Bless you!

As we were traveling home with Ella, we were exhausted, tired, sweaty, tired, cranky, tired, hungry, tired, and more tired and waiting in the Denver airport for our last flight home to Albuquerque.  I was carrying Ella in the baby carrier and thinking to myself as I looked at her, "Oh my goodness, what have we done? I am so happy that we have her but please Lord make sure we are equipped to handle her questions."  Needless to say, I was overwhelmed with questions and emotions as we had taken her away from Ethiopia but were giving her the home she so deserved and following God's directions.

We were catching a quick bite to eat at McDonald's in the Denver airport when a black man walked up to us.  He pointed to Ella and shook his head no.  I said yes, she is ours, we just adopted her.  He came over to me and was making hand motions to indicate he was deaf and could not hear me.  He grabbed a napkin off our table and wrote, "Ethiopia?"  I shook my head yes and he got tears in his eyes as he indicated to us that he was from Ethiopia.  He then proceeded to tell us thank you for taking one from his country and that he said that the Lord's blessings come down on us.  All of this was said using hand motions.  It was a surreal moment and was given to me at just the right time from the Lord.  It was overwhelming to think that I had these thoughts that the Lord knew I was having and sent this angel to tell me that the Lord's blessings would pour out on us because we had taken a child into our family as the Lord had asked us.

Thank you God for sending angels to us at just the right moment! You are an on-time God!!!!

Welcome home Ella!!!!

We are home!!!! The flights were long but we all did great! We arrived in Artesia on September 19 and officially became a family of 5!!!  Our homecoming celebration was held at our church during the end of service and it was FABULOUS!!!

Our dear friends, the Stallings, had the boys sit with them the entire time during big church.  That is not too exciting for the kids but they did it and Tami managed to keep their heads to the front the entire time. : )  At the end of service, our pastor called the boys to the front and told them he had a surprise for them.  He told the boys to look towards the back of the church and as they looked, we were waving!  We then went up to the stage and were united as a forever family!!!!  My mommy heart is so full!!!!  My sweet Garrett was so overwhelmed with emotion, he was crying too! I love his heart!!!

Here is our Homecoming Video! Thank you West Main for giving us the opportunity to have our Forever Family moment with all of you!

Ella is coming home!!!!

We got the call yesterday at 9:34 am that we had been anxiously waiting for.  Five weeks after we passed court, we are returning to Ethiopia to bring our daughter home! I knew deep, deep down in my heart that we would have the September 15 Embassy date and we do! I knew that God has been working on bringing our daughter home and that my mother's intuition was correct in knowing when sweet Ella would be home! We serve an amazing God!

We fly out of Albuquerque at 8:14 am on Sunday, September 12 and return to Albuquerque on Saturday, September 18 at 4:55 pm with Ella!!!!!  We will spend the night in Albuquerque and drive the four hours home on Sunday.  We should be home about the time our church family is getting out of church.  I can't wait for Ella to be introduced to the people who have prayed her home and have given financially to get her here.

GOD PLACES THE LONELY IN FAMILIES! PSALM 68-5-6