Embassy Clearance!!!

We got some very big news today!  The American embassy in Ethiopia has cleared our adoption case!  Our new daughter is finally coming home!!!

My husband and I will fly out this Saturday (his parents are coming into town to take care of our 3 kids here) and then we'll be back home with our new little girl the morning of Saturday, December 24th, Christmas Eve.   We will have all 4 of our children together at last for Christmas -- how's that for God's timing?!!

We are overjoyed and in shock!  With the bad news from the embassy last Friday and then even more again yesterday we felt our case had the very real potential to be delayed for several months.  The last few days we have prayed and cried through the agonizing decision of having me go to Ethiopia to take custody of daughter and stay with her until she cleared immigration, even if that meant several months.  We couldn't stop thinking about the Bible's words in Luke 15, when the shepherd leaves the 99 sheep to go after the 1 lost sheep.  We decided I would go shortly after Christmas, not knowing when I'd be able to return, leaving the 3 children who had always known life with a mother to go to the 1 child who had been without parents for far too long.  

 

Then this morning we got the amazing, miraculous news of clearance!  We had to call our caseworker to see if she was looking at the say email and ask her if it was for real?!!!

We're so thankful to have had so many praying for our family and now ask for prayers over the transition phase for us all.  We expect nothing less than chaos for a long while with kids ages 8,6,4, and 3, but who are we kidding, it was chaos before!  Also, prayers over the plane ride home would be great -- 20 hours on an airplane with a 3 year old who doesn't speak English, has never before worn a seatbelt, and we've only parented for a few days -- we're going to need some gracious, understanding flight mates!

 

Praising God for moving mountains to get our sweet, spunky girl home!