Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Lovin' it!
Salem is a complete delight! God has blessed us beyond measure. Salem is a late night party animal like her mamma. She loves to go for runs in the neighborhood with her daddy in her jogging stroller. Her daddy makes her laugh by swinging her and kissing her. She continues to gain weight…we’re hoping she’ll be almost 12 pounds at her checkup tomorrow. That means that in 8 weeks she will have gained 6 pounds—pretty dramatic!
November 19, 2006
We are HOME!!
We arrived home in Orlando Saturday afternoon, greeted by a wonderful group of family and friends at the Orlando airport (see pic). We were thrilled to see everyone, and to introduce Salem to people who already love her so much. Keely had dressed her in a traditional Ethiopian dress and headdress, and she looked just beautiful!
Salem did great the rest of the weekend, and is loving Orlando – she *loves* grandpa and grandmomma Pitts (she hasn’t see the Leim grandparents yet, but will soon!), sleeps great in her crib, loves the jogging stroller (yay!), is trying to figure out Jezebel (but isn’t afraid or allergic to her!), and is continuing to eat like a champ. We are overwhelmed with gratitude to the Lord who has delivered her from harm so many times already, and he certainly gets all the credit and honor for how well she is doing and for our joyful homecoming. And we continue to be in awe of how much each of you has supported us through this time – we just don’t know how to thank you enough.
Please feel free to email us any time. We love you all – as we look through the email addresses in this distribution list, we give thanks to God for each one of you.
“Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins, and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion” Ps.103.3-4
Let me just put an ENORMOUS plug in for Southwest airlines. we decided to cancel our return on United because they were so HORRIBLE on our journey over there. We switched to our favorite SWA, and they were AMAZING! Not only did they allow us to check 5 bags at no charge, but they treated us (and particularly Salem) like ROYALTY. They could not have been more wonderful! Elaine and Rick, THANK YOU for making our homecoming such a DELIGHT!
November 16, 2006
Saying Goodbye to Ethiopia (for now)
Hopefully this will be our last email to you from Ethiopia! After great effort, we have secured Salem’s visa and we will be coming home TODAY!!! Our flight leaves here tonight and arrives in Washington DC on Saturday morning. We will catch a Southwest flight home Saturday afternoon—flight 2602 arriving from Washington Dulles at 2:20 pm in Orlando.
It still feels like a DREAM that we will be coming home!
The last remaining thing that we have to do is to secure a ticket for Salem. It’s something we’ve been working on all week (we had to wait for her birth certificate to be issued), but unfortunately the printer at the airlines office has been broken, so they have been unable to print her ticket. We hope to resolve this issue in the morning, so if you do not hear from us again, that’s good news!
Again, we cannot thank you all enough for your prayers and love. We are so excited about seeing you to thank you in PERSON soon enough.
November 15, 2006
Waiting for news to come home
The good news is that Salem is doing well….she is really LOVING her daddy being back…so much so that she refused to let himsleep at all last night and wanted him to hold her the whole night! I’m attaching a fun little picture of her complete with the little dimple on her chin that shows up whenever she smiles or talks to us. Can you tell she is getting fatter?
As far as an update on when we hope to travel, unfortunately, the letter that our agency assured us that they already receivedlast week has still not arrived, so we are unable to request a visa from the US embassy prior to receipt of that paper. The good news is that the US Embassy medical report is finished! This was nothing short of a Herculean task! After a previous failed attempt at securing her medical leave through our agency representative, we chose to do it all ourselves. This morning we caught our favorite taxi to the embassy so that we could be there when they opened. We were the first in line for the blood-test and paid a whopping $6J to have the process expedited (SOWORTH IT) so that we could go to the lab this afternoon across town to pick up the results. We did this so that we wouldn’t have another piece of paper to chase tomorrow. The agency told us we should just do it all tomorrow, but with the way things go around here when you delay for even a minute, we decided to press on and wait in the crowded medical clinic until they gave us her results. We are so thrilled we did! That is a MAJOR hurtle crossed, so we are very grateful to have that done at least. And the best news of all is that the bloodwork confirmed that Salem is HIV(-)! Even though a prior test already indicated this, we are so grateful to God for His abundant care!Now all we lack is the letter from the women’s bureau and the visa that the US Embassy must issue in order for her to travel (which usually takes about 24 hours). Very inconveniently the man who is supposed to sign the letter from the women’s bureau is “out for 2 days.” All of this despite our agency knowing all along that we have tickets booked in exactly 2 days. If we do not get out on Friday, our next option is a Tuesday flight. We will be sure to keep you all posted. We will know a lot more tomorrow afternoon. We are really hoping that we might somehow secure that letter tomorrow morning in order to be at the embassy in the afternoon so that they might approve Salem for travel by Friday.
In the mean time, we rejoice in being together and in knowing that our homecoming should (in theory, at least) only be a few (maybe 2?) days away. And we are so grateful to have had success today in making some progress toward our departure.
November 14, 2006
Grateful for all of the support
Josh arrived back in Addis Ababa on Sunday evening. It was so great to get back to the girls. Being home to see everyone was nice, but was not nearly the same without the two loves of my life!
First, and most importantly, Salem is doing very well. She had some ups and downs last week, but seems to have emerged strongly from that time and is continuing to put on weight! Her momma has been doing a fantastic job! The Lord has indeed protected Salem’s body from further infection, and strengthened her greatly. Thank you, thank you for continuing to lift us up in prayer. Secondly, on a bit of a negative note, today was incredibly frustrating. We were supposed to get the majority of our paperwork done today and start the visa process this afternoon. However, b/c of several snags in the system, almost none of it got done. We are starting over early in the morning and hope to have better success than today so that we can leave on a Friday evening flight! We’re coming down to the wire – if we can get everything done by Friday afternoon, we can leave that evening and be home by Saturday. If not, we won’t be home until next Wednesday (b/c of the flight schedule). We really hope to be home sooner rather than later, but if not, we are at least so grateful to be here together.
November 9, 2006
Another week of fighting for Salem
What a wild ride this past week has been! Multiple fevers, thrush, ear infections, diarrhea, vomiting. Suffice it to say, Salem has really struggled this week, and we cannot WAIT to get home! By the grace of God, despite all of these things, she has remained in the room with me and not in the clinic with an iv!! I am so thrilled, and she is really showing some signs of improvement today! Salem and I miss Josh so much here, but we are so grateful that he has “gone to prepare a place for us” to which we will return very soon—maybe as early as next Friday. And very soon now Josh is coming back for us. We cannot WAIT.
I’ve attached some pictures.
-the first picture is of a nanny who has been particularly helpful with Salem this week. Her name is Bizunesh. She speaks maybe 10 words of English, and I speak maybe 3 words in Amharic, but somehow we communicate very well together. Tonight we spent an hour going through the English/Amharic phrasebook trying to learn more about each other, so that was really fun.
-the second picture is Salem talking to her Grand-daddy Pitts on the cell phone—she really enjoys hearing his voice! I know she’s so excited about meeting all of her family/friends when we come home!
-the third picture is the line of people waiting at immigration yesterday. This is actually the women’s line. The line for men was across the street. As an American, I was able to bypass the line completely which felt really unfair to me, but I wasn’t about to press the justice of the point and protest by going to the back of the line when immigration is HUGE step to us going HOME. So I just smiled and walked right by all the people, although I felt guilty the whole time.
-the last picture is of a funeral procession that I saw from my window today. We see several funerals a week here—one of the very hard truths of time spent in Africa. The women all turn their shawls inside out when attending a funeral, and usually hundreds are in attendance. These people are all walking to the Ethiopian Coptic church just down the street to attend the service.
There are 2 exciting developments in Salem’s world.
1. I think she’s going to be a southpaw! Her left hand is definitely her dominant hand.
2. She started talking a TON today—just little noises that are SO MUCH FUN! She’s become a little chatter-box overnight.
October 31, 2006
Happy Reformation day! (a little late)
I hope all is going well there! Yesterday we had a big day….our new friend, Addis, took us to a friend’s house for a traditional Ethiopian meal of injera and doro wat. After lunch we enjoyed a coffee ceremony, where the beans were roasted and crushed right in front of us, and we drank the coffee together. It was such a blessing!
Today, Wednesday, Salem was given the final approval for adoption by the Ethiopian courts! We went to the courthouse this morning and waited for about three hours. We had hoped to get a picture with the judge, but unfortunately our camera was confiscated before we had the opportunity (we got it back). During the processing, the judge said everything in Amharic (the Ethiopian language), and was in a less than humorous mood. At one point I wondered if she would approve everything and I got a little nervous, but when she closed the large file on her desk and gave a final nod to the lawyer and to us, it seemed like a good sign. We left the building and the lawyer gave us a big smile and shook our hand – it was approved! Now we wait for the processing of her birth certificate, passport, and then visa – probably another 15-20 days. But, to have the court approval done is a big step!
Also today, Salem finished up her IV antibiotics, and we have her here in the room with us! You can see her getting her bath tonight in one of the pics – no, we didn’t give her that haircut! They had to shave both sides of her head for the various IVs….but I It is really great to have herJdon’t know, I might like the Mohawk look! here. Keely is so excited about being able to have her close all the time when I leave, and finally having the opportunity to dress her up in some of the cute clothes she brought.
Again, we cannot thank you all enough for how much support you have given us. We continue to pray that Salem will do nothing but improve and grow strong over the next few weeks, and that Keely and I will grow as godly parents who raise her to love her Lord and those around her. And tonight we especially pray that the Lord will return to you the abundant blessing you have given to us through your kindness and care.
October 30, 2006
Today was another day of improvement with Salem’s health. If all goes according to plan, she will finish up her IV antibiotics on Wednesday, and be able to leave the clinic (hopefully for good this time!). She continues to have a great appetite, and when she was weighed today, she had gained 2/3 of a pound in two weeks – almost another 10% gain in weight—for a total of 3.6 kgs (7.92 pounds)! We are so grateful for this. The more weight she can put on, the stronger she’ll be against further infection. I decided to stay on here until Friday, Nov.3rd. I was scheduled to leave this past Sunday, Oct.29th, but with Salem still on IV antibiotics, and Keely not yet able to have her in her care, I felt it was best to stay with them. This way, I’ll be able to see Salem finish up her antibiotics, and help Keely get situated with her while the two of them wait for the court processing to finish up. Today (Monday), I was so glad that I stayed – nothing replaces being with the two of them! If I can leave Friday knowing that Salem is off the IV, and settled with Keely in her room, I think we’ll all be able to make it a little better.
I’ve attached a couple of pictures I took of Salem sleeping…the top of her head is not in the picture, b/c JI wanted the pics to be “sans” IV…so I tried to make them somewhat artistic. She is so cute when she sleeps, it’s crazy!
We love you all. We are forever indebted to each of you for your prayers on our behalf, and your constant support. We continue to be humbled by the Lord’s abundant faithfulness and kindness to us throughout this process. He is so very present in our weakness.
“But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.” 2 Corinthians 12.9
October 28, 2006
Hi, everyone! Thank you SO much for your many MANY prayers on our behalf! There is NOTHING like the power of prayer, and we are thrilled to tell you that not only are we feeling Peace as a product of your praying, but our sweet baby girl is showing some marked improvements!! Amen and AMEN!! With these 2 new antibiotics, Salem Yimegnushal is showing continued strength! The doctors want to ontinue to keep her on these 2 iv medicines for 4 more days (for a total of 14 days) and after that they plan to release her to us. The doctors continue to be impressed with her increasing muscle mass, and they seem pleased with her continued growth….we will get an updated weight on Monday. If she continues to do this well over the next 24 hours, Joshua plans to return home tomorrow to tie up several loose ends before returning to bring us home.
We have tried to petition both the US Embassy and the Ethiopian courts to speed the process up, but it does not look like we will be home any sooner than 3.5 weeks. Still, if she continues to improve, that is much more tolerable. The most difficult part about staying here is when she is so sick and we are so helpless. As long as she continues to do well, we feel ok about that timeline.
It’s been a while since we’ve sent pictures, so we’re attaching a few here.
In no particular order, these include
-some donkeys carrying hay
-some cattle on the street
-our daily walk past the UN truck
We are so grateful to God for His healing hand on our precious little girl. We cannot thank you enough for all of you r prayers and love!
October 26, 2006
We cannot thank you enough for the amazing support you continue to offer us. Your prayers and words of encouragement really do carry us through each day here.We are very grateful that Salem already appears to have responded well to some new IV antibiotics. It looks like her fever has broken and she is keeping her formula down well. The next 2 days or so will be crucial to indicating how well she will be able to fight off some of these new medical issues. Keely and I spent the morning at the US Embassy trying to figure out if we might be able to expedite the adoption process, so that we can get Salem to some great medical care in the U.S. The Embassy offered to process her visa very quickly once the court process was completed on the Ethiopian side of things, but right now it looks like the Ethiopian courts aren’t going to move much quicker for us than we originally anticipated (3-4 weeks from now). We’re headed to get some sleep. This continues to be a roller-coaster – thank you all for hanging so tightly with the 3 of us!
October 25. 2006
This morning when we arrived to be with Salem, she was asleep. Within 15-20 minutes of our arrival, she began vomiting. She spiked a fever of 102.6 and has in the last hour had blood and diarrhea--all of this despite this being her 6th day on 2 different iv antibiotics. We are doing everything we can for her, but we are counting on your prayers most of all.
We know that our God cares for Salem and knows everything about her...even down to the number of hairs on her tiny head (they are fewer today after they shaved part of her head yesterday to make room for the iv). We also know that God sometimes elects to call His children home- before we want Him to.
October 24, 2006
Sorry it has been a few days since our last update. We’ve been going pretty hard here and the only thing we want to do is fall asleep when we get in for the night!
Praise be to God that Salem continues to improve. It seems like each day she has a little more energy. She had a minor setback last night with some vomiting and a little diarrhea, and we were scared the infection might be returning, but it seems to have cleared up quickly. Also last night her I.V. hand and arm began to swell significantly, causing her a lot of discomfort, but they have switched the I.V. to her head. Though we hate that this is the 3rd time they’ve had to change her I.V. site, it seems like this is the best spot yet, and it won’t have to be changed again. Other than that, she seems to be improving every day. She is eating so well, and she definitely lets us know when she’s hungry for more! She’s getting back to her big, gummy grin, kicking her legs and swinging her arms when she gets excited (that is, when daddy lays down a beat and he and mommy act like total clowns).
We did have sort of a run-in with the clinic staff today. We have been really grateful for their prayers and care for Salem, but recently they have been very quick to tell us how incorrectly we are doing this or that, and how much we have to learn about children, etc. We really have been trying to follow exactly what the doctor has ordered. He seems to be saying one thing to us, and they have a different idea of what should happen. Anyway, it came to a head today, but that provided an opportunity to “clear the air” and move forward. Probably a good thing overall – in such a stressful situation, language and cultural barriers are inevitably going to clash. Today was it, and it could have been much worse!
Thank you all so much for continuing to lift up our little girl (and us) in prayer. Jesus continues to show himself in many ways, and is causing us to rest more deeply in his abiding love.
October 20, 2006
Keely and I just got back from the clinic where Salem is being treated. We thank you all so very much for your constant prayers. It is incredible to get your emails of love and encouragement – we are forever indebted to each of you for caring so deeply for our little girl, and for us. In the past 12 hours of being on antibiotics, Salem’s diarrhea has cleared up somewhat, and best of all, no bloody diapers for the past 4 changes. We’re not out of the woods yet, but if she continues to do as well as she has today, we feel confident that she will have a great recovery over the next week. We praise and thank our good Lord for these improvements, and ask that he would continue to heal her sweet little body. And the staff at the clinic has done a wonderful job – we can’t thank them enough. This has been a hard day. We’re pretty exhausted, and don’t really know how to process all of this….maybe just by heading to bed for the time being. We go to sleep knowing we are held up by your prayers before our God. “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness” Ex.34.6
October 20, 2006
Last night while we were enjoying Salem with us, she was doing phenomenally well. Then all of a sudden in the middle of the night, she started to have some diarrhea, and she began to have some blood mixed with her stool. We immediately rushed her to the clinic. They gave us some medicine and sent us home. After we came home, she began vomiting and had 2 more bloody diapers. We raced back to the emergency clinic, and she was admitted with iv fluids to prevent dehydration. Since that time, she has also received a feeding tube, although we are not currently using it because she is sucking well (albeit slower than usual). She has run a low grade fever for most of the day. She is on 2 antibiotics (for the 4th time in 6 weeks), and they seem to be helping a little—there is less blood in her diapers this afternoon.
This news is especially difficult, since yesterday the orphanage lost one of its precious, infant girls to the exact same type of infection. The resemblance of the cases is very disturbing.
We know that God is good and that He loves our little girl even more than we do. We are so grateful that we are both here with her, but as you might imagine, we are extremely concerned about our baby girl.
We are so grateful for your continuing prayers. Please keep it up!
October 19, 2006
By popular demand, we’ve taken some pictures of some sights on our daily walk from the guest house to the care center. Although after tonight, we don’t have to walk anymore!!! They have released Salem Yimegnushal to our care, so she’s staying with us now in our room!!!! Since coming here just 4 hours ago, she has sucked down TWO 110 ml bottles, gone through 3 messy diapers, and had a bath! She’s on a ROLL! And she’s an absolute delight! We are so in love with this little girl and we can’t wait for all of you to meet her too.
In no particular order we’ve attached pictures of the following:
-the local Pool house/internet café (the green building) 1 block from the guest house
-White girl in the middle- I stick out like a sore thumb here, but I was having a ball playing patty-cake at a local school today. I was taking mental notes of some of the girls’ hairstyles. They were awesome!
-Haile Selassie’s throne—ok, so this one is NOT on our daily walk. It was taken in the national museum.
- laundry day at the Care Center (every day is laundry day, all washed by hand, of course)
Highlights from today:
-Talking to Granddaddy Pitts—Yimegnushal’s first telephone call. She LOVED the sound of his voice!! I put the cell phone up to her ear so granddaddy Pitts could talk to her, and she promptly burped a loud greeting to him!
-Bath time- our first bath….she’s getting so big already! What a difference 6 days makes!
October 18, 2006
Another wonderful day here in Addis Ababa with our little girl…for the first part of the day, Salem was a bit fussy – we think she had an upset stomach. But later this afternoon, after polishing off her bottle 30 minutes early, she was in the mood to play, and we had a blast. It really seems like she is getting stronger daily – all of the nannies, nurses, and doctors are excited to see how well she is doing. You can check out a couple of her “gummy” grins in the pics… also check out the local Home Depot. It’s right around the corner from the guest house.
Tonight we went to dinner at a traditional Ethiopian restaurant with a wonderful man named Tesfaye. He works with the orphanage here, and is engaged to an American woman who recently adopted (long, cool story behind that). We know him through the women to whom he is engaged – Keely has become friends with her on the adoption forum. Anyway, it was an INCREDIBLE dinner, with about 2 hours of traditional Ethiopian dancing and music performed by an awesome group of musicians and dancers. We have loved all of the food so far, and tonight was a special treat! The coffee here is unbelievable (for those of you who don’t know, as I didn’t, Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee) – I’m not much of a coffee drinker, but I drink it at every meal now, black with a teaspoon of sugar.
Well, we love you all and continue to be grateful for your love and support.
October 17, 2006
Today has been another wonderful day with Yimegnushal. She is so beautiful! She’s continuing to eat well, and everyone there thinks she’s putting on some good weight…especially in her cheeks, which we’re so excited about! She LOVES to play with her hands and to touch the faces of her daddy and mommy! We’ve attached a few pics of that. We’ve also attached a picture of one of our favorite nannies, Misrac, who is holding Yimegnushal. She is a wonderful care giver and has helped us in so many ways! The best news of all is that if she continues to improve over the next couple of days, we have reason to believe that she might be released to us for Josh’s final days here with us.
In a miraculous turn of events, we happened to eat dinner tonight at a table with some dignitaries from the southern region of Ethiopia, where Salem was born. Amazingly, we were able to figure out that the very man who named Yimegnushal was sitting with us at the dinner table. After dinner we were able to ask him a few questions, which has given us even more information. A lot more specifics than we had previously had. And best of all, we got it ALL ON FILM!! It was a gift straight from God—as if we needed any more this week—a week already SO full of bereket (blessing).
Some funny things that have happened since being here:
-a couple of encounters with Brahma bulls. They roam the streets freely and frequently halt traffic. See Josh provoking one of them today.
-we were talking to the nannies today about another nanny whom I was trying to locate with a greeting from another family. The nannies told me, “she’s underground.” I thought they meant she died, but apparently they meant, “she’s in the basement.” Funny what gets lost in translation.
-projectile vomiting (of the babies). Ok maybe not so funny really, but never having seen it before, it has made us laugh…especially trying to leap out of the way before we get a shower.
October 16, 2006
Ok here are a few small pics. The women in the picture with me are 2 of the 3 doctors who are on staff at the care center. Can’t you tell how much they love the babies? The doctor on the right, Dr. Frehwot (sp?) is especially wonderful! She is so pleased to see Yimegnushal making so many improvements!
I also love the picture of Josh (in the blue button down) holding her. Notice the drool stain on his shirt! Doesn’t look like he cares too much! We were a little dressier yesterday, because we had gone to church—it was a church that some friends had recommended called the International Evangelical church. It was wonderful. We were two of maybe 500 people, 450 of whom were Ethiopian. VERY cool!
I know we’re probably driving everyone NUTS with updates right now, so just ignore the proud parents. It helps to write home when we’re half a world away—although wherever Yimegnushal is is home to us now.
October 16, 2006
Ok, here’s a little window into our world these days..
Things with Salem are amazing. we spend pretty much all day every day pouring formula down her (8 feedings of 110 ml each day). it's difficult to get her to finish everything, and by the end of each 3 hour shift i am convinced she won't finish on time (she usually doesn't). i still really wish that they would release her to us, but they think she is too fragile, which we understand! out of each day, they give us between 6-8 hours with her (if we can go to the evening shift). if there's no driver around, we are not allowed to go after dinner to see her.
Yimegnushal's smile is the cutest thing i have ever seen. she loves us both and doesn't like it when other people take her out of our arms. she's such a fighter, and she weighed in at 3.3 kgs today (up from 3 kgs 2 weeks ago, despite the staph infection/dehydration week). the doctor told us today that she is already really improving with us here. her cheeks are filling out and she plays with her hands a lot. she loves to play with the giraffe rattle that we put over her wrist sometimes. she NEVER cries on the changing table, although she did get grumpy today because she doesn't want to go to sleep while we are there but she gets so tired. sometimes she will fall asleep when we hold her. I love singing “Amazing Grace” or “Jesus Loves You” to her. Josh loves singing “There’s a Fountain” to her.
October 15, 2006
I’m fading pretty fast, so this one might be shorter than last night’s. But, suffice it to say that it was again a wonderful day with Salem! She fed pretty well again, and it seemed like she interacted with us even more today – playing with our hands and faces with her tiny fingers, cooing, and smiling all the time. It was awesome. I’ve attached a picture of her smiling…though this definitely is not her biggest smile.
Since Keely is going to be here for quite some time, we wanted to attend a local church we heard about so we could check it out and see if it might be somewhere she could go regularly and find a supportive community. I think she will end up going there, though we might check out one other one. It was a very cool congregation and had a beautiful mix of ethnicities.
Most of the time Keely and I walk to the Care Center from the guest house where we are staying. It is about a 13-15 minute walk along a main stretch of road. I have dubbed it “the walk of shame,” because we feel such intense shame as we pass the hundreds of poverty-stricken men, women, and children on the side of the road. The need is overwhelming. It’s just not supposed to be this way. At the same time, it is so convicting to see the joy in the faces of the nannies at the care center, most of whom are themselves poor and travel an hour and a half every day on a rickety bus to care for these children, all the while communicating incredible faith in the Lord’s goodness. Somehow my idea of “goodness” seems so different from theirs – and I find myself wanting to imbibe their definition.
We miss you all, and are so grateful that you take the time to read these emails and that you want to be a part of this with us!
October 14, 2006
I was about to write you all an email about today’s events, but I had already written a journal entry, so I think I’ll just put that down, if you’ll bear a little with the stream of consciousness (I’ve changed it a little to make it more communicable). I think Keely emailed earlier today, so if you’re tired of emails from us, don’t worry about reading this right now!
Journal entry: 10/14/06
I am overwhelmed with gratitude. It was a wonderful (that word sounds so trite right now) day with Salem Yimegnushal. We were able to connect with her on so many levels – we fed her, rocked her, made faces and silly sounds to her, changed her diapers, cloths, and put her to bed praying for her. We learned a little more about her world, simultaneously so alike and so different from ours at home. The sweetest moments came when she smiled up at us in response to our attempts to care for her. Her top little lip sticks out when she smiles, and a mouth full of pink gums greets you and makes you feel like you never need anything else good to happen to you. When I hold her, the world melts away; every little breath of hers seems like a life-altering gift from God, every suck of the bottle a chance to give him thanks and be humbled by his merciful love. She indeed is a beauty to behold, and her eyes seem to penetrate into your inmost being. I was so dang proud of her today – three times she finished off all of her formula and held it all down (though it’s funny how it eventually comes out the other end, and I’m somewhat less prone to get excited about that – though, weird as it may sound, I actually did get excited about that at one point today, b/c I knew her little body was working well!). She is head over heals for her mom already – I’m gonna have some serious competition! It was astounding to see Salem’s whole body relax when Keely took her into her arms – I knew I made a dang good choice when I married that girl, but I didn’t know how good until now. And talk about an easy baby – she didn’t break out into a full-blown cry all day or evening – she cried a little during her bath, and whimpered a tiny bit when her diaper needed changing (hey, who wouldn’t?!), or when she was hungry (I think I still do that). We may be in for rougher days, which would be fine, but today she made it feel easy. We got into a bit of trouble for staying too late at the care center where she is, but it was worth it to have a little extra time with her. Time for bed. Thank you, Lord, for showing kindness to our little girl, and to us. Amen.
October 14, 2006
We could hardly eat breakfast this morning because we were so excited about seeing Salem! After breakfast we drove down to the orphanage from the care center (about a 3-4 minute drive). As the guards opened the gate, I could hardly breathe! We were in the compound AT LAST! The director’s wife showed us all around and then took us upstairs past the toddlers on the lower level to the nurseries. Yimegnushal was in Room 4. She was tucked into her crib watching the world—eyes wide open and searching when we got there. She was the smallest baby by far of the 6 in the room. She is the tiniest baby I’ve ever seen---and as adorable as her picture. I began to weep knowing that God had spared her life over and over again and had allowed us to be with her today. Josh was filming with the camera at the time.
As the nannies placed her in his arms, she wrapped her fingers around Josh’s. At that moment, one of the doctors came in to meet us. She explained that Yimegnushal’s bloodwork had come back yesterday and revealed that she had had a very serious staph infection last week. Thankfully the infection was sensitive to the antibiotics that they had administered. They believe the infection is gone, and Yimegnushal is feeling much better. She is on a very specific formula for malnourishment—they had to beg UNICEF to give them this highly specialized formula in order to care for her. They told us that she was so sick last week that they needed to take her to the hospital, but they feared she would succumb to more infections if she were admitted to hospital, so they decided to get the formula and care for her in their medical center. For that we are extremely grateful! Her infection is gone, and she smiles whenever we talk with her. The doctors have told us that they do not want to release her to our care yet until she shows some more improvement. Of course, we are sad that she will not be with us, but we are so grateful that she is improving! She loves the sound of her daddy’s voice already, and when he walks away, her eyes follow him across the room. She likes me too and smiled a lot when I make kissie noises. We left her sound asleep in her crib to grab some lunch and will return there very soon to be with her some more.
She really is the daughter of our dreams. We cannot WAIT for you all to meet her. We’re attaching a couple of pictures here.
Please continue to pray for her continued health and growth. She has a long road of recovery ahead, and it makes me nervous for her to be in the room with 5 other babies, at least 2 of whom are coughing. Please pray that we can communicate well with the nannies and that we can communicate our thanks and love to all who have cared so well for Yimegnushal. She is feeding on 3 hour cycles. 110 ml every 3 hours. When we were there she fed on and off the whole time and finished her first round of formula a little early. Please pray that she continues to feed well so that they might release her to our care.
Thursday, October 12th
Signing off from the airport Holiday Inn
We are thrilled to be leaving DC in a few short hours headed for SALEM!! Before we left, I wanted to thank everyone again for checking the website and for all of the love and prayers that you have offered us...and especially Salem while she has been so sick. We are so grateful for you all!
I also wanted to post these words of Joshua's. He wrote them last week and has been reluctant to post them, but I think they are wonderful! Please keep reading below.
A Seminarian's reflections on beginning fatherhood…
Since the day Keely and I received the one, beautiful picture of our daughter whom we are adopting from Ethiopia, my mind and heart have been searching for categories by which I can begin to comprehend the myriad of emotions I have experienced. Never before did I imagine that I could feel such depth of love, strength of bond, and deep longing for another person other than Keely, or the desire to hold, protect, and care for another as I do now for Salem. But the moment my gaze fell upon Salem Yimenushal Aklilu Leim (is that the coolest name ever, or what?!) my world was turned upside down and inside out.
And so, being a seminary student, and loving theology, both biblical and systematic, the way I think about my world is through the grid of those disciplines. Seminary is incredible, but sometimes here I tend to live the majority of my life in the cognitive realm of academia, forgetting what it looks like to integrate that knowledge into daily, Christ-like living. Through this adoption experience, I have already found afresh the reality that God never intends for us to compartmentalize our lives into separate worlds of thinking, feeling, and willing (cognition, affection, and volition), but rather, that our lives are a beautiful narrative, integrating all three areas, woven together by a wise and poetic Author. My theological categories for understanding the Fatherhood of God, for example, and his role as Protector and Redeemer of his own, which I have cherished for years in my own life, have come rushing more fully and profoundly into my heart. Gazing at the picture of my newborn daughter in Ethiopia, I began to experience the reality of the Father's longing for his people to come home to him, and for them to "taste and see" that He is good, even as I long for Salem to be in her safe, warm nursery here in our home, away from the dangers and sickness of her hurting world. And I began to feel, albeit on an infinitesimally miniscule scale, a father's broken heart at his child's suffering – the Father looking on his Son's battered and broken body, my eyes gazing at an all-too-scary medical report.
Even my understanding of Scripture has been expanded. In seminary, we often speak of Scripture as "Redemptive History," or Historia salutis (the history of salvation) - the work of God in history to redeem his people and creation, culminating in the life and work of Christ. When I saw Salem's face, "redemptive history" became much more than a category for comprehending the nature of the unified narrative which is Scripture, but quickly became the paradigm by which I understood the fragile, young journey of my daughter whom a tender God had redeemed from death, and was bringing into the land of promise (not America, but our family under God's covenant love and grace) by way of an arduous path through the wilderness of low birth weight, infection, and undernourishment. I am beginning to hold to the doctrine of the incarnation with greater tenacity, not only as a beautiful way of understanding the two natures of our Lord united in one person, but also in awe that the King of all creation would subject himself to the frailties of a helpless babe entering a broken, wrecked world, just like my daughter in all of her neediness. And even the Trinity (if I don't go too far), is becoming "more solid" to me (to borrow a phrase from C.S. Lewis) – for it feels as though that glorious union of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, sustained by their humble, self-giving, other-glorifying love (John 17), is overflowing into my broken, sinful heart as I reflect on my new family and want only the very best for it.
Those are just some of my thoughts recently, and I'm only beginning to wrestle with all the ways God has been revealing himself to us through this process, and how he is calling us to be more like him as a result of this journey. I hope all of this isn't too ethereal for some of you, or heterodox for others. It is simply the way in which my mind and heart have processed the past few weeks as Keely and I have rejoiced in the arrival of our daughter, and exulted in the bountiful goodness of our King. "Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts" Ps.105.2
Wednesday, October 11th
A Hitch
We arrived at the United desk this morning at 4 AM for our 6 AM departure. (Brandon and Cheryl are the BEST for driving us to the airport so early! They definitely get the gold star award). When we arrived, they informed us that our flight had been canceled. No chance to make it to our connection in DC on Ethiopian Air before it flew out. So now we're in DC for the next day and a half (until Thursday night) to allow PLENTY of time to make our flight tomorrow. The GREAT news is that we can get on a flight tomorrow night. The dumpy news is that it will cost Joshua 2 priceless days with Salem. I threw a serious tantrum this morning, but we're doing much better now. We're trying to use this time to learn some more Amharic before we leave tomorrow. It's always a good thing to have time with Joshua. We're just so sad we are missing out on Salem during this time.
For what it's worth, I will say that I have never seen such TERRIBLE service as we had with United today--no sympathy, no attempt to help us check the status of our ET-bound flight. We had hoped that we would be able to make it if it was delayed for any reason. I would urge anyone who has to fly to AVOID UNITED at ALL COSTS (if at all possible)!
Love to all and thank you so much for your continued prayers.
Saturday, October 7th
And, we're OFF!!!!!
Late yesterday we heard the wonderful news that we have been waiting for. God has answered our prayers and yours to allow us to travel early to be with our little girl. We will be able to travel on Wednesday!!!!!! For the past 24 hours we have been running around like CRAZY trying to get everything we need for Keely to be there with Salem for up to 10 weeks (just in case). We certainly hope we'll all be home much sooner than that, but a girl's gotta be prepared! Even before we knew, we were running back and forth to Target and Babies R Us trying to buy all the bottles, diapers, formula, and 0-3 month clothes known to MAN! Here are a couple of shots of it all. :-)
This is what we bought and washed with Dreft (our first load) today. Josh carefully washed and folded all of these while I was at the retreat.
Already the wonderful papa, Joshua boiled all these bottle nipples and washed all the bottles on the antibacterial setting. I sure hope we have enough!
Thursday, October 5th
Walking Through the Valley
Last night we received a very distressing report regarding Salem's condition. We are continuing to pursue flying early, but unfortunately that's still more than 2 weeks away. We are in a word, distraught. The night was difficult. Honestly, the morning isn't much better. It's extremely hard not to be with our daughter right now.
Even though I don't feel like singing, I have the Ginny Owens song, "If You Want Me To" in my head right now, so I've decided to post the lyrics below. As always, we remain so grateful for your prayers.
"If You Want Me To"
Ginny Owens
The pathway is broken And The signs are unclear
And I don't know the reason why You brought me here
But just because You love me the way that You do
I'm gonna walk through the valley If You want me to
Chorus: Cause I'm not who I was When I took my first step
And I'm clinging to the promise You're not through with me yet
so if all of these trials bring me closer to you
Then I will go through the fire If You want me to
It may not be the way I would have chosen
When you lead me through a world that's not my home
But You never said it would be easy You only said I'd never go alone
So When the whole world turns against me And I'm all by myself
And I can't hear You answer my cries for help I'll remember the suffering
Your love put You through And I will go through the valley If You want me to
When I cross over Jordan, I'm gonna sing, gonna shout
I'm gonna look into Your eyes and see You never let me down
So take me on the pathway that will lead me home to You
And I will walk through the valley If You want me to
Yes, I will walk through the valley If You want me to
Tuesday, October 3rd
Still no updates, but we have Peace
While there are still no updates from Ethiopia on Salem, we are resting in the sovereignty of God and in the prayers of his saints (YOU)! We have felt the love and prayers of so many and are convinced that is the only way we are so at peace right now. We have learned that our bear and our photo album are with Salem (or at least at the care center). So at least part of us is with her—we hope that will be a comfort as she too waits.
We are busy making travel arrangements and have been so blessed by an Ethiopian friend of ours who has given us tremendous help in this area! His name is Yosef, and he has been incredible!
While we have waited, we have been “showered” by my best friends from college, and that was an overwhelming experience. So much love for our little girl (and for us). And there will be another shower next weekend that my dearest friends here are putting together. These tender mercies have been such wonderful surprises! My heart is so full!
Philippians 4:6-7 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
We had so much fun at the Farmer's Market together on Saturday. We enjoyed freshly-made kettle corn and fresh squeezed lemonade and looked at all the flowers and fruits.
The girls TOTALLY suprised me with this shower!
All the banditas were involved (even from afar), and I have never felt so loved!
Check out this AWESOME diaper bag all the girls bought for me. And the diaper cloths that Corey's mom made, and the album that the girls made for me! It encouraged my SOUL!
Ash sent a onsie with "Little Bandita" on the front. We're starting her early!
AB knitted these socks and this adorable hat for Salem. I LOVE the color, and they are so soft! This precious little dog from Erin's mom wanted to wear AB's fun socks and hat for the picture until Salem (blurry in the background) can wear them herself!
This was the way we were welcomed to dinner by our friends. It was such a surprise!
Here we are posing with our friends. It was a wonderful night!
Can you tell how happy we are????
Adam (far left) had just won the game we played called, "Liar!" with some Mexican dice. He was celebrating his victory. He won the last piece of peanut butter cake to take home, but I think that his wife Beth is an exceptional liar too! Thank you guys for such a wonderful evening!!
Friday, September 8th
THE CALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At 3:30 p.m. Josh received a call at home from Lindsay at CHSFS. She said "Well, I have some news for you guys." Josh started freaking out, then he called me from his cell phone to tell me to come home. I raced home not knowing anything about her. Her name is Yimegnushal Aklilu. She was born on July 7, 2006. She is the most beautiful baby girl I have EVER seen!!! We love her so much already and cannot WAIT to hold her!!
Monday, September 4th
A banner for the baby
Well, I did my best at matching some of these animals to the baby bedding. Erin added her wonderful handwriting to the banner to make it complete. It was such fun to do! Now all we need is our sweet baby! :-)
Tuesday, August 15th
One Month More
As if it wasn't already, the countdown is officially ON! We have one month until the wonderful day when the phone rings and our social worker tells us, "We have a baby for you!" We have it on good authority that our baby has actually been at the care center for some time, so we cannot WAIT to receive that call to tell us who she is. We can't get to her soon enough! Keep checking back. September 15th is very close! Josh's birthday is 2 days prior to that, so it would make a wonderful birthday present for that phonecall to come a couple of days early.
Saturday, August 5th
A Wedding in Memphis
This weekend we attended the wedding of my dear friend Ashley from Rhodes. She married a wonderful guy named Alex, and he is an excellent complement to her passion and brains! It was so much fun to see the Rhodes girls again. I have missed them all so much!
Wednesday, August 2nd
Nursery!
Tonight was the PERFECT night for dad and Josh and me to begin pulling the nursery together…tearing down the guest bed, screwing the crib together. In a matter of a couple of hours, we have a functional nursery. It’s beautiful. Thanks for the light dimmer, Dad!
Tuesday, August 1st
Fiesta
Tonight we had a fun fiesta with some friends. Despite appearances to the contrary, it was a last minute affair– mom just has a good touch with decorating to make it look like we planned the whole thing. Having mom and dad here was a good excuse for a party. SO fun!
Monday, July 31st
Christmas in July?!
Josh and I flew home for the weekend. Jacob deploys to Iraq next month, so we decided to have a “Christmas in July” for him since he won’t be home at Christmastime. Jacob, Summer, and Kristin were all there, so it really did feel like a “tender Tennessee Christmas” (minus the snow).
As an extra bonus, I got to see 2 beautiful babies that I love while I was there. I saw my favorite nephew, Elijah, who is as handsome as ever. I think he’s looking more and more like Cary, but so many of his expressions are unmistakably Jenn’s. He is a delight!
And I saw the beautiful Aubrey Kay, who I could not believe is cutting teeth AND pulling herself up. She’s so strong and beautiful–just like her momma.
After family Christmas, we were so happy to go to the Tim McGraw/Faith Hill concert, where Paul was drumming (check him out just behind and to the left of Faith). What a weekend!
Thursday, July 27th
Our Anniversary
Today we are celebrating 4 wonderful years of marriage, and I can honestly say I am more in love with Josh than I have ever been. This anniversary is so special to us, because it is our last before our little one arrives. We are so grateful for these years!
Tuesday, July 18th
Amanpour’s Report
Ok…usually I would reserve comments like this for the news link on the blog, but that part isn’t working, so here’s a link to a wonderful article I read this morning. By wonderful, I don’t mean “happy,” but sincere, significant, and convicting. It cites numbers that are overwhelming to read, but it gives some scope to the tragedy of AIDS in Africa. There’s also a very moving link to photographs of some of the most vulnerable children in Africa.
Monday, July 17th
2 months more
I love the Les Miserables song ”One Day More.” Unfortunately, we’re not singing that song today. But we are eagerly looking forward to September 15th when we receive a call that says, ”We have your baby here.” That’s the day that we will become parents….just 2 days after Josh’s birthday. Hopefully we will travel within a couple of weeks from that date to go meet our sweet little girl. 8-10 weeks after getting the call, we will be able to bring her home….sometime around Thanksgiving. Not a bad way to give thanks!
Monday, July 10th
Hope against hope
Unfortunately, we have not received our referral yet. Every day we don’t receive it means that we’re one day closer to the courts closing (Aug. 1st). I can’t lie. We were really hoping we would have some wonderful news to announce by this point. Still, we are surrendering our trust every day to the One who already knows our baby better than we ever will.
Thanks for all the wonderful support and love! If we haven’t announced anything by Friday, we will not receive our referral prior to Sept. 15th. Unfortunately, we cannot get a clear answer about what to expect from our agency, so we continue to hope, but not to expect.
Thursday, July 6th
Could Today be the DAY???
It is very possible that in the next day or so we could receive our referral for our precious Salem. Please stand by for updates. It is a most exciting journey, and as you might imagine, we are TOTALLY shocked that we might receive a referral for her today…especially since over a month ago, the agency told us they would not give us a referral until the Ethiopian courts reopened on September 15th.
If we do not receive a referral in the next couple of days, we will not receive one until September 15th. Either way, we rest confidently in the plan of our strong God.
Monday, June 5th
A New Policy–and its translation
This weekend we received confirmation that we will not receive a referral prior to September 15th due to a couple of new policies. I guess we should have been prepared for some setbacks like this. It will mean we will not be able to travel prior to the middle of November or early December to get Salem–a delay of 3 months at least. We have been really ok with the whole thing, but despite not having any breakdowns about it, I am noticing that my already short fuse is a little shorter. I guess our hope of traveling in August was way too optimistic! Still, without being too Pollyanna-ish, I know that God’s plan is good for us.
I have taken comfort in these words from John 14:18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:18
Obviously, this is Christ talking to his own, but I take comfort in this verse on 3 levels:
1. that He has not left us as orphans
2. that He will not leave our children as orphans
3. that we can shout across the ocean to our own that we will not leave her as an orphan, that we will come to her–however far away that feels to us now.
Sunday, May 21st
Blessed beyond belief
Today we do not have enough words to thank God. We attended Christ Community Church this morning, and of all things, the service was on adoption. Scott Roley preached an incredible sermon that had us weeping throughout the whole service. It was so beautiful and such a profound encouragement to our hearts. If you are interested, check out the sermon audio through this link (http://www.christcommunityaudio.org/sermons.htm) and click on the MP3 or WPM link beside May 21st to listen to the sermon.
Saturday, May 20th
But it’s such a LITTLE bathroom…it should be so EASY
Famous last words. Today we took on Jeanie’s downstairs bathroom. Hours and hours of stripping wallpaper, some conversation I wouldn’t trade for ANYTHING, and a labor of love, and it’s official. Jeanie has the most BEAUTIFUL bathroom, complete with Venitian plaster on the walls and bead board (yet to be antiqued). Jeanie, thanks for letting me join in on the fun.
Wednesday, May 17th
Jenn’s 30th Bday
Well, this was definitely the highlight of my year! Jenn’s 30th birthday, and it was a surprise! I got to take care of Elijah (who, by the way is the CUTEST baby in the WORLD) in the morning and then surprised Jenn for a birthday lunch. When we had some time left over, she MADE me go in the nursery store across the street. I resisted, but she claimed birthday privileges and then proceeded to buy Salem this adorable swim suit and cover up. Hip hip HOORAY for cousins!
Friday, May 12th
Back to Babies R Us we go
This time with a little money in hand. Thanks to a wonderful gift from someone we love dearly, we were able to stock up on a few items. SO FUN! Check out this picture of Josh…I had to sneak it in the store–this is the glider that he’s in love with.
Wednesday, May 10th
Dressing up the Dresser
Yesterday I began a new project…our first for the nursery! I began sanding and painting an old garage sale dresser that needed a total make-over. Tonight I completed the project! I painted the base coat a deep sea foam green and sponged it with a very light green on top. The only sea sponge I had in the house was one we got on our honeymoon nearly 4 years ago. As my mom likes to say, “I love it when things come full circle!” Now the dresser looks adorable and matches the nursery bedding. I think the week after next we can begin pulling the nursery together in earnest!
Meanwhile, it is looking like our travel projection of August might be a little premature. The deadline for being able to travel at that time is July 1. If we accept a referral by that date, the adoption paperwork can be completed before the summer court closures in Ethiopia, and we can travel within 8 weeks of accepting the referral. If the referral comes after July 1, we will have to wait 2 months before the courts reopen and 2 additional months until we travel. We are so grateful for your prayers!
Tuesday, May 9th
A Shot Today Keeps the Yellow Fever Away
Today we rolled up our sleeves and got a series of vaccinations. Meningitis, Typhoid, Yellow Fever- a grand total of $520 (yikes)! But well worth the price to keep us healthy when we travel. The good news is that Hep A & B last forever, and we’ve had those already, so we didn’t have to get them again.
And for the curious among you, we are getting MUCH closer to an actual referral–according to my list, we are as close as 4th in line for a little girl, which means we could travel as early as AUGUST!
Saturday, April 29th
A Walk in the Park, and our FIRST RALLY
Today has been a full day…so exciting! This afternoon we joined several Central Florida families who are adopting (or have adopted) from Ethiopia. We had so much fun playing with the kids in the park. They were so beautiful! It is a wonderful resource to have other families who have been through the process so close to us. As you might imagine, they are such a comfort to us-and they answer all of our questions!
Then this evening we attended a rally to honor the “invisible children” of Northern Uganda. Their story, like so many in Africa, is one of desperation. Beginning in 1986, children as young as 5, many of them orphaned by the AIDS epidemic, had been abducted by the rebel group Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), according to the United Nations.
These children have been turned into fighters, porters and sex slaves, the UN says. Those who resisted were brutalized (stories of ears or noses sliced off are not uncommon), or killed. Thousands of children walk miles every night to giant sets of cages, where they lock themselves in to avoid being targets of the rebel Lord’s Resistence Army. The children make this journey twice daily. There were hundreds of people at the rally…mainly younger than us. At one point we all gathered in a field and spelled the words “Peace in Uganda!” Josh and I formed the tip of the N in UgaNda, so as soon as we find the photo on the web, I’ll be sure to post it here.
Monday, April 24th
A Blessing of Breakfast
Today we were so blessed to be able to meet with one of the families that I have gotten to know through our agency’s online forum. Their names are Sarah and Jeff, and we have been emailing back and forth for several weeks now. They came down to Orlando from Wisconsin for a wedding, and Josh and I were able to meet them (and their 2 beautiful sons). We had a wonderful breakfast at Panera. Their son Seth (3) blessed the meal and prayed that Nemo would be safe and that “the fish killer would not do anything bad to him like shake him in a bag.” From start to finish, it was a delight!
Their story is amazing. Seth is their biological son, and Thaddeus is their son through adoption. They brought Thad home in January from Ethiopia. He had the most adorable temperament! Despite having a bad cough, he was all smiles. He fell asleep in Josh’s arms while he was taking his bottle. Josh is such a natural!
Wednesday, April 19th
The Wait
It has been almost a full month since we’ve been waiting. It really has gone by so fast (so far). Last week there were a bunch of people in our agency who received referrals of babies, so that was VERY exciting. It’s hard to believe that every day brings us one day closer to her. I am SO glad the days of paperchasing are over and that we can be content to wait until our day arrives–being OUT of control is so much nicer than feeling like I can control any part of this process.
Saturday, April 1st
Boys and Guns
So today we had to run an errand to Babies R Us, and while we were there (it’s forever away from where we live), we decided to register! Josh had so much fun with the barcode gun scanning the different items. There was a lot of stuff we couldn’t register for yet, since we don’t know how old our baby will be when she comes home. As soon as we know that, we will register for more. Until then, it’s fun actually picking out towels for her. Josh’s favorite item is the JEEP jogging stroller. He thinks it’s awesome. There’s nothing about jogging that’s awesome to me, but it made me smile seeing how much he enjoyed it.
Now we are registered at Babies R Us and Target.
Tuesday, March 21st
We are OFFICIALLY waiting!
YIPEE!! We are on the official wait list at last, so we can now begin waiting for our baby girl. We are so thrilled!
When we began this process, they told us it might be 2-3 months before we get our referral of a baby, but now that wait has grown to 4+ months. Now I am thinking (because of the number of people waiting ahead of us) that we will probably not receive a referral before the summer court closures, so that will leave us with a referral sometime in October and traveling in December maybe. So we might have a little Christmas baby (although that seems like forever to wait)!
Please pray for our patience and our sweet little one, whom we already adore.
Wednesday, March 15th Touring the Air Force Base
Josh’s brother is a pilot in the Air Force, so we got to see his final flight before moving on. It was a real honor. His wife is the one spraying him with the fire hose, a tradition they have to celebrate the final flight of a pilot. We’re so proud of them!
Tuesday, March 14th
Paperwork Arrives!
At 4:37 pm, CHSFS received our paperwork! Our wonderful social worker with CHSFS (Alexa) emailed us to tell us she would review the paperwork tomorrow! YIPEE!!
Monday, March 13th
The FedEx Nightmare
This afternoon we checked the status of the FedEx delivery, and the package had not arrived. When we inquired with FedEx, they apologized and told us they did not know where our package was. They said it had definitely made it to Memphis, but after that it disappeared. For 3 agonizing hours, we believed all our paperwork was lost for good. After pitching a brief fit, we gathered our photocopies of our paperwork together and started picking up the pieces. Fortunately, I had ordered 2 copies of our certified documents (birth certificates and marriage license), and I had brought those with us. We stapled notary requests to each of the documents and whisked them off to a local bank, where they notarized everything for free for us. I called the state notary’s office and asked to speak with Alex. He remembered us from Friday, which was wonderful, and I asked him if we overnighted our documents to him whether he could send them back to us overnight (on our tab). He said he would be happy to and told us how sorry he was that had happened. About that same time, FedEx called us back to tell us they thought our package was somewhere in Minneapolis and that a record breaking snowstorm had prevented delivery. Seriously. 10 inches in a matter of hours. We were so relieved to be able to hope that our paperwork was in Minneapolis. And we have the backup documents just in case.
Saturday morning, March 11th
Getting the Papers OFF
Josh and I drove to the closest FedEx delivery that picked up on Saturday and decided to bite the bullet. We overnighted the paperwork ($40), so that the agency could have it first thing Monday morning. On the way back home, we passed one of our favorite restaurants, which has been closed since fall of 2004 (hurricane damage) and noticed they were open again. When we asked them how long they’d been open, they said a few hours. We caught them on their first day, and to top it off, when we went to pay, they said it was on them! They said it was to thank us for coming in on their first day open- everyone’s meal was free that day. How cool is that?!
Friday, March 10th
The Longest Day (with cops, C.O.P.S., and the state capitol)
This morning Josh left around 7 am to make it down to Fort Pierce at 9. He arrived several minutes early and had time to take a few pictures of the office. When Ken arrived, he apologized and handed Josh the paperwork. He invited him upstairs to tour their offices, but Josh declined and reiterated the need to get the paperwork to the state capitol. Meanwhile Keely calls CHSFS to verify that they had received the email from the homestudy agency verifying the changes to our homestudy draft. They had not. And they said they could not release the final paperwork to us until they received that email. For 2 hours we waited for Josh to get back to Oviedo so that we could fax the paperwork to our adoption agency in order to wait for them to email us the final paperwork requiring both a local notarization and a state certification.
15 miles from the seminary, Josh watches a couple of state troupers pull over a speeding car, and he continues by them. Within a few seconds, he sees blue lights in his own rear view mirror. He was on the phone with my dad at the time and said, “Uh, Hamp, I’m gonna have to call you back.” When the officer got to the window, he said, “You need to slow down and pull over.” Confused, Josh asked, “What?” He’s thinking, “I’ve already pulled over.” But as he is thinking this he grabs the adoption paperwork to plead his case. The officer replied, “You need to slow down and pull over. We pulled a car over back there and you didn’t slow down and pull over to the other lane to give us room to work.” Josh profusely apologized and added, “I’m really sorry, officer, but I am trying to get back to my bank in time to get these adoption papers done.” The officer looked at him askance and said, “Well, alright. Just remember, you need to give us room to work.” At that, the officer handed him a sign that said, “Please give us room to work. Move over. Slow down. It’s the law.”
Meanwhile back at the ranch, I was waiting for Josh at the upstairs fax machine at RTS ….my nerves totally shot. When I heard Josh open the hall door, I immediately began dialing the number to fax the report to CHSFS. Then we emailed them to let them know we had sent it,. Within 5 minutes we received an email back from them saying our homestudy was approved and carbon copying another woman from CHSFS to request that she email us the final documents (powers of attorney) to have them notarized and state certified. Several minutes went by. No powers of attorney. Several more minutes went by. We have all the documentation in our hands but the powers of attorney. Now over 20 minutes have gone by and still no powers of attorney. The notary is about to take her lunch break at the bank, so I send Josh there to stand in line and encourage him to stall by ordering some new checks or something. Then it dawns on me that Josh can begin notarizing the documents we do have…except they are with me at the office. Here’s where our dear friend Michael saves the day! I sheepishly walk into Mike’s office and ask if he would be willing to drive to the bank to deliver these papers to Josh to begin notarizing while I waited at my computer for the powers of attorney to come over email. Heroically, he said he’d be happy to. Mike takes the papers to the bank and returns, and still no powers of attorney. It is now 12. If we had any chance of making the 5 hour trip to the state capitol before they closed, all hope was now lost. In a desperate effort, I email the adoption agency to request the forms one more time, and nothing. It has been over an hour. Josh finishes notarizing his half of the paperwork, and I volunteer to come do my half while he trades off with me and sits at my computer waiting for the powers of attorney to arrive. Finally after a grueling hour and 20 minutes, the glorious email arrives! Josh prints it out and races back to the bank to have it notarized. After a few more minutes, we start off….no time for a bathroom break. We’re on the road to Tallahassee with virtually no chance of arriving there before they close. We resign ourselves to the valiant effort we have made and decide we’ll have to try again on Monday (from our vacation destination….which is a 3 hour drive). As we continue along the route, we notice our time keeps clicking down, and by the end of 4 hours we can tell we might be able to make it with a few minutes to spare. If only our navigation device can find the right address. At 4:30 we find ourselves on a rural road with absolutely no hope that we are in the right place, when all of a sudden an office complex pops up and the navigation device tells us we are arriving at our final destination on the right. We take a brief moment to cheer when we realize the complex is filled with buildings and that it would take a long time to figure out which building was THE building that could certify our documents. I raced into building 1, down a long hallway, asked a couple of people if this was where we had documents state certified. They looked at me like I was crazy and said, “not on this floor. Try upstairs.” Trying not to despair, I ran outside and found an older maintenance man. I asked him whether he might know where the office was for state certification, and he recommended that I try the next building over. Within seconds, Josh was picking me up in the car and speeding to the next building. I heard him yell, “run!” as I jumped from the car. I raced down an identical hallway, feeling like I was in the twilight zone and asked whether we were in the right office for state certification. They said I was, and they promptly called a nice man named Alex to come certify our documents. We had made it!!! We couldn’t believe it! After taking a quick couple of photos, we prayed together thanking God for his wonderful provision and protection and we were officially on VACATION! After arriving, we grabbed a fun dinner to celebrate and went to sleep knowing we had only 1 letter to write in the morning, and we would be able to FedEx our completed dossier documents to CHSFS.
At about 1:30 in the morning, we heard a loud crash in the house, and Jezebel (our dog) started going crazy! Within a few seconds we started hearing the office phone register its “off the hook” warning, and we were terrified. It felt like the perfect set up….the only night of our entire marriage that we can remember not turning on the security alarm, and we’re being lured into a dark room to put the phone back on the hook before we get clobbered over the head by the robber. We spent several minutes barricaded in the bedroom before we decided to call the police. I know. In the light of day this sounds not so scary, but trust me at the time we were totally freaked and I would never have been able to go to sleep until I knew an officer had come to search the house with us (and his gun). In about 20 minutes, the officer arrived. When Josh opened the door a blaring light answered him. The officer was accompanied by 2 cameramen who were filming the entire thing. The four men searched the house, while I went to change my clothes….I didn’t want to be seen on camera without my cool jeans on. :-) After a thorough search of the house, we were satisfied. It must have been a freak thing. As the officer and the cameramen left, I asked them, “What’s with the cameras?” They said, “We’re filming for C.O.P.S.- the TV show.” “Get out!” I said, “We’re way too boring for C.O.P.S.” They laughed and wished us a good night. Josh has slept with ratchet loppers by the bed ever since (it’s the only weapon we could think to use). While we were up, we decided to finish our adoption paperwork and worked for a couple of hours organizing the paperwork and writing our letter to the Ethiopian embassy.
Thursday, March 9th
More frustrations with the homestudy
Thursday evening Josh called our homestudy agency to make sure everything had gone ok with FedEx, and they said they had run into a problem. They had missed their Thursday afternoon appointment with their notary and would not be able to overnight it to us. Josh called me at work and asked me not to freak out about it. I guess he knows me pretty well. We waited an hour or so and called them back to say that he would be at their door at 9 in the morning (a 2 hour drive south) and we wanted to pick up the finalized copies of the homestudy. This was the only way we could get the documents to the state capitol .before they closed at 5 pm on Friday. Meanwhile the homestudy agency assured us they had emailed the updates to CHSFS.
Wednesday, March 8th
Another Homestudy Call
Josh phoned them to check on the status of emailing the updates of our homestudy (one sentence change) to our adoption agency. At that time he requested that they overnight the paperwork to us for arrival on Thursday morning. They said they did not have time to notarize it before Thursday afternoon but they assured us they would “take care of it.” Josh thanked them for guaranteeing delivery of the paperwork by Friday.
Tuesday, March 7th
Double checking with the Homestudy
Josh called the homestudy agency on Tuesday to ask whether they had responded to our adoption agency’s request to update our homestudy. They had not. He requested that they do this at their earliest convenience, and they assured us they would take care of it.
Monday, March 6th
A Call to the Homestudy
Keely called the homestudy organization to ask whether they’ve received the requested edits from the adoption agency. They said they had not. When pressed they said, “oh yes, I think we did receive that. It’s right here. We’ll take care of it.” Then Keely asked if it would be possible to get the finalized homestudy to us by Friday morning (we had made plans to go out of town on Friday). In order to save a week in transit we wanted to drive the finalized report to the state capitol (Tallahassee) which is 5 hours away from us in order to get the state certification on They said they weren’t sure if that would be possible but that they would try. This we thought was a little odd since they have had the approved draft of the homestudy for 2 weeks and only needed to alter 1 sentence before if could be finally approved.
The week of February 28th
Initial homestudy problems
We received pre-approval of our homestudy draft, and our agency called the homestudy agency for minor edits to the draft. They received no response.
Wednesday, March 8th, 2006
A Ray of Light
Yesterday we finally received the letter from the neurologist. It was horrible! 19 words, and we waited 5 business days for 19 words? They had to outsource a dictation of 19 words before they could get it into a word processor and print? RIDICULOUS! Beyond that, the letter addressed none of the specific items that I requested they address. The good news? So far, it looks like the adoption agency is satisfied with the letter. Now all we have to wait on is the homestudy agency to send in our finalized homestudy. That’s been a really frustrating process, but I won’t go into all of that. As anyone who reads this can tell, I am not doing so well in my pursuit to trust God. It’s a daily struggle. I remain encouraged in His Word, though. Psalm 33:20 “We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield.” Psalm 42:5, 6 ”Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
Tuesday, March 7th, 2006
Fighting deep discouragement
Honestly, today it feels like we will NEVER get our baby. We have been waiting for nearly a week for this last piece of paperwork from my neurologist. They have had a letter for me since last Thursday, and all they have to do is print it and have him sign it. Until then, we can’t make any progress. I can’t stand it! I feel like my head is going to explode. I want to be prayerful and patient, but honestly right now I don’t know how. It is absolutely maddening. Every day we wait another family slips in line ahead of us….usually at least one family and sometimes 3. I had so wanted for our dossier to be sent off last week so that we could officially begin the waiting. Unfortunately, I don’t even think it will go out this week. I’m more discouraged now than I have ever been with this process. There are over 25 families in line ahead of us now waiting for baby girls…and that doesn’t include the countless people who are in line for babies of either gender. But in my soul I know that God’s plan is perfect. Still, I wish I could control more of the process. Tomorrow would not be soon enough for her to be in our arms.
Monday, February 27, 2006
Some good news in the mail
Just as we were beginning to get anxious, Josh’s certified birth certificate arrived in the mail today! We had a certified copy, but it was from 1987, so we needed to order a new one. The old one looked like a forgery (even though it wasn’t). It had a rinky-dink little purple seal at the bottom that didn’t look remotely official. This one is totally official with the raised seal and all. Now the only thing that is holding up our dossier is getting our homestudy draft approved by CHSFS. Once the homestudy draft is approved, we can start to make some real progress with the dossier. In the mean time, I am fighting anxiety and trying desperately to remember Paul’s words to the church at Philippi, Philippians 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
Why is this so hard for me to do?
Saturday, February 25th, 2006
CIS Fingerprints and Celebratory Dinner with the Padres
Well, today Josh and I had an interesting adventure at the Citizenship Immigration Services office in Orlando. We went there to get our final set of fingerprints done, so that eventually we can be approved to travel to Ethiopia. Of course, I had to bring the camera! We stood in line for a little while, filled out some paperwork, received a bunch of stamps on that paperwork, and were given our numbers. The called number 67 as we walked through the door, but by the time we got our numbers, we were 96 and 97. It felt like an eternity before our numbers were called. Josh brought one of his N.T. Wright books on Paul to read, so he was thoroughly entertained. I spent most of that time distractedly trying to read a book on marriage (Intimate Allies), but I wound up being more entertained by The Proud Family cartoon that was playing on the TV. Then I remembered, “We have our camera here! What better way to pass the time than by taking pictures!” Out came the camera. I asked the nice gentleman in front of me whether he would take a picture for us, and as soon as he did, the security officer was at our chair telling us we would have to take our camera outside. For a brief moment, I thought we might actually lose our appointment and be kicked out, but in the end it was worth it. We have our pictures (and whatever national security secrets are hidden in the Orlando CIS office), and we have a fun story to tell about it. This evening we had a wonderful dinner with my parents, who are in town for the weekend. It is such an encouragement to have them here!
Friday, February 24th, 2006
FINAL background check arrives in mail…it’s ABOUT TIME!
Well, it felt like it took FOREVER, but the background checks are finally all in…FBI, DCS, FDLE, and local. We’ve been waiting by the mailbox (literally) all week for this one, final background check to come in. Josh thought that given our levels of anxiety, today would be the perfect time for a prank. Unfortunately, he picked me as his victim! He called me at work to say he had just checked the mail and that nothing had arrived. My heart sank. I’m still not sure how I’m gonna pay him back for making me panic, so I’m taking suggestions. It has to be good! What comes next? From here we have to mail all our background checks and doctor’s forms to our homestudy agency (Hope for Families), and we hope that they can make a quick turnaround of our homestudy report. Once that is report is finished and notarized, they will mail it back to us. At that point, we will probably drive the forms up to the state capitol (4 hours away) to save several days in the mail, provided the remaining forms from our adoption agency (CHSFS) have arrived. Then we can officially mail our dossier and begin the waiting process for our baby! Hopefully all within a week or 2, depending on the mail and the speed of CHSFS and Hope for Families. It’s all a lesson in patience, which as many of you know, is my strength. HA!
Friday, February 3rd, 2006
Homestudy Pre-Approved (pending background checks)!
Thank you so much for all of your prayers for our adoption….especially for our homestudy. After nearly 6 hours of interviews on Friday, February 3rd we have been approved for our adoption by our homestudy agency! This is wonderful news, indeed! It brings us one giant leap closer to our baby. Please pray for her. To celebrate the approval, we went out with Michael and his friend, Leigh Anna.
-the local Coptic Orthodox church within sight of the guest house. Check out the scaffolding! It’s been under construction for 6 years. They build as they get the money. Every Saturday evening they begin services around 6 pm and don’t stop blaring melodious chants through the loudspeakers until about 6 the following day.
We had a fun dinner at Urban Flats when everyone arrived on Friday. It was the BEST WEEKEND EVER! The boys played tennis the whole weekend, and (no surprise here), the girls talked and talked and talked. :-)
Friday, September 29th
THANK YOU!
Although we have not received an update on Salem's medical condition, we have felt the outpouring of love by so many, and that has given us such hope! Thank you so much for the wonderful ways that you love us all! We are so grateful for you!
Josh has been praying through the Psalms and Proverbs for Salem since long before her birth. This week he has prayed through Psalm 16 and Psalm 60 for her. They have given us comfort in the uncertainty. We long to be with her, to hold her, to encourage her to feed. In the mean time, all we can do is pray. Thank you so much for adding your prayers to ours.
Tuesday, September 26th
Prayer Request
Today we received word that Salem is sick. She has been sick before, but this time has us really concerned. I don't want to go into specifics on such a public space, but please pray that God would protect our little girl. She's such a fighter, and he has brought her life up from the pit before. We pray she will recover quickly and that we will remain faithful in this uncertain time.
In the mean time, I wanted to share this fun picture of my friend, Leslie, their son Ben, and their daughter Chakisae (meaning light). Chakisae came home from Ethiopia in July. She's an absolute DOLL, and Ben is a fabulous brother to her! We have loved getting to know them and look forward to introducing Salem to them soon!
Monday, September 25th
Getting closer....
This weekend was a wonderful whirlwind! How's that for alliteration? We attended a wedding on the west coast and had a ball showing off Salem's picture to our friends. It is wonderful to know that even now she is loved and being prayed for by so many on our behalf. Every day now brings us closer to bringing her home. Although we still do not have specific travel dates, we have been told to expect to travel between early and mid-November.
Sunday, September 10th
Worship and Celebration
1:00 AM
My heart is overflowing. I wish that I was less tired, so that I could express the joy of my heart with more clarity. We have a community here who loves our daughter already, and that means so much to us! To see our church family around us today and the joy that they had (and to read the wonderful outpouring of love from our life-long friends) gives us such joy knowing that our beautiful baby is cherished already. Today in church we sang both "All Creatures of our God and King" and "Amazing Grace." I must admit that it was hard not to choke up when singing, "I once was lost but now am found" and "Through many dangers toils and snares I have already come. Twas grace that brought us safe thus far and grace shall lead us home." But oh, the JOY at being able to worship today with grateful hearts! Josh and I took turns holding Salem's beautiful picture in our laps throughout the service and were (of course) thrilled to show her off to our friends at the earliest opportunity.
After church today, Josh and I went to the local Build-A-Bear, where we recorded 4 messages for Salem and put them in a bear that we made for her. We will mail it to our agency tomorrow, and they will take it to her, so that she can hear our voices even before we get to meet her. We recorded the first verse of Amazing Grace, "We love you" in Amharic and English, and special individual greetings from Josh and me to Salem.
Before I forget, I want to also mention the precious kindness of our dear friends Cheryl and Brandon, who baked a very special cake for us in celebration last night. They came over after a long day and were so kind to celebrate with us! We are so grateful for all of the support they have shown us in this journey. We couldn't have made it without them! Plus, Mom and Dad sent us a gorgeous bouquet of flowers yesterday complete with Ethiopia's national flower, the cala lilly! So beautiful!
Cheryl's cake was DIVINE!
We are looking forward to popping open this bottle with Cheryl and Brandon and Amanda and Bryan for Josh's birthday on Wednesday!
Josh's message to Salem made me cry. It is so beautiful!
We hope she likes the bear. We're a little afraid that our voices will scare her.
Saturday, September 9th
Memories of yesterday
So, at about 3:00 yesterday afternoon I was reading our agency's forum when I noticed a post that said "sibling set." I read the post and it indicated there were some new children on the wait list and some speculation as to whether that would mean more referrals. At that moment, my cell phone rang, and I knew.
It was Joshua. He said, "Keel!" I said, "Josh?!?!" He said, "I'm on the phone with Lindsay. We have a call." I started screaming, "Should I come home?" I raced out the door and in the mean time forgot my camera, so as I raced back into the office, my boss John was smoking a pipe outside. I yelled to him, "John, we got the call! We got the call! I've got my camera!" And kept running. Our home is 1 mile from where I work, but as you might imagine it was the longest mile of my life. I had my camera on me, so I snapped a quick picture of the really slow kids on their bikes in front of my car on their way home from school and a picture of the clock and the navigation device on our dash. I raced into the house, and Josh was typing away on the computer trying to document every word that Lindsay told him. In my last level-headed moment I snapped this picture of us together. Then Josh pointed to the computer screen, where I saw the words "2 months." That was it. After that I was a complete basket case. After reading more of the details about her painful little road, I was wracked with emotion. I rejoiced with jubilation that she was ours, I mourned with some parts of my soul that I didn't know existed that she had such a rocky start. I was trembling with this incredible mixture of grief and ecstasy. It was a beautiful moment.
Just to fill in a couple of the details on this precious baby in our lives. Her given name is Yimegnushal Aklilu. Yimegnushal means "they are longing for you." We think that is VERY appropriate! :-)
Then last night we had dinner with some friends of ours, and when we walked into the door they had put up a giant poster that said, "We love you, Baby Salem!"They had pink and white (and one funny red) balloons everywhere and pink and white streamers and tissue paper. They yelled, "CONGRATULATIONS!" when we walked in the door. I couldn't believe we were so blessed to have that kind of love for our baby girl already. We spent the night playing a fun game and pinching ourselves. As I rode home from the party, I held her little photograph in my hand (we of course immediately had 10 copies made at Walgreens). I noticed that the little fingers of her right hand were curled up, and I placed my thumb over them dreaming of the day that she could curl her tiny fingers around ours. Josh and I slept with her picture on our nightstands and as I came to bed, I saw Joshua kiss the picture of his daughter for the first time. It was a precious glimpse of a father's love.
I was driving home when I took this picture. I guess it's a good thing the GPS wasn't recording my speed at the time. :-)
This was what I found when I came home. Josh was on the phone, trying to type every word Lindsay said! The list of questions we have carried around in our wallets for weeks is right in front of him. They really came in handy!
This is my last sane moment before I knew a single thing about our daughter. Immediately after I took this picture, Josh pointed to the computer screen, and I saw the first words about our baby, "2 months."