1 week left

Only one week left until our plane takes off in Cleveland. This time next week we will be in New York City for a 10 hour layover. We hope to be able to see a few quick sites as neither of us have ever been to New York. We had wanted to see the Statue of Liberty but our flight arrives at JFK around 105pm and the last Ferry leaves at 2pm. We have been told we wont have time to make it there so we are not sure what we will get to see. We both cant believe we are so close to meeting our daughter. We cant wait...

2 weeks left

I cant believe in less than 2 weeks we will be in Ethiopia. It is so amazing to ponder all that God has given and shown these past almost 2 years. We will arrive on Thursday Jan 7th. A friend told us that is the day they celebrate Christmas in Ethiopia, isnt that neat. I am hoping we get to meet our daughter that day so we can always say it was on Christmas day!

Here is a sign my friend just finished making for us for Christmas decorations in our front yard. I have always wanted something like this. Consider its message this year as you rush through the season.

We booked our flights

Well I just booked our flights for our trip to bring home our daughter. Wow that sounds good! We leave on Tues Jan 5th and fly to New York City. Then on to Dubais where we overnight, then on to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Our return flights are just in reverse order. Long flights on our horizon and the end of this part of our journey. The really JOYous part of our journey to begin soon. I cant wait for all of you to meet her! God is so good.

Also I wanted to share a blessing. I was at lunch today and saw my Uncle, I told him of our trip and after we said our goodbyes, he ran outside and flagged our car down, he gave me $200 to help with our trip! Showers of blessings keep falling. God always provides the way doesnt he.

Travel date

We just received word from our agency, we must arrive in Ethiopia on Thursday Jan 7th, we can leave Ethiopia no sooner than Thursday Jan 14th. We should be home with our new daughter by Mid Jan. We are so excited! As the magician in the Christmas classic "Frosty the Snowman" said, we are going to be "busy busy busy" these next few weeks. Pray for our travel and the transition for Joy and our family! Its gonna be great!

This just in

We were emailed today from our agency in regards to our court results from last Thursday. Here is what they said-


"Dear Greg and Lisa,

Congratulations! We have just been informed by our staff that your court case was approved in Ethiopia!

When our staff in Ethiopia informs us of your visa appointment date, (we only receive 2 of these per month), we will contact you with travel dates!



Cheers, "

We are officially approved!!!!!

Court Date

Well today is our court date in Ethiopia. Its already 6pm over there so its already decided. We should hear in a week or so the outcome. We are going to Africa!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. We are very thankful for all of you and for all of the blessings God has given us, especially our new daughter Joy. Many of you if not all of you have helped make our adoption journey possible. We will never be able to put into words eloquently enough, to express how grateful we truly are. As we are nearing the part of our journey where we will be traveling to Africa, wow I thought I would never say that about Lisa and I, to meet our daughter and begin a lifetime of loving her, I want to ask all of you to pause for a few moments this holiday. Consider how truly blessed you are, and as you sit down with loved ones to eat your Thanksgiving Feast, reflect on those around the world who have very little to nothing to eat any day let alone a day like today. What can you, no, what will you do to help. God Bless!

Guidebook updates

When we began this process about 20 months ago now or so, we received a thick book from our agency called the guidebook. It has everything in it about the adoption process. Many things have changed since the time we were sent the book and yesterday I looked online at the latest version. We found a few changes to consider. Some minor some which will make us think a little deeper. For one, the place to stay now has changed from the Hilton in Addis Ababa to the Union Hotel and Apartments. Another new item is we have to have a travel conference call with our agency I guess to make sure we understand all of the many details etc. Also some of the information given about the proper dress code etc has been amended slightly. The biggest and neatest item is the agency now offers a trip to Durame to see where our kids grew up and even possibly to meet the family of our daughter. I think the trip is like 3 hours away from the capital but I am not sure. Lisa and I have to decide if we want to go on the trip first, which you can do even if the family meeting is not an option, and then also if we want to meet them. I am pretty sure we will want to do both but it is something like $200 to go on the trip so we will weigh it with all the other factors. I think we would like to meet the family if possible, could be hard emotionally but long term it would be best for our daughter we feel. Pray Gods will for all of these details works out as he would want it to and of course for safe travels etc.

Court date

We received an email the other day from our agency. Last word we had about 2-3 weeks ago was that the courts were delayed and we should expect a wait of 4-5 months to travel over and bring Joy home. The email we received said our court date is set for Dec 3!.Apparently somehow we were blessed to move up the list somehow, its not done in order apparently from what the agency said. It still may be delayed and we still may have to wait but right now its looking like we should travel in Jan, however we are holding out hope to travel in Dec to have her home for Christmas. Lisa is really excited and hoping for yet another miracle!

Joy's room

We finished painting and decorating Joy's room. Here is a photo. We are very excited for her to come home!

Vaccinations for travel

Lisa went yesterday to the health department to get her shots for the trip over to Ethiopia. It was $250! I could not believe it. She even has to go back in a month for more and could be another $200 or so. I still have to make my appointment but I think some of these I wont have to worry about as I had some in 2005 when I went to the Dominican Republic on a missions trip. Just so many things you have to do to adopt!

Waiting

Well we are officially in the waiting stage. I dont like it! haha We found out after speaking with the agency last night that the Ethiopian Courts are backed up. They said we should not expect to travel for 4-5 months, so looks like Feb Mar April timeframe. Like I said, I dont like it. We are keeping busy painting Joy's bedroom and getting it decorated etc. It looks great so far. Will try to post pics once we have it done. Did I mention we are waiting...

Overjoyed about Joy

I have at times found it difficult to sleep when experiencing difficulty or sadness. Recently, with the loss of my Father there have been times, especially those first few days and weeks, that I would wake and immediately begin to think about my Dad. Several times I ended up just getting up for a while, sometimes returning to bed sometimes not. Last Friday, after the anonymous donor gave us the $4000 and we had all we needed, basically, for the adoption including travel, I experienced something new. I woke up Saturday morning around 5am and was simply overjoyed. I was so thrilled and in awe of God and what he had taken us through, I simply could not sleep. I got up and studied some, checked ESPN for scores etc. The very same thing happened Sunday morning as well, only this time it was 330am. Words can not adequately express the thankful hearts that we have for all of you that prayed, helped and gave. And of course most importantly we are in awe and overwhelmed that God moved so amazingly and so quickly to help us. We are simply OVERJOYED ABOUT JOY!

God is faithful

I stumbled by an old email a friend of mine sent me on March 26, 2008 when we were just beginning our adoption journey when we were faced with raising $20,000 we did not have. Its words were prophetic. Listen to what she said, and try to trust God for whatever your going through yourself. God is faithful!

"It's going to be awesome to watch how God works to raise those few measly thousand dollars. That is NOTHING to Him...but I guarantee it is going to be awesome to watch. I know I'M looking forward to it!! God knows your hearts, and I truly believe he is going to RICHLY reward you for your faithfulness! The neat thing about having to raise that much money is going to be all the people it is going to involve in one way or another. If you just had the money sitting around, or if someone donated all of it, you wouldn't get to see God at work. I know I've given you this analogy before, but I still think back to Gideon. God purposely dwindled his army down to nothing so they would KNOW it was God winning the battle. In addition, God is going to touch hundreds of lives through you along the way...just like the teller at the bank...and countless others who are watching you will never know about!! While the endgame is going to be beautiful, the journey along the way is going to be incredible!!!! Enjoy watching the scenery on the way!!!"

Its a miracle

Wow I have so much to tell everyone I cant believe it. For now Im going to just post a quick note as we have been so hectic with activity and my head is still spinning. We raised $3014 at our fundraiser dinner on Thursday night. This was enough along with the match to pay our final program fee to the agency. All that was left was the travel expenses. To make a long but beautiful story short, I went to the the bank Friday to make a deposit in our adoption account and someone had made a $4000 deposit that very day! You should have seen the joy all over me right there in the bank. The teller was laughing the other tellers were all looking. It was one of the most special moments of my life honestly. God showed up and showed off again. To God be all the glory. God is not broke, he owns everything and he loves so much that he even payed the way for a young orphan girl thousands of miles away to come home to her mommy and daddy and brothers and sisters. I just cant wait to see my wife holding her and kissing her. I cant wait to see my kids playing with her. God moved and many of you listened, words will never be able to express the joy and love we feel. Thank you all for every prayer offered, every donation made, every encouraging word along the way. God is so good!!

Recent $ activity

The last few days things have been going well with all sorts of activity. We had the food for the dinner completely payed for by an unknown donor. We received today a check in the mail for $250. We sold a donated sink base for $50 1 hour ago. A coworker had a friend who said they could not attend the dinner but they wanted to donate $15. A friend donated his handyman services and he gave us $20 plus he made another $25 that we are to receive at the end of the week. We sold a donated pool cleaner for $20. A lady at church gave us $40 on Sunday. Saturday we received a new item that we will auction at the dinner. It has a $200 value and is new in the box. Another friend at church donated an Omar Vizquel signed baseball we will auction at the dinner. Another friend gave us $17. My son Josh is as I type this mowing a lawn for someone to earn some money. We had another dining room table donated for us to sell last evening. Just all sorts of activity. God is moving. I remember wanting a year and a half ago to find a donor who would just pay the whole fee so we could just not have to worry and work so hard but I love how God is so much wiser. He is using so many people in so many ways it is so neat. God knows what he is doing!

The Surbarnanite article

Here is the link to the online version-

http://www.thesuburbanite.com/news/x576536165/A-bundle-of-Joy

Akron Childrens Hospital

I spoke today with Dr. Ellen Kempf who is a doctor that specializes in international kids. Our pediatrician contacted her when he reviewed Joy's information that was sent to us by Holt. It just happens to turn out that she is leaving for Ethiopia with Holt this Monday and will be in country for 12 days. She said she actually may be able to see Joy while she is there. She is traveling with the CEO of Holt on this trip along with her husband who is also a doctor and a few other people. She was really a neat lady, I could hear her passion for kids in her voice. She shared how she had traveled to many other countries before on similar trips. She is going to give our contact information to a family in Hartville near us that has adopted a daughter and son from Ethiopia already and are in the process of adopting twins as well. It will be neat to make new friends who will be able to answer many of our questions. God is really putting together all the pieces of the puzzle for us. This is exciting.

Donated items for sale

We have several items for sale that we have placed adds on Craigslist from things people have donated. We have a desk for $35, light wood entertainment center for $35, a dual bathroom sink fixture brand new for $65, a used Aqua bug pool cleaner for $45, a tiger picture from Home Interiors for $35, a new lighted Coke sign for $35, Wood Captains Bed with 8 drawers and 2 cubbies along with a nearly new mattress for $175, a Queen sized Quilt made with over $300 of materials brand new just finished for $500, a used black entertainment center for $20, a King sized used quilt purchased for $250 a few years ago for $50, a Thomasville oversized chair purchased 4 years ago at Wayside for only $75, and a wooden rocker for $50. If anyone is interested let us know. As you can see we are busy working on raising funds anyway we can.

The Suburbanite Article

It was in this past Sundays paper, Sept 27th. I have not seen it online yet, don't know if it will be online eventually or not. I purchased 5 copies of the paper last evening at a grocery store. The article was very long, it covered 2 pages and shared our story nicely. Our account at Charter One was mentioned as well as next weeks fundraiser dinner. It feels affirming to see God getting our story which is nothing more than his story as well as our need out. We pray that people will be moved by God to give. The title of the article is " A bundle of Joy".