Joy Amid the Sorrow

As we were catching up on our Advent Calendar tonight God reminded me about a little thing called Joy. The devotional talked about lighting the candle tonight to remember the Joy that it is almost Jesus' birthday. When Jesus was born, Joy came back into our world. It may sound easy to be Joyful in ALL things, it most definitely is not! In the midst of tragedy it is hard to remember that we live for the promise of heaven.

This week I have had a hard time being joyful. As I mentioned briefly in my last post, there are some issues with the US Embassy in Ethiopia approving families for Embassy dates. Essentially all adoptions in Ethiopia have come to a standstill because the US Embassy has changed their paperwork requirements. They are now requiring more detailed documentation about how the children came into the custody of the original orphanage. To get the necessary paperwork agencies have to go back to the small towns all over Ethiopia where most of the orphanages are and get more documentation. We were praying that Jonah would not be part of that requirement. On Wednesday we found out they are requesting more details about his case as well. Now we are relying on the local officials in a town several hours from the capital city to get the documents we need.

I have a number of fears rising up in my heart. So, today I decided that rather than dwell in fear I would live in JOY! We had an amazing day preparing for Christmas as a family. Hannah and I spent time at the horse barn riding Coppertop, which always puts me in a good mood. I worked on organizing Jonah's room and washed his clothes in an effort to remind myself that he is coming home. I am also going to print out his birth certificate and put it on the fridge so I can see the proof that yes he is ours.

Continue to pray that he will be home with us soon and our hearts will be filled with Joy as we wait.

God is bigger than the Boogie Man

I have struggled with anxiety my whole life. I worry about everything from feeling inadequate as a mom, wife, daughter, and professional to fearing a tragedy will take away someone I love. My anxiety peaked on August 7th, 2009 when I learned that I was going to die if I did not deliver an under developed Elijah. At that moment I told the doctor, do whatever you have to my kids at home cannot lose another mom. That is the only day I can recall that the peace of God coming upon me as intensely and immediately that all anxiety left my body.

The past two weeks I have been reminding myself over and over that yes God is Bigger than the Boogie Man in hopes that the anxiety will lessen. I flew to San Diego two weeks ago after buying a plane ticket an hour before the flight was departing because my Grandfather was in the ICU. After my week long stay my grandfather improved enough to get out of ICU, he is still in the hospital due to surgical complications. Four days after getting back home I got sick. After four doctors appts and a trip to the ER I am starting to feel better six days later. In the midst of this chaos I have been finishing finals.

Today while checking blogs I saw that two of the families from our agency, CWA, have been told they will not be traveling next week for their Embassy appointments. The US Embassy has required more paperwork from the original orphanage. It is unclear when they will get this paperwork and therefore when these families will be able to go get their kids. I can feel my anxiety rising as I write this...just remember "God is Bigger than the Boogie Man."

Here are my updated prayer requests:

1. God to take away my anxiety.
2. We will get an Embassy Date of Jan 11, 2011
3. Healing for my Grandfather and peace for my Mom.
4. For the other families with kids waiting for them in ET that they will travel to go get them soon.
5. Micah and Hannah will be reminded of our love for them.

Thank you!

He is ours and waiting in Ethiopia

Well it is official. As of November 24th Jonah Tyler Agegnehu Kneeshaw is ours!!!! YAY!!! We are super excited about having a baby boy in the family. However we had to leave him in Ethiopia to await our Embassy Date.

Many of you ask why we couldn't just bring him home. Here is why:

1. He needs a Birth Certificate to prove we are his parents. This is issued by Ethiopia. We are praying CWAE receives this soon.
2. Next he needs a passport...not a US one but an Ethiopian passport so he can leave Ethiopia and get into the US. This usually comes a couple days after his birth certificate.
3. He needs another physical and TB test.
4. All of the above documentation is submitted to the US Embassy in Ethiopia.
5. We get a date to appear in front of the US Embassy. Our agency has dates every other Tuesday.

We have found out that we will not have the next available date of Dec 28th. While we are bummed about this, we are a little relieved that we won't be away from Micah and Hannah on Christmas. Plus airline tickets are super expensive right now so waiting until January will save us some money.

Prayer Requests:

1. Jonah Tyler's birth certificate arrives at the CWAE offices soon.
2. Our US Embassy Date will be on Jan 11th (1/11/11=a cool date :))
3. Jonah Tyler will be safe and healthy while he waits for us to come get him.

Here are some pictures of our little guy. The first one is one of the first pictures we saw of him almost a year ago when he was six months old.


"Hurry up! I'm bored!"

He is excited about coming home soon.