Ethiopia Trip One

We've been back from Ethiopia for one week now - feels like 3, but it's only been one!  I have yet to get back to my regular sleep cycle, but considering it's nearly 9:00 p.m. and I'm still wide awake, tonight might be the night!

We are still processing all that we saw and experienced in Ethiopia - our daughter's home!  The best part of the trip, of course, was spending time with our daughter.  We got to visit with her four times, for varying lengths of time each visit.  She was hesitant with us at first, but by the end of the third visit, we had her waving, clapping, giving hi-fives, playing peek-a-boo, and giving hugs.  It brought our hearts SO MUCH joy to see her smile, finally!!  She is SO VERY beautiful.  I can't show her face in pictures until after we have cleared Embassy, so you'll just have to take my word for it.  She has dimples and her smile takes my breath away!!  Here is a sneak preview . . .

What happens now? Now our agency works diligently and hopefully VERY VERY quickly to get us ready to be submitted to Embassy. This can take anywhere from 1-3 months. Then, the Embassy does their investigation and starts working on more paperwork. This could be an additional 1-6 months. Once we are cleared, we will be able to go back and pick up our daughter and bring her to her new home!!  I know, I realize that there is a large discrepancy between 2-9 months before we can return to Ethiopia, but it seems to be taking other families adopting through our same agency from Ethiopia about 4 months between the two trips. I am going to estimate 5 months for us so that I can be pleasantly surprised if it happens sooner. That puts us bringing her home in early May - spring - great time to add to a family!

More info to come... Stay tuned!!

We are going to ETHIOPIA!!!

I am writing with some FANTASTIC news!!  Last Friday, we got the call with our court date.  Our court date (in Ethiopia) is December 5^th!  We fly out this weekend and will be holding our girl in our arms next week!!  Needless to say, we are MORE THAN excited.  We have been busy these past few days packing and getting ready for Thanksgiving.  The days are going by pretty quickly!  

We have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving – and this just is such an unexpected bonus!  We really want to thank each of you, for your prayers and your financial help and your love and encouragement.  The past few months have been challenging, but your support has helped so much.  We return from Ethiopia the second week of December, so be watching your inbox for updates soon after we return!! Also, we can not post, publically, any pictures of Samara Naol until we get her home, but if you keep an eye on this blog while we are gone, we will post pictures of our travels!

PRAYER REQUESTS

-         -  For our travels – that we would be safe and healthy the whole time.

-        -   For the next part of the process (the Embassy phase) to go quickly so we can bring our baby girl home! They say it can be anywhere from 1-4 months after your first trip that you can expect to return to Ethiopia to get your child and bring her home. Lately, it’s been averaging families 3 months.

Thank you all so much! We are very blessed by each of you!

The Thomas Family

Bad News

Need prayers -- While the first court date went fine for our adoption -- there was a letter that was supposed to be submitted by that date (three weeks ago) and has not yet been submitted. PLEASE pray for that letter to get there TOMORROW as we NEED it in order to receive our court date and travel to meet our girl.

185 Days

It's been 185 days that we've been staring at a picture of our little girl that we have yet to meet. We've been ready to go and meet her for quite a while. Please join us in praying that we get the call and head out next week. The wait is getting harder by the hour.

Waiting STINKS!

So, another family working with our agency (that got their referral a month after us, but that's a whole nother story) got their call today at 1:00 p.m. They have a court date that they have to be in Ethiopia on Thursday for a Friday court date. That means they had to fly out at 7:00 p.m. tonight. Yep, they got SIX HOURS notice. As excited as I am to meet our girl - 6 hours notice might throw me over the edge!! Yikes!!

I am ready for our call. Please join us in praying that it will come THIS WEEK. We are ready.

First Court Date: Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the first court date in our adoption case (the one we don't go to Ethiopia for). Please join us in praying that all goes well so that we can head out and meet our girl SOON! We don't anticipate hearing how things went for a few weeks, but are hopeful that the next news we DO hear will be good news!

Care Center Donations

Some of you have been asking about donations for the Care Center that our little girl is at. They rely greatly on donations, and while there is no designated amount of donations we must bring, we are able to bring two pieces of luggage each. We do have one bag packed for some friends of ours that are missionaries in Ethiopia (we will take donations to bring to their family as well), but we have about 3/4 of a suitcase designated to donations for the Care Center. Here are some items on their wishlist. If you decide to donate, please get the items to Jaden or myself. We can bring donations both trips and I'm still anticipating our first trip happening some time in November (no clue of the date yet).

Care Center Wish List
- digital camera
- children's clothes and shoes (nb-18years)
- thermometer
- otoscope
- stethoscope
- disposable gloves
- gauze
- vitamins
- antipain meds
- antifungal cream
- antifungal shampoo
- lice killer shampoo
- diapers (all sizes)
- adult diapers
- diaper rash ointment