Leaving Soon!

It's official! We will be leaving for Ethiopia on August 7th! We really didn't expect to leave this early. It is pretty rare that you get an embassy date 4 weeks after you pass court. It usually works out to be 6. We are so excited that we will be able to meet Zoey Hiwot earlier than expected. If you would like to come to the airport for our homecoming celebration, we are scheduled to come back on Sunday August 15th at 6:00.

This is one of the most recent pictures we have of Zoey Hiwot. It was taken while Pat from our agency was there. Also in the picture is a nanny and Endris, an Arise in country employee. Endris has been very helpful and worked very hard on Zoey Hiwot's case. We are very excited to get to meet him when we go.

Thanks so much for all the prayers and support!

Chera and Kenenisa

As most of you know by now, we have recently found out that a mistake was made and Chera and Kenenisa were never filed for court. There was a mix up with our last name. We are basically in the same spot that we have been in for a while. Their files are not complete and we have no idea when this will be fixed. If you remember, we found this out in November. An employee of the orphanage was doing paperwork incorrectly and this effected Chera and Kenenisa as well as many other children. This was a huge letdown for us, but we have faith that our boys will be with us soon. Thankfully, we know that they are safe, happy and taken care of. I am so thankful that we have had so many friends who have seen them and spent time with them. At least through all of this waiting I am not anxious about their well-being.
On a positive note, we are hoping to hear something about Hiwot soon. She has been filed for about 2 and a half months now and that seems to be around how long its taking for everyone to receive a court date and pass. I am working on Hiwot's room today, hopefully I can post some pictures of my progress soon!

Welcome Home

Last night night we were able to attend the airport arrival for 2 friends coming home with their beautiful children. First, Melat and her family came home and later, Bereket and his family came home. Bereket's parents Mike and Emily are friends of ours at church and sent the email that I posted in the last blog. Both families were so wonderful and spent time with our kids. It makes it all so much more real. Both Melat and Bereket's journey to the US have been problematic. Their families ran into so many road blocks through out the process. Now they are home with their forever family!
Emily said that the kids are doing wonderful. It sounds like Chera receptive English skills are pretty good. As Emily talked to him, he translated for Kenenisa. Emily said that Hiwot is progressing and should be sitting up soon. She is such a miracle baby, even the smallest progress says so much. Here are the pictures of the airport arrival. I can't wait until you can all come see us come home with all of our kids!


The Hanel Family!


This is my "try really hard not to hysterically cry face."


How cute is this guy?

Information about the Kids

Our friends Emily and Mike are currently in Ethiopia picking up their 2 year old, Bereket Isaac. Here is part of an email that she sent out:

We finished our paperwork and went to another orphanage to deliver packages to the Brown's kids and a few others. It was a 20min car ride that was extreemly bumpy.. I can't believe the tires are still on thecar! We were taken into the orphanage and to the baby room. It was the nicest baby room I have seen this week in an orphanage. The walls were white and clean and the floors were wood. We were not allowed to wear our shoes in the room as the babies spent some time on the floor. Iwalked over to the crib that held Hiwot. Donna& Justin- she stared up at me with her big beautiful eyes and smiled. She smiles on command and she she kicks her legs and will hold on to your finger. She can also grasp a pen. She follows items that are in front of her and she seems to know her name because when you say her name she smiles. She cannot sit up on her own yet but she will be there in a few weeks I think. She has two teeth coming in so she keeps her hand in her mouth. If you leave in month or two I would say that she would be a 18 to 24 months in clothes. The easiest thing is to bring dresses and leggings. They had a 4t dress on her and it was huge. On all the kids I got their feet and hands traced.

After we left Hiwot's room they made us go in a room and wait while they went and got Chera and Kenenisa. Chera came in first and he was a delight. He was all smiles and nodded at me as I talked to him. He smiled really big when he tried the sandals on (they fit). I showed him the stickers and put one on his shirt. He shook his head and took the sticker off and put it on his forehead. :) I showed him the pictures and he just wouldn't stop smiling. He thought it was funny I traced his foot and his hand. 4/5 or 5t should fit him in clothing. He is on the taller side but is skinny. Kenenisa came in at this time and was a little hesitant. Chera was able to understand what I was saying and sounded like he was translating to Kenenisa. He will be such a big helpt to you! Kenenisa's shoes are too small (I would say the next size up). He wanted his stickers on his forehead and he immediately asked me to unwrap a sucker. I would say he is 3t in clothing.
- I cried leaving them. I know they are in good hands and the staff are really nice but it broke my heart that you aren't here with us. They are so beautiful and you will be such proud parents as they are really sweet.

New info on the boys

I am absolutely horrible at this blogging thing. We have good news about the boys for a little while, and I still haven't shared it here. If I have seen you, you already know about this, but we have a lot of family out of town. A couple of weeks ago, we found out that all of Chera and Keneisa's paper work has been complete and they were filed for court! Better yet, they were filed on the same day as Hiwot. We were not expecting this at all. Since November, we knew that there was an issue with their paperwork. We had no idea what it was or when it would get resolved. When this happened, the orphanage had found out that some of the other kids were actually un-adoptable, so we had a fear that an issue similar to that would come up. This was an amazing blessing for us. Especially since they were all three filed at the same time. Ethiopia is so un-structured, we really didn't have any hope that they would go through the courts at the same time. It is not definite that we will get them at the same time, but it is looking possible now.
In an earlier blog I mentioned changes in the Ethiopian process. To sum it up, Ethiopia is now requiring parents to make two trips. One trip will be at the court date and the next will be 3-10 weeks later when you pick up your child. The details and effective date of this new law has changed a great deal over the past couple of months. At this point, it looks like anyone who has not been seen by the court before May 9th will have to make two trips. There is no way to know if we will have a court date before then or not. They seem to be trying there best to get as many people through as possible. If one or both of us does have to travel twice, we will deal with it. Everything happens for a reason. Please keep us in our prayers, we would love to have a court date soon!

Changes

The past couple of weeks have been filled with wonderful and not so wonderful things. First, the wonderful. Hiwot's paperwork is complete and she is now able to be filed for court. The next step will be to receive a court date.
Now for the less than wonderful news. There is still no news on the boys. We have no idea how close they are to being filed for court. Also, there has been a change in both the US embassy and Ethiopia's processes. Up until this week the time frame between passing court and receiving your children was 4-8 weeks. There will now be a few extra weeks to allow the embassy time to form their own adoption investigation. This is of course not ideal, but the changes that Ethiopia has made are even bigger. Before, parent's were not required to go to Ethiopia until it was time to pick up there children. As of yesterday, Ethiopia is requiring parent's to also make a trip to the child's court hearing. Very little is know as to how this will effect all of us. It is understandably causing a lot of stress among the Ethiopian adoption community. I love to travel, but four trips to Ethiopia does not sound fun at all. We are in need of a lot of prayer right now. Here are our main requests:
-For Chera and Kenenisa's paperwork to be completed and filed for court
-For Hiwot to receive a court date and stay healthy
-More and clear information regarding the changes
Thank you so much for all of the encouragement and prayers!

Brownies

We had all of the Browns over for lunch today. I had to share a picture of our sweet nieces Jaleigh and Kiara. They brought over a Brownie that was decorated with our's and the boy's names. Without knowing, they used the same colors of the Ethiopian flag so it was perfect. I can't wait until the boys come home to meet their cousins! Thank you girls!

A random bunch of information

Hello Everyone. Donna here. We haven't blogged in a while, there hasn't been a great deal of change to report. Thankfully, the Ethiopian official has been replaced. The replacement is new to the position and moving very slow. We have also found out that there are some issues with Chera and Kenenisa's paper work. This needs to be straightened out before they can go before the court. Please pray that all of this will be fixed soon. I know it has taken a while to bring our boys home, but God's plan in becoming very evident through all of this.

On a very exciting note, our friends Brittney and James Armstrong are in Ethiopia right now picking up their son Dawit. While there, they are going to spend some time with Chera and Kenenisa. We sent some things with them to give to the boys. This was the first time we did this. We sent each of them a toddler friendly truck, a squishy soccer ball, stickers, crayons, a coloring book, a t-shirt and some suckers. Sounds like a lot I know, but everything fit into a gallon sized Ziploc bag. We can't wait to hear from the Armstrongs on how the boys are doing.

One last thing. We would like to ask your prayers for a sweet little girl that has been on our hearts. Our agency director Susan met Hiwot, who is nine months old, in September. When she met her, Hiwot had a very high fever and was unresponsive. Susan immediately took her to the hospital. The doctor told her that Hiwot was hours away from dying. Little Hiwot was severely dehydrated from Rota Virus and a sepsis infection due to severe diaper rash. Ironically, Hiwot means life in Amharic. She has recovered from her illnesses, but could have some cognitive and physical delays from all she has been through. She has been on our hearts for the past few months. We have been praying for her and have contributed to some of her medical expenses. She has been through so much in her short life, but God has consistently taken care of her. I know he has an awesome plan for her life.

I will blog again this week when I here news about the boys from James and Brittney. I may even post a picture of sweet little Dawit Armstrong!