Please Join Us in Prayer

We were informed on Friday that it will likely be a week or so before an opinion is issued on our case. Tonight Gladney adoptive families, friends and families are gathering together to pray for Ethiopia, the orphans in Ethiopia and all of our cases. I would like to invite you to join us as well.
The details:
When: Tuesday, June 3rd 7:30-8:00 pm EST
Where: A quiet place, in your home, with friends, alone, anywhere!
How: Pray for Gladney, families, children, MOWA, and all of the orphanages.

You can invite your friends and family to join you in this prayer!
There is strength in numbers!
"For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.", Matthew 18:20 NIV

Not Today

Our caseworker called a little while ago and said that Belay had gone to court but that MOWA has not entered their opinion yet. MOWA has not requested any additional paperwork, however, so we are taking that as a good sign. I think they are simply swamped due to the scheduled power outages and more people adopting from Ethiopia. It was ironic, because I had an Ethiopian Cultural Awareness training today with AWAA. At the end, Duni, the Director of the Ethiopian program at AWAA, stated the same things. Last year, the number of adoptions from Ethiopia doubled. We don't really have a new court date. Our file is considered open with the courts. Other matters regarding our case have been heard in court, so it is just a matter of the judge receiving MOWA's opinion. While we're ready to travel to Ethiopia now (okay, not literally--I don't even have a packing list yet), we're trusting God's perfect timing. I'm so thankful that He sees the big picture and we don't have to worry. Please continue to pray for us, Isaac, and our case. We will update you the minute that we receive the good news.

Delays

Well, we just got a call from Natalie. I was hoping that she would call today, even though it is a holiday, so that we could know if we passed court or not. Prior to the court date (the day before court), the Ministry of Women's Affairs (MOWA) has to write their opinion on our case. Due to the extreme drought (Ethiopia uses primarily hydroelectricity), there have been scheduled power outages in Ethiopia. MOWA did not have electricity on Friday or today, so they were not able to write their opinion on our case. Natalie said that MOWA would work on writing their opinion of our case tomorrow. Wednesday is a holiday in Ethiopia, so our court date is rescheduled for this Thursday, May 29. Please keep us in your prayers. Ethiopia is eight hours ahead of us, so hopefully we'll know something before lunch on Thursday. We'll keep you updated. Blessings!

3 Months, 2 Weeks and 3 Days and We Have a Court Date!!!!

Oh, what sweet words we heard this morning. We heard on Friday that our file had been submitted for a court date. Just a little while ago, we received a message from Natalie saying that we have a court date for May 26th. Please keep us, Isaac, and other involved in the court hearing in your prayers. We are so ready to hold our little man. Yesterday was so tough.

Conference Call

We were able to have a conference call with our caseworker and some other representatives from Gladney today. They were able to provide us with details about our case. Our file has reportedly been completed this week and will be submitted to request a court date next week. They anticipate receiving a court date (not the actual proceeding) for us the following week. Please continue to pray for our case, for Isaac, and for his birth mother. Thank you to those who have left us encouraging comments or who have emailed us. Your words, prayers, and support have been a tremendous blessing to us during our wait for a court date.

Update

Gladney is still working on finishing Isaac's file before it can be submitted and a court date requested. We have a conference call on Friday with Natalie and hope to learn more. Please continue to keep us in your prayers! Blessings to each of you!

No Court Date Yet

We continue to wait on a court date. Our desire to hold Isaac and have him home grows stronger each day. We continue to trust God's timing. In the meantime, we did receive an update on Isaac:

“Isaac is looking good! He is bright eyed and totally aware of his surroundings. Isaac is alert and ready to play and notices a potential playmate in his presence! He is fine on his own or with friends. Isaac’s belly-button is almost completely flat as of today and is beautifully healthy! He wakes up at night to eat a couple of times.”

Current Weight- 15 ½ pounds