GREAT NEWS!

We passed court!!!! Zerihun and Melaku are officially our sons!!!

We got an email today from our agency -"We had news today that two cases have passed court sometime in the last few days. These are Melaku and Zerihun Philips." :):):):):)

This is such a relief. We still have some process to go through on the U.S. side that they say will take approximately 6 weeks - getting new birth certificates and passports for them, medical appointments, etc - but at least we're not dealing with the unknowns of the adoption slowdown on the Ethiopian side.

I am so happy!!!

Ups and Downs

This has been kind of a rough week for me. About a week ago I heard the news that Ethiopia was planning to cut back on their processing of international adoptions by 90% starting on March 10th (see article here - http://bit.ly/hbt8PQ). We were supposed to have our final court date last Tuesday, March 8th, so I was really hopeful that we would pass before this slowdown went into effect. But then we found out that the recommendation letter we needed from MOWA (the Ministry of Women's Affairs - the department planning to "slow down" on the 10th) had not been received by our court date, so the adoption wasn't finalized.

We are very concerned, especially because of Z's age. His current birth certificate (which was created last year) shows him as 14, turning 15 in June; but the doctors who have examined him apparently think he is 15, turning 16. Under U.S. law, we have to file for his adoption in the U.S. before he turns 16, and we can't do that until the adoption is finalized in Ethiopia.

Anyway, please pray with us that this one letter we are waiting on from MOWA will be received very soon and that we will pass court!

In the midst of this, though, I have been encouraged and built up so much by my awesome family and friends. On the day we learned we had not passed court, I was really upset, and Darren and the boys were out playing golf for the day. When they got home, though, all three boys came in and just hugged me and hung out with me and encouraged me so much, and Darren made dinner. :)

I've had a lot of friends encouraging me and letting me know they're praying, but I had one friend who basically said to me, "You're not alone! I'm here in this fight with you!" and started brainstorming and making calls and figuring out what our next step should be. She has been through this process herself, adopting internationally and dealing with all the ups and downs and bureaucracy, so she knows what it's like; and she is definitely a fighter! She encouraged me so much to not just be discouraged, but to get up and do something!

And just today, I heard from another friend that she and her husband want to give us $500 for our adoption! I know that this is truly a sacrificial gift for them, and it really touched me.

Every financial gift we have been given through this whole process has been such a blessing to me, so humbled me. It has shown me so much how God's heart is for the orphan, because he promised to be a father to the fatherless. I believe when we step up and say, God, I want to be your hands and feet in this earth - father (and mother) the fatherless through me! - then he brings heaven's resources to our aid.

But it is also a battle, because every one of those children is precious to God, and a potential world-changer, and the enemy wants them to stay in their despair and hopelessness. So when we decide to reach out to them, he throws up obstacle after obstacle in our path.

But we have a mighty God who fights for us, and teaches us how to fight. In church this morning, the message was about victory, and this verse (Psalm 44:3) encouraged me:

It was not by their sword that they won the land,

nor did their arm bring them victory;

it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face,

for you loved them.

...And wait some more...

I haven't updated since we've been back because the last 6 (!) weeks we have just been basically waiting. As I mentioned earlier, when we met Melaku's aunt at court, we found out he had siblings that we had not known about, and that were not listed in his file. It's a big deal when all the info in the file is not correct, so they had to have his aunt come back in at a later date and give all the correct info about his family. She did that, but apparently they also had to therefore have a new court date, which was set for March 8th. Hopefully everything will be finalized that day on the Ethiopian side.

Then, we have to wait some more for the U.S. visas to be processed, which typically takes about a month or so; so we're thinking at this point we'll probably be going back sometime in April to bring the boys back -- hopefully sooner!

The only way we can communicate with them is through letters carried back and forth by adoptive parents who travel there, so it's not too fast. We have sent letters to them a couple of times since we came back, and received some that were actually written before we traveled there in January. We've only gotten one letter from Z so far, but we've gotten lots from Melaku; he goes to school there at Layla House, and I think they have the kids write to their parents pretty frequently. Here is one of his letters:

"I love you my family. I'm so happy for my family. I miss you my family. I am very happy to see soon my family home and my bed. I'm excited to go to America. Sunday is play time soccer ball. Manchester United and Arsnal. Manchester United name is Z-Man, Melaku, Roba, Biniam, Zemdun, Dawit. Arsnal name is Biruk, Shiferaw, Ashenafi, Abi big, Abi small, Samuel. The winner is Manchester United 16 and Arsnal 14 golls. The golls Z-Man 4, Melaku 4, Zemdun 4, Dawit 3, Biniam 1 Bye Bye."

We also got a letter from Meseret which was sweet:

"Dear my family,

I am so fine and merry Christmas to all of you and thank you for that letter sent to me and I am so happy that you adopt us!!! Now I am learning and everything is fine. Thank you so much for everything!!! I love you so much all of you!!"

We needed about $6000 more for our final (yay!) expenses for this last trip, and about a week ago a good friend of ours told us that God spoke to her to give us $3500 of that! What an awesome, amazing blessing that was! So we are very close, only needing about $2500 more. 

Please pray with us for this final amount to come in, and especially for everything to go smoothly on March 8, so that we can bring the boys home soon!