A Summery Spring Break

We have had a beautiful Spring Break! The temperatures were in the 80's, the skies were blue and all the windows were open. It was wonderful! We cleaned drawers and closets, turned the Dining Room into a "Study Room", finished most of paperwork we need for our first trip, took care of many miscellaneous tasks around the house, painted the room for our Baby Girl, had some good family time, the kids had time with their friends and we all enjoyed some Ethiopian food this week too.

We also purchased Airline tickets!! Dave & Vicki will fly out on April 13 and return to Columbus on April 20. It's all a little overwhelming and exciting at the same time. Vicki is still not a fan of flying.....so she is trying to wrap her brain around those long flights.....

We also set a new date for our "Cele-Funda-Shower". It will be Thursday, May 3 from 6:00 - 7:30 p.m. at CenterPoint Church in Lewis Center. We hope that YOU can join us! Now, we know you are asking.....why are you calling it that? Well.....

"Cele" - So many of you have supported us, encouraged us, prayed for us, cried with us - now we want YOU to Celebrate with us! Just come out and have a good time enjoying some pancakes for supper from "Chris Cakes" (pancakes with attitude :-) www.chriscakesohio.com) Hopefully, we'll have some pictures to show you also from our 1st trip to Ethiopia.

"Funda" - We are feeling financially prepared for our 1st trip to Ethiopia, but not so sure about the 2nd trip. If you come celebrate with us and feel called to make a donation for our 2nd trip, we would be grateful. Please keep in mind that these trips involve so much more than airline tickets.....we need food, a place to stay, gifts to bring (25) for all those involved in our adoption process in Ethiopia, drivers/staff to accompany us everywhere we go, medications, Visas, and other paperwork, etc. Have you ever heard of the phrase "nickel and dimed"? Sometimes, that's how we feel with all the small, unknown aspects of adoption.

"Shower" - Our daughters, Anna and Ellie really, really, really want to have a Baby Shower. In fact, they just can't wait! So, this event on May 3rd, will give them the chance to do that. If you are feeling called to support our adoption by giving something for our Baby Girl, this is your chance (or if you just like shopping for baby stuff!) ;-) We are registered at Target, Babies R Us and Amazon.com (see"gifts & wish lists" at the top, then click on "baby" on the right side).

One continuing concern.....we have talked to the Immigration Service Office and they stated that we have appointments for our Federal Fingerprints this week Thursday. But, the paperwork that they sent to us, still has not arrived. If we do not have the specific paperwork from them, we can not get our Federal Fingerprints done - and they are a necessity for our trip. Please pray that the paperwork arrives in our mail this Monday.

Thanks again for all of your support and prayers. We are most thankful for each one of you!! Please join us and Celebrate on May 3rd and be ready to catch your own pancake for dinner - really! :-)

Going to Court!!

We are thrilled and a little surprised tonight - we have our Court Date! WOW! We will be appearing in Court IN ETHIOPIA on APRIL 18!! We were hoping to hear about our Court Date by the end of March, so we are extra thrilled that we have a Date already!

We were so sure that we wouldn't have a Court Date soon, that this morning we had actually finalized plans for a "Cele-funda-shower" for April 19th, but we will soon be figuring out a new date for that between our first and second trip.

To the many of you who have offered to plan a Baby Shower for us - we are most grateful. But, we have these two girls at our house, Anna & Ellie, :-) who are super eager to have a shower for their new sister and have been partnering in the planning of one. They have also been asking us on a daily basis about having one......so, we have agreed to let them plan a shower, thus the "Cele-funda-shower" event mentioned above.

So, now the planning (and yes, a little bit of hysteria) begins! We are so thankful that we recently had a wonderful, special friend who has agreed to stay with our kids while we are gone. That is a huge load off of our minds. This past Saturday, Vicki and the girls went and registered for some of the baby items we will need in preparation for the arrival of our little girl, so we are getting started on setting up the home for her (Target, Babies R Us and Amazon.com - they have some great adoption/multicultural books). Vicki and the kids start Spring Break in 2 days.....and the cleaning, purging and prep work will commence full force.

As always, we are grateful for your prayers and for the fact that so many of you have wept with us as we have wept, and now rejoice as we rejoice. Please keep praying for all the details yet to be put into place - especially the trip dates for the 2nd trip now - we already have Jonathan & Anna at Young Life Camp in June, as well as plans for Ellie & Joshua to attend Camp Geneva in June. We really want them to have those awesome opportunties, but also want them to participate fully in their sister's Homecoming. We trust in the Lord, because He is in the details - He has proven that to us again and again!

Questions & Answers

Thanks to each and every one of you for sharing in our joy this week! It has been so much fun to share our joy with you and we know that our little girl is coming home to a loving, supportive and welcoming community!

Throughout this week, there have been plenty of questions that you're asking - or maybe do not dare....so we thought we'd address some of them here.

When is she coming home to Lewis Center?
This past week, our papers were submitted to court in Ethiopia. Hopefully in a month, we will be given a Court Date - which then would allow us to make travel plans. Our hope is that the Court Date would be in late April or early May (please pray that we are Home for Ellie's Birthday on May 6 and here for Anna's Dance recital on May 20). Our first trip will probably be around 7-8 days long.

After that trip, we will return to Lewis Center, without her, though, as we await the processing of her Visa. Hopefully, then we will return in June or July (Joshua's birthday is June 26 and Anna's is July 6 - we'd like to be Home for those too) and on that trip of 4-5 days, we will bring her home with us!!!!

Do you have any baby stuff at your house?
That's a definite NO! :-) Remember we weren't thinking BABY......but, we'll figure all that out soon.

What's her story?
Her story, as is the case with most Orphans, is very sad and breaks our hearts. But, it is HER story and we will not be sharing the details of it. As she grows and asks questions and is ready to hear her story, we will share it with her.

Are we scared because of what happened to our first referral?
Yes, we are probably more anxious because of that. But, we do not want fear or anxiety to stop us in our tracks and miss the blessings (yes, and challenges) that God has in store for us.

Will you keep her name?
Yes, without any doubt. There are several reasons....
*Other than the clothes on her back, it is the only thing that she brings with her from Ethiopia.
*Her birthmother gave her this name, and out of respect, admiration and deep, deep gratitude to to her, we will keep the name that she gave her daughter
*This Biblical name of hers, will always remind us of God's answered prayer, in that Vicki had asked God to match us with a child that had a Biblical name. It will be a daily reminder of God's faithfulness to us and something by which we can tell her of God's faithfulness to her also.

Will there be any more fundraising?
Hopefully, not (but.......just for fun, Google plane tickets to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia....yikes!) and just like the baby stuff.....we'll figure that out soon.

If you have any other questions, please contact us. We'd love to share more of our story!

Thanks again for rejoicing with us - we are grateful for each of you who continue to support us on the journey!