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!