A care package for Ethiopia!

I was put in touch with a friend who would soon be traveling to Ethiopia to visit the daughter they were adopting - she was willing to take a "care package" from us to one of our sponsored boys! I was SO excited about it! She delievered it last week. Now we weren't sure if she would actually get to MEET him. Our boy is at Yezelalem Minch, and my friend and her husband would be staying at the the home of the woman who started Yezelalem Minch. So we knew that even if she couldn't MEET him - that she would be able to leave his gifts and he would eventually get them.

Much to my surprise she DID get to meet our little guy!!!!!
This is what she shared with me about it:



"The entire trip was just absolutely amazing! Our hearts are overflowing right now! Thank you for letting us bring a gift to your little guy. We were so blessed by that experience. Eyasu and Bilen (our sponsored girl) were so overwhelmed when we met them and started handing them all this stuff. It broke my heart because it was not a big deal for me to bring all that stuff, and they were just in shock at the sight of it. Just another reminder of how much we take for granted.

Our meeting with them was very brief. We had a jam-packed day that day, and were running behind schedule. They had been waiting for us for 2 hours. They were both brought in to the Yezelalem Minch office to meet us. Bilen is from Addis, but Eyasu lives outside of Addis. I think they said it was about an hour drive back to his house. His social worker was the one who brought him into Addis that day. Neither of the kids said much. You could tell that they were very overwhelmed, but they were so happy and thankful. We told them that we pray for them everyday, and encouraged them to study hard.

I have to say, it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I feel like I was far more blessed by the experience than the kids were.Our court trip was short and had a lot of things packed into a few short days. We're hoping to be there longer during our embassy trip, and even visit the sponsored kids at their homes. We'd be happy to bring your little guy another package if you want us to. Just let me know. :)"



I am so excited for their next trip when they bring their daughter home and get to see first hand how our little man lives. Its so powerful to me what a few dollars a month can do to change the life of a child - and what it means to them!

Finalization!

Just got the notice in the mail today that we will finalize our little man's adoption in two weeks! I am not looking at this day like "he will finally be OURS" - because he already is, I don't need a court to tell me that. Its significant of course because legally he becomes our son - but on his original birth certificate his first parents chose to put our last name as his. They put our name for him on it - I thought that was pretty special. I am SO EXCITED that his adoption will be final before the year's end - this means that we can claim all of our adoption expenses on our taxes in April! G's adoption ended up being about four thousand dollars more than we had originally anticipated, which may not seem like much, but when you aren't planning on it, and you don't have the money... well.. I am thankful this year the tax credit is refundable. With the refund we should be able to pay off the adoption loan (which is both K & G's loan combined). I'd like to say that this is good so we can get another loan and do it again!! Realistically, that isn't happening any time soon. My husband says no more babies. ever. He would like to adopt from the system next, but that also won't happen for a couple years so who knows where we will be at that point :) I like to guess and think about what life will be like - but things never turn out the way I anticipate. Luckily :)