Trip to A-Hope

We made our trip to A-Hope yesterday. We were able to bring 35 new T-Shirts (thanks Again Trish), 52 bottles of Children's Tylenol, 4 Jumbo bottles of Adult Tylenol, 4 Jumbo bottles of kids chewable vitamins, (Thanks to a matching donation from Sam's Club), 25 stuffed animal's (Thanks Dayna & Eric), 120 pairs of socks & under ware from a donation drive that Zoe did at her school, and $300 Birr from Joshua's $26.00 that he collected from our neighbors and John threw in $4.00 of his money to make it an even $30.00.

This second picture is of Zoe and Abigail (Kidist wants to be called by her American name) taking a tour of the A-Hope facility. This Facility houses 45 children under the age of 10 all of them are are HIV+. They have a second facility that houses kids 10 and up which there are 75 additional children there.

The first picture is of Elissa and her new friend. He grabbed her hand and would not let go. Wherever she went he was there. There was another boy that will stick with Elissa forever. He approached her as we were about to leave, she reached out to hold his hand and just stood there and looked at her with the most hopeless eyes she has ever seen. He knew we were not there for him and the momentary comfort of a hand or a hug would only serve to remind him of what he does not, and very likely, will never have. There were immediately tears in her eyes as he ran away. I tried to get a picture, but could not.

The man on the right in the second picture is Alizar. He is one of the drivers recommended by CWA. He is a Christian and was a wealth of information about Ethiopia. He told us that there are approximately 100,000 people living on the streets of Addis Ababa of which 70% are children. There are no Government orphanages or soup kitchens to get a meal. They are forced to live in the streets as beggars. At almost every stop light they approach the car asking for money. It is not like the people in the states because there is no one to feed them. Their eyes are empty and hopeless no amount of money that we can give them will change the life that they are destined to lead. It is enough to rip your heart out, the problem is so huge the answers, are they attainable?

The Girls

This is the pictures of the girls saying good by to Kidist and Abete. There was singing, dancing, and crying. We are thankful for the visit as it will help give the kids some closure. Not to mention being able to see the dr. sadly Abete is not doing any better. We will be making a dr. appointment as soon as we get home. We did make it to AHOPE today but that will have to wait as our connection is terribly slow tonight. We are going to go out for real ET food tonight. Neither of the kids are very fond of American, not even rice! I had heard this was a great fall back, not for these two. Yikes, I think that the food issues could be one of our most difficult challenges. We will post more in the morning, that seems to be the best connection time.

We got an earlier flight !

We got a flight home on Sunday night! We are ready to get hone to see the boys and introduce the new kids to the snow. Our neighbors have sent pictures of our house with what looks to be about 12" of snow. This should be fun.

Playground trip

We were guessing from Abete's reaction that this was his first trip to the playground. I have never seen anyone laugh and smile so much. The hotel we are staying at has a very nice area to walk around, the playground and a huge hot springs pool. Kidist and Abete love to play in the big wooha (Pool)

We went back to the orphanage today to see the Doctor for Abete and allow the kids to say a proper good by to their friends. Abete was treated as the returning hero and all the boys were asking us to take their pictures. We were asked not to take pictures.

Next we went to the girls orphanage so Kidist could say good by to her friends. There was a much different response when we arrived. The girls all started to give her hugs and cry. The nanny's asked if they could pray over our kids. It was a unique experience. Then all the girls went outside and started to sing and dance and praise God for their friends going to America. They allowed us to take pictures of Kidist and her friends. It was an amazing experience!

I will post the pictures from that in the morning because I have to email them to myself and open them on the computer at my office which is a long process. The Internet here is sooooo slow. I am realizing how spoiled I am to have the T-1 Internet connection at work.

more pictures

I tried to post these last night, but it took me two hours to post the 2 other two and I gave up.

The first picture is of Me, Kidist, Zoe & Abete at the CWA office going through our paperwork before we present it to the Embassy. The Embassy appointment went very well and very fast for us. Please pray for our new friends who's Embassy appointment did not go well. They are Heather and Josh from California. they found out that their finger prints expired on the 25th and will not be able to get the kids out of Ethiopia until the new information arrives from the states. They did have them re-done before they came and have a letter from the imagration department stating that everything was approved, but the Embassy will not accept it from them. They also had all of their luggage lost on their way here and their airline keeps telling them that it is in London and should be here tomorrow. They are on day 4 without it!

The second is of Elissa and Kidist at the orphanage. I don't think they knew we were coming. We were told that as soon as Kidist found out we were there she ran and put on her celebration dress. She is so sweet. (Dave & Diane the girl in the background is our daughter Zoe giving your gifts to Ganet and Zena. We will send more pictures when we get home)

New Pictures

This is our view off our balcony. There is no fog, it is smoke from burning trash so people can keep warm. It is cold in the mornings.

Our first morning

The kids woke up at 6:30. They will fit in good at our house since all of the boys get up at about that time. As an ice breaker Elissa brought some nerf guns that shoot when the handle is squeezed. We spent the first hour shooting each other and laughing. It was well worth the $1.99 per gun.

At this point we are watching Baby Einstein Videos. Kidist is very interested and is soaking up all the information she can. We found out that she has completed the Fourth grade in ET schools. We were told that she was an exceptional student and her favorite subject was math.
We brought a list of common words in Amheric words and we are trying to communicate. This makes Kidist laugh, a lot! She also laughed when she heard that we will probably have snow when we get home, and when we offered to put her dress on Dad. She said one of her favorite things to do is joke, when we ask at the orphanage.

Abete has not had a chance to go to school other than what he was taught in the orphanage. He does know his ABC's. He really wants to ride a bike! Every time we see a bike he is sure to point at it and imitates holding the handle bars. He has a flash card that he keeps in the photo album we sent him of "B is for bike". I was able to speak with a volunteer at the orphanage about Abete, this mans main job is as an Evangelist. He gave me a lot of information about Abete and absolutely adored him. He gave Abete some pictures of his father and another of Abete jumping rope! We are impressed by his physical abilities, he would like to get a prosthetic ASAP. We did have them let him know that we want to wait until we can communicate with him a little better but he is ready to go.

We will go to the US Embassy today to get passports and be able to bring them home. Hooray, actually they will start the process of the passports we should have them in a few days though, then if we can get an earlier flight out we can head home. We have a nice large room here, actually it is two rooms with the connecting door. It is very nice, we are all comfortable hanging out and shooting each other.

Abete just took a bath with Dads help, he does not mess around in there. Kidist is now watching a Curious George video she is quiet and tiny, Ron you defiantly have her beat for height. You have a "little" big sister.

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families. Psalms 68:5 & 6a

Got Um

We had to wait until 2:00PM to pick up the kids. We went to the boys orphanage and got Abete! He is sweet and he showed us all of his friends. Then they brought over Kidist, she gave Rob a HUGE HUG! They also brought over Genet and Zena, who are anxiously awaiting their Mom and Dad. We have pictures of them with their shirts we will send those when we get home as pictures have proven to be impossible at this time! We saw so many children there it was sad, the great part is that they are all just waiting for their new families. They are all excited to see their friends leave and they are eager for their turn:)

Zoe is currently teaching them how to use the spiral doodle! She is also planning on doing nails soon! She is excited to have a little sister, finally. Abete got sick at dinner tonight, we don't know if it is nerves or a stomach bug. We are praying that he will feel better soon and not get anyone else ill. We haven't gotten to try out the pool here but I think it will be a first for both of them, swimming. I think the elevator was a first too. They are both very quiet, I am sure that wont last long but it is hard to see that they did not bond well before, maybe now they will see that they are going to need one another.

They both ask to go back to their villages and see their families Kidist's village is about 8 hours away and Abete's is even further. We had to say no to that, maybe some day we will come back and make both journeys. Who knows for sure. All the children wanted hugs if they belong to you or not, thank God that there are families coming to get them or I may never have been able to leave. Glenda did you say you wanted another 80 grand children! We will keep you posted on the final count!

It feels like we have been away for at least a week! I miss the boys at home and cant wait for them to meet their new brother and sister. I hope they are being good while we are gone! Internet is intermittent to say the least so we had better go for now.

We made it!

We arrived in Addis at 7:30 PM. The flight was long! There were no movies, the light over my seat would not shut off, Elissa's seat would recline, but would not stay in place. Within about 10 minutes it would be sitting straight up. Elissa and I took turns in each seat. The good news is we are here safely and all of our luggage made it here. When we packed we split all of our clothes in each suitcase in case one got lost. After we separated everything we realized that two suite cases were full of donations for the CWA orphanage and A-Hope . Thank you Dana for the stuffed animals, thank you Trish for all the kids shirts, ans thanks to Sam's Club for all of the Children's Tylenol.

We are anxious to meet our new children today. It is currently 6:30 am here and we are waiting for a call from CWA to let us know what time they are going to pick us up. It feels like it won't be soon enough, but is finally the day.

We are having trouble with the Internet here and are having to link to my computer at the office to post blogs. This is creating a problem posting pictures. I am trying to figure out a way to overcome this. Thank you for the comments we have received. They are encouraging as we are so far away from home.

Waiting on a Plane

We are currently in the Washington DC Airport waiting to leave. The first flight was uneventful. There is a Young Life Group heading to Addis on our flight. Elissa and I met while doing ministry with Young Life, what a small world. We didn't realize they had a camp in ET. There are several kids in the group who were adopted from ET and are going to do missions and visit family. We will do our next update when we arrive in Addis. Hope you are all having a Merry Christmas

The Battle Continues

This week we have felt the clutches of Satan nipping at our heels in many ways. I was just on the phone talking to my Mom feeling that the worst was over when... my cell rang. Rob answered it to get a recording that our 1st of 3 flights has been canceled!!!! After frantic phone calls Rob is now finally speaking to a human so we will get it worked out one way or another!

"Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." 1 Peter 5:8. We will fly out... an extra 3 hours early! At least we are getting out though! Looks like our layover of 4 hours in now 7! I hope they have a great airport. Thank you Lord. These children must pose a formidable threat for Satan to have worked so diligently to keep them from coming home. Doesn't he know he is going to loose? Revelation 20:9-10


Please continue to pray for our flights, safety, health, and spiritual wisdom! I am not sure how long this battle will continue but I don't think I will be so easily lulled to comfort, lesson learned. Rob and I would also like to thank everyone for their kind emails, prayers, and support.

Have a Blessed and Mighty Christmas.

Moses, Gideon, and Mary

God tells Moses to go and lead his people out of Egypt right. Moses responds "Who am I?" then "What if they do not believe me?" and, "I have never been eloquent... I am slow of speech." (Exodus 3:11, 4:1 & 10) I find my self so often in Moses' shoes, I know God wants me to act but I begin laying out all the reasons I am not "qualified" for the task. I can go through the list, and I can come up with more than Moses did too!

Now take Gideon, Judges 6:14 "The Lord turned to him and said, 'Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?'" Gideon replies "My clan is the weakest" followed by "Give me a sign" THREE TIMES! (6:17 & 36 &39!) Oh how I can relate! I know what I am to do, I hear God's voice, I see his leading, but yet I resist! I am afraid, weak, and unfaithful.

Then there is Mary, "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." (Luke 1:38) Oh how I pray for a heart of faith like Mary's! To know that what God's asks will cost, but to trust. This has been my meditation this week, God give me a heart of faith like Mary. I am uncertain, afraid, and I do not know the outcome of what you ask; but I believe that your hand will not lead me where your grace can not keep me.

Elissa

It's all good!!!!

We received an email today from Christian World Adoption letting us know that all of our paperwork has been completed. I want to acknowledge and thank Senator Wayne Allard and Congressman Mark Udall. We provided them a copy of our I-171H and they made sure it got to the Conciliate in Ethiopia with a note asking them to process the paperwork so we can move forward. Praise God for his continued provision!

Merry Christmas to All and I pray as we celebrate the birth of Christ our Savior we will focus on his amazing provision, grace and love!

Paperwork #!@*#!

We are waiting to hear from the US Embassy in Ethiopia regarding our I-171H form. This is the form provided by the US Immigration stating that we are allowed to bring the kids back to the States. At this time the Embassy in Ethiopia dose not have it and they will not give us passports for the kids. The worst part is I have the form! Only they will not accept it from me. I have contacted our local Senator and faxed it over to them and they should be able to help. Our Senator's office said they would fax it over on their letter head but they can not gaurntee anything! Oh, and if we do get stuck in ET we cant call until after the first because their offices will be closed. :) Some times you've just got to laugh at the insanity of it all!

Please pray for us that this will be resolved before we leave. If all else fails we will be in Ethiopia and Elissa and Zoe will head home and start raising a stink until someone, anyone, can actually do something to get us all home together. Hopefully it wont come to that but at least we know what our back up plan will be, if necessary.


"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly relms." Eph 6:12

From the mind of a child

Monday before we broke the news to our kids Elissa was helping the boys to get their homework done. This can be a daunting task, with math, spelling, reading, and miscellaneous projects. While working with John and Ron she looked at Joshua (our 7 year old) who was working diligently on a project. It became quickly apparent this was not a school project. When she questioned him what he was up to he showed her a collection box. He took a juice box and taped it all up except for a slot in the top. He made a sign for the front that said "donete for etheopue please!" He drew a picture of a mom with her adopted child running to give her a hug. He wanted to go door to door and collect money for the AHOPE orphanage because they need medicine for their sick kids. (a link is available for AHOPE in the right column)

Elissa let Josh (accompanied by Zoe our oldest) go around and ask for donations. Zoe had some flyer's she used at school from a sock and underwear drive she had done and explained what Josh was doing. Josh collected $26.00!

Here we Go!

We received a call today letting us know that we will be meeting with the US Embassy in Ethiopia on Thursday December 27th. This was not what we were praying for, but God has a plan that may not always meet with our expectations. We will be flying out on Christmas eve and landing in Addis Ababa late Christmas day.

At this time we are feeling very overwhelmed. Fortunately Keri with Susan Parr Travel has been able to confirm all of our flights. The bad part is due to the Holidays we will not be able to get back to Denver until January 5th. This means a two week vacation? We will be able to take in some extra sites and spend a little more time with our new kids.

Please pray for us to find a place to stay on such short notice. We will not find out what our hotel option will be until tomorrow. We had some friends not find out until they got to ET. I am not sure that my nerves will be able to handle that much stress.

Please pray for John, Ronny, and Josh our other boys who will be staying home. I am sure that it is going to be hard for them because we will not be here for Christmas. We plan on doing our Christmas celebration the Sunday before we leave, however it may still be hard.

Watching the Hand of God

Once again I stand in amazement watching the hand of God in action!

Elissa and I have been working with and praying for Foothills Forever Family's. They are the Orphan ministry at Foothills Church here in Arvada. They have teamed up with Jefferson County Social Services and have a professional photographer take pictures of all the children in the foster care system who are available for adoption in our county. The Program is called Portraits of Hope and they post the pictures in different churches in the county and "advertise" for the kids; trying to help find them forever family's. In the last year they have helped place 20 foster care children in permanent home.

Recently they sent out an email pleading for help with Christmas presents for the foster care kids. Elissa responded and volunteered. We were sent the bio's from a brother and sister named Justin an Tiffany. The bio's from the kids read as follows:

Tiffany (10)- I was born in August 1997. I enjoy playing with baby dolls, Candy Land and memory games. I like to get my hair done and I like to wear purple and pink clothes. My favorite movie is The Incredibles. I want a mom and dad who will love me and my brother Justin. I hope I can be the youngest kid !

Justin (11)- My birthday was in June of 1996. I love Spiderman! I want to be a superhero like Spiderman some day. I also like to play with cars. My sister, Tiffany, and I like to play candy Land and memory games. I really like to play games on the computer. For my forever family, I want a mom and dad and my sister, Tiffany, too!

Elissa forwarded the information to our newly formed adoption group (Hearts of Grace Orphan Ministry) to encourage and remind them of the mission God has placed before us. Attached was the link to a video from Stephen Curtis Chapman called All I want for Christmas and a few links to additional orphan ministries.

Elissa received a call from Becky who has shown interest in the new group and is on our email list. Becky was a little freaked out with the email she received. As the hand of God would arrange things Becky got on the Jefferson County Foster Care web site about two months ago. She had two kids stand out to her and God had been consistently reminding her to pray for. The kids were Justin and Tiffany!

We are so encouraged to hear how God is moving in the hearts of the members at Grace Church and bringing us to a common focus. You can get on www.adoptuskids.org and find kids in your state foster care system to pray for too! Another idea is to start a group like Portraits of Hope, maybe you or some one you know are gifted in the area of photography. Get together with your county foster care system and see how they would feel about nice photos with small biography's of the children on the photos. Portraits of Hope ask around and got the frames, easels, and photos donated:) An issue to hammer out early is what kind of churches you feel comfortable placing the pictures in. Make sure this is discussed early on so that it doesn't become an issue later!

Anxiously Waiting

We are packing and checking the list. I will probably take forever getting through airport security. I have managed to get all of my electronics in my carry on bag. The lap top computer, camera, video camera, portable DVD player, all the chargers and the power adapters you could imagine. I sure hope they don't have any weight restrictions on international flights. If so I am in trouble.

We are trying to figure out what we need to take vs. what we want to take. Our neighbor is a sales representative for a clothing company and is going to send along clothes for the CWA orphanage. Hopefully we can dedicate one entire suitcase just to that. We have also asked Sam's Club if they will donate vitamins and children's Tylenol that we can deliver to AHOPE. (AHOPE stands for African Hiv Orphans: Project Embrace, as you can probably guess from the name they care for Hiv/Aids positive orphans.) They have agreed to make a donation. We are still not sure how much they they plan on giving us or if they are going to help with some kind of matching agreement.

Our next concern is that the US Embassy has decided to do additional days through the holidays. Normally adoption embassy dates are always Tuesday, however, Christmas is on Tuesday, and New Years, is on Tuesday too. Which would mean that we would not be able to go until the first or second week of January. In order for children to still get home and in and effort not to have a huge back log they decided to fit adoption dates in on Thursday for both weeks! We are concerned that if we get an embassy date of the 27th of December we will have to leave on Christmas eve to be in Ethiopia on time. Please pray for us that we won't get that date! As great as it would be to get the kids sooner we would have to leave the boys alone for Christmas!

We feel horrible praying not to get and embassy date! But wow, it would be so hard for the younger boys to understand why we would choose to leave them to go get their new siblings on Christmas! Zoe is praying we do get the 27th so that she will still be on Christmas vacation and wont have TONS of homework upon her return. So once again we find ourselves trusting that God will do what is best for EVERYONE involved.

Are we CRAZY?

I still remember the day Elissa told me that we should adopt. Being the Christian man that I am, I lovingly looked at my beautiful wife and told her "that she must have bumped her head". You see, we have four children of our own and I some day look forward to retirement and spending lots of time with her. I envisioned lots of traveling, Golf, snowboarding and all the fun stuff retired people do. I knew immediately that this was something that God had planned for our family.

I continued to resist the idea of adoption for several months. My wife (who is awesome by the way) continued to pray for me and asked God to change my heart. She understood that it was my selfishness that was stopping me from moving forward with the idea. She , in her quiet wisdom never pointed it out to me the selfish attitude that was in my heart. I slowly started to allow God to speak to me and change my heart. The final straw was when we were watching a video from Family Life Today. Dennis Reiney was asking the crowd how many of them were adopted? A few people in the audience raised their hands. He then read a passage from Ephesians 1:3-5 which reads: "Praise be to the Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will." I suddenly realized that I had been adopted when I did not deserve it! All of my concerns about where they came from and the baggage they would bring was dismissed. At no time had God said that we had too much baggage, or the cost was too high. "In love" he accepts us just as we are. Who am I to reject the children that God has planned to be part of our family?

On March 1st 2007 we sent in our preliminary application to the adoption agency. Elissa had a vision of getting two toddler girls to add to our clan. Shortly after sending in the application we received a video of waiting older kids who needed family's. We watched the video and dreamed of what God was going to do. One of the kids was a boy (about 7 years old) who had a leg amputated at birth. We were told that his mom was attacked by cattle while pregnant and his leg was deformed and had an infection when he was born. At the end of the interview we were told that he could not figure out why all his friends were going to family's and no one wanted him. I knew immediately that God was calling us to be his family. This did not meet with the idea Elissa had in her head. We agreed that if he was available when we were far enough along to put in the request for kids we would move forward with Abete.

Elissa was still praying for wisdom on the second child. It was going to be a toddler girl. After all we promised Zoe (who is our only girl) that we would get her a little sister. We looked through the videos over and over praying about who the little girl would be. Elissa kept coming to the same girl named Kidist. She kept dismissing the idea because Kidist was about 10 years old. On mothers day weekend we attended an adoption conference with Kingdom Kids in Spokane Washington. We met an amazing family who had adopted 3 girls from China and 3 girls from Ethiopia. All 6 girls were special needs kids. One specifically had a leg amputation exactly like Abete. We spent a lot of time talking to Yolanda the mother of the girls and she shared with us everything we were wondering about dealing with the issue we were going to face. It confirmed for Elissa that Abete was the child for us, however there was still the little girl we were praying for. Then Yolanda looked at Elissa and asked her "What about Kidist?" At no time had Elissa mentioned that she was being led to this beautiful little girl. God used this wonderful lady to confirm that he intended Kidist to be the one.

So back to the question "are we crazy". Many people think we are, but we are not accountable to people. We will stand before Jesus Christ and give an account of what we did with the gift of salvation he gave freely to us. If you don't understand this principal it is simple. 1) We are separated form God because of our sin. No amount of work will pay for what we have done. We can go to church every Sunday, we can give all of our money to him, we can volunteer all of our time and it will not cover our sin. 2) Jesus came to earth 2000 years ago and lived a perfect life. Jesus was put to death on the cross for all of our sins. Past, present and future. 3) three days after being crucified Jesus was raised from death. His sacrifice was the required atonement to pay for our sin. 4) All that is required of us now is to accept the free gift that he provided for all of us. When Jesus was asked "what works were required to enter the kingdom of heaven?" He replied that we are "to believe in the one the Father sent." John 6:29. If you need further information, please go to grace-alone.org.

Rob

Getting Ready

November 16th was our ethiopian court date for Kidist and Abete. Abete passed the first time with no issues, Kidist however, took a little longer. The important part is that she has passed now and we have 2 new kids! I (Rob) remember being concerned that I would not be able to love the new kids as much as I love our own, but when I got the email confirming that the adoption was complete I was overwhelmed! I have not felt like that since the birth of Zoe , our first child. It is incredible to feel the rush of children being born into our family not by physical birth but by the gracious hand of God.

All of our shots are done (Elissa did not like this step too much, ok not at all!)

So our current situation is this: Waiting but starting to pack. We think our embassy date should be in early January but we have no dates yet! Our embassy date will be a few day's after we meet the kids for the first time. I pray that God is granting them dreams of being with a family once again, together, and loved. I pray that He is preparing all of us for the transitions that will have to be made.