Praying for Tariku

We just found out late last night, that they moved Tariku yesterday from his first home to the orphanage in Addis, where he will stay for three weeks (when we pick him up). I prayed and thought about what must be going through his mind "Who are these people? Where am I? Where are my mommas (that have been taking care of him)? Why did they let me go? I miss my bed. I miss my friends. When am I going back home?" I just ache for him and wish I could be there now. Can you please pray for his little heart?

Embassy Date!

We finally got an embassy date for March 11. Of course it wasn't as soon as what we were planning, but we SEE God at work in our lives and KNOW we have needed this time to prepare us and grow us so that we can experience all that God has for us in Ethiopia. We leave on Wednesday, March 3rd and arrive late the 4th. Friday we rest, (hopefully see Tariku) and get ready for our long 10 hour car ride to Gimbie. There, we will meet and hold and love on our younger son Chala. Then we will come back and spend three days with Tariku, while we wait for our Embassy Date and his visa to be completed. We leave late Friday night and return Saturday.
Honestly, it was surreal, praying last night with Vince. I knew this date would come, but just kept thinking "when will this come and how will this play out?". It's here!!!
Please pray for Tariku, as he is being moved from the home he's always known, his crib he's always slept in, his mommies that he's always had. It breaks my heart thinking about what he is going through and I am praying for God to PROTECT his little heart and comfort his FEARS. I can't imagine...I wish I could be there now, just holding him, telling him how special and loved he is and that he won't be alone. But I know God is there and he isn't alone and as God had protected him these past 20 months, He will protect him through this transition too.

*"as a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you" Isaiah 66:13
*"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles!" 1 Corinthians 1:3-4

Keeping My Head UP!

We still don't know when we are leaving to get our hands on Tariku. It has been hard waiting...I should be good at it by know, as I am so close to the end of the LONG journey, and yet still, until he is in my arms, my heart is not complete. The agency representing us in ET told us to give them two weeks to let us know our Embassy date--tomorrow it will be four. The Embassy has to have the paperwork 2 weeks prior to the Embassy appointment date (which we have been planning Feb. 25th). So the LAST day to submit our paperwork is this Thurs. Our reserved flights our scheduled for the 17th; just 6 days later. So I find myself looking at my doubts, hopelessness, longings unfulfilled and not wanting to get my hopes up, just to get them trampled on and then trying to look back at God's amazing faithfulness to me, His fulfilled promises, and how He has provided in ways that have just left me undone by His goodness. I think I have stayed in the prior thought patterns the majority of the time, because my back can't bend, I am breaking out (worse than anything I've experienced in adolescence) and I am just weary. I stood in church last Sunday as we sang:

My heart is glad, that you are my Father
Adopted to you, as sons and daughters
And Your love endures, as You said it would
And my heart sings...


Teach me, the sound of Your voice
With the faith to respond, to love you...
Teach me, to follow you close
With the faith you bestow, to love you...


My heart is glad, to serve you as King
Forgive the times, that I am stubborn
With a humble heart, may I come to you
And my heart sings...

I can't get through that first verse without bawling. He is my perfect Father and He loves perfectly. And I thought God has a gift for me, and He will give it to me when He wants to. And when I finally hold Tariku while I sing praises to God (like I have been imagining every Sunday for the past 18 months) I will be blown away again, by God's goodness to me. I'll be updating when I know something. Thanks for loving our family so well through this...