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We are going to get our kids!!!

Our year and a half adoption journey is coming to a close…..and the adventure is about to begin!!!

We leave in just two days (Fri, Dec 31) to fly to Ethiopia to pick up our kids and bring them home forever!!  No, we still don’t have “official confirmation” that Jan 5 is our Embassy date, but our paperwork has been submitted and we understand that “no news is good news.”  Apparently, the Embassy doesn’t always get official word back about the appointment until right before the date which, by then, is when most of the families are already on their way to Ethiopia!  So we are going in huge faith but are told by our agency that there should be no problem.  (However, we are still asked to acknowledge in our emailed flight itinerary to our agency that we know that we are taking a risk in going without confirmation….. 🙂 )  I am at peace though.  This is what I read in Scripture the morning we found out that we might not hear confirmation:

“Depart, depart, go out from there!
…you who carry the vessels of the LORD.
But you will not leave in haste or go in flight;
for the LORD will go before you,
the God of Israel will be your rear guard.” (Isa 52:11-12)

The Lord is going before us and guarding us from behind, and He will protect us as we carry His “precious vessels” home!!

So please keep us in your prayers!  We fly out of Peoria, to Minneapolis, to Amsterdam, and then to Ethiopia—will arrive on Saturday and hopefully that day pick up our kids forever!  We will have our Embassy appointment on Wed, Jan 5, and pick up their visas the following Friday.  We will not leave Ethiopia till the next Tues, Jan 11 because staying a few extra days cut out a huge chunk of money for our airfare!  So we have several open days in our trip to play, visit museums or landmarks, visit orphanages, etc.  We are taking Erin, our 10-year-old daughter, with us.  This will be a life-changing experience for her and she is so excited!  She will also be a great help with the kids.

One other great thing about this trip is that we will get to celebrate Ethiopian Christmas with all the kids at the Transition Home on Friday Jan 7!  The other families (Smith, Hammons, Miller, Grant) and us were asked to bring Christmas decorations and stocking stuffers.  Though we were initially disappointed not to have our kids home for Christmas, we are so excited to spend Ethiopian Christmas with Aidan and Eva in their own homeland!

Our KLM/Delta flights are scheduled to get in to Peoria on Wed, Jan 12 at 3:50pm.  Our friend Gena Monical-Ruhl has graciously offered to drive the Mt. Pulaski Christian Church bus to come pick us up and bring friends and family to the airport to meet us!  So if you are interested in joining us on that glorious day, please contact me (sgowin@gmail.com) before we leave or Chantell Mills (chantellmills@gmail.com) after that.  The bus will be at our home at 2:15pm that day to gather people for the trip.  There will be some spots open on the bus, or others can meet at our home and caravan or go straight to the airport.

Thanks to everyone who has followed us, prayed for us, given to us, encouraged us, and loved on us through this long journey!  You are such a blessing!  Our biggest prayer is that God is glorified through His work in our lives and that many others are able to experience His amazing grace and redemption in their own lives as well!

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name; you are mine.” (Isa 43:1)

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We passed court!

AWAA called today with news that we passed court: “They are yours!” We can now share the video and photos we’ve held in the vault for the past few weeks. Enjoy! Please keep praying for a December embassy date. We’ll have more pictures to share soon.

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Between the Testaments

No, we don’t have any new news about our paperwork, but I did want to share some of my personal reflections now so that God can be glorified when all is fulfilled.

To be honest, I haven’t been very worried during most of this journey.  I have known that I can trust my God who has led us this far, and I trust His timing and His provision.  Until now.  It’s actually really bugging me that I am letting a little thing (a very common thing, actually) like not passing court the first time, bother me.  But here are my honest worries:

  • that we won’t pass in time to get the kids home before Christmas
  • if/when we do pass, we will have such a short time to get flights that we won’t be able to sit together with our new kids (plus Erin) on the long flight home (not to mention the 3x cost of airfare at Christmas!)—you know, a mommy needs to keep all her little chickadees safe under her wings!
  • that we won’t pass at all—feeling forgotten by the social agency that was supposed to have written the last piece we need to pass court (the same agency that has written numerous other letters since our court date)

I know in my head that God has it all under control, that His timing is best, that He is powerful enough to take care of a piece of paper and some plane tickets, and that this is HIS story to write, not ours.  I KNOW it.  But I’ve had a hard time letting go of the control (that I don’t have anyway!) and letting my heart be OK with that.

This week God has been impressing some things on me that have helped me to let go.

  • Last Sunday we sang a song at church that reminded me that God has “overcome.”  He has already “breathed” this story, intended somehow for His glory, and we are simply His ink, writing it down.
  • Rom 8:28: An oldie but goodie—“And we know that IN ALL THINGS God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
  • Gen 22: In faith, Abraham obeyed God and took his only son Isaac, the one through whom God had promised blessing to all subsequent generations, to sacrifice him on the mountain.  When Isaac asked where the lamb was for the burnt offering, Abraham answered, “The Lord will provide.”  God took Abraham down to the wire before he stopped Abraham from sacrificing Isaac and provided a ram instead.  Abraham renamed that place “The Lord Will Provide”—a phrase that later became an important name for God.
  • Dan 3 (from church today): Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego knew they would be thrown into the fiery furnace if they did not worship the statue as the King ordered, but this was their response: “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king.  But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

So it finally sunk in to my heart today.  My God WILL rescue and deliver our children to us, in His timing and by His method.  But if He does not (worst case scenario), I will still trust in His faithfulness and redemption and will trust Him with my life and my heart.  To quote a song from today, whether “the sun is shining down on me” or I’m a “road marked with suffering,” “I will choose to say: Blessed be Your Name!”

In my Beth Moore study of Esther this week, she providentially reminded me, “God’s plan for Israel hadn’t fallen through the cracks between Testaments.”  During the time between the OT and the NT when God seemed silent, He was, in fact, doing a major work behind the scenes to prepare the world for His most glorious work—the birth of His Son!  Similarly, during this silence between our two trips to Ethiopia, it is easy to wonder if God has forgotten us and our court issues.  But I truly now KNOW that even in His silence, I can trust that He is preparing a glorious work for us—the adoption of our son and daughter!  Hold on tight, Babes, “God Will Provide” is providing a way!

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We’re coming, Sweeties!!

We are leaving tomorrow on a 24+ hour trip to the other side of the world to meet the children that were conceived in our hearts five years ago!  Michael pretty much explained everything that’s about to happen in his post from today.  I want to add to that our recent update from some dear friends whom we’ve never met. 🙂  As I type, the Braun Family are on their way back home to Texas with their new kids–a sibling group of 4 to add to their other 3 kids to make a “wonderfully crazy” family of 9!!  (Be sure to scroll down their blog to see pics!)  We have been in contact for several months as I found out they were adopting this sibling group that I met a year and a half ago on our mission trip.  With several bumps along the way, they were finally able to go this week for their Embassy appointment and bring their beautiful children home!

While there, the Braun’s graciously brought Aidan and Eva some care packages we sent a couple months ago, including a couple of those recordable Hallmark books where we record ourselves reading the books so that they can hear our voices.  Here are some of the Braun’s sweet remarks about our kids:

Your kids are so precious!!!!! ….I read your books from cover to cover with your kids individually.  Aidan loved it!  He was so surprised when he heard your voices, and grinned when Yonas told him that it was his new mommy and daddy.  He also loved the bubble maker.  I have the best pics of him.  He is excited that you will be here next week.  Your daughter is beautiful and very happy!  You will be blessed by both of your new kids….Thanks for letting me take care packages for you!  It was a joy to spend time with your children and love on them!

We are so thankful that the Braun’s got to spend time with our babies and tell them that we are coming very soon!  I know it is going to be an amazing week and that God is going to grow our hearts closer to Him, to each other, and to our kids during this week!  I am expecting great things from our great God!!!

Our third set of care packages
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Gleaning the fields

While we were riding in the combine the other day, “helping” with the last of the harvesting, God was making some connections for me to his Word and to my studies.  I was reminded of the research I have done lately for my thesis: “God’s Heart for the Fatherless.”  It seems that so much of the Israelites’ life was tied to and formed around the harvest.  Their social status was determined by whether or not they owned land, the widows and the fatherless being at the bottom of the class system because they had no property or land.  Their understanding of God’s blessing was displayed by how well the harvest did that year, and many of their prayers revolved around that blessing.  Every seventh year, the land was to have a Sabbath: no one was to plant or harvest on the land but the widows and orphans were allowed to pick what sprang up voluntarily.  The tithes and free-will offerings were mostly given from their harvest, and God instructed the landowners to give to a storehouse every three years enough to provide for the widow and fatherless.  Some of those tithes and offerings went to a community feast that God made sure included the widows and the fatherless so that they felt a part of the covenant community as well.  And God gave explicit commands to His people on how to provide for the widows and the fatherless by leaving the gleanings behind for them to harvest themselves.  The landowners were commanded not to go back to a wheat field or to the olives and grapes a second time to make sure they didn’t miss any.  Some especially generous landowners, like Boaz, actually left extra behind on purpose to provide for the poor.

As you can see, Israel’s life was intimately tied to the harvest and the orphans and the widows depended on it.  As I experienced the harvest the other day, I realized that some very generous, gracious people have left behind some of their gleanings, purposefully, to help provide for the fatherless children we are bringing home.  Thank you, Father, for that connection and for that very tangible display of blessing in our lives.  You are truly “Father to the Fatherless.”

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Court Date and Garage Sale!

Last Friday was so crazy I haven’t even had a chance to post this yet!  But we got a call from AWAA for our court date!!  We are finally going to get to “touch our kids,” as our 8-yr-old boy put it!  Our court date in Ethiopia is Nov. 4 and so we fly out Oct. 31 and return Nov. 9, while Grandma comes to stay with our other three here in IL.  We will get to spend time with Aidan and Eva a few hours everyday, as well as do some sight seeing and visiting other orphanages, etc.  Families do not always pass court the first time (usually because the court wants some Ethiopian paperwork written differently), but we will have made our appearance and will not have to stay for the following court dates.   After we pass, we will return to Ethiopia again 4-12 weeks later for our US Embassy appointment and to bring our kids HOME!!!  (We are praying that is before Christmas!)  We are SOOO excited!!!

Our wonderful phone call came during our busy garage sale we had that weekend!  We explained that everything was “for donation for our adoption” and people were very generous!  We made over $1100!!  Thank you, Lord!  Our two upcoming trips will be about $5-6,000 each, so if you are interested in helping with that, please click on the fundraising tab above.

Please be in prayer for our upcoming trip and for our first meeting with our kids!  Keep watch on our blog as we will post a video of them when we officially pass court!  We will also try to journal our trip some on the blog if the internet in Ethiopia cooperates.  Pray also for all the planning and packing and thesis writing that needs to happen between now and then!  And lastly, please pray for Aidan, our 4.5 yr old boy who has the mumps.  🙁  Our hearts yearn to hold and take care of him and to love on them both!  Thanks again for being a part of our journey!

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Care package #2

We have the opportunity to send care packages in ziploc bags to our kids through other adoptive parents who are traveling to Ethiopia.  This time I went through our baby tubs stored in the basement and pulled out some of our favorite outfits and toys to send to little brother and sister.

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!

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The Puzzle is Finished!

Our puzzle is finished!!  Thanks to everyone who donated!  Our puzzle donations paid for the bulk of our referral acceptance.  We still have about $12,000 or more to pay for our two upcoming trips (one time for our court date, possibly in October) and one time for our Embassy date and to bring them home (hopefully before Christmas!!).  The kids had a great time working on the puzzle—we’re almost sad it’s done!

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.

8-6-10

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Referral!!!!!

Yes, we received our referral call on Friday!!  What a surprise!  We didn’t think it would come that soon!  AWAA called to offer us siblings: a boy-4 years old and baby girl-3 months old! God had put almost those exact ages on our hearts when we applied!  They are beautiful—“button cute” as Michael says!  We can’t post pictures or any more information yet till we pass court and they officially belong to US!  🙂

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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Puzzle update, family trip, & 4th of July

We met our match! Lifesong for Orphans had offered us a matching grant up to $2000 and we have received more than that in donations, so Lifesong will be granting us an extra $2000! Thanks so much to all who are supporting and praying and to Lifesong’s generosity! Here is our updated puzzle….do you see it starting to take shape??

7-2-10

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!)