Court Date Rescheduled...

As we continue in this long journey to bring our boys home, we have received word that the court date that was scheduled for yesterday (Monday Jan 21) did not take place. The judge in Ethiopia decided that he would no longer accept the power of attorney form from our agency. (The same form that was accepted just last week without any problems!) This form allows a CWA representative to act on our behalf during the court proceedings. This form must be notarized and authenticated on the state and federal level before being sent to Ethiopia for the hearing. Thus, our court date has been rescheduled for Friday, February 8th, with the projected travel date now being in mid-March.

Obviously, this is not the news we were hoping to hear today. Although it has come as a shock to us, we are encouraged that nothing takes God by surprise! We are continuing to trust in Him during this process, knowing that His timing is always perfect. As we have stated previously, we rest in the fact that God is in control of our adoption, not an Ethiopian judge.

Please continue to pray for our family. Pray that our faith would not waiver in the midst of the waiting. Please pray that God would continue to care for our boys and that they would remain healthy and safe. Pray that we would have hearts and minds open to what God has to teach us through these bumps in our road.
Thank you for your faithfulness in praying for our family.
Believing Him,
Jeff and Mer

We have a Court Date!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got the e-mail we have been praying for today! We found out that our boys have been scheduled for a court date in Ethiopia, January 21st! So in 10 days, baring any glitches in the system, Luke Mirtus and Benjamin Mihreteb will be our sons! God is so good! We originally put in our application on January 18, 2007 so the wait has been almost exactly a year.

To keep you updated on the time frame. Once the boys have had their day in court with our power of attorney in Ethiopia, our agency will apply for visas and passports for the boys and apply for a US Embassy hearing. The Embassy appointment is what we have to be present for. All of this should take between 2-6 weeks after the court date. So at this point, it looks like we will be traveling some time in February.

Please keep an eye out for updates, after the court date we will be posting pictures of the boys! Thank you so much for your continued prayers.

Still waiting....

Thank you so much for your continued prayers. If you start to feel like..."is this ever going to happen??" Don't worry, so do we! God is good and on the throne, so we trust in His timing for our family. We have no news to report. As of this week we are still waiting on a court date. Please continue to pray that we would hear something soon!

We did get to meet our new Pediatrician today, he was very friendly and knowledgable, his office is less than five miles from our house....AND he and his wife adopted from Africa this year! We feel so blessed to have found him.

In other exciting news, we arrived home from our Christmas travels to find a much needed anonymous check to help with adoption funds. It was the exact amount we needed for the extra unrelated child fees! God is so good to provide for us in such a breathtaking way. To top that off Meredith's first day back to work she was told that she is getting a raise! Every time we doubt how we are going to make it, God steps in and shows us how little we know about trust. I was recently reading in Isaiah about how God knows the name of every star and not one is left out, it humbles us to know without a doubt that He also knows Luke and Ben by name and has every one of their days in His hands.
Believing Him,
Jeff and Mer