"I Need You to Sit Down"

I would say, “You’re not going to believe this” but at this point I think you will. 

Yesterday we received a phone call from Sally, our contact person with the international adoption agency.  Staci answered and Sally said, “I need you to sit down.”  Staci’s heart sunk.  Must be bad news.  Staci said, “What’s wrong?”  Sally said nothing was wrong.  She told us that we needed to be in Addis for our court date on May 11^th.  Three weeks away.  Sally received the notice from Ethiopia the day before but didn’t call us because she couldn’t believe it herself.  She had to call and confirm one more time before letting us know.  Many families wait up to 8 months from the point they send their dossier to Ethiopia to the time they get a court date.  It took us 3 weeks.  Staci told Sally that we have hundreds of people following this story and praying for speed and removal of obstacles.  This is an unbelievable, undeniable answer to prayer.   

This, like many other steps in this process, has been a blessing to us.  What we anticipated to take 2 months, took two weeks for Immigration approval from the U.S.   Our Doctor worked us in weeks ahead of schedule due to a cancellation to initiate our long physicals and blood work.   Even the response when we initially decided to pursue adopting Sofani came within 12 hours from Girmay and we weren’t even sure we would get a response.  From Day 1 of prayer for this decision, we have been inexplicably led on this journey.   We were both, of course, pleasantly surprised with the court date.   After daily tracking of airfare through Expedia, we almost knew prior to checking that the flight costs would be down considerably for the first time since January.   We booked two round trip tickets today for $1200 less than we thought we were going to spend a week ago.

Last summer I felt very stagnant with my faith.  I was going through the motions.  I remember exactly what I asked God to do in my life one night.  Lying in bed I asked God to use me however He wanted.  I promised to say “yes” to whatever God had planned for my life.  I was finished doing what I wanted to do.  Within a month I was agreeing to a trip to Ethiopia.  In December I met my soon-to-be son after a series of unplanned, unexplainable events (including 2 car accidents in 2 different cities in Ethiopia in the same day).  In January we began the international adoption process with expectations that it would take a year and the hope that we would have Sofani by Christmas.  God is capable of making anything happen if you have faith and are willing to keep saying “yes.” 

Thank you for your prayers.  They’re working!  We are so thankful.