On Their Way...

I dropped Laura and Deana off this afternoon at O'Hare, and they are on a flight heading for Frankfurt.  We are now officially only getting closer to Matiyas!  The next post you see will hopefully be from the two of them in Addis!

Cleared Embassy and Off!

We received an email this morning at about 6 am our time, stating that we have cleared Embassy!!!  It also informed us that our interview date is Monday the 9th at 9 am.  So needless to say, we are in a whirlwind right now, but tickets have been purchased and Laura takes off tomorrow afternoon with her friend Deana!  She will be (hopefully) keeping us posted here on the blog and I will be at home with Yiah and preparing to take over when she returns on Thursday.  And while our heads are spinning, I am certain of one thing...MATIYAS IS COMING HOME!!!!

Thank you for your support

Expedite Update

Wanted to mention that we received a little more word on our expedition process with the Embassy. We were told that our paperwork would be submitted on Aug 28th. From everything we can gather, that seems like it is the absolute shortest time period possible for that to happen. Should that be the case, we would most likely have our embassy appointment the following week and be able to leave Ethiopia with our little guy for home by Sept 6th at the latest. Praise God!

Last Day with Matiyas

Well... not much to say. Today was the day we have been dreading. Lots of fear and anxiety over the next few weeks. Got a great goodbye full of smiles from little Matiyas when I left.

Quick update on Yiah, he seems to be doing much better. Had a rough morning but seemed to turn a corner after lunch. He again told us that God touched him and healed him and I believe it! Thank you all for your prayers for him.
We will be taking off tomorrow morning at 10:00 am (2:00 am Central time) and hopefully will be arriving in Chicago Monday morning around 9:00 am. We hope to see everyone soon to share our gratitude for your continued support and prayers.

Pray for Yiah

So our little traveling man got sick last night. He woke us up around 3:40 this morning and had thrown up and did again a couple of times after that. Now this morning he is suffering with Diarrhea. We prayed over him this morning and he asked, "Will God touch me and heal me?" I asked him if he believed that He would, to which he replied yes. We hope so, poor little guy. We covet your prayers for him as well as we leave tomorrow morning.

Day with Matiyas

After not having much time with Matiyas yesterday with visiting KVI and shopping, we spent pretty much the entire day with him today, except for lunch. We think that he is getting to where he recognizes both mommy and daddy. It was nice to spend time with him, feed him, and give him a bottle... even have him sleep just laying on us. He got lots of love and kisses today as we try to fill all the orders from home! We have heard him trying to talk a little more and we have been working on him standing up and he seems to really enjoy it! And what helps is Yiah has made friends with some of the other kids at the orphanage and plays with them a lot. There is one boy who plays with him and hugs him everyday, but would never let us take a picture of him with Yiah. Today he came up to us and asked to have a photo with Yedidiya! Unfortunately, I can't share that one with you. But for those of you bored with my writings and ramblings, here you go, the real reason you get on the blog!

What a great big brother!

You knew it was only a matter of time!

On another note, we are truly getting to enjoy the rainy season here. It is impossible to put into words. Today, we were trapped at our lunch destination for 30 minutes do to torrential rain, and HAIL!