1st International Blog - Final Flight Leg - Seeing the Boys Today!

When you use Google in the middle east, how do you explain the interesting font that is on their page here?

After an intereting start to our trip (the PDX/United ticket agent couldn't figure out why Tonja's ticket wouldn't work) we got flyin'. We actually didn't have to wait at the gate because the ticket SNAFU took the whole time. Glad we got there a little early.

San Fran was a 4 hr. layover so we walked around, had BK for lunch and then read/played on the laptop.

A 15 hr. flight is a LONG flight. The cool thing was that Emirates Air has individual monitors behind everyseat so you can watch a bazzillion movies and tv shows for free. A Boeing 777-300 is the biggest plane we've ever been on.

We did fly over the North Pole and down over Moscow on our way. There was some debate about how we would fly exactly. (Their website didn't show the route accurately.)

Thank the Lord for Radio Shack having the correct voltage/outlet adaptor for Dubai. Now we pray it works in Addis and that we can get on the internet there as well.

Running out of time on the $50 internet time card.... (only $15 U.S.D. according to the front desk. We'll see. It was totally cheaper than talking on the phone for $4.00 per minute with Jeanette!)

Off to Ethiopia TODAY! We're ours from seeing the boys!

Christmas Eve

Well, here we are at the Oxford Suites, Jantzen Beach. Heidi sent some Christmas goodies that we're enjoying.

We had dinner at the Olive Garden in Gresham and Matt & Greg just had to take part in the "evening reception" at the hotel. (For all of you Oxford buffs out there, you know what that means.)

Tomorrow will be an exciting travel day!

The Boys are Packed

Celebrating Christmas Eve on December 23rd is really cool! It's great to have a reason to celebrate early. The boys are packed and we'll finish packing for ourselves tomorrow. While Tonja packed for the boys, Greg spent the day cleaning the garage (a chore that had been waiting since the summer.) Matt, Heidi, and the girls are coming over tonight after Paige has a soccer game to open presents.

Yesterday, after stressing out over some paperwork & travel details, a church friend came by with a very generous $$$ gift. Five different families went together to give money to "somebody that needed it" rather than giving big Christmas gifts to each other. We were humbled to say the least.

We are hoping to be able to update the blog while we're in Addis. We purchased a "converter" at Radio Shack yesterday so that we could use the laptop. We'll see.

Only 4 days until we see the boys!

A Realization

After saying for months, "If we can go in December, it will be great if we can go during Christmas Break" I had a realization today in the Costco parking lot. There were not 10 business days to choose from during the two week break. Christian World Adoption only gets appointments every-other Tuesday at the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa. The realization was that we got the only day possible during Christmas Break. So when we prayed for God to give us a date, there was only one day we could get. Thank you Lord for giving us December 29th as our Embassy date!

Christmas Joy

We actually had Christmas today, December 16th, 2009! Abe's x-ray came back negative, meaning he does not have full blown TB and he is cleared for travel. That means WE are cleared for travel and will start our journey on Christmas Eve. We will be home with the boys January 2nd. The girls will get to come to Portland for the boys' arrival on Jan. 1 and we're going to stay at the Oxford Suites that night for a family party with the Leerssens.

This was such a stretch for us in our faith walk. We had prayed for a Christmas break travel date and the Lord blessed us with one. The problem was that the date they gave us was tentative based on TB tests for the boys. It was a conundrum of cost. If we waited until today, the ticket prices could have been as high as $6,000 a piece (adult price) and planes were filling up because of holiday travel. If the boys tested positive for TB we could have been delayed into January for an embassy/travel date. So we faced a dilemma. Do you purchase tickets on faith? According to Wikipedia, approximately 80% of the population of some African countries test positive for TB. (I'm glad I didn't know that until writing this.) If we had to change the tickets after purchase, there would be a potential of a $2000 "change of ticket fee" for the five tickets. We opted for just buying the tickets and trusting God that we would actually be able to go during Christmas break; worst case scenario being the change of ticket fee.

Praise God for this Christmas gift of a Christmas break travel schedule and getting the boys as soon as we possibly could!

Another Day

We were told yesterday that we would know today.

Abe's x-ray was "unreadable." Now we wait another day. First, we would know Friday, then Monday, now Tuesday...

"If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently. for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed."

Hab. 2:3b

Refining

After receiving the tentative embassy date, the Lord did send a test our way. Abe did test positive for TB. I wish that I could say that we didn't cry over this. The good news is that we still have a glimmer of hope of getting the 29th as our embassy date.

The embassy officials have let kids travel with a positive TB test if they're not showing symptoms. They take an x-ray to determine whether or not Abe can travel. We're praying ALL DAY TODAY, with many others, that we can still go and that Abe will be released to travel.

The refiner's fire is ablaze! We trust in Him!

Malachi 3:2 "For he will be like a refiner's fire..."

Could it Be?

We received a tentative embassy date today!!! December 29th! That means we'd be arriving in Addis on December 27th and leaving the 31st. Now the issue is getting on the plane. Flights are booked and we're already on a wait list. Lord please make it happen. If we don't go in December it will be January 12th. It would be great if we could go in December because we'll be on Christmas break that week! That's a major bonus. We do have one, and only one, reason to go in January. The flights will be less expensive. We don't really care about that AT ALL. GOD HAS HIS PLAN. It will be fun 10 years from now, looking back and trying to figure out why He picked the day we get to go.

This is the Day

This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

Today Abe & Ash officially became our sons. It's a different kind of joy than the day of a baby's birth, but only because we can't be with them yet. That will be a joyous day! At least we know that it will be no more than eight weeks from now.

If anyone wants a lesson in God's timing, just hang out with us for a while!

Auction Blessing

Our students and families surprised us at the school's annual auction. This past Saturday night we were happy to see that they had created an "orphanage tree." They had collected items to send to an orphanage, but we never really heard the name of the orphanage or to what country the items were going to. In my mind I was just stoked that they had taken our adoption story and combined it with the opportunity of the auction to do some good. Well, the joke was on us. They gave us all of the gifts included with the tree; stuffed animals, gift cards to Target, JcPenny, etc. Included was a three night stay at a vacation home in Tahoe. Simply amazing!

Shots Day

Tonja and I went to the doctor today to get shots for the trip to Ethiopia. Hepatitis A & B and Tetanus were just fun to stick in your arm. Seriously, you know how you're about to get a shot and you just don't want to? This is the first time in my life where I was like, "Give it to me. I want this." I never thought that I would ever have that feeling while getting shots.

Same Birthday

We received a really cool email today. Seems that they chose the same birthday for Ash as my birthday, Feb. 28. How cool is that?

Embassy Approval Today

We received word today that the US Embassy in Addis approved Greg & Tonja to adopt two children, ages 2 - 12, male or female. Our paperwork had been there for a few weeks. It just received approval today. Things continue to move forward. Praise the Lord!

Court Date Set

Wonderful, best blessing yet... We have a court date in Addis - Nov. 18th. We now know when we'll be going to get the boys, within about a four week window. Hopefully, Lord willing, we'll be able to travel sometime between Dec. 18 & Jan. 18th. Christmas break? Let's pray for that!

FBI Fingerprint Trip

This past Wednesday we went to Portland to get another set of fingerprints; this time for the FBI/Immigration Service. It was cool to get out of town with Jeanette, who hasn't had the chance in a while. There was lots of new stuff to show her.

Everything was going smoothly until the form said, "SSN?" Jeanette doesn't have her number memorized so we had to call home and get it figured out. Thankfully, Marty Sylwester (who was home hanging out with Paul at the time) dug deep enough into Jeanette's closet to find something with the number printed on it and it worked out in the end. The people at the immigration office were very helpful, surprisingly so. The security guard even gave us water bottles from his own stash. In fact, I've never had such great service from government employees, come to think of it.

The other interesting part was the fingerprinting machines they used. You actually got a score for each print, ranging from 0 - 100. Of course, Jeanette's prints were not scoring as high as ours were, but were "acceptable," scoring in the 50s.

The entire appointment would have taken 10 minutes, if we hadn't had to call home for Jeanette's SSN. At least that made it more time consuming! Now we're praying that our prints pass muster. The folks at the immigration office said they have a 99% success rate, so we're banking on that.

We're also very close to getting all of the paperwork done for the adoption. Tonja has been working hard on the dossier. WE'RE MAKING PROGRESS!!!

Garage Sale is a Success

Proverbs 16:3

"Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed."

It is so very encouraging to be involved in a process that the Lord is blessing. A garage sale where a person paid $20 for a bottle of water is something to experience. We did not mark any prices, so people would ask what we wanted to get for items. We would ask $5 for something and the person would say, "No that's not enough, I'll give you $10." Now truth be told, there were people that would still try to bargain after we gave them a price, but they were far outnumbered by people that gave more than what we were thinking. We had so many friends bring us items to sell that 2/3 of the stuff was not ours. We also had help from the Lindows, McKims, & Leerssens with set up, selling, & clean up. Over $1600 in a single day garage sale is quite a blessing. Praise the Lord!

Fingerprint Fiasco or Another Blessing?

You may have heard that Paul's fingerprints went miraculously. Well, Jeanette's didn't. She had to have them done three times. The good news is that, while the first two rounds took about a month each time, this third round only took one week. Now the next cool thing we heard was that the courts in Ethiopia might stay open this year. (Normally they shut down for two months every year.) If this is true, we're back on the fast track again. I never saw myself praying for the Ethiopian court system before!

Happy Anniversary to Us

Today is our 20th anniversary. Happy anniversary to us! Who-da-thunk that we'd be adopting at this point in our relationship? I guess God knew...

Food, Clothing & Shelter

I was facilitating a class for a couple of our teachers that are earning their masters degrees in education over the last few weeks. In a discussion that touched upon Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, I asked a series of questions. What is our spiritual food? What is our spiritual clothing? What is spiritual shelter? We agreed that the answers were... the Word is our food... Christ is our clothing... and the Church is our shelter. Are your basic spiritual needs being met?

We are blessed, that God would choose us to provide for the physical AND spiritual needs of our children.

Continued Blessings

We found out a few days after the race that there was a group of people in Sisters that had done a fund-raising event that was to go toward either an African adoption or an African orphanage. The event was going on the same time our run was taking place. These folks heard about us and are sending our adoption agency $1400 on our behalf. GOD ROCKS!!! Add that to the $10,000 that the Run to Ethiopia raised and we're well on our way. When we started this process, Ben Schuldheisz assured us that the Lord would provide. Ben was right. :)

More Pictures

Joseph wasn't even breathing hard after he won the race. I had heard that he had been sick. He also had been working hard at football practice the week before the race. With bruises all over, he told me that he was going to walk. He totally had me tricked into thinking he wasn't going to win.

Run to Ethiopia Pictures

We experienced God's love & provision during the Run to Ethiopia. I used to say, "It's not what you know, it's who you know." Now, thanks to Pastor Carnahan's wisdom, I say, "It's not what you know, it's who knows you." The slight change in wording puts the emphasis on God's love and care for us.

We are blessed as you can see in these pictures. We were ecstatic that Joseph Schuldheisz won the race. An adopted Ethiopian comes to America and races for a cause. Our continued prayer is that others will see what the Lord is doing through international adoptions and get on board. Could the Lord be challenging you to adopt a child (or two, or three) from Ethiopia?

Documents Completed

Tonja and I received our official "you're okay to adopt in Oregon" papers today! Praise the LORD!

The Run to Ethiopia

Our wonderful church/school family is sponsoring a fundraising effort aptly called, "The Run to Ethiopia" in two days. It is odd to be the recipients of such a blessing. I'll have to admit that pride kicks in a bit. We're usually on the other side of fund raisers. The truth we cling to is that it's really not about us; it's about saving two children from a life of poverty in a third world country. That sentiment gets us through the weird feeling of asking for money. It's like, "How can I spend money on this new t-shirt when we're asking for donations?" I just pray that readers of this blog "get it." Life doesn't stop just cause you're adopting. We'll update the blog soon after the run to share the huge blessing with you. Also, to those of you who have given so much, THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!!!

Counting the Blessings

We recently were given an invite to peruse a garage sale the night before it "opened." The Steinbrecher's were so generous. We garnered many "boy" things. The best part for me (Greg) is that I've never really been able to buy stuff for boys. It was fun grabbing Hot Wheels, Sock 'em Rock 'em Robots, and Lincoln Logs. We were also blessed with one of those (how do you describe them?) play tables that have the little wooden trains on them. You know what I'm talking about? They're connected by magnets and have the wooden tracks. We got a bunch of Dr. Suess books and, get this, two sets of Hooked on Phonics. They will prove to be great tools as we will be home schooling the boys IN ADDITION to life at Trinity.

The next purchase was a dresser from Amber Dermody. Thanks Amber! Items and clothing are starting to pile up in anticipation of our boys. Praise the Lord!

Amazing Blessings

We are extremely blessed! Even before the Run to Ethiopia, friends are praying for the boys and their trip home. Also, without even asking, they send us support. I've got to admit that pride gets in the way at times, but God is in control of this journey. We have to put ourselves aside and realize that if He wants this to happen, it will happen.

How often do you ask people for help?

It just feels weird.

Luke 11:9 "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."

Greg

Updating the blog.....finally!!!

I have been told by many friends and family that I need to get on this and let everyone know where we are at and what we are up to with the adoption process! So....here I am!

We are in a holding pattern right now waiting on the State of Oregon to finish our Criminal History background check. Our home study will then be complete and sent to the Immigration Service in Washington. After that, we will be given an appointment to come and do our fingerprints so that we can bring orphans into the United States. It is so hard to wait, but I know God's timing is perfect!

After we are cleared by the USCIS (immigration service) we will then finish up our dossier. We will send it to be checked out and then finally have it sent to Washington DC and then Ethiopia. We are hoping it will be done sometime soon....maybe the end of June??? We will then be given a court date where the boys will become ours legally. We then wait another 4-6 weeks for our Embassy date. This is where the boys will be given visas to come into the US. We will travel one week prior to this date and pick them up.

We can hardly wait for these things to keep rolling! Greg asked me the other day if there was anything we could be doing right now, in the wait time....I said, "Pray. That is what we need to do for our boys."

So....we ask that you do that as well. Please pray for health, protection, and the feeling of God's love to be with the boys right now. We pray that all of the paperwork and "hoops" that need to be jumped through will go swiftly and smoothly. We pray that God's timing be revealed to us....

Thank you for your love and concern! I will update again soon! I feel that there are great things on the horizon! God bless!

Home Study Complete

On April 22, 2009 we completed the second "home study" visit with out social worker. It feels great to have completed a milestone in the adoption process. I made a comment on FaceBook that social workers are "social" and a friend replied, "and they work." She was right. Our social worker has done a great job answering questions, and did a great job asking questions too. We've had several experiences as a family that will help prepare us for this journey. I don't know if anyone can be fully prepared, but with the Lord all things are possible!

A New Beginning...

On February 14th, 2009, God chose Greg and I to take a ride with Him. We had no idea what kind of a ride it would become. It would lead us to Ethiopia where 2 boys wait for a family. It has been the most thrilling, exciting, growing experience that we have had in a long time.



It all began because of a conversation with some friends who had gone through the Adoption process a year ago. When we came away from that conversation, Greg and I were "changed." Something in our hearts said, "Why not us?" We felt that we had room in our home and in our hearts for a child/ren, so we decided to go for it!



We started sharing our plans with family and friends right away. We wanted to have prayer warriors from the start and have been overwhelmed with nothing but support! Our families are amazing and our extended family is as well! What a fantastic experience. Greg and I are overwhelmed and humbled that the Lord would choose US to do this for Him. What an awesome God we have!



We will continue to update this blog regularly. This is just the beginning on a journey to the "2 Chosen 4 Us."