On Yoseph's Homecoming

picture taken just last week

Yoseph is coming HOME!!! The embassy's interview with his birthmother was this morning at 5:00am our time (1:00pm there). I woke up on my own at exactly 5:00am this morning and prayed for this woman who is going through the hardest thing any mother ever can... giving up her baby.
I checked my email from 6:30-7:30am and then decided we weren't going to hear anything and went back to bed for a bit until Steve had to leave for work. Elijah came in about 7:45 and brought Daddy's phone to me. I told him "Elijah you know you are not supposed to have Daddy's phone go give it back to him and let Mommy rest" Then Steve came in and said, "No, Niki look at it". He showed me the email that we CLEARED.  I expected to be more emotional, but really I was just shocked and thought, okay let me go pack. I feel such relief and joy now. God is finishing what he started in our hearts about 2 years ago.
Travel plans won't be confirmed until tomorrow. We expect to leave Friday and return Thursday. I'm already mostly packed since we will leave here tomorrow to spend Thanksgiving with family and leave Elijah with them when we head out.

Thank you Lord, for your mercies and provision in every step of this journey.

On Yoseph's Homecoming
When he comes home we want to schedule a homecoming party to celebrate with our friends and introduce you to our new family member you have all helped pray home. More info on that will come soon. Then we're going to kind of disappear for a while. We will take our cues from Yoseph as to how long, but I expect we won't be at any church events for 2 weeks or so (maybe more if he needs it). We need to take a few weeks to get to know our new son and for him to get to know us. Bringing home a 10 month old adopted baby is ALOT different than bringing home a newborn. He has a background. He's experienced trauma in losing his first mother. He's lived in two different orphanages in a third world country and yes we are moving him again. That's a lot for a little life. He's built relationships with his nannies whom he will miss. He needs to learn what it's like to have a family. He's had so little consistency in his life he needs to learn that we are not leaving him, and he won't be taken and moved from his new home now. We've been told to expect him not to sleep well at night. Many newly adopted babies wake up every couple hours for reassurance that Mommy and Daddy are still there and that he is still in his new home.

After our kind of hermit stage we will then have a transition phase of being out and about but only being cared for by Mommy and Daddy or maybe Mammaw and Pappaw. I expect this stage to be several months. I know everyone will want to hold him, but for a while we will have a rule that only family members hold Yoseph. And, we may leave him in church nursery.  After my maternity leave I will be taking Yoseph with me to work for a while (thanks to a wonderfully flexible boss and schedule). I know this seems very protective, even overly protected. We were not nearly this protective when Elijah was born, but hey I had already known him for 40 weeks in my pregnancy and he hadn't had any traumas like Yoseph. You've got to understand we're building a relationship, and not just any relationship, a parenting relationship.  A relationship where when he scrapes his knee he calls for Mommy or Daddy. When he is feeling sad he comes to Mommy or Daddy. This takes lots of time together. He's got to learn we are the ones who help guide him in this life.

Also, within all this time we expect Yosef to have a surgery. We don't know how extensive this surgery will be until he's evaluated. He has a tongue tie, which means the skin under his tongue is fully connected so that he cannot move his tongue freely.  When we get him home the doctor will evaluate him, so we don't know yet what this surgery will totally involve.

We ask for your continued prayers as even though we are OVERJOYED to bring Yoseph home we still have challenges of adjustment ahead of us.

Niki

Finally November, Finally Good News

It's finally November, like my last post explained we had to wait until the judge in Ethiopia fixed our adoption decree before we could be submitted to the embassy to get a Visa for Yosef to come home. Those weeks were incredibly hard. We tried not to put our lives on hold while we waited for this. We did keep ourselves busy. Our hearts however, have continually longed for our son. Some days were very hard. We got these updated pictures which show how much he's growing. I was also glad to see he's still got our picture and blanket and mobile we left with him. I just love those big brown eyes, and sweet little curls.

Elijah is also growing like a weed.

Well, the long wait finally ended on October 26th they picked up our fixed adoption decree. This document had to be translated and our case was submitted to the embassy on November 2. Yesterday (November 9) the embassy made their requests. They want an interview with his birthmother. This is normal and is what we expected. The interview will be scheduled as soon as possible, hopefully within the next 1-2 weeks. Most families "clear" to go pick up their baby very soon after the interview. I will not be totally at peace until I have that baby in my arms, on US soil, past customs. If all goes well, IF, we think it's possible for him to be home by Thanksgiving or soon after.

Also, while we have been waiting many of our adopting friends have been thrown a huge nasty curveball. About 60 cases (about 10 of them friends with our agency) were sent to USCIS in Nairobi for further review. Well, a team from Nairobi came to Ethiopia to process these cases. They are reviewing cases this week and next. All of these families were told "any day now" you should be able to leave to get your baby and then boom, oh no wait it will be 1-3 more months. We've been grieving with those friends in this time. We now all anxiously await news on their cases. I sure am hoping to go to Ethiopia with these friends.

The journey has been long. Much longer than we thought. Back in July when we left him, we thought he'd be home by September. The Lord has been teaching us a lot during this time. I'm learning a lot about contentment and trust. In times we don't get what we want I try to remember God has already given me the greatest gift ever in salvation through His Son and he is also going to see this gift to conclusion. Back when we decided to adopt it was a surrender to his call and trust that he would provide. Now, I must surrender and trust in how he wants to bring this to a conclusion. I'm trusting in God's timing to bring Yosef home. 

The Bible relates our salvation to being adopted into God's family. I'm getting a little glimpse of how God yearns for his sons and daughters to come into his family.