After a little over two months of waiting for information we got a call from Lawanda, our Social Worker, letting us know that we received a court date for February 10, 2010. We can't wait to get there and meet our little guy and legally make him our son. We are excited with the overwhelming feeling of "we have so much to do" all at the same time.
I wish you could have been in the office today when I got the call. Laurie, Shelley and I were in the conference room finishing up the Christmas ornaments talking about how the adoption agency will be closing at noon on the 23rd. I told them if we do not hear anything by noon tomorrow then it will be after Christmas before we know anything. I walked out of the conference to go to my office and before I got to the end of the hallway Laurie handed me my phone and told me the agency was calling. God's timing is so perfect. The timing of all of it made the two months of waiting worth it. I immediately hung up and called Coty, who is very sick, woke her up and started jumping up and down telling her the awesome news.
So what's next?
It looks like we will leave the states on Sunday, February 6th and arrive in Ethiopia on the 7th or 8th. We will be able to spend a couple hours each day with him and then also have a chance to tour Ethiopia and learn as much as we can about their culture, food and where Journey was born. We go to court on the 10th and then head home, without him, on the 11th. Once we are home we will PATIENTLY wait for him to receive a passport, visa and other travel documents before we can go back and bring him home. They said it should take about 4 weeks before we can go back and get him.
Be praying as we make our travel arrangements (THANKS UNCLE LAMAR and AUNT PATRICIA), finish gathering all the necessary paperwork and while we are traveling. We will be without our girls for a little over a week. I am sure they will be fine, but daddy and mommy will really miss them. Also pray for Journey. He is going to have a lot of major transitions coming up in his life. I can't begin to imagine what he will be processing. I told someone in my family this week that I am longing for the day that he says, "Hey Dad." I have been praying for him and loving him from a distance for so long now and I can't wait for him to call me dad. It is coming...very soon.
Thanks for loving us and praying for us. We hope you all have the best Christmas possible.
Love,
The Melvins
I wish you could have been in the office today when I got the call. Laurie, Shelley and I were in the conference room finishing up the Christmas ornaments talking about how the adoption agency will be closing at noon on the 23rd. I told them if we do not hear anything by noon tomorrow then it will be after Christmas before we know anything. I walked out of the conference to go to my office and before I got to the end of the hallway Laurie handed me my phone and told me the agency was calling. God's timing is so perfect. The timing of all of it made the two months of waiting worth it. I immediately hung up and called Coty, who is very sick, woke her up and started jumping up and down telling her the awesome news.
So what's next?
It looks like we will leave the states on Sunday, February 6th and arrive in Ethiopia on the 7th or 8th. We will be able to spend a couple hours each day with him and then also have a chance to tour Ethiopia and learn as much as we can about their culture, food and where Journey was born. We go to court on the 10th and then head home, without him, on the 11th. Once we are home we will PATIENTLY wait for him to receive a passport, visa and other travel documents before we can go back and bring him home. They said it should take about 4 weeks before we can go back and get him.
Be praying as we make our travel arrangements (THANKS UNCLE LAMAR and AUNT PATRICIA), finish gathering all the necessary paperwork and while we are traveling. We will be without our girls for a little over a week. I am sure they will be fine, but daddy and mommy will really miss them. Also pray for Journey. He is going to have a lot of major transitions coming up in his life. I can't begin to imagine what he will be processing. I told someone in my family this week that I am longing for the day that he says, "Hey Dad." I have been praying for him and loving him from a distance for so long now and I can't wait for him to call me dad. It is coming...very soon.
Thanks for loving us and praying for us. We hope you all have the best Christmas possible.
Love,
The Melvins
