Flights are booked!

OK it is time for me to pour it all out again! It has been a while since I have gotten emotional on my blog because quite frankly I was not sure how to feel. It has been such an emotional roller coaster the last few months. We signed back up with CCI in the middle of February. And we had just brought Claire home at the end of August. So it was not even 7 months home with Claire when we we feeling God was leading us back to Ethiopia to bring our babies home! At this point we had completely drained our savings because we were able to pay for Claire's adoption costs with no loans or grants. We were able to do it with a T shirt fund raiser, and some help from some close family members plus both of us were working full time and we drained every penny out of our savings. But this time God was knocking on our hearts and we have had to totally rely on Him and His stirring in the hearts of our friends, family, and complete strangers to pay for adoption costs. And wow has God ever shown Himself!! Never in my life, that I have been aware of, have I ever been in financial need. But now we are and just by telling people how our hearts have changed and how we have changed the very fabric of how we live to help orphans God has been stirring in the hearts around us.
I have been so humbled by the many people who have given hundreds even thousands of dollars to us! I am so thankful for the passionate and loving hearts of the church family in our lives! They see our love for orphans and they have given to us when it hurts!!! WOW. That right there is enough to fill your heart so full of love, joy and peace that I still wonder how people can question the power of our God. So that in and of its self has been amazing to see Gods amazing power at work in OUR lives!! I could end my post right there and it would be sufficient. But there is more :)
So that was the peak of the roller coaster. The amazing high that you get when you see Gods awesome power working in your life. But there have also been lows. Waiting... patiently and impatiently... waiting...waiting. We waited for 4 months for referrals....then we waited 4 months to have all of Marta's paperwork...then we waited to have both our cases submitted...then we waited for a court date... then we waited to book our flights because there was a chance that our court date might be moved up....and now we are waiting to travel to meet Stella and Benjamin...but even worse still is we will have to wait to bring them home...another 6-8 weeks after we meet them...waiting is so hard...
But the roller coaster is beginning to start up another hill!! We are going to be able to stay with Stella and Benjamin for 8 days in Ethiopia! We will leave on Monday December 14th and come home on December 24th. It was actually cheaper for us to stay longer then it was for us to only go for a few days! We actually saved almost $1000 dollars by staying 3 extra days! Which is more then OK with me! It does amaze me that flight cost can fluctuate that much. So my heart will be torn. We will be away from our baby Claire for 10 days...I have never even been away from her for 24 hours! But I will get to meet my beautiful children and spend 8 full days loving and enjoying every second I get with them, OUR COURT DATE IS DECEMBER 22ND!!! Please remember that day in your prayers! It is very crucial to our entire adoption process. That is the day we will go before the Ethiopian judge and they will review our case. If we pass court they will legally be our children. Then they will begin getting their birth certificates, passports, and visa information together. And then the day before Christmas we will leave them for about a month in a half. So please continue to pray for our family that we will all transition OK and that our hearts can handle what they are about to be put though. It is amazing how just knowing that people are praying for you can create a peace that only God can give!