OVERWHELMED!!!!

There is no better word to describe what I have been feeling in the last week or two - Overwhelmed! I have been:

Overwhelmed by life in general. How you could go from nothing to so extremely busy that you don't even get to sleep!

Overwhelmed by God's grace and the way he works in our lives. It may not always be our plan but his plan is so much better if we just have the patience and understanding to wait on his timing!

Overwhelmed by the generousity, love, support and prayers of wonderful friends and family.

Overwhelmed with the fact that in 6 days the courts in Ethiopia will reopen (hopefully) and our case will be taken before the judge to get a new court date since ours is currently a Saturday Oct 10th. Trusting in God on this one!

Overwhelmed with the fact that potentially in 20 days we could be on our way to meet the baby we have been praying for for the last 4 years (remember I said God's plan is so much better we just need to wait and listen for instruction)!

Overwhelmed with nervousness, love and excitement because in approximately 27 days we could be holding our baby boy for the first time!

In general I am just overwhelmed! God has a plan so I will put all the anxiety and nervousness away and trust that his plan is WAY bigger than mine and he has a wonderful gift waiting for us on the other side! Please pray with us that we will get a new court date before Oct 10th and will be able to follow this plan he has put us on to hold our son finally in 27 days!!!!!!!!!!

Approvals and Tickets

We received our fingerprint renewal (I-171H) approval yesterday! That was a very quick turnaround. We just went last Thursday, now we pray that the information gets sent to the correct place in Ethiopia before we get there. Some people have had trouble with that part.

Now for very exciting news, we purchased our tickets yesterday! We were willing to take the risk of having to pay a change fee if something should happen to push our travel back. We are praying that God will help to release our little boy on the 10th and we will be able to bring him home! I am getting kind of nervous now there is so much to do and I don't know where to start and we will tentatively leave in 3.5 weeks! Agh......... We are going to Ethiopia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fingerprint Renewals

So we didn't make it without having to renew our fingerprints at USCIS in Cleveland. Our original approval was set to expire the day we come home from Ethiopia, since they have to stay current through our travel time we had to renew. Thank goodness the first renewal is free. So we drove to cleveland yesterday an hour and a half, went to the office and got fingerprinted (which took 10 minutes) and drove an hour and a half home! I so can't wait for all this to be completed and to travel and bring our baby home for the holidays!

I have already started looking at Christmas presents (sad I know)!

Happy New Year!

Today is Enkutatash, or Ethiopain New Year.

Melkam Addis Amet = Happy New Year

and a great year it will be, our baby is coming home soon!!!!!!

Tentative Travel Dates

We received our email today with our tentative travel dates! We are one step closer to our baby. Pray with us that we pass court on October 10th, if we do we will be celebrating our 6th anniversary in Ethiopia. I can't think of a better way at all.

We also received pictures from the Pellizzari's on Monday. Daniel is getting so big and loves kisses. I can't wait to love on him and hold me myself.

Praise God we are one step closer! 30 more days till court and counting......