05.29.10       
We’ve really been blessed this year. Almost a year from the day we started to pursue this adoption process, we are going to get to meet our son, Elsay! Very rarely does the process take this short of a time. There was a time when in the midst of the process, we were not getting the approval we needed from USCIS, which could have made this process even shorter, but then maybe Elsay’s paper work would not have been ready. God sovereignly worked in all of the situations to bring our family together. Elsay is the one that God has had on his mind for us, and he is bringing him into our family for a unique purpose in his life and in ours. It is neat to think of how God has chose him for us, and chose us for him. So much working behind the scenes to cause our paths to cross. Thanks Lord for your sovereign nature and character, that brings good gifts to our lives. You turn harsh situations out for good, working in spite of the fallenness of humanity, to bring about your good and perfect plans.
I wanted to take a step back, and bring you all into the timeline and process that we’ve been through. It really is extraordinary. And it has been God’s timeline, even though we wished at times that he would have made things happen on a different time frame.
Childhood                        -----                Both of us had desires to adopt since childhood
Spring 2006                        -----                During our engagement, we talked about these desires for adoption
Spring 2009                        -----                We were praying about when to have kids
End of May, 2009                -----                We decided that we were to start, and with adoption
Fall, 2009                                -----                Completed our home study with our social worker
November 2009                -----                Submitted complete paper work to US Customs & Immigration for Approval
November-March                -----                Request more paper work, give it, denied, appealed, more paper work.
April 5, 2010                        -----                USCIS Approved us and we completed our Dossier
April 6, 2010                        -----                We were given a referral - we saw Elsay for the first time!
April 7, 2010                        -----                We accepted the referral. Elsay will be ours soon!
May 13, 2010                        -----                Received a court date - miraculously quick!
May 22, 2010                        -----                We purchased tickets to Ethiopia
June 5-6, 2010                        -----                We fly over to Ethiopia
June 7, 2010                        -----                We will meet Elsay for the first time, in Addis Ababa!
June 8, 2010                        -----                Elsay’s Ethiopian court date.
Summer 2010                        -----                Living in Addis Ababa, with Elsay in our custody, at YWAM Children’s home
6-12 weeks after June 8        -----                American Embassy Appointment in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Late Summer 2010                -----                Come home with Elsay
Fall 2010                                -----                Re-adoption process in USA - gives Elsay American Birth Certificate
Please pray for all these future events, as everything is subject to change in our earthly governments, but the Lord is over all, and is capable of moving sovereignly for his purposes.