Friday, June 26, 2009

Awesome Way to Intro their new son!

Had to post this family's introduction to the newest member of their family. This is the video they put our once they passed court! Get a tissue and Enjoy!


http://www.onetruemedia.com/otm_site/view_shared?p=8f89e7801a2774953778a6&skin_id=601&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

Treasures of the Day

Well, as each day passes since our last court date, Tuesday the 23rd, I get a little more composure back! (Smile) We truly are doing great and looking forward with great anticipation to getting our little buddy in Mid July. Incidentally, our court date was given in error. It is not July 2nd, it is now July 3rd (Friday). The only thing that kept us from passing last week was the Orphanage Director not being there. Lord willing, he will be there this week and all will go well! If not, we will survive again, praying that I will do it a little more gracefully this time! (Smile)

Great things happened today! We contacted a local organization called Gleaning for the World earlier this week and told them that we had been praying that we would be able to do more than pick up our child when we go to Ethiopia. We said we are praying for a way to try to have a little bigger impact with helping the other orphanages over there when we go and we were wondering if they might have some items that we could possibly take. They were so sweet and gracious. The head of the organization, Pastor Ron Davidson said, "sure", then gave me the name of an Angel who cares for their inventory and said "call her and she can tell you better what we have". We called the Angel named Jean and she said, "I don't know if we have what you need, but you are very welcome to come and take what you find that would help."

Well, Brett, Noah and I went out this afternoon and found so many items that will be a total blessing to share when we go over there. As a matter of fact, she had a couple of bags of items that had come in the day before. She said, when it came in, she said, I thought it must have come in just for your need. It was lots of craft and school supplies. Praise the Lord! He is so good! It will be so awesome to be able to deliver these things. I know it will do a lot for our 8 year old son to be able to be a part of it all.

I was just thinking today what a blessing it is, not only for us to be able to have a new member added to our family, but also for us to be able to have the gift of what I know will be a heart and eye opening trip for our family. We have always been blessed beyond belief and I am praying that through this, God will open our eyes and our hearts to a larger ministry for Him. I know He doesn't need us, but I am so humbled to know that He wants to used us, even when we are such a mess like I so often am.

Thanks for all of your prayers and support!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Round #4 - July 2nd

Court Date #4 is scheduled for the 2nd of July. Thanks for all the prayer support! The case was closed yesterday, which should mean that we would be put at the back of the line for new court dates, but it sounds like the judge met us 1/2 way! Our court date could have easily been several weeks off. Thank you God for all the little ways you calm us! I should have more information about tentative travel soon. Thank goodness we are working with a travel agent that works with adoptions. This would be much more miserable otherwise! Stay tuned!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Failure #3

I am writing this right now, not because I feel like discussing any of this at the moment. I am pretty frustrated to put it mildly! I am writing this because I feel like I need to give our prayer warriors an update! Thanks for the prayer!

All was completed with our paperwork and we would have passed, but the Orphanage Director is required to be there and was too sick to be. I am sorry for the director, yet the judge doesn't sound willing to just hear from them another day this week. She wants to close our case and get a new court date, probably a couple more weeks away! Too frustrated to say how I really feel and know it won't glorify God, so I will sign off for now! Please pray for us to not get too frustrated and for court to pass before they close August-October. I know I need a lot of prayer right now!P

P.S. Please pray for Noah in particular. He has been soooooooooo very patient throughout all of this and I know when I pick him up from Vacation Bible School at 12, he is pretty much assuming a "Yes, we passed".

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Waiting for Round #3 on June 23rd

Hello All,

We didn't pass today! Yes, this is disappointing, but we are doing fine. There was progress to note. The relinquishing family members did make it to the court and were allowed to give their testimony so they will not have to travel back for the next court date, which is June 23rd. The main reason stated for not passing today was that MOWA (the ministry of women's affairs), which is understaffed, was unable to get their part of the paperwork to the court in time. Yes, this is why they call adoption "paper pregnancy". All the paperwork has to be done before the delivery! Smile!

So, as I said above, the new court date is next Tuesday, which incidentally will be the 20th Anniversary of my father's death. I believe we will see a PASS on that date! It is currently a bitter sweet day for our family as we are joyful to know that Dad went to be with the Lord on that day, yet we miss him dearly here on Earth and the 23rd is an amplified reminder of that. I believe God, in His usual Goodness wants to give us more reasons to celebrate and be joyful on the 23rd. His timing is Perfect!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Approximately 36 hours until we hear how our Court Case turned out!!!!

Well, once again, we are excitedly waiting for our court results. We should wake up Wednesday morning to find out if we have passed court and our son is an official Pace.
We thank all who are praying. Just to give you a little glimpse of what we are learning about our new addition. Below is a note from the sweet family that took our latest goodie bag to our son when they were picking up their child. She took a couple of pictures for us and our son looks wonderful! It sounds like he is a playful, fun little boy. We have one of those already and pray that the two will make a great heart connection!

She wrote:
Your little boy is a hoot! He was very shy when we first met him, but then when we started playing, he was so very funny. He loves playing with balls and really loved my husband.


We so enjoyed your little T! The pictures really don't show his personality, but our son's didn't either- you will so enjoy having a little older child, especially one who likes to play like your's!!

Stay tuned for the Wednesday update!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Prayer Request for all going through the court process right now!

Seven days to go for our court case to be heard! It will be Wednesday, between 3 and 7 am our time. Many other families that were caught up in our same paperwork issue last month have passes through their new court date, with many still coming up over the next week. One in particular needs urgent prayer. They have a child who somehow got caught up in previous orphanage trying to adopt them out. I guess the couple decided not to complete the adoption, more than likely because the child has some health issues. A family working with our adoption agency really wants the child, but because of the other attempted adoption, it is all being held up in court. Please lift the Setliffe family up in prayer. The decision has been deliberated for more than 4 weeks already and the child needs surgery and other needed medical care. Please keep those prayers flowing! I know they appreciate it very much! To be continued.....

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

New Court Date - June 17th

Yeah! The new court date is June 17th. Now we just need to pass it! If we pass that date, then we should travel over the 4th of July. It looks like travel would be July 4th through 11th. We are hoping to travel a couple of days early to meet other members of our son's family. Please continue to pray!

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

No New Court Date Yet!

Sorry for not posting more! We are doing well and just trying to focus on getting our house in order. Truly time is passing for us very quickly! As is always true for me, I can never get as much accomplished as I would like, but I'm learning through all of that process too! As Noah continually reminds me ... "I am a work in progress". Praise the Lord, He isn't done with me yet! I need some upgrades! (Smile)

We still do not have a new court date yet, but God knows when it is and we are at peace with that! A prayer request would be that we are able to pass court before the beginning of August. We are not going to be distressed, even if it does go longer, but we are praying that court passes before August because if it doesn't, we will be faced with a delay from August - the end of Sept. The Ethiopian Courts close for a 2 month break and do not reopen until October. We didn't even dream that we could have to think about being effected by that when we first sent our paperwork over, thinking we had plenty of months, but it may be something we have to be prepared for. I will post again as soon as I hear anything! Thanks again for all of your prayers!