Redeeming Journey

Well, it is 2:00am on Wednesday, February 2, 2011.  We are planning on heading to Ethiopia Friday morning.  It has been a whirlwind of a week.  We have been on a highly emotional journey over the past week.  We have been packing, preparing and trying to remain focused on the best part of this entire process and not the process itself.  We constantly laugh at each other when we find ourselves crying over commercials and or even while watching The Bachelor.  I underestimated how much this would affect me this week.  The Bible is very clear about the value God places on adoption.  In the past we would come across the word adoption in the Bible and think of how amazing it would be to be a part of changing a child's life, but we have discovered that God uses adoption to draw people to Him.  It is the perfect picture of God's love for us.  I cannot fathom the amount of love and passion God has for us.  We have spent the past year fighting and pursuing our son with our whole heart.  This has been the purpose and focus of our life for an entire year.  We love him with all of our heart and long to be with him, but he has no idea who we even are.  (Sound like our relationships with God and how He pursues us?)  Someone mentioned how it is an example of how God loves us from afar, but I disagree.  God is not far from us and my son is not far from me.  He is as close as you can ever imagine.  He may not be close in proximity, but he is as close to us as ever.  I am grateful for how our son has changed our view of God and how God has revealed to us through this journey.

We wanted to connect with everybody one last time before we leave on Friday.  We will be leaving on February 4th and returning the evening of February 13th.  While we are in Ethiopia we will have a chance to spend a lot of time with our son and learn as much as we can about Ethiopian culture.  Our court date is scheduled for Thursday, February 10, 2011.  We will be keeping you updated on Facebook as much as possible.  We are not guaranteed internet access, but we will try our hardest to keep you updated.

Please keep praying for us.  We are excited and honored to be a part of this journey.  Our relationship with God has been forever changed.  Our prayer for ourselves is we never return to our old way of viewing and approaching God.  Pray that we have an amazing time connecting with our son and that he will supernaturally begin to understand how much we love him.  Pray for us while we are traveling.  Pray for our girls while they are staying with Coty's mom.  They are excited to stay with her, but I am sure after 5-6 days they will miss us.  (I hope!)  Finally, pray for our son.  He is about to experience a life-changing moment and he has no idea about what is happening.

We love each one of you and are so grateful for the impact you have made on our lives.  Thank you for investing in our family.  We have been overwhelmed with the outpouring of love and support.

Jeffrey and Coty