Ladies & Gentleman, We Have A COURT DATE!!!

Can you feel the enthusiasm of my title?!??!  Three weeks ago I saw his precious face for the first time and in 5 weeks and 5 days I get to hold him in my arms. My heart is overflowing with joy! You all who read my last post know I was praying to see my son this year and I asked you to pray for the same.  I'm so thankful that God has answered this prayer.  
Our court date is December 22nd!!! WAAHOOO!!
While this is what I was praying for, it wasn't super realistic of me.  To be assigned a court date as fast as we did and have one assigned just over a month from now is a blessing from the Lord, I will give Him the glory for the most wonderful Christmas present a mom could ask for!


So today I've been a busy bee.  We are working on our travel itinerary with an agency, I made our appointments at the travel clinic for vaccines, looked into travel insurance, made a list of documents we needed, and reviewed our travel pack from West Sands. I also realized this afternoon that since we will be getting home on Christmas Eve, I not only have 5 weeks to get everything in order for us to leave the country for the week, I only have 5 weeks to get everything ready for Christmas! Although, there is potential the Jenkins may be celebrating Christmas on December 26th so mom and dad will actually be awake and able to remember it! So if I lose my train of thought while talking to you it's because I'm mentally crossing off and adding to my to-do list (or just day dreaming about holding my little man :) 


What happens now...(I'll be so happy when the only thing left to happen is be a forever family!)


December 12th: Preliminary hearing in Ethiopia.  They review our paper work and little man's paper work.  We get travel clearance or request correction to documents. (We are praying for clearance!!)


December 18th: Fly to D.C.
December 19th: Fly to Ethiopia
December 20th: Hold on to and cuddle our little guy!!! Happy Day!
December 22nd: Court!!
December 23rd: Leave Ethiopia
December 24th: Home to our girls 


Noah has still has not been moved to the transition home.  So at some point between now and December 20th he will be moved.  Please pray for him to get there soon and safely.  I'll be one relieved mama when he gets there.


Please pray that our MOWA (they write a supportive letter to the judge that we are clear to adopt Noah, without that letter our case cannot be final) letter is there and that when we leave Ethiopia Noah is our son.  The longer the letter takes, the longer it will be until he is home.  


Obviously flying in December has weather risks.  We are asking the Lord to hold off a white Christmas until Christmas day :) 


So thankful and excited to bring Noah home!  So thankful for our friends and family who have been so encouraging and supportive!  We love you all and can't express our gratitude.  Please keep praying for our little guy.  That he stays safe and healthy. That someone is loving on him today, that he is well fed, and clean.  We can't wait for you to meet him!


My turn of "what I'm thankful for" at Thanksgiving might take a while :) 

We Have a Son!!

We are sooo thrilled to have received the referral for our son!! We set out on this journey expecting to go from a family of 4 to a family of 6 overnight.  While we still plan on “making it 2 less orphans & 2 more Jenkins” it looks like we are going to do it one at a time.  Changes at the US embassy in Ethiopia along with other factors contributed to this change of plans but I’ll get on to the reason you all are reading…our son!

Thursday Dan was at work and I was teaching a nursing clinical at a downtown hospital.  I walked to the local farmers market in the cold to get a yummy lunch and was trying to find a quiet place to eat when I checked my phone only to find a missed call from our agency.  Last Wednesday marked our dossier being in country 6 months, the day had passed with a little disappointment that we still had no referral.  So of course I called our coordinator back immediately.  We discussed a few things and she said, “Well I have a little boy who needs a home.”  “Well, we want to give him one!"  I told Lesley I’d go plug my computer in and call her right back.  I found a tiny room in the back of the medical library and plugged my computer in (it took forever to come on and load my email!!).  I called Dan and caught him up to speed and we conference called Lesley (Yay for iphones).  By this time Dan’s email was already up and I could hear his enthusiasm as he went on about how cute our little boy is.  My email FINALLY loaded and I got my first look at our little guy.  He’s currently about 4 months old and in an orphanage about 8 hours from the capital.  We went over some things about his short little life and excitedly accepted the referral. 

This day has long been anticipated and I had imagined how I would feel in those moments. The happiness, anticipation, and gratefulness to our God, an amazing provider, was overwhelming.  He is so precious.  He has curly hair, chubby cheeks, and lips that kind of look like our oldest daughter’s.  We can’t publicly post pictures of him until he’s legally ours, but if I see you I’ll have his picture out before you can ask!  We have also decided what his name will be.  Officially, his first name will be Noah, which means rest/comfort.  We are praying those things for him while he is still so far from home.

When we got home Thursday we showed the girls his picture.  Bella Kate said “He’s so cute! Where’s his mommy and daddy?”  I explained to her that I am his mommy and Dan is his daddy.  She looked at me like I was crazy! But now when she walks past his picture on the fridge she is very excited to announce, “That’s my brother, baby Noah!” Claire also learned how to say “brother” and I love that she is now a big sister!  We were not anticipating an infant.  We were really expecting a toddler.  But I know C is going to make a great big sister!

So what now?  We got our contract notarized Friday and mailed to our agency.  We contacted Show Hope and Lifesong, who have graciously partnered with us financially, to let them know to send funds to our agency.  Now we wait.  Again.  We should be “filed” this week, meaning our paperwork gets together with little guy’s paperwork and we wait for a court date.  Two to four weeks after we are filed we should be assigned a court date.  Then we will travel to Ethiopia and meet Noah!!! We will go to court and he will be legally our son.  (Insert WOOOHOOO here).  Then we wait.  Yep.  Wait.  Again.  Then he will get a new birth certificate with our name on it, a passport, exit/entry visas, and we will wait to be cleared by the US embassy in Ethiopia.  Once that takes place (8-10) weeks after court) we will go and bring him home to his forever family. 

I thought I would let you know what we are praying for our sweet Noah so you can join us in praying for him too!

First, he has to make the 8 hour journey to the transition house where he will stay until we bring him home.  This 8 hour journey is not like a ride on the interstate.  The roads are poor (as in dirt).  There are no car seats or airbags.  So please pray that he gets moved soon and gets there safely. 

Second, we are praying for a speedy court date! We want our little guy home ASAP.  Specifically, we are praying to pass court this year.  So not only would that mean going to court but that MOWA would have our approval letter in our file on our court date.  Without that letter, our case is not final. 

Thanks for your prayers and encouragement.  We can’t wait for you to meet our son!