Embassy Date

As we have been planning we were given an Embassy date of December 31st. That would be today. We were wondering about this date and it been associated with a holiday. We did some research, asked some questions and were satisfied that all should be just fine. On December 30th we were getting ready to take a nap around 3pm. The night before had been the most challenging and we all needed a nap. Just as we were getting settled my cousin came knocking on our door entered in a bit of a panic. He said,” This is totally an Ethiopian thing...it just happened...your representative called and he's sending a taxi for you to get to the Embassy today." Apparently they wanted to close or take December 31st off or something like that. All the details were a bit blurry, all we knew was we needed to hustle. We all ran around and pulled everything together and were waiting by the gate in 15 minutes. And we waited...and waited...and waited. About 45 minutes later our cousin received a call and then another and another explaining what was happening. Still all the details were a bit unclear but we had the jist of them. Now our Embassy date was back to the original date. We were a bit worked up and concerned between the sudden switch of thing, the holiday, the fuzzy details, and this mad dash to the Embassy at the end of the work day and then not having to. We took a deep breath, had a cup of rum tea (very yummy) and took a nap. Ahhh. We continued on believing and praying that all these details would work out. God has not gotten us this far to leave us in crisis situation. Later in the day we learned that a local friend would be here at 8am to take us to the Embassy. The rest of the evening was relaxing and we enjoyed Micah, the family and all the others who are around the house at any given time.

Today is December 31st here in Ethiopia...our original Embassy date. We had the best night yet. Micah was on schedule and we all got lots of rest. We were up early tending to Micah and once he was back to sleep we got ourselves ready. By 8am we were prepped and ready for our adventure to the Embassy. The Embassy is usually 30 minutes away. We are on the opposite side of Addis. Once our driver arrived we loaded in and were off to our very important appointment. Now one thing that I think is just universal is rush hour. The whole world goes to work when the sun rises. In Ethiopia it is no different. Our driver is very knowledgeable about the main road and short cuts as well. As we started off everything was fine and going as smooth as can be in Ethiopia. Now if any of you have ever been to Mexico imagine driving there. Now as you are driving throw out all concern for pedestrians, any amount of safe driving distance between cars and those lines in the road (if they are there) what are those for? Bumper to bumper is taken literally and is a means of survival.

So back to our ride. We hit traffic...rush hour traffic...lots of stopped traffic. Our driver was irritated and on a mission. We proceeded to see all of the back roads (more on these another time) and the road blocks in Addis. Yes, road blocks. Our driver was quite irritated and working his best to get us to the Embassy. So an hour later we arrived at our destination. All thankful to be in one piece. By the way, Micah did wonderfully the entire time. If he was not watching everything he was sleeping and did not fuss or squawk a bit, which is amazing.

As we entered the Embassy we passed through two security points and then on to our destination. We met the person we needed to and another adopting family. Before we knew it our name was called and we proceeded up a long stair case to answer some questions. It was very simple and not stressful and took about 5 minutes. Before we knew it we were heading back to our driver, 30 minutes later. As we got to our meeting point we were met by some local youth who reassured us our driver would be back soon. Um..ya…let’s stand on a corner in a foreign country with no real phone wondering when he would come back…um…no. We found our agencies representative and he made some calls and found our driver. He returned within 5 minutes from his coffee run and collected us safely. We then braced ourselves for our return trip. This time we were able to take all main roads and see more of Addis. We were also able to chat with our driver. Before we knew it we were home again…30 minutes later. It went amazingly smooth all the way around. God’s fingerprints on every aspect. We are excited to now have all the business out of the way.

-Mo

We Have Arrived

Two days ago we boarded a plane to go meet our son and today we met him. I was tired from the long journey, a 16 hour flight with a forced overnight layover in Dubai and then another four hours to Addis Ababa, but was immediately energized by meeting my son for the first time. He is beautiful and I am overwhelmed with emotion as I try take in the journey and the final arrival. So many experiences all crammed together. We are staying with Monica's cousin who is a missionary here and we had not seem in some time. Lots of emotion needless to say.

Randy, 3;22pm Ethiopian time

Our biggest Christmas gift of all...

Here we are...Christmas afternoon...

We've had a pleasant day of celebrating Jesus' birth with family and friends.

My mom is home from the hospital.

Gifts are opened, wrestled from their packages and have fresh batteries.

Lots of yummy food has been consumed.

Now on to the next phase...

Packing the last suitcase and carry-ons

Cleaning up the house

Enjoying the girls

Loading the car

Passing the information and keys over to the Grandparents

Kissing sweet cheeks

Heading on the adventure of a lifetime

Realizing none of us individually or as a family will ever be the same again

Looking forward to what God has in the works for all of us.

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Your prayers are appreciated for health, safety and protection for all.

There's so much to pray for, so pray as you feel lead.

Our friend will be blog sitting so hopefully we can get updates posted.

Thank you all for the part you played in bring Micah home.

Urgent Prayer Request...again!

My mom is once again in the hospital. She has a fever that we could not manage at home. To say we are all depressed is an understatement. Honestly, this all just stinks. We did a Christmas two years ago with my dad in the hospital on Christmas...it was horrible. We do not want to repeat this. Please pray for wisdom for all those involved in figuring this out. Pray she is home tomorrow so we can have Christmas as a family. Please pray we can continue to prepare for our trip to Ethiopia. We leave Christmas night. Pray for the girls and those caring for them. Most of all please pray for peace for all of us. I will keep the blog updated.

Thank you

13 days and counting

When you hear this timeline your mind may think about the days until Christmas. It's actually a few days after. Thirteen days is the time until we get to hold our son for the first time. We are getting so excited! Oh my there is so much to do. We appreciate all your prayers as we press on through the to-do lists.

Christmas gifts are also still available and they benefit our adoption as well.

Homemade Strawberrry jam- pint jars are available for $8

Christian Calendars- spiral bond, heavy duty and beautiul are available for $6

Coffee from Just Love Coffee is also available through the link on the right hand side of this post. They have a variety of products or a variety of prices.

If you are interested in jam or calendars please e-mail me at coombshouse@sbcglobal.net and we can figure out a time to connect.

Thank you for all of your support!

Home for Christmas

From the beginning of our adoption journey as we learned of how quickly it could all happen we had one outrageous thought that seemed beyond our reach. I mean, come on who would not want to think this but what are the chances.

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We thought it would be so cool if Micah could be home for Christmas.

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As I have had time to process the news of our travel dates this evening I have seen God's fingerprints once again. I am humbled at how God has taken care of every detail.

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Micah will be home for his first Christmas...

his first Ethiopian Christmas that is...

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January 7th is Ethiopian Christmas

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This is the day he will arrive back at his forever home

and meet his forever sisters.

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God is so good.

Travel Dates!!!!

It's happened. It's really really real. We have tickets and are flying to Ethiopia. Oh my goodness!

We will be leaving December 26th for Ethiopia and returning on January 7th.

We have to thank all of you who have been praying for the perfect flights. We did indeed get the perfect flights. We got the airline that we had hoped for. The timing of flights leaving/arriving are also very good. We get to be here for Christmas and enjoy that with our girls and family! Randy gets wrap up his work and finish off a week! We don't have to do any traveling in the middle of the night to catch a flight or have any extra hotel stays to catch a plane! The girls are still out of school the entire time we are gone! It is so awesome to see it all come together. We are beyond blessed!

Again, we could not be doing this without all of you and your prayers. We have felt the prayer throughout every day. We have seen prayers answered at every step. Please know you are a very important and appreciated part of our adoption!

Now we will begin to start collecting, packing and organizing.

Keep praying!

Here we go!

Waiting

Wait for the Lord;

be strong

and take heart

and

wait for the Lord.

Psalm 27:14

This is the verse we are clinging to as plans are being finalized to go get Micah. Praying and waiting for the Lord to move...

Travel Date?!

So it's been awhile since I've blogged but that does not mean nothings been going on. Every spare minute has been filled and we have been maximizing every moment we can. I will work to get you up to speed. For now here's the latest.

Friday late afternoon we received an e-mail that had the subject line as "travel". As I saw this all I could do was yell for Randy to come to the office. As I read it informed us that there is a 90% chance that we have an Embassy date set for the very near future. This is where I lost all sense of composure and clarity of thought. I began to stutter and hyperventilate as Randy rushed into the office and I was trying to relay this exciting information. As he watched my efforts to communicate you could see the concern over what could this be all about. Between my attempts and him reading the e-mail the message was relayed and my brain was in a tail spin with no sight of recovery. I could hardly believe it. This is all real and it's happening in real life. Wow!

Now we have been asked to look for flight reservations. This is quite the experience during the holidays. I never imagined we would be getting plane tickets that cost so much at any point in our lives. To get tickets this time of year with our time frame and parameters is not a task for the faint of heart. We have a very real chance that we will be on an airplane for Christmas day. We are holding on to God's faithfulness and praying through every step of the way.

We would appreciate your prayers for the following details:
-For it to be 100% confirmed.
-For the perfect tickets regarding timing of purchase, price, timing of travel, seat location and number of layovers.
-For Micah to continue to improve and be prepared for us to come.
-For the funding to come in.
-For prep in packing, our home, the girls, etc.
-For good health for everyone in our family and those who will be helping care for our girls while we are gone.
-For clarity of thought in everything.

-also for my mom. This last week we have seen significant improvements. Please pray she continues to move forward and that she will regain her strength.

Thank you all so much!