Travel Dates!

We found out today that we will be expected to arrive in Addis Ababa on June 11th! Honestly I am fighting some discouragement...3 whole weeks more to wait. I am reminding myself often that the Lord's timing is perfect and WOOOHOOO only 3 more weeks until we meet Levi!!!

Recovery mode

Our brains are in recovery mode and thankful for another successful and completed garage sale fundraiser! The Lord blessed us with good weather two years in a row and a basement full of stuff has been reduced to about 10 boxes out in the corner of our garage awaiting delivery to the thrift store. Yay! The picture above is actually from day 2 of our sale after we had sold a good amount of stuff. All together the two garage sales provided almost $4000 to put towards the adoption. I would highly recommend this if you are looking for ways to raise money. It is a crazy amount of work for the entire month ahead of the actual sale, but definitely worth it. Several friends blessed us with yummy food and a cleaning of our house while we manned the sale! Thank you to those of you who helped us carry boxes from the basement, set up stuff on tables, take money, scrub our floors, clean up, and haul away trash. I am sooooo glad we are DONE!

Next on the list is packing for our trip to Ethiopia. I am hoping to hear of our travel dates this week. There have been at least two other families who have passed court and are waiting just like us to go get their little ones. Once we know the dates there will be a good amount of planning to do regarding where our kiddos will be while we are gone. Maybe this week I will post on some of the stuff we will be taking with us. Tomorrow morning I look forward to NO sorting or pricing of any items! Instead I think Juliana, Evan, and I will go feed the ducks at the park :)

Our crazy week

Here are a few recent pictures of the family...well, you know, part of the family, because WE HAVE A SON IN ETHIOPIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Juliana captured Evan on film the day I was out of town. Ahhh, evidence of the ice cream frenzy while Mama was away!

These are some bells we recieved as a donation for the garage sale. My kids love them and Juliana insisted they stay on the door and be rung often for Mother's Day.

After days of wondering where in the world all Juliana's socks went, I discovered the "culprits".

Thank you Jason and Julie! We are so thankful we might just name this garage sale after you!

We are totally in garage sale mode folks! The big event is this Friday and Saturday and I think we are going to be ready. Our basement is full and I soooo look forward to Saturday when it will be empty again! This has been a WONDERFUL distraction as we wait to hear of travel. As far as the adoption goes we are waiting on more Holt families (3 or 4?) to pass court so that we can travel as a group. Two families had court last night and are still waiting to hear on the outcomes. One of the families was told that if they passed to expect to hear travel dates in a week to a week and a half. That would make it end of next week or a bit later. I honestly had not had much time to think about it this week, but am glad to have an estimate in my head as to when to expect an email.

As far as donations go, we are setting pretty good. The Lord has been kind to provide MUCH for us to take...though most of it we didn't have to buy! People have been very generous and we will for sure be taking the maximum amount of luggage to Ethiopia! I will do a post after the garage-sale madness on what we have been given :)

Levi Dereje Merrihew

Oh, we love him so much!!!!

2 months - referral picture

4 months

5 months

We PASSED!!!!

Levi is our son...AMAZING!!!! I got the email less than an hour ago and then had to go to the bank to tell Craig that he has a new little boy :)

I think I can post a picture now that Levi is ours, but I want to double check on that for sure before I do. Now we simply sit back, relax, and wait for Holt to let us know our travel dates. We are told to expect to travel 2-4 weeks after passing court.

Levi, we get to see you SOON!!!!!!

No news until Monday

Looks like we will be waiting until Monday morning to hear the outcome of our court case. The Lord must be working things so as to grow some MEGA trust and endurance in us!

I am surprisingly okay to stay in this place as long as the Lord would have us. The world would not consider it a desirable place to be, but the longer I seek His will for me in this place of waiting the more I see that it is for my good and is actually a jewel handed to me, not a curse. I wish I had news to share...but alas, Monday it is.

Waiting

Just wanted to let you all know that I will update the blog as soon as I hear anything. Our court appointment is said and done as far as we know so we are hoping for easy communication this morning to Addis so that we don't have to wait much longer. I don't expect to hear anything before 10 a.m. so you have 45 more minutes of freedom before you start stalking the blog...like I will be stalking my email!