holding my world in His hands {day 3}

And these are Your days, you give them
All for Your fame and all for Your glorious kingdom
Jesus, You have ordained
All things to dwell in Your purpose

We arranged to get to the orphanage a little earlier this morning. We are trying to squeeze in every possible minute with him while we are here in his country. We considered skipping lunch, but we learned the kids take a nap after lunch, so they needed us to go out for lunch and come back as we have done the last 2 days. (This is amazing, I would love for this to continue once he's home!!!)

So I will not worry or fret
My God is the God who will never forget
All of His goodness and all of His promises
He's holding my world in His hands

We had some real sweet time with our sweet boy today. Today we learned that he knows even more English than he seemed to know yesterday (I think he will end up being fluent by the time he comes home!) and he is opening up to us more and showing more of his cute personality. He is so smart. We just keep looking at each other every day like, "Did he really just say that/do that/understand that?" He is so clever and has the best sense of humor. He knows how to charm us for sure- I don't know how I will say no to that sweet, sweet smile and "Please Mom?" with an Ethiopian accent. He is so expressive. His facial expression, hand gestures, acting... it would only be fitting that he seems to be a little dramatic. Chase and I clearly aren't dramatic at all... we need some excitement in our lives!! ;-)

I'll give you a sneak peak with a picture he took of our feet. Cannot wait to show off our beautiful boy tomorrow!

We ended the day at a traditional Ethiopian restaurant with traditional dance (more like a 2 hour show). We enjoyed it so much, my cheeks hurt from laughing and smiling so much. Can't wait to take E back there on our Embassy trip!!! I'll post some pictures tomorrow... I'm about to pass out.

We are beyond blessed and so thankful for how the Lord has completed our family. Today as I was watching him, I started crying thinking, "What if we had said no to the Lord's calling us to E?" It hurts too much to think about. I am so thankful we said yes. We are the lucky ones to call him our son.

And I am your child, beloved

And all of my days, my future is laid in your promise

Jesus, to the end of the age

I am not alone or forgotten

Tomorrow afternoon is our court appointment! After court, we will officially be a family of three in the eyes of the Ethiopian court. We will then be able to share his name and his beautiful face!!! Be prepared for your heart to burst. You've been warned.

Thank you so much for your prayers throughout this journey... we are feeling them every step of the way and we are so thankful for all the love and support we have back home!

family of 3 {court trip - day 2}

On their own, on the run

When their lives have only begun

We started our second day in Ethiopia with a wonderful carb-filled breakfast at our guest home and quickly leaved to spend another morning with our E. When we got to the orphanage he greeted us both with big hugs and smiles. We spent some time with him in what must be the "family room". Kids seem to only get to go in there when their family is there to see them (this breaks my heart as other kids walk by...) We were pleasantly surprised at how much more English he knew than what he seemed to know the day before! I'm sure there was a combination of nerves and a little bit of him protecting himself on the first day, but on the second day he opened up to us like we never imagined. 

These could be our daughters and our sons

We spent a lot of time playing with him and his friends on the second day and it was so special to see how he interacted with the other boys. It is so hard to think about what it is going to do to his little heart when he leaves these boys. They have been his family, and they are an amazing group of boys. There are some a little younger and some a little older. They are all so caring and patient, especially the older boys. They are totally different than how I've seen American boys interact together. Even with the toys and things we brought for E- he would play for them a minute and then hand it to his friend to play with. They are all so sharing, affectionate, patient, and loving. There are a couple older boys who speak very good English so we were asking them to translate some things for us and they were so sweet. 

Let's not forget that he called me "Mommy" for the first time on the second day (no one has to know it was, "Please Mommy??" because he wanted to play a video game on the tablet :)) He has melted our hearts and as if he hadn't already won us over... he got us head over heels.

Just like the first day, the second day ended much too soon. We went back to the guest home with hearts full, thanking the Lord for blessing us with this amazing boy, and praying for the transition and life change that is about to take place.

boys become kings {court trip - day 1}

Boys become kings, girls will be queens

Wrapped in Your majesty 

We left Dulles at 10:20 AM and 13 or so hours later we landed in Addis Ababa at approximately 6AM ET time. We were finally on the same soil as our son. Our driver picked us up and took us to our guest home and told us we had 15 minutes to get ready to leave... to meet our son. How does one recover from a 13 hour flight + rain-drenched hair in 15 minutes?? Who cares!!!!! We were about to meet our son!

After 13 hours on a plane...2 hours waiting for visas + immigration + baggage + customs + 3o minutes waiting in cold rain for driver...we had 15 minutes to change and get ready to meet our son for the first time!!!!

Our driver and AWAA guide took us to E's orphanage with our lives in their hands. We have never seen anything like the driving in Addis... no traffic lights, street signs, stop signs... so major intersections are just free for alls. Yeah, totally weird. But somehow, it hasn't really bothered this back-seat, passenger-seat driver at all! We arrived at E's orphanage and they took us to a room and had us take off our shoes. Then we waited for what seemed like an eternity for them to bring E out... Chase and I were both shaking and only slightly freaking out. Then he finally arrived! He came right in with his huge, beautiful smile and gave me a huge hug. I didn't let go for a long time, and neither did he. Needless to say there were lots of tears shed!! I wouldn't remember it if it weren't on video, but our guide said to us right in the midst of the first hugs, "You are very lucky." He was so right. WE are the lucky ones, the blessed ones. This magnificent boy that has been through more in his life than we could even fathom... we are the ones that are blessed to be his parents and to experience the wonderful years we have left with him. 

When we love, when we love the least of these

Our beautiful boy that we had studied pictures of, imagined just how he would talk, walk, act... he was more than we ever could have dreamed. He was all smiles- beautiful, radiant smiles. He went through his package we brought- puzzles, cars, water gun, stickers, gum, soccer ball, playing cards, and phonics cards. Right away he blew us away with how he recognized the English alphabet and could read pretty much everything put in front of him! Totally wasn't expecting that at all! We also brought a new photo album with us and he looked at every page so studiously. Like he was trying to take it all in and memorize every page. We told him Amharic names for grandma, grandpa, aunt, and uncle, and he laughed at us trying to use the vocabulary. He didn't let on to understanding much English and we were a little worried... We used our guide to translate for a few minutes and then we were on our own. We played cars, puzzles, tossed the soccer ball back and forth, learned some Amharic words, and he showed us tricks with his new soccer ball. He also did tell us he was 9 and not 10. I was so thankful for those words, I felt like we had just gained a year back of his life that we missed.

After a while he took us outside for Chase to play soccer with him and his friends. He is so good!!! Near the end of the day our guide asked him in Amharic if he had any questions for us and his only question was, "When are they coming back for the last time to pick me up?" This broke our hearts. We told him we would be back just as soon as we can. Oh, how I can't even fathom leaving on Monday night. The thought breaks my heart...

Then they will be brave and free

Shout your name in victory

The day ended much too soon. We were taken back to our guest home where we pretty quickly crashed after being up for the last 24+ hours. We knew one thing for sure, we were totally in love with this amazing boy. We were amazed at how smart he was, how sweet he was, how happy he was, and how quickly he was comfortable with us. We couldn't imagine the next day getting any better. We were so thankful at how God had designed our family and brought us all together in this amazing country. 

leaving on a jet plane

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

The day we've been waiting for for over a year is almost here! We are on our way to Ethiopia people!!! Things have been progressing pretty quickly and I haven't had time to post an update before now!

Since the last post, I'm thrilled to say a lot has happened! The first step in the process was receiving our MOWCYA date. This was the first step that needed to happen in order for us to get a court date for us to appear in Ethiopia. On July 3rd, we got an e-mail letting us know our MOWCYA date was July 8th, the following Monday! This is a meeting of the "Ministry of Women's, Children, & Youth Affairs" (sort of like social services) where they review all of our paperwork to determine if they will write us a favorable letter or not. We were hoping we would hear something on Monday, but we had heard from other families that they were behind... so we waited anxiously. You would think throughout this process I would be getting better at this...but I can't say I have. We kept stalking our e-mail every morning, as that is when news usually comes, and praying and hoping for the next message to be the one! Friday, July 12th, we got a glorious e-mail letting us know a positive letter had been written! Hallelujah!!! Then we had to wait again to hear news of a court date. We were told it could come in the next couple of business days and to be ready to travel shortly after. So the e-mail stalking continued, and finally on Thursday, July 18th, we got the best news yet! We had a court date in Ethiopia scheduled for Friday, July 26th!! Praise the Lord!!!

So over the next couple of days I ran around like a mad woman trying to get ready to leave the country TO MEET OUR SON Y'ALL!!!!!!! I still don't think I've quite processed this... our precious son that we have talked about, dreamed about, prayed about, studied pictures of... he will be in our arms in less than 48 hours. WOW. We flew out of Austin this afternoon and arrived at Washington Dulles this evening. The airline provides a hotel room at a nearby Hilton Garden Inn, so we're here currently debating what to do about sleeping as to try to sleep as much as we can on the plane tomorrow and wake up ready to go in Ethiopia! We leave the US at 10AM Monday and land at 6:45 AM Tuesday morning... we should be going to meet E soon after!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our last picture as a family of 4!!! :)

We would appreciate your prayers over the coming week for safe travels, for E's heart- for understanding, openness to the life change he is about to experience, and for a peace that passes all understanding- for all of us. We pray our time in Ethiopia is full of meaningful memories that none of us will ever forget, that bonding and attachment starts this week, and that the wait in between this trip & Embassy, where we get to bring him home, flies by. We are excited to meet other families from our agency who are going to either meet their kids for the first time too, or are going to bring their kids home! We are so blessed that we are able to take some care packages and photo releases for other families who are still waiting to bring their kids home. This has been such a blessing for other families to do for us, we are thrilled to return the favor.

Our court date is Friday, July 26th. (Might I add...this is the date we needed to happen by August 6th. God is so good!!!) Assuming all goes well, E will officially be a Kerlin then!!! This means we can then share photos and the name of our handsome boy!!! So if you're friends with me on Facebook... get ready. You're about to be overloaded!! (Assuming we can get WiFi somewhere in ET...)

I will try to keep the blog updated throughout the week if we have access to internet! We can't thank you all enough for your love, support, and prayers. We are feeling them!!!