Dossier to Ethiopia & a town called Nazareth

Our Dossier (aka. Big Stack of papers that IS our life story) is being flown over the ocean via DHL and should land in Ethiopia early next week. Once it lands in Ethiopia, it will go to translation and then to get in line for a court date. Now that our end of the paper chase is over, we've been able to take a breath, get passports for Todd and Riley. I know God's got all the details worked out but sometimes it is hard not to worry.

Our case worker seems to think we should be able to get our documents translated, get a court date and travel before the courts close in August! Wow, that will be in less time than a pregnancy! The courts close for Ethiopian New Year for approx 10 weeks. Our prayer is to be done by August.

We have new pics of the girls and they look so healthy and happy. They've already changed so much since being admitted to the orphanage in December of 2008. Another Hope family traveled recently and said they met our girls. Said they were both pretty shy but warmed up after some time. We've been told that they were walked along with a big group of kids from a city called Nazareth(huh?) to Addis Ababa, (which is approximately 60 miles) and abandoned there.

We're starting to think about schools, hair, clothes, hair, their room, hair, and all the other FUN stuff! They have so much HAIR! These things are keeping us up at night. The list seems so long and the days seem so few.

God certainly is growing and stretching us through this process. We have learned many lessons that I hope will stay with us for a while.

One, we cannot control this process! SO many things are out of our control. We have got to let go and let God do His thing.

Two, we have learned that NO ONE is going to hold our hand or tell us what the next step is. We have to make our best educated guess in figuring out what to do next and then step out in FAITH! Sometimes it feels like we are free falling instead of stepping but we know that God has got our hands, our feet and our hearts and HE will not let us fall or fail

Three, there are SO many people that love these girls and want them home as much as we do. It is amazing to have the love, prayer and support of SO many people we know and SO many we don't even know! I can't imagine going through this without any of them and we are eternally greatful.