the runway when we landed and again to leave.  The planes there looked like the one in Madagascar with the two propellers on the wings and the wings extending from the top of the plane rather than the center of the sides like most do.  The last flight is about an hour and 50 minutes.  It appears we will be leaving soon.  We are almost there!!!!!!

Flying into Addis Ababa was beautiful!  Although it was dark and we couldn't see the city from the sky, there was a beautiful lightning storm unlike anything we have ever seen!!  It was almost constant flashes of bright light.  The beauty of God’s creation is unreal.  In addition, because it was so dark, we could also see the stars.  Absolutely breathtaking!!  We had to circle the airport before landing, but landed only about 20 minutes later than scheduled.

Thankfully, the Addis Ababa airport was much easier to navigate than Frankfurt!  The visa line was quite short when we got in, but filled in quickly behind us.  We ended up standing in line next to a woman and her father from Canada.  She is also adopting a little girl and received her referral on April 29^th (same as us!).  We got our visas with no problem, exchanged some money, and got in line to pass through immigration.  That was the longest part of the process, but simple again.  The woman never said a word.  She took our passports, stamped them, and gave them back.  Our luggage (all accounted for!) was waiting on the belt when we got there.  Customs consisted of simply passing our bags through another xray machine and then we met Abel in the lobby.  We were too tired to notice, but he wore a University of Michigan shirt to greet us!  So sweet!  He took us to our guest house and also gave us our itinerary for the trip.  We were ecstatic when he told us that we would get to see M on Monday and Wednesday!!!  Tomorrow we will be attending church at the International Evangelical Church and then spending the rest of the day at the guest house.  Monday, we will go to Bethany Ethiopia for our court orientation and then get to visit M briefly in the afternoon.  Tuesday we will go back to Bethany for the cultural training and then go to court in the afternoon.  Wednesday we will be going to the museum, hopefully doing a little shopping in the marketplace, and going to see M one more time before we head back to the airport.  It seems like a lot to do in a short time, and we hope to make the very most of it!

We settled in quickly at the guesthouse (except that we weren't sure what time it really was to set our alarm :), but we figured it out!)  Off to bed, its almost midnight and we need to be up at 6AM!

Our room at the guest house