Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. 1 Thessalonians 5:11
Our adoption goes before an Ethiopian judge again on March 9. While we are sleeping on Monday night, Benjamin’s adoption case will go before a judge. We didn’t pass court on the first round a couple of weeks ago. We hope all goes well this time.
We recently heard about some friends who are also adopting from Ethiopia through a different agency. They didn’t pass court last week. The reason? The electricity in the courtroom went out on the day of their hearing. Whatever. Who would have thought?
God has been good to put some friends from our church smack dab in the middle of our lives. In fact, the Stivers family is walking with us step by step along the same journey we are travelling. Over a year ago, Shannon and Amy were talking at dinner one evening about our adoption. After joking about the possibilities of adoption they said, “What if both our families ended up adopting? It could be Brady-Stivers Ethiopia 2010!”
Well, now here we are a year later, and indeed, it’s Brady-Stivers Ethiopia 2010! Jody and Shannon are adopting a four-year-old boy named A.J. Their first court date was the same as ours, and they too didn’t pass court. Now their court date is March 8. We are hoping that we both pass court this week. How crazy would it be if both of us were on the same trip, flying in the same plane to the same country to get our boys!?! God has certainly done crazier things.
Whether or not we end up going through this whole journey together, it’s been so good to walk this path together and we’ll always remember this time in our lives. We’ve had lots of conversations about this process. Our families have grown closer. It’s been especially fun to listen to our seven children talk about their soon-coming brothers. We’ll never forget those special moments of our families sitting on the floor and praying together while the little ones climbed and crawled all over their mommies.
We pray we will pass court on March 9. And we also pray—thanking God for giving us such friends to walk this road with us.
God is more than good to us.
Couldn't have said it better myself. I love Jack's face in the picture!
ReplyDelete