I spoke too soon . . .

Well, it looks like Joel won't be traveling to pick up Yohannes next week after all. We found out today that the embassy in Addis is requesting one more document before we can be scheduled for an embassy interview and there is no way we will have that document in time to get the date we had hoped for - December 29th. 

Our agency is pretty sure they can have the document in time for the next available embassy date - January 12th. But that is 20 days away! Again, we are waiting and wondering how long it will be until Yohannes is finally home. This process has been so hard and unpredictable and the wait is really wearing on me, I just want to get my son home!


I'm trying my best to be patient and not get too worked up over it, but can I just be honest? This stinks! We have seen so many families pass court after us and they are home with their children already while we still wait. 

It is so hard to know that Yohannes, who is legally our son, is still waiting over in an orphanage in Ethiopia for his family to come for him. He needs to come home! I wonder what he is thinking. Does he wonder why we haven't come for him yet? Is he sad? Does he even remember us?


We need you to pray together with us. Please pray that the extra required document we need would come in quickly and we can travel soon! There is a tiny chance that we could even travel in the beginning of January, so pray that by some miracle everything would work out for us to be able to travel as soon as possible! 

Christmas, Christmas time is here!

Okay, so it's been a long time with no update. That is partly because we have been busy with family and friends that we have not seen in two. whole. years. and partly because we have had no internet for the past 4 days (which I think might have been a good thing for me - I check my email/blog/facebook waaaaay too often).

Anyway, I'm back now and I have good news! Joel and his dad should be leaving for Ethiopia on Monday! Thank you, Jesus! The additional information that the embassy in Addis was requesting came in and it looks like we're good to travel for a December 29th embassy appointment. We are waiting for confirmation from our agency and then we will go ahead and book the tickets, which should happen tomorrow! We have them on hold and we REALLY need to be able to book tomorrow because the price could go up.


In the meantime we have been loving spending time with family. We are so glad we could be back in PA for Christmas and that we can all be together celebrating the birth of our Savior! 

The other week we went with Joel's family to go cut down a Christmas tree. It was COLD (we still haven't got used to how cold PA winters are), but we had fun and the kids even got to see some reindeer at the tree farm!

I love this picture of Colson trying to catch a snowflake on his tongue!

The tree farm

Aunt Leah holding Vienna

Walking down the path to find our tree!

We found it!

Posing next to our tree

Joel and his Dad cutting down the tree

Big Disappointment

Yesterday we received word from our adoption agency that Joel and his dad will not be able to travel to Ethiopia this weekend as we had planned. 

The US embassy in Addis is requesting further information regarding our case, so we were asked to delay our travel plans for the meantime.

I can't say that I wasn't expecting it, we had heard from our agency that the embassy was doing more random investigations of pending adoption cases. 

While it is a good thing that the embassy is doing more to ensure that adoptions are ethical, of course we are disappointed and SO anxious to get Yohannes home.

It's so hard with all of these unknowns - Yohannes could be coming home soon or it could be another 6 weeks or more yet. We just don't know, and that is killing me! 

Please pray that everything is resolved quickly and Yohannes will be home soon!

I'm missing this face!

We made it!

We arrived safe and sound back in PA late Wednesday night! Thanks for praying, our kids are troopers! It was a looooooong flight and there were times when I thought it would never be over, but overall our kids did pretty well. 

The flight to Istanbul was short, then we had about two hours to kill until our next flight, but the kids had a blast in the airport and LOVE those moving walkways and the escalators. Those could have kept them entertained all day. 

The flight from Istanbul to JFK was about 10 hours. The kids both slept for a few hours then we kept them busy with snacks, books, a few toys, and when we got desperate - some movies on the laptop. They also had fun making lots of new friends on the airplane. 

Vienna did have a few major meltdowns when she was tired and there were most likely a few people who didn't like us till we got off the plane. Oh and there was one point when Vienna fell asleep and both Joel and I dozed off for a few minutes and during that time Colson pushed the call button repeatedly until an angry stewardess came by and asked him to stop. Whoops :) 

But we made it and boy was it good to see Joel's family at the airport!! The drive back to their house was about 5 1/2 hours. Vienna threw up a little in the car on the beginning of the drive, but after that both of the kids passed out for the rest of the ride. We made it back to their house at 12:30am and went to bed. We all slept through the night and when we woke up it was snowing! We even saw a deer out the window and Colson excitedly exclaimed: "Kangaroo!" Haha!


Some pictures from the trip:

Vienna making a silly face while waiting to pick up our bags in Istanbul

Hanging out in Istanbul

Cars and coloring books also kept them entertained

I wish this picture wasn't blurry. The kids had so much fun riding the moving walkway again and again and again while we waited to board our plane to JFK.

Another blurry one! These two little girls even joined in on the fun. They sat near us on the flight and our kids played together on the plane.

Walking down the jetway to board the plane!

Some more friends we made along the way. They are refugees from Iran moving to Dallas and don't know anyone. I'm hoping to connect them with some friends of ours in Dallas. The little girl really loved Vienna. 

Finally together with Joel's family after almost two years:


Here's Grammie and Vienna

Aunt Leah coloring with Colson and Vienna

Pop, Torrey and Joel watching some video on You Tube

Having fun inside their tent

 

Vienna sitting with Uncle Torrey

 

Colson and Aunt Ashley