Friday July 1st 2011 *Warning>LONG post!!!!

*First of all I would like to thank our friends and family who have donated over $5000 to our adoption. WOW!! What a blessing! We never asked for money but YOU felt called to help! And although we know that you were doing it unto the Lord...we still feel humbled and grateful!
*Second I want to thank all of you who have donated so far to the Korah Village. I am looking forward to keeping you all updated on this project. They will be so grateful and happy, I am sure, for the kindness you all have shown.

Today was a bittersweet/eyeopening day. Alot of information went into my brain and it left me feeling somewhat nauseous...literally. I think it was because of the jet lag, interesting food, dirty water, and ALL the poverty we saw packed into my brain and I was just sorta starting to process it all. Our CWA driver was at the guest house around 8 am to take us to court. We arrived at a 3-4 story building and our lawyer led us upstairs to a room full of Americans plus Ethiopians waiting for their turn before the judge. Because I knew that this courtroom was only for adoption related cases, tears found there way to my eyes and a lump formed in my throat as I observed all the women and men waiting for there turn to give up their parental rights. I tried to keep my tears under control as I thought about the sacrifice that these parents were giving. Love was the word that kept coming to my mind. I simply cannot write what it was like to sit in that room and observe...knowing that Gracie's Mother had been there a few weeks before. {{Love}} After at least an hour of waiting the judge called us in. It was so informal but once again tears came when she asked the questions, "Are you ready to be parents to Bereket?" "YES" I wanted to shout. We both nodded our heads to 5 or so questions and we were done. Of course our MOWA letter had not came yet so we did not pass but it was still a huge milestone. Just think...of how many thousands of miles we had traveled just to answer 5 questions...crazy!!
When we got to the guest house I was feeling so yucky. I laid down for a nap until Britton woke me up and said the pastor was waiting on us to take us to the Korah Village. I feel so bad now because I was trying to act like I wasn't sick so I know I seemed a little unfriendly.

*The above picture is our dear dear friend Tesfaye, the pastor of the small church. Let me tell you his story.
He grew up eating out of the dump. One day a dentist found him and offered to fix his teeth. The dentist went on to tell him about Jesus and help him go to school and collage. Now this dear man, Tesfaye, has a calling to tell the 75,000 people at the dump about Jesus...WOW!!! I LOVE his story! All because one man helped one boy!!! PRAISE GOD!
this is another one of the pastors...he was telling us about the church

laundry
*Those of you who are donating to the gym...here are the pictures
they melt these down from car batteries found in the dump.
Tesfaye showing us his strong muscles :)

this is the gym floor we want to replace. A group from Seattle came last summer and poured concrete for their church house floor.
we know it would mean alot to them to have a nice gym floor
The Seattle group also built these restrooms for them
We fell in LOVE with the children!
The pastors leading us down to the dump. We kept passing people coming up from the dump...I felt like I could throw up anytime...it was awful..I kept Brittons sweatshirt sleeve over my nose.Never before have I ever seen such a thing. NO ONE should ever haft to survive by eating other peoples trash. I cried this whole time.
they do have clean drinking water but this is, I assume, is what they would bathe in
One of the houses...I will never again complain about my house...ever

Some boys had found some leftover chicken in the dump and they were reheating it. Tesfaye told us a story of when he was younger he found a potato in the trash. He took a bite and realized it was a rat without any hair.
A little family
A widow and her children

inside their house
Its like looking out over the ocean but instead its trash...its endless
lots of goats
sweet boys
My little friend. She came running up to me and held my hand the whole time! She pushed the other children away when they came up to me. She also took my hair down and braided and braided it. I love her so much! I will never forget her face looking up at mine...looking for someone to love her.
We went down into some of the lepers homes. This sweet sweet man is waving to all his brothers and sisters in Christ. They were so happy!
This was unbelievable. Tesfaye started crying when he told us about all the sadness and how much he loves these people. Britton and I both were crying also. It was a moment we will never forget. People staring at the crying Americans...only they had no idea what we knew. We were so ashamed that we even live the way we do.
My favorite picture of our trip. This was so special. These children need people just to sit down and play with them.
Tesfaye and his beautiful Mother. She has leprosy so they are both considered outcast. She showed us her foot. *I tried not to cry because even though she will never be healed in this lifetime the love she had for Jesus just shinned out from her. She was so special.
Wishing later that we would have had the WHOLE week to spend here...were already planning out next trip back! ....its so addicting!
Grass to build a house
Our tour guides...Tesfaye and the youth pastors
My pjama shirt that I had to wear because I ran out of clothes. :)
Look at her face! so sweet!
precious children...I saw Jesus in them

Look how much they loved me! I was trying not to care that they were touching my whole face :)
We had a wonderful time. I soon forgot my nauseousness. When we left our face muscles hurt from smiling so much. Can you imagine? In one of the poorest places in the world...so much joy and love for Jesus. No one begged for anything. Tesfaye said all they wanted was Love. It was an eyeopening experience that had us overwhelmed for many weeks. Please Please Please remember these people in your prayers. This is truly a place where Jesus dwells.
When we got back to the guest house we took long hot showers. Then we just sat on the couch and watched this sweet lady that took such good care of us all week, do a coffee ceremony. It was a special treat even though I don't like coffee.


I took one sip and about gagged so Yonatan drank the rest for me :)
Then we packed our bags and they took us to the airport. By this time I was SOOOO ready to get home. I had a bad attitude on the way home. I was SO annoyed at the man sitting behind me in the airplane because he was going on and on about how much he disliked America. I kept reminding myself that if I didn't have love for even my enemies...everything we had felt at Korah and all the love we had for our daughter was in vain. We met this man above at the airport...He want us to come to HIS Uganda SO bad! lol! We couldn't hardly understand him but we are keeping touch through email. He is on fire for Jesus...so sweet.
Thanks for following us on our journey! If you said a prayer or thought of us during our trip...thank you so much! We felt such a peace the whole time we were there so we knew people were praying for us.
To God alone be the glory!

Thursday June 30th 2011

*Gracie's bed

Today we woke up around 7 am. We wasn't able to eat breakfast because the CWA van was waiting to take us to our court orientation. When we got in the van and were driving the driver told us that there was a misunderstanding and for some reason a schedule got mixed up at the embassy AND the man that was going to meet with us at our orientation was in a meeting. SO they were taking us to the Acacia Village to spend another 2 hours with our daughter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We were over the top excited! We had no idea!! On the way we picked up the family that had the embassy appointment. I was trying to be happy for them and not be to jealous. They were telling their son, "this is the last step, buddy" OH!!! Made my heart hurt! I wanted to be them so bad!
When we got to the Village they had JUST told her we were coming. She came skipping down the stairs in the clothes we had brought her. They seemed a little big on her. That is one of the bonuses of going twice is figuring out just what size of clothes I need to buy. We went in the toy room and just played legos and blocks and read books. She opened up alot to us. She laughed several times and smiled lots. One thing we noticed and we are fervently praying about is...she is not used to being touched or kissed especially by men. We are looking forward to working on that :) We have lots of hugs and kisses to give her!
Then we got to eat lunch with her again. I just remember being happy that we were there and it seemed a little more relaxed today. We found out that it is a custom in Ethiopia for the host to feed the guest a bite of food. So when she held up her spoon we were ready :) She fed us and then we both fed her a bite. What an honor it was! *Tears just thinking about all the little bites of baby food I didn't get to feed her* While she finished up eating I went over and helped the nannies feed one of the babies. Britton told me later that she thought that was so neat I did that and she kept watching me :) We held some of the toddlers when they were done with lunch. One of the little guys latched on to Britton and wouldn't let go...so sweet.
Then it was time to say goodbye...again. We took her upstairs and they all brushed their teeth. Then we gave her big hugs...we didn't want to cry this time. We gave kisses and then she climbed in her bed and we forced ourselves to walk away. :( >>We were very lucky to get to see her 3 times! They only let families go twice but since they didn't bring us our itinerary when we got there every thing got mixed up<<
Then the driver took us to the CWAE ( Christian World Adoption Ethiopia) office. We met with the man and they brought out popcorn for us to munch on while we talked about what to expect during court. We signed some more papers and then they took us back to the guest house.
We got refreshed and then we filled our backpacks with crackers and went out to town. We went to the Jupiter Hotel where they had free Wifi and we skyped our boys!!! We were so happy! Of course I had some tears...we missed them! Then we ordered a Medium Pizza and cokes. YUM! By this time I had at least lost 5 pounds. I hardly ate anything and my stomach was always growling.
We had been telling the boys all week that we would get our shoes shined. They did a great job!!

These silly boys love Britton!
The front of the guest house
*Here are some pictures my case manager sent us of our first day meeting her



*We were feeling a little sad that our trip was winding down and we were leaving tomorrow night. We packed some of our stuff and got organized. We went to bed early so we could be up and ready for court in the morning.

I will follow YOU Jesus!

*Two post in one day?? Sorry but this is on my mind right now*

FOLLOW YOU by: Leeland

You live among the least of these, the weary and the weak
And it would be a tragedy for me to turn away

All my needs You have supplied
When I was dead you gave me life
How could I not give it away so freely??

And I'll follow You into the homes of the broken
Follow you into the world
I'll meet the needs of the poor and needy God
I'll follow You into the world

Use my hands, Use my feet to make Your kingdom come
To the corners of the earth until Your will be done
Cause faith without works is dead
And on the cross Your blood was shed
So how could we not give it away so freely??

I give ALL myself, I give ALL myself
I give ALL myself to You

And I'll follow You into the homes of the broken
I'll follow You into the world
Meet the needs of the poor and the needy, God
I will follow You into the world.



*As you know Britton and I recently made a 25 hour trip to Addis Ababa Ethiopia to visit our daughter and go to court. Neither of us had ever been in a third world country so we had no idea what to expect. The poverty was indescribable .
On our last day in Ethiopia we met with Pastor Tesfaye of the small church at Kora. He took us to a village where 75,000 people live in the only trash dump in the biggest city in Africa. These precious people have leprosy and HIV and are considered outcast in the community. Many of the children are orphans and everyone survives by begging or eating out of the trash. We visited many of the lepers and played with lots of the children.
The sadness and the poverty was overwhelming. Flies were landing on our lips and eyes and biting us and the smell made us want to vomit.
A precious memory was getting to stand in a circle holding hands with all of the pastors and youth leaders of the small church and praying for them in English and then they prayed for us in Amharic.
We understand that everyone is called to help others in different ways. But we are asking you to donate what you can to our dear brothers and sisters in Christ living at the Kora dump.
Lord willing we would like to raise enough money to pour a concrete floor in their gym.
The gym is the place where the boys or men go to when they are feeling sad or depressed about life. The pastors are then able to then connect with them and share Jesus with them. The gym is 12 years old and has a mud floor that gets wet every time it rains. They told us the only thing they wanted was Love but we know they kneed much more.
We would like to take the money we raise with us when we go back, so we can complete this project.
May God bless each one of you for all your prayers in our adoption journey! If you would like to donate you can email me at OutdoorAccents1@yahoo.com and I will give you our address where you can send the money. Thank you so much and feel free to share this blog post with others. Love in Jesus~ Britton, Kristy, Gracie, Carter and Brysen

Wednesday June 29, 2011

This morning we woke up around 7:30. I had a weird pounding headache that wouldn't go away. We took showers and had breakfast and were ready to head to the Blue Nile Gorge by 8:30. The gorge is a 2 1/2 hour drive out of the city. John and Leah decided to go with us since they had no other plans for the day.The countryside was b.e.a.u.t.f.u.l.!!!!! I will forever treasure taking the time and money to do this! I felt like we got to see more of what Ethiopia was like.


We saw farmers plowing their fields with oxen and plow and lots of little farmer boys watching their flocks of cows, goats or sheep. The little farmers wore turbans on their heads and short shorts :) They were so cute! We saw so many little children just walking in the fields....as young as two years old. We had to stop so many times and let some cows or sheep cross the road. The farmers would yell and dance and say, "Hello Americans!!!" We felt like celebrities. You could tell they were not used to seeing to many white people.




An Acacia tree
A little farmer boy
First we went to this baboon farm. It wasn't really that neat because they weren't in the wild. But we got some video for the boys. When we were videoing three little boys came up to us trying to sell little things they had made. They were telling us all about the baboons and they were asking about America. They all had little wooden crosses on their necks and I asked if they new who Jesus was...and sure enough they knew who He was. They were so sweet.
Then we drove over to the gorge. Above is hotel rooms on the side of the gorge overlooking it. How cool would that be!!??!! It was breathtaking...I could have spent all day by myself just looking out over it.

Hotel restaurant behind Britton where we ate lunch later on.


It was SO quiet....behind us the farthest river...it leads into the Nile.
John and Leah....we miss them!!....they were the funnest couple and she gave me lots of advice on "African American" people and their hair. Thank you Leah!!
Then we hiked over to the waterfall. We had to pay before we went across the bridge. The bridge was supposedly made out of ostrich eggs and limestone...400 years ago.
These two cute little men wanted to be our guides and they were wanting to take our picture every few minutes.
This little man told me he was 19 years old and he was in school. He is part of a jogging team. The shirt he has on was given to him by some scuba divers that came to dive in the waterfall. He was so handsome but it was really hard to understand them.
The bridge
One of the boys gave me a mint leaf :)
Even though the water was so brown because it is the "rainy season" in Ethiopia, it was still so beautiful. They told us usually it fills up alot! Also the baboons that were supposed to be around were up in the mountains eating.

The baboon house....(the rock looks like a mans face? the house is in the mouth part) They told us 50-60 baboons live there. It would have been cool to see them...hopefully another time.
The boys told us that a German pilot flies his little plane and eats his lunch out on this big rock. How cool is that? It is so quiet and peaceful out there. Leah doesn't like heights so this was a big challenge for her.


Of course what we figured out was these little men were our guides so we would buy some of the little things they had made. They begged and begged us to buy these little marble necklaces that that had taken them two months to make. Even though we did not have our money with us they followed us back so we could get our money :/ We ended up buying a necklace (it broke on the way home :/) for 300 bir...so 18 US dollars.
Then we went back to the Hotel to have lunch. It was a little scary...I would have rather not eaten there but we did and what we had was good.
Spaghetti and bread. On the way home we passed little old ladies carrying HUGE LONG piles of sticks on their backs....they were headed down the mountain to the city to sell them. We saw lots of people just lying on the side of the road covered in blankets, little children with horribly mangled twisted legs scooting across the road begging for money, young mothers that would come up to our windows and beg for money, little, dirty babies just sitting naked alone in the middle of the sidewalk...it just breaks your heart again and again. The images will forever be imprinted on my heart. I pray for those people every day

When we got back to the guest house we took showers and I took a 2 1/2 hour nap. Britton watched a movie with John and then went with Leah to get Chinese food (yep you read that right, at this point I was thinking Bamboo Grill but I was wrong and it did make us sick-not throw up :/ ) while John went and got Tiaramisu from Kaldi's ( the local starbucks ) for dessert. Then we emailed and talked with Yonatan and Ashly (the young missionary that was staying there) and we watch two more movies :) It was a good day :)

*ADOPTION UPDATE: Lord willing our paperwork will be submitted next Tuesday (a week from today) and then the Embassy will get back with us within two weeks to let us know when we can GO GET HER!!!!!!!!! The light at the end of this tunnel is shinning ever so bright!!! Prayers please as I prepare to go back to Ethiopia by myself to bring her home.

My God Is No Stranger

* This poem hangs on our bathroom wall.The plack was given to me from my Great Grandma and I memorized it with my brother when we were younger. Every time I go through something like flying to a third world country, I remember it. This poem has become very precious to me through trials in my life.
MY GOD IS NO STRANGER by: Helen Steiner Rice

God is no stranger in a faraway place
He is as close as the wind that blows across my face,
Its true I can't see the wind as it blows
But I feel it around me and my heart surely knows
That Gods mighty hand can be felt any minute
For there is nothing on earth that God isn't in it-
The sky and the stars, the waves and the sea,
The dew on the grass, the leaves on the tree
Are constant reminders of God and His nearness
Proclaiming His presence with crystal-like clearness-
So how could I think that God was far, far away
When I feel Him beside me every hour of the day,
And I've plenty of reasons to know God's my friend
And this is one friendship that time cannot end!
*Pictures of a butterfly on our rosebush outside. Happy Monday!