The extra special part of this delivery was the deliverers!  Ryan Mott offered to take the packages with him when he left to join Deanne and their girls in Ethiopia.  They are all flying home to IL now as I type!!  Everyone is anxious to meet Fikerta and Kongit in person and I am sure they are all going to be glad to be HOME!  You can follow their family blog as well.  We were blessed to have them love on our kids while they were there, and we are excited to see all the pictures they took of our cuties and hear about all their experiences!  Blessings and safe travels, Mott Family!

We are currently getting the puzzle framed so we can put it up in our upstairs hallway.  I have some verses I want to put above it and I can’t wait to show you!  The matting we are putting around it will be white on the back side, so if anyone still wishes to donate toward our adoption, we will write your names on the back of the matting since the puzzle pieces are filled.  What a great problem to have!  Donation information is located on the blue Fundraising tab above.

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Suzanne put together a “care package” last night for the kids as well. Another AWAA couple is making their way to Ethiopia soon and they will bring the gifts over for us. Included are some small toys and things plus a note from us for each of the kids.

We were also blessed yesterday when Suzanne’s friend Bethany stopped over with a couple of balloons to help us celebrate. Thanks, Bethany, for your thoughtfulness.

We all had a great time at New Life Ranch.  I believe there were about 50 families there during our camp, and each family was assigned a staff member to help however the family needed assistance.  The first morning of our stay, for example, Suzanne and I took a trail ride on horseback into the hills for breakfast, so our staff assistant, Mr. Luke, took the kids to breakfast at the dining hall and had them ready to go for the rest of the day when we returned.  Sweet.

Each day began with a brief  group worship time after which the kids went off to age-appropriate Bible lessons and activities while the adults spent time learning about parenting.  Our speaker was Chip Jackson from Fellowship Northwest Arkansas church–he was terrific. Suz and I came away encouraged and with some good things to help us continue in our parenting journey.  After lunch, we had the afternoon free to explore the camp’s numerous activities and facilities: ropes course, climbing walls, swimming pool, waterfront with huge slides, mountain biking, horseback riding, rifle/shotgun ranges, and more.  Evenings involved more teaching time and group activities.  Although we spent only two and a half days there, we were all exhausted from late nights, early mornings, and full days.

From Colcord, we went on to visit Suzanne’s family. We’ve posted a few photos from our trip here, and there’s a video below of Suz and I going down the zip line at the ranch.  Although we signed up everybody to ride the zip line, only mom and dad were brave enough to climb to poles and go down.

Because of Ethiopian court closures in August and September during the rainy season, we probably won’t get a court date till about mid-October.  But my good friend, Deanne Mott, is already over there with her girls for a month, so she can love on them for us while we wait!  And I have been to the Transition Home and have seen how well the nannies care for and love on the children, so I am confident of our babies’ care until we can bring them home.  After we pass court (which is not always on the first try), then it will take another 1-3 months while they gather paperwork for the Embassy and we go back and bring them home.  We are hopeful to have them home before Christmas!  (What a cold winter welcome they will receive!! )

We have a lot to do between now and then, including me (Suzanne) trying to finish a 75-page MA thesis on God’s Heart for the Fatherless in Scripture.  Please pray for 3 things:  diligence and supernatural quickness on the research and writing, health and emotional comfort for our kids while they wait, and funds to continue to come in for the rest of the adoption.  We are amazed at God’s grace and intimate hand on our lives through this whole process, and we pray He is glorified through it all!

Here is a picture of us showing our other 3 kids the photos of our new additions:

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We won’t be updating the puzzle for another 2 weeks because we will be going on a family trip to OK. The first part of our trip will be 4 days at New Life Ranch’s Family Camp. We are excited to spend some time at the camp I worked at one summer almost 20 years ago! (Hard to believe I’m that old, I know!) There are ropes courses, zip lines into the river, archery, horseback riding, hiking, as well as family worship times and a late night outdoor movie. We are looking forward to some family bonding time away from Wi-Fi and cell service! Soon, when our other kids come home from Ethiopia, Erin, Liam, and Maura know that there will be a bit more attention on our new kids as we bond and learn to communicate with them. So we thought it would be a good idea to spend some quality time with them now as extra reassurance of our love for them and each other. After family camp, we will go on to visit my family in OK for a few days and then head back home to Lincoln.

We hope you all had a blessed 4th of July! The kids had a great time decorating their bikes and riding in our local parade, ending with the fire truck hose down, of course! These are great memories to savor! (Please excuse the iphone photo! And, shhh, don’t tell photographer Michael–he would be appalled! Be sure to notice the hero cape on our youngest–she FLEW that day!)

Here’s Michael’s new adoption/Africa t-shirt purchased through Ryan and Ashlie Fulmer’s adoption fundraiser. (Pic taken with iphone )  Ashlie is in Ethiopia right now with her baby boy Easton!

And here is our weekly puzzle update!  Every piece of the puzzle represents $10 that has been donated toward our adoption since we sent letters out in May.  Getting closer to Africa…..!!  (Click on the puzzle button at top right of the blog to see past updates.)

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I am checking in with Lifesong weekly to get updates on the fundraising, and here are the first 2 weeks’ puzzle pictures (Each puzzle piece represents a $10 gift toward adoption expenses — Michael):

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It may be hard to see but we have Ethiopia done!    The kids are really enjoying being involved in this as well.  Thanks so much for those of you who have donated!

I wanted to highlight here our first puzzle pieces that you can see on the right of our site.  For every $10 donated towards our adoption, we will write your name on the back of a puzzle piece.  Our kids were eager to get started on the puzzle and eager to help with our adoption, so they each donated half of their birthday money to help bring their siblings home.

Our “bio kids,” as they are called in adoption world, are ages 6, 8, and 10.  They have been so excited all along the way about our adoption!  Liam talks about when “my boy” will be here.  Maura, the youngest, often suggests that she has “outgrown” a certain toy or clothing item, but that we should save it for “our baby” coming.  And of course our firstborn, Erin, has offered multiple times to “help take care of the kids”!  There has never been a moment where we sensed that they were hesitant or concerned about our changing family structure.  Now, granted, they are young and don’t truly realize what all will change–none of us do, for that matter!  And we have tried to be honest and explain that when the kids come, there will need to be extra attention paid to our new children to assimilate them into our family and our culture and even our language.  But we have promised to make an effort to spend some special times with each of our children individually.  In fact, we are going to an adventure camp this summer called New Life Ranch down in OK for some extra family bonding time before our family as we know it changes forever!

We are so proud of our kids!  It is obvious that God has put adoption on their hearts as much as on ours!  God is weaving our family into a beautiful multi-colored tapestry and we can’t wait to experience “even more than we can ask or imagine”!