And were off!!!

We are sitting here ready to board, starbucks in hand (I need my coffee) and we both looked at each other and said "How did we get here? " We mean that in a good way.
It's here, we are here, we are going to go squeeze and kiss ours son's chubby little cheeks!!


We are counting our many many blessings.

I have never been on a plane, I have never left the country and I have never left my babies for more then 2 days. Look at all we would have missed if we  ignored God's call on our lives!! I am beyond thankful that He has taken us out of our comfort zone and has allowed us to bring another one of His children in our home.

God is good all the time!!

Thank you to all of you for helping us get here.

Thank you Larry for driving us here!

Thank  you sweet sisters for being on this journey with us.

Thank you Dave for meeting us here to pray!

I am one lucky gal!

Dear friends!

                                                     I still can't believe we are here!!

We will be arriving in Addis around 1pm your time Friday. I will update as much as we can!


It is time to board our plane!!! Thank you all again. We feel your prayers, keep them coming!!

We love you all!!!!!!!!

Precious Caleb Mommy and Daddy are coming!!!!!!!!!!!!

God finally said Yes!

I wrote a post here about waiting for God to finally say Yes to what He was calling us to do.

He finally did :)

We leave on a plane Thursday morning to go see our Caleb to love on him, kiss him, to cry all over him (I won't be able to help myself)  to tell him that he will be an orphan no more.

I CAN NOT WAIT!!!

Don't get me wrong. We are not done. He doesn't get to come home to his family just yet. :(

We still have about $1700 to raise and we still have to pass court.

When we go before the judge to say we want Caleb to be our boy, she will grant us permission. The thing is that a letter written by MOWYCA needs to be there as well so they can send everything to the embassy to get his visa so he can come home. The problem is we have all ready been told that the letter most likely won't be there. It has not been there for anyone. I am told they are three weeks behind in getting everything caught up.

What does this mean for us? Well we wait longer :( (go ahead, cry with me) .. we have been praying that we would make court closures and have our son home or at least be with him about to bring him home by his first birthday (August 28th) Remember me saying that it would have to be a miracle for that to happen? Well it did! We got out court date and I am choosing to believe and trust that our letter will be there, if not the day of our court then shortly after. I know it's crazy, but it can happen!

That leads me to several prayers that we have and would love if you could tell us you are praying for them.

Before I give this long list I want to make something perfectly clear. We ultimately want God's will. We are simply making our requests and the cry of our hearts known. He knows them anyway.

- Pray for our kiddos who will be staying here. I have never left them for more then 2 days. They will be with different family members and some dear friends. They understand that Caleb will not be coming home just yet, but still pray for their hearts and for God's timing.

- Pray for my momma heart.(and Hubby's) Though Caleb is not old enough to understand us loving on him and then leaving, I do and I am all ready a wreck just thinking about it.

-Please pray that I would enjoy where God has us. There is so so so much to be thankful for and  I want to embrace and enjoy exactly where I am at. That includes the time spent with our boy and the time in Ethiopia. I want to soak up as much as I can and not worry about leaving and when we will be back.

-Pray for the people that we will meet and for us to be great witnesses.

-Pray for our letter to be there or before court closure so we can be submitted to Embassy before they all take a break for the summer. Pray for a miracle!! Our court date will be July 26th. We don't know the exact time yet.

                                         Will you pray for us? We covet your prayers!

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

On another note, this week has been nuts and you would think that I would all ready be packed, but I am not. I begged my hubby to put together Caleb's crib. (Thank you Melisa for it) I know it seems strange that I would want it up now, but I wanted to be able to tell Caleb that his room was ready for him........well at least his bed. Again I know he is young, but it means a lot to me. <3

                      Don't mind the fact that there are no sheets on the bed. I have to get some :)

WOOHOO!!!! WE ARE GOING TO AFRICA AND SEEING OUR BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Resting in His promises,

And the winner is........

I am beyond grateful to all of you who prayed, spread the word, and donated. Our God is an awesome God and truly funds what He favors.

In only two days God worked through all of you to not only pay for our first trip, but now thanks to the Lifesong grant we are now on our way to being fully funded.

Only God!

He does exceedingly and abundantly more then we could ever imagine.

I know you are dying to see who won,

Check out my friend's blog

Rachel and Erica, I will never be able to truly show my gratitude. I am so thankful to be on this journey with you amazing ladies.

They are the ones that came up with this idea and they are the ones that pretty much did all of the work. They are very busy and they took the time to do all of this to bring our boy home. Thank you my sweet sisters!

Thank you Jesus for giving me so much when I deserve absolutely nothing!

What just happened? and Giveaway!!

Yesterday was CRAZY!!! So crazy in fact that I ended up in bed with a migraine... not kidding... Maybe it was the fact that I was on pins and needles all day and eating my weight in peanut M&M's that caused it. :)

Don't get me wrong, I was nervous and excited and all of those crazy emotions, but I was still trusting! I knew that God was going to do it, I just didn't know how, so I was going nuts watching and waiting and then....... it happen.

We got all the money we needed to pay for our first trip!  With minutes to spare! God loves to come through just at the right time. It's a good thing I am young or I may have had a heart attack!

Guess what happen when all of the last minute donations were coming through?? I got a call from The James Fund/ Lifesong people and we got the matching grant!!! I could not believe it!!  God not only provided for our first trip, but now we on on our way to becoming fully funded.,..... awwwwww let's let that sink in for a bit!

So in order to make this happen we are asking all of you that still want to try and win the BRAND SPAKIN NEW IPAD2 (which ends Monday) Then enter through their paypal instead of mine.

Their link is to the right on my blog and it is also right here:
http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/donation.html
When you do it please put in the instructions : MASER #2167
We will not get the credit if you don't. And they will match whatever you put in up to $3000!!!!

So here is how it works! It is still the same. In order to win this bad boy!

                                                                    $10 for 1 entry
                                                                    $25 for 3 entries

                     By going through Lifesong it would be like giving us $20 or $50. So amazing!!

Just make sure you leave me a comment that you did it so I can enter you in the drawing!
DRAWING ENDS MONDAY NIGHT!!

Check out my  sweet friends blog Rachels Here and  Erica's Here
They are the ones that prayed and thought of this idea to help us get to our boy and bring him home. I am beyond grateful for them, not just for this, but I get to serve the Lord with these (and other) amazing women who want nothing more then to be the hands and feet of Christ.

Thank you all so much for coming along side us again! I am still in shock! Words truly escape me to explain to you how grateful we are. Me being speechless should speaks volumes considering the fact that I never stop talking.

We leave in 13 day!!!!!!! <3


To God be the Glory!!!

We got our miracle!!

I can not believe it!!!! And I can not believe I have to ask AGAIN!

WE GOT OUR COURT DATE!!!!!! We will be leaving here July21st  and will have court on July 26th to say WE WANT CALEB TO BE OUR BOY FOREVER!!!

I can not believe this is really happening. My whole body is shaking.

I am going to get to finally kiss those precious lips and tell our sweet Caleb that he will be an orphan no more!!!!

Here is where I need help again! I know..... it stinks... I hate being in this position...BUT We need money to see him.

We only  need $3645 to fund our first trip!!!

Please ask the Lord if you should help. I know I have all ready tapped all of you out and I am sure you are so tired of hearing us ask, but please see if this is something the Lord wants you to do. Could you also spread this blog around and give others the opportunity?

Honestly there is no amount to small. We had tons of people give $5 and that added up really quickly!

We are waiting to hear if we got a grant or not, If we do get it, it will be a matching grant. BUT we have to purchase our tickets by the 7th! That is only 2 days away! And they are a great price. We are still praying we get the grant which will help a lot! We still have funds to raise with that, we need the minimum right now to get to our boy. 

I can't wait to see him!!

Oh thank you Jesus for this  miracle!

Also check out what a friend is doing to help us 
You could win an IPAD!!!!!!!!! 

We have two days! Praying and trusting and praising!!!!

Our 4th!

We don't usually get any holidays with the hubby.  We sometimes only get Christmas and we did not even get that last year.....sigh..

This year he had off the Fourth of July and we have never in our whole married life have spent a fourth of July together. So I was excited!....I LOVE fireworks and seeing fireworks with your whole family (minus sweet Caleb) was exciting!

We started the day off by having hubby remind the kids why we celebrate the fourth.

He gets all animated when he was telling them about the bombs.

                                                     I just love that man!!!

Then we went over to my in laws for a little BBQ and water fight.

Grandpa was ready!

Or maybe not!

Who needs a pool when you have a bucket!

After all that madness, we spent the evening out at Safety Harbor with some old friends!

Friends since diapers

Friends since High school

Then my favorite part!

                                             I don't have the best camera, but you get the idea. :)



So thankful for such a wonderful day.

I just love my crazy family!

                      I am so blessed! Caleb is in for a real treat when he comes home<3

Thankful to all the men and women who have/ are serving so that I can enjoy a day like this with the ones I love!