Embassy Success

Here is a quick update of our week so far.

- Monday, we went up to the Embassy to do some "prep" work, but it was
easily forgotten that in America it was Labor Day and the Embassy is
closed. We spent the afternoon with Josiah, and ultimately brought
him back to the hotel to spend the night with us in preparation for an
early rise and trip to the Embassy. He slept most of the night except
3:30a to 5:00a where he enjoyed the experience of a flashlight.

- Tuesday Morning, we went to the Embassy to take care of all the
work. We got there early and got some prep stuff out of the way prior
to our interview. Due to the unfortunate tardiness of another agency,
we had to do our interviews early. (So sad when we were looking
forward to waiting a couple hours). The interview was short, and by
the time it was all done we were informed that we would have Josiah's
visa by Thursday. Thank you for all your prayers for this time.
God's presence was surely felt.

- Tuesday Afternoon, we went to Yezelalem Minch. It is an awesome
ministry, and we were very fortunate to be able to watch them at work,
visit some of the children homes, and make new friends. We even had a
unique experience in seeing God work in the community and through the
community out into greater members of the city. We plan on sharing
more about this ministry later and our special experience later.

- On Wednesday, we went to Gelgela Integrated Orphans & Destitue
Family Support Association. This is where Josiah spent the last 3
months. Here we got to learn about the amazing work that God is doing
through this group. We also got to spend time with the children here
at the headquarters branch, enjoying songs of praise in several
different Ethiopian languages and English. They even counted to 10 in
Italian. They enjoyed the antics of Grandma Allen. Aftwards we ate
at a restaurant within the palace known as the Sheraton Hotel. We
enjoyed a relaxing evening in the hotel.

All in all, the week has been very good. We've met some amazing
peole, made awesome new Christian friends and have enjoyed unique
experiences only available in Ethiopia. Josiah seems to be adjusting
well, and each new day brings additional signs of trust and love
between us and him. We want to thank all of you for your continued
pray and support. We look forward to coming home and sharing this
wonderful new person with you.

Love,
Babers

Just In Case

I'm not sure we'll be able to post anything in Ethiopia, but wanted to make sure all you waiters were able to see our sweet boy. When you are reading this, we should already have our son and hopefully we have made it through the embassy appoinment with flying colors.

We have safely arrived

All,

 

We have safely made it to Addis.  On our first day here, we got to meet Josiah and spend an hour getting to know him.  He's full of personality and we are excited about the direction he'll grow.  Yesterday (Sunday) we enjoyed a church service and spent several hours with him.  Today we'll bring him back to the hotel and get to enjoy him with us for the rest of the week.  Please keep us in your prayers for our Embassy appointment tomorrow.

 

- Dad, sorry we didn't contact you sooner.  We'll try to call later.

 

- Holly, sorry if we made things harder for your travel home.  We pray all is well.

 

- Tracy, happy anniversary tomorrow!

 

- Gareth, we apologize our driver is an Italia Football fan.

 

We miss you all, and we'll try to find another opportunity to post later in the week.

 

Love,  The Babers

We're OFF!!!!

We're Leaving TODAY to go get Josiah!!! We got into the hotel way later last night than planned (thanks to procrastination and nightime construction--seriously, three lanes down to one WITH stalled trucks???)

Elizabeth is so excited! My mom has been a LIFESAVER!!! She is part superwoman. We definitely would have been in trouble without her!

We appreciate your prayers!!! For safety, for Josiah, for Elizabeth, for our Embassy appointment on Tuesday!!!

Blessings,
The Babers

I want to GO!!!

Today, I received the BEST gift I could receive right now...pictures of my son! Thank you SO much, Beth!!! (And yes, it is definitely him...I wasn't totally sure until I saw one with his cute little grin, and then I had NO doubt :-))

Right now, the nerves and anxiety are melting away. I just want to go meet my son NOW!!! Not the best thing, but I really couldn't care less what my house looks like right now or what I have packed or where we'll be staying. I just want to go...

Tonight we have Elizabeth's pre-school open house. We registered her, but haven't heard anything all summer. So, I hope she's on the list! She'll end up probably missing the first two weeks anyway, though. And I don't have all the documents I need with me yet. I've just been kind of focused elsewhere. And right now...as you probably guessed...I just don't care. It'll all be figured out at some point.

Tomorrow we go up to pick up my mom. Wednesday we are probably going to be doing last minute shopping and packing everything. We'll be cleaning and doing laundry in-between. (Sorry Uncle Dan and Moms if the house is not as clean as it should be.) I am actually concerned about one thing with the shopping...I need to find good hair stuff for him. I wasn't so concerned before, as they had his hair cut pretty close. But now, my boy has got some hair! I think I'm going to be taking a picture into the supply shop and saying, HELP!

BIG Smile

I have a big smile on my face this evening. :-D Some of our friends through our agency's boards are currently in Ethiopia bringing home their daughter. (Please keep her in your prayers, as this is a difficult transition for a child.) They included this message about Josiah in their blog:

Demarie, your little Josiah is a peanut too! His eyes are just gorgeous! He was actually moved from Gelgela to the transition house today!! We saw him at Gelgela yesterday and then again today at the transition house... I got some really cute pictures of him for you too...!

This time next week, we will be in Ethiopia--hopefully still sleeping our first night there. Josiah will not be in the hotel with us yet, but I'm hoping we will have met our sweet boy!

A Walk to Beautiful

Okay, so I haven't been working like I said I was going to....but there is a good reason! I had heard about THIS PBS Program a while ago, but never got around to watching it. One of the ladies on the BCS discussion boards reminded us about it tonight. I am so glad she did! Thank you, Vicki! (The whole program is available to watch online--you can even do one small piece at a time.)

I don't understand why things happen, but I am amazed at these beautiful women! Their faith and strength are gifts only God can give!

Off to clean now, while I pray and think and cry...

Yea!

Our travel packet arrived from the travel agency today. Praise God! I'm glad to know NOW that we have eTickets, so even if we didn't get them, we would have been okay. :-p Everything looks good with our names and such. We might need to change the seat assignments, but hopefully that won't be too big of a deal. (I haven't been able to tell how the seat are actually arranged.) Still a couple of things we're waiting on.

David's brother Steven came over today to help us move some furniture. It was a BIG help! We're working, but still have a way to go until we're ready for a toddler in the house.

Elizabeth and David went to pick out paint for Josiah's room and for Elizabeth's room. I'll just say, I'm glad I already told Elizabeth we're only going to paint ONE wall in her room because WOW her paint is PINK! We'll see how the paint for Josiah's room turns out. We might need to end up doing some "special techniques" to make it a little lighter ;-). I'll post pics once we are done.

I've just resigned myself to the fact that I'm not going to sleep at night for a while. So I'm trying to be as productive as I can with my late nights. Maybe it'll all catch up with me on the plane, and I'll get some gooooood sleep. Okay...I'm off to clean!

Good things

I feel like all I'm posting lately is my frustration, so I wanted to add some positive things.

Elizabeth has been as helpful as she can be. She took the initiative to go through her books this morning to give the "baby" books to Josiah. We had talked about this a couple weeks ago, but hadn't gotten to it yet. She has been excellent about cleaning up her room and her toys when we ask. She wiped down the refrigerator door when I was cleaning the kitchen. She took it upon herself to "clean" the bathroom for me, too!

Our social worker is AWESOME! I called her today to respond to a question, even though it probably could have been answered by email. I just needed to hear a friendly, helpful, understanding voice. And she was all that and more! She had me laughing and smiling when I needed it. She even called me with more information later when she could have just emailed me. We've told her several times we want to convince Grand Rapids that she needs to go with us. But she has her BIL's wedding, so I guess we're okay with that. ;-)

Hopefully M. is going to be able to take care of room reservations for us.

We thought we had a dog/house sitter lined up. Though that plan didn't work, it looks like another option is going to be a good fit.

Many friends have contacted us to let us know they are praying for us and thinking of us. Of course that always lifts our spirits, and reminds us that God is in control!

A Little Frustrated this morning...

I've been crying this morning and there is no real reason. I know it's mostly not big stuff, but with 10 days left until we go, I'm starting to stress a bit. And I've not been able to fall asleep for anything.

I was expecting to have our airline tickets in-hand last night. Well, I discovered this morning they were not sent out until yesterday...and they were sent priority mail, so we will not get them for 3-5 business days! This does not leave much time to make corrections if anything is wrong. Also, the price we were billed by the airline is about $50/ticket higher than we were quoted, which I understand the reason, but we were given no warning or invoice. I had to call and ask to get it.

We have not heard anything about hotel reservations. I asked the travel agent to make these for us a week ago. I understand that they email with the hotels in Addis, and this can take some time. But a week? I was trying to save our in-country rep the trouble of doing this for us, but if I don't hear something from the t.a. today (I emailed for the second time since our request), I'm just going to ask him to do it.

I'm going to hang the cat...

I've been snapping at poor Elizabeth all morning...

David is going to have to go find me some medication with a sleep aid because this not falling asleep until 3:30, 4, 4:30 a.m. is not helping anything!

On a positive note, we heard from the BCS family traveling at the same time we are!!! I'm excited to meet them!