Prayers, Prayers and Prayers Needed!!

We are down to about 3 weeks until Paul leaves for court in Ethiopia!!!! I'm nervous and excited, I think Paul is too! Tonight, we are asking for prayers...

• Please pray that the birth families court case (SEPT 30) goes well and passes!!!!!!!!!!
• Please pray for Paul's safety while traveling to and from Ethiopia and while he's in country.
• Please also pray for our court case, that everything also goes well. Our court case is Oct. 12!
• I'm also asking that you pray for guidance and God's comfort of Jerusalem's birth father and siblings.

If the case passes on Sept. 30.... pickup will be Nov. 4!!!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT????!!!!! We are SOOOOOO excited, but very, very nervous!

We should know right away if the case passes court.

Why does Paul have to travel then??
basically all Paul is traveling to Ethiopia for is to say 'YES' we plan to continue the adoption of Jerusalem and 'YES' my wife will accept her as our daughter regardless of any medical/special needs conditions we are unaware of.

I cannot wait to post pictures of our beautiful girl...she's walking without help...YAY...maybe.

Thank you for everyone's support and prayers. We wouldn't be where we are today without them!

Blessings

Immigration=UGH!

There hasn't been any updates...we just keep counting down the months and days until court all while we pray our case passes the first time...that is until yesterday..............................

we received a letter from the US Immigration for our I600A. Basically this is what we need approved to bring Jerusalem home. BUT being Paul and I, they are in need of more documentation!! They want a court certified letter of a driving "incident" Paul had back in college, problem is when we call (we called before for our initial adoption application with the agency) the courts won't release a letter because there is no longer a record.  We can get a police letter, but that isn't satisfactory! Our agency said if we explain to the court why we need this letter and send them a copy of the Immigration letter, they should do it....again this is Paul and I!

Our homestudy agency also has some 'missing' pieces in our homestudy. I contacted them and our social worker assured us that immigration 'picks and chooses' cases and decides they want more documents or things re-worded. My BIG concern is that we won't have the approval before our pickup date, which then pushes it back AND/OR the courts in Ethiopia also feel our homestudy is missing pieces and they don't pass us!!

BTW~we only have 45 DAYS to get the documents turned into immigration in Missouri or they consider our application abandoned.

So I ask you to pray that we can get a certified letter to submit to immigration, our homestudy agency gets everything written as immigration feels it should be written, we get it all in within the 45 day mark AND our case passes court (in Ethiopia) on the first try!

In other news....we received new pictures of Jerusalem this morning! She's gotten big. As I showed the kids, Marissa piped up and said "mommy, Jerusalem's going to be HUGE"

The kids start school in one week...Marissa too! I'm ready for school to start but not ready to put Marissa on the bus. There will be many, many tears shed next Thursday.

As we face trials of this adoption, like any family does, we do realize how completely and utterly blessed we are! I am so thankful for all of my blessings God has provided to me. I'm amazed at how much adopting has changed us and how much closer our family has become. Something we jumped head first into, has impacted our lives so much we can't even begin to explain it!

Blessings
Jenny

Votes

Who voted for Paul??? Just kidding! We are going to purchase the airline tickets tomorrow. Paul will be traveling for court and I will be going for pickup about 6 weeks later. It works better this way, and given the cost it makes sense.

We go for our FBI fingerprints Aug. 24, getting these done will give us the Immigration approval we need to adopt Jerusalem. That's the only news we have, so not much.

I pray all is well with everyone reading our blog!
Blessings,
Jenny

Embassy date...

We received an email today saying our embassy date (pickup trip) could be as soon as Oct. 29 or as late as Dec. 23. That's providing everything goes well with the judge at Jerusalem's birth father's court date (Sept 30) and our court date (Oct 12).

We received a new video of Jerusalem today. She's crawling around, smiling and laughing. She is walking with assistance as well. Her hair is starting to grow in very nicely. I am concerned about her belly being so big. It will go down, but it's just hard to see a baby like that.

Please pray for our court hearings to go smoothly and our judge to recognize Jerusalem's birth families decision and our decision on her adoption. Please also pray for a quick embassy date and I also ask for prayers for financial wisdom as we will need to have our agency paid in full by pickup. I know God will provide as he always does!!

I will update more when we get some new information. Again we are not allowed to post pictures of Jerusalem, but if you would like to see I will be more than happy to email you some!

BTW we are still duking it out for who goes for court travel! I think I should go for court and pickup... :-)

Blessings.

Given Ethiopia's guidelines we are not able to share a picture of Jerusalem (Eyerusalem) on the Internet unless it's a secure password protected site. Many people have had problems obtaining access to our blog when we have a password on it. So if you do want to see some pictures (BTW she's gorgeous!!) send me an email and I'll be MORE than happy to send you some!!

We did get official word that only ONE of us needs to travel for court...now we'll just duke out who goes!

Court Date!!!

Our adoption process is moving along....we have our court date...October 12!! YAY!! We are waiting on confirmation from our agency to see if we both have to travel for court. Our plan was for one of us to travel for court and the other for pickup...BUT if we both have to go for, we'll probably flip a coin to see who goes for pickup :-) BTW if I go for pickup anyone want to go with????

We are so thankful for all the wonderful prayers and support! Our garage sale was a huge success, we made almost $1000!!! WOW off of a garage sale! Everyone was so generous! We are applying for grants as we have tapped out our second mortgage on Dominick and Marissa's adoption expenses. We still owe the agency about 5K which doesn't include our airfare, meals and lodging. We know God will provide as he always does.

Blessings!!!

Paperwork Frustration

As we are rushing to get our paperwork all done, frustration levels have skyrocketed!!! I keep reminding myself, it's all in God's timing....I'd rather have the timing be sooner rather than later!

Jerusalem is in a transition house in Ethiopia. She has gained 2 lbs since being brought to the orphanage. I'm praying we get updated pictures and hopefully will be able to send a care package to her with a traveling family.

We received a amazing surprise this past weekend! Two videos of Jerusalem came in the mail!!!! Makes it even more real! The first video is of the day she was brought to the orphanage. It's hard to watch to see her so tired, her belly so swollen and not caring about flies flying around her mouth or face. The other video is of her in the hospital about a week later. She is smiling, eating, standing and slapping away workers hands...she seems to have some spunk, which we all know she will need with joining this family :-)

Jenny

Process update

As everyone knows, we are adopting a 2 yr old girl from Ethiopia. I created this blog to keep family and friends updated on our process. At this time I don't think I can post a picture of Jerusalem...

We are working on getting all papers for our dossier (paperwork to be sent to Ethiopia). At this point we are only two papers shy of being done with it!!!

Ethiopia is in process of changing their countries proceedings...what that means is since we don't have all of our paperwork done and submitted (today's the cut off), we most likely will have to make the requiring  two trip process. One trip for court and one trip for pickup. We are told only one parent can make the court trip and then the other for pickup, nothing is confirmed yet.

Which is why we are having a fundraising garage sale. We did save our tax money...THANK GOD but everything is happening quicker than we expected and we are scrambling trying to fund the costs. Second mortgage is not an option as we used it for Dominick & Marissa's adoptions. We are in process of applying for some grants, but those are giving out sporadically. So if you get sick of hearing about our garage sale, sorry... I will be pushing it. We have gotten some donations, but are still in need of items...anything and everything!!

If anyone reading is interested in buying a pontoon, ours is for sale (as well on craigslist). Email me for pictures and information.

In other family news: The kids are extremely excited. I did get a job that I LOVE!!! I work 20hrs a week at an adoption agency (not one we are using). My job is sending inquiring families information about the agency and getting them started in the adoption process.

The transitions are effecting Marissa mainly. I get the kids on the bus and then drop her off at grandma's daycare, which she loves but misses mommy. She is excited about Jerusalem, but I'm expecting some recessing from her.

Dominick is in soccer and is a natural (he excels in everything he does)! He loves school and his teacher. Andrew will be in baseball starting in a couple weeks. He also loves school and loves to read. Brittany's Destination Imagination team took 8th place out of 17 teams at State Competition this year. She will be taking riding lessons again this Summer, if we are able to connect with her previous riding instructor. Brittany rides for fun, and doesn't care to compete, although her instructor is wanting her too. Brittany is also an avid reader. I will have to take books away from Brittany & Andrew at night, otherwise they read all night long.

Blessings,
Jenny