You're Invited...

The Jansen Family would like to invite You and Yours to a Pancake Dinner on Thursday, May 3rd from 6:00 - 7:30 p.m. at CenterPoint Church (7750 GreenMeadows Drive North, Lewis Center, 43035)

Pancakes will be served by ChrisCakes  (http://www.chriscakesohio.com/)  This Pancake dinner is a Celebration of our Adoption - donations appreciated, but not necessary. We'd just like you to join us in Celebration and take the night off from Cooking! 

We will also share pictures of our recent Trip to Ethiopia

There will also be a Baby Shower that evening given by 

Anna & Ellie Jansen

The Jansen's are registered at:  Target, Babies R Us and Amazon.com (click on Wish Lists, then Baby registry)

Please join us and share in our Joy!

Hard to Believe

It's hard to believe that tomorrow (Wednesday) marks one week since our last post and since Martha became a member of our family!  :-)

The rest of our time in Ethiopia continued to be just as wonderful as the first few days.  We spent some time shopping in local outdoor markets, had a great night out at a wonderful restaurant complete with Ethiopian dancing and local food (which we love!), had our hearts filled with joy when we were with Martha, and had them broken as we continued to see the poor and the many needs all around.  We wish there were words to explain what we saw - God stirred our souls deeply through our experiences in Ethiopia.

Leaving Martha was one of the most difficult things we have done in a very long time.  We have given her over to God and know He cares for her.  During her lifetime, as parents, we will need to do that again and again, just as we currently do with our children here in Ohio.  After all, they aren't really ours - they belong to God and He has entrusted them to us for but a little while....to love them, care for them, teach them about Jesus and His Amazing love and grace.  That is our job - and we feel humbled and privileged that God has blessed us with another child and the big responsibility it is to raise her.

Our trip home went very smoothly - it is just a very long trip!  It was so good to get home and see our kids here and catch up on their week and share stories, pictures and video of Martha.  Our Jet Lag has been very manageable and we are grateful for that!

We heard a bit today about when we might be able to go back to Addis Ababa and attend the U.S. Embassy and bring Martha home. We don't want to get into details about that, because it is all just an estimation at this time (and if you've read this blog for a while, you know that things can change quickly in International Adoption) but we do have a prayer request about all that......please pray that the timing and details all fall into place easily. We are approaching a bit of a crazy, busy time/season for our family and are a little anxious about how it will all work out. We KNOW that God's timing is PERFECT - we've learned and lived that every step of this whole process.  But, we silly humans can get a bit uptight about how it all is going to work out.  Please pray that we rest in God's peace as we wait these final steps and that we trust God's got it all covered (Okay, we know He does, but we may need some reminders.....)

We have been amazed at how many of you are reading this blog and sharing in our Joy - you have made our Joy greater!  Thank you again and again - we feel so very blessed!!

Two Extremes

For as much Joy as we've had on this journey to Martha and Ethiopia, we've also had our hearts broken by being here. We would not be responsible if we didn't share the heart break, as well as the joy.

We share some pictures of this Country and its people that we can truly say that we love - they are beautiful, kind, gracious, patient and loving. As you join us in Praising God today for the addition of Martha Joy to our family, please also pray for the woman and her children washing themselves in a mud puddle and for the street children who were always wanting to sell us something. They are all so beautiful and they matter to God.

As we prepare to start our journey back home tomorrow, part of our hearts will be left here with Martha (thankfully only short term!) and part will be left here with her people - whom we will pray for and hold in our hearts.

We hope you have learned something about the beautiful land of Ethiopia as you've shared in our GREAT JOY on this journey. We continue to Praise God tonight for each and every bit of it - we know God's hand has been present through it all and He has joined us with our Martha - to Him be the Glory!

We Passed Court!

We are thrilled to announce that we have Passed Court in Ethiopia! Martha Joy Jansen is now officially a member of our family! We're so thrilled to introduce her to you!!

An Emotional Day

We have had a very emotional day - and since, we are still processing it all and just emotionally tired, this may be a short post.....

This morning, we went to our Agency's Office here in Addis. The birthmother of our little girl came to the office to meet us. She was sweet, shy and so gracious. We know this was a difficult decision for her to make, but she believes it is the best thing for her daughter. We could tell by her tears and humble gratitude that she loves this little girl very, very much. We tried to express to her the depth of our gratitude through tears too - it was just not possible.

Our next stop was the Addis Ababa University Museum and lunch. We tried to enjoy these stops as much as possible, but our minds were a bit frazzled because our next stop was the orphanage.....

And we met our daughter. It was surreal. We held her, we fed her, we talked and laughed with her, we counted fingers and toes, we took pictures. We tried to absorb all of this. Tonight, we continue to do so.....we are exhausted but are "buzzing" at the same time.

Thank you for your prayers as this journey continues~

Dave & Vicki

Happy Ethiopian Easter!

Greetings from Ethiopia!

We arrived safely in Ethiopia Saturday evening - after 24 hours of travel time and 4 take offs and 4 landings and not enough sleep. Our flights were smooth and on time. Thanks for all those prayers!!

We were brought to our hotel and had a very good nights sleep. This morning we were picked up by an Adoption Agency Employee and brought to his home for an Ethiopian Easter (which is today) breakfast and Coffee Ceremony. With us also, were 3 beautiful children from our agency's transition home. They were ages 6, 11 and 12. They were just a delight to spend time with today! After breakfast, our Agency Employee brought us about 2 hours north of Addis. The drive was amazing! The Countryside was more beautiful than we imagined, filled with hills and valleys and lots of curving roads. We often had to slow or stop for cows, sheep and donkeys that were being shepherded around the countryside. We spent some time at an Ethiopian Monastary and Museum and had a guide teach us much about this Monastic group and its history. After that, our Agency's Employee took us to his mother's home, which was near the Monastary. She lived in a very poor community, as most of the people who lived there make their living as beggars. When we stopped to park the car to visit her, we were immediately surrounded by all age groups, asking for money. After a short visit with his mother, we then began the drive back to Addis. Addis is a very busy, populated city. Since today was Easter, and the end of a 55 day fasting period, there were goats all over the city. People would pick one, have it slaughtered on the street and go home and make an Easter meal.....talk about a different world! We have seen so many people here who are poor and have nothing - we can't put it into words. We both had times today where we couldn't speak - we were so overwhelmed by the emotions that the poor and forgotten awakened in us........we couldn't believe what we were seeing and our hearts were being continually being broken more and more.

After a short, wonderful nap back at our hotel, we were taken to the family of our nephew's college suitemate, who is from Addis. We had such a wonderful time with his Mom, Dad, Brother and Sister. They shared dinner with us and more coffee. ;-) Our fellowship was warm and sweet and we truly felt like we had made new friends when we had left their home.

We still feel like this is a bit of a surreal experience to be here - it is such a different, wonderful, hurting and amazing place! To all of you who have helped in some way to make it possible for us to be here - we remain humble and forever grateful.

We will probably try to post most days - simply because we want to remember this experience for ourselves and "document" it when it is fresh.

Thanks for your continued prayers~

Dave & Vicki

Up, up and Away!

Today we fly out....Columbus to Detroit, Detroit to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Addis (with a gas stop along the way). We can't believe the time is really here - so excited, so tired, so thrilled to see our little girl, but sad to say good-bye to Jonathan, Anna, Ellie & Joshua. Can't wait to have all the kids on the same continent!

Please pray for safe, smoooooottthhhhh flights :-) and a great week for our whole family - whatever continent they may be on.

Thank you!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! We hope you've had a Great day celebrating our RISEN LORD!

We are very excited because we leave for Ethiopia THIS Friday. We can hardly believe it - we've waited so long for this, that in some ways, it still doesn't seem real - and yet we can't wait to meet our little girl (who turned ONE yesterday) and see her country.

WHAT WE'VE BEEN UP TO LATELY~

We have spent plenty of time preparing for this trip - more Federal Fingerprints, doctor's appointments, more shots (typhoid and yellow fever to name a couple), filling prescriptions for malaria and antibiotics "just in case", signing and notarizing more papers, purchasing gifts for the orphanage workers and others who will be helping us in Ethiopia, covering transportation, etc for our kids while we are gone, and a myriad of other things as well as day to day life (which in our house is usually pretty busy). If you look at the pile currently on our bedroom floor, it looks like we have everything we need :-) and hopefully we will. Vicki has worked hard to make sure we aren't forgetting anything. We are so grateful for the many people helping out with transportation, etc and to our Small Group who is lovingly bringing over some meals while we are gone.

WHAT WE WILL DO IN ETHIOPIA~

Most importantly, we will meet our daughter. We absolutely can't wait for this! We will also attend Court (April 18 in Ethiopia - which is 7 hours ahead of Ohio) to legally adopt her - can't wait for that also!! We will go visit her birthplace and possibly meet her birthmother. We will spend time experiencing the beauty and culture of Ethiopia. We will be dropping off a backpack full of items for our Compassion Child (unfortunately, due to the timing of our trip, we will not be able to meet him face to face). We are also hoping to meet the parents of our nephew's college suitemate and close friend - who is from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - amazing! When you consider we leave on one Friday and return on the following Friday, and each trip takes 24 hours......we will be pretty busy while we are there.

WHAT YOU CAN DO~

Pray - LOTS!

*Pray for our kids back here at home - we know that they are going to be well taken care of, but it won't be the same without Mom and Dad, and it's not every day your parents take a trip to the other side of the world. Pray for their safety, peace and contentment while we are gone - and that internet works at our Hotel so we can somewhat stay in touch.

*Pray for our times with our little girl to go well - that we aren't interrupting her naps, etc and that we can have some good playtime, etc with her.

*Pray that we stay healthy there and somewhat rested.

*Pray for all of our papers, etc to be filled out correctly and to be just where they need to be with NO complications!

*Pray for our flights to be smooth and quick....and for Vicki to be calm as she flies - it is still the biggest stressor of this current process for her.

Once she is legally ours - we will be able to post pictures! Keep watching the blog late next week.......

Thanks again for all of your prayers and support and for being a part of this journey~

Dave & Vicki