We have tickets to Ethiopia

We have our airline tickets to Ethiopia!  We have 7 tickets to Ethiopia!  We get to bring the kids with us.  We will be in county for about a week.  In that week, we will get to meet the boys and we go through court.

I'm so excited to meet the boys, and I'm so excited for our 5 children to meet their brothers.  Our first moments as a family of 9 will be in the county that the twins were born in.  I'm thankful that God has provided for our family as a group to be able to see and experience this beautiful country.

The kids will need to miss about 8 days of school, which may be difficult for them but with some hard work before hand and when we get home I know it will all be okay.  I'm so thankful for their teachers, which are all happy for them to be able to experience this and are so helpful in preparing for their absences.

Hannah's class has been busy working on a school project.  In 6th grade, one of the assignments is a "Nation's Report"  The Nation that she was assigned is Ethiopia!  She told me this morning that she is so excited to travel to see Ethiopia after she has been working so hard on learning about the history of this country.  We'll be busy making Injera later this week for her to share with her class.

This news is bittersweet.  As we are so excited about having a court date set and the blessing of knowing that we will be going as a family - the twins have a few really hard weeks ahead of them.  They are in their orphanage right now.  They have been in their orphanage for about a year.  Sometime before we travel in May, they will move from their orphanage to a care center staffed by our agency.  First, they will have to make a long bus ride (around 5 hours) to get to the capital city Addis Ababa where the care center is.  They speak a different language at the care center than the boys speak.  The boys will not know anyone.  Everything familiar will be taken from them again.  I can not image how this will feel.  I am reminded that our God is a God that gives and takes away.  God is the constant "familiar" - always the same - Unchanging.  We are praying the Holy Spirit will come over the boys as they are having familiar taken away from them again in the next weeks - that the love of the Lord will be surrounding them with peace and hope.  Please join with us in that prayer.