Court Date August 19th!!!

We received the email Friday, our court date is August 19th. We are so excited and so scared.... We have so many things planned to help us complete the process to be able to bring them home. Lord show us the way....

Austin spent the last week at Central Arkansas Youth Camp. He had the most amazing week. 15 kids asked Jesus to be Lord of their lives and I think 6 or 7 were baptized. Praise you Lord! The week was exciting and exhausting for both the campers and all the awesome counselors who were there to encourage these kids.

I am looking forward to going to church this morning to hear all about the details... the personal testimonies that made up the week. God is so big and so great... watching camp and going to participate in praise and worship was so encouraging to Jared and I. We also had the priviledge of speaking to the kids about our adoption process and the results of that were amazing. This precious young man walked over to Jared afterward and asked him if he could hug him, because he too, had been adopted. The kids gave out of the goodness of their hearts and Jared and I were overwhelmed when John told us the amount. Thank you Lord for the opportunity, for precious children and for always showing yourself faithful to your children. May all the children and counselors, all who were involved in any way at camp be richly blessed by you Lord.

Dossier Completed and on its way to Ethiopia!

So the last week has been completely overwhelming... in a great way! We had the inspector come to our home last Monday, he said "proceed'. We are trying to add 2 rooms in our attic and enclose our garage to make room for our precious children- all 6 of them. The two boys will hopefully be upstairs next to daddy's office (which will be the other room) and the garage will be a family room and homeschool room, God willing. Our dossier was received at our agency all completed from the Assistant Stork (Praise Jesus) on Thursday and sent to Africa the same day. We received word yesterday, that maybe, we could get into court the beginning of August before they close for the rainy season, if we pass court we would travel about 5 weeks later to bring them home. We also received another video of the kids receiving the gifts that our agency director took over for us. They put their new clothes on and they fit them perfectly :-) They were all smiles! We are continuing to pray for them and their needs and all the adjustments that they are going to be making. It will be a huge adjustment for us all- but one that God will surely see us through.

I didn't say it on here before, but we spoke at our church on Father's Day and had the opportunity to share our hearts and needs with them. We love our church and the people in it. It isn't a very big church but it is a church with a lot of heart and people who are genuine and honestly love the Lord and live out their convictions. I am so thankful for the encouragement that we received and the prayers of our church body.

Last night, we had pulled pork sandwiches, beans and chips.... we were missing lots of kids, but their were 18 in the kitchen. It was loud and wonderful. I wonder sometimes how this will all fit when our kiddos come home- hmmmmmm, Lord, show us the way. Some of the kids helped us clean out the garage and move stuff into the large trailer that is sitting in our driveway. We are hoping to have the concrete poured soon so that we can enclose the garage. The other kids swam with our girls and then we lit off fireworks. It was a great night! A great end to an amazing week and a great beginning to another week.