We feel so blessed!  We got the call today!  We have a court date!!!!  October 27th :)  We have several other families that we know that will be traveling at a very similar time and I thought it would be wonderful to get the same flights.  But Chad had an even better idea.  Airline miles!!  What are the chances that we could use them?  Not very good, except God seemed to be working!  Chad spent about an hour on the phone and when it was all said and done we saved about $2500 by using our miles!  The lady who assisted Chad was really surprised by how well it all worked out....so were we!   WHAT A BLESSING!  We have a two day layover in Germany...but hey, mini-vacation!:)  I've never been to Europe before!  It's perfect!  We are soooo blessed!

We are also so excited for the families we get to be in Ethiopia with!  We know it will be such a blessing to travel with people we've already started to form friendships with. 

If everything were to go well....we might be on the timeline for an embassy Date of December 7th.  That would be SOOOOOO great.  If we miss that, the next date is 2 weeks later, December 21st.  Either one would be SOOOO great, but I'm praying for the 7th:)  I'd love to have our boys home in 2010!  We are just so excited to see God's timing playing out!

This week we got an e-mail stating that our court application has been turned in and they will continue to assign court dates even though courts are now closed until late September.  This was such a wonderful surprise!!  We had expected to wait until Sept 28th, have the application turned in with TONS of others and then wait weeks to get a date.  Now we should hear next week what our court date is!!!  It will likely be in early November, but how exciting to be able to book our plane tickets and get our lodging arranged and child care lined up (for Abi and Ben, cause no they are not coming:)!  Several other friends of ours also got this great news which means it's very likely we will get to travel with people we've already met in person or at least on-line, people we've been hoping to meet! 

We also got 10 new pictures of our boys!  It is so fun to look at them!!  We also know that they are already in Addis, which is fun to know:)  With each picture, you can imagine a little bit of personality. 

Please pray that we hear early in the week about a court date...cause it will be hard to "wait" knowing that the info could be coming any time.  I guess I just need to work on some projects and keep myself busy!  We've been moving furniture and beds, so I do have plenty of cleaning and organizing to do.  I'm also re-reading the book "The Hole in Our Gospel" to get ideas for our church because we are doing a sermon series on it is fall.  WHAT A POWERFUL BOOK!  If you get the chance, READ IT! 

Look forward to posting our court date when we hear.....that's so exciting to say!!!

We been matched with two precious boys!!  They are siblings (the have to be with Bethany).  “Z” is approx 5.5 years old, and “A” is about 3 years old.  “Z” is described as very active, enjoying soccer and running.  From his pictures, I’d say he’s a real charmer!!  What a beautiful smile!  Younger brother “A” is described saying, “quiet yet communicates well”.  He likes to sing and one of his favorite prayer is “Thank you God”.  “A” has one of the sweetest faces in the world!  Can wait to meet these precious boys!

Hopefully on Monday, we will be turn in our acceptance paperwork and making sure everything else is up-to-date.  We had an appointment today to update our fingerprints, which expire after 15 months (go figure, it doesn't seem possible for them to change, right?).  Now we have to update our  Immigration Pre-approval which expires in October.  The extra paper work would have had to be done even without the referral of these two boys, but let me tell you.....it's much more exciting knowing the names and faces of the precious boys we've been matched with!!! 

Next , we wait for a court date (which under new rules we have to travel for).  Court closes every year for 6-8 weeks in Aug/Sept.  This year they close Aug 8 until September 28^th.  I’m assuming we will be hoping and praying for a court date in Oct or Nov and maybe will be able to travel again for the embassy date in Dec or Jan to bring the boys home.  These approximations are likely only if things go smoothly.  There are no guarantees on the timing, especially because no families have yet traveled under these new rules.  No one knows exactly what the two trips will look like and what the timing will be.

We are so excited to finally be at this point, with names and faces of these precious children!   We covet your prayers for their health and well being.  We also pray that they will adjust well to all the changes they have and will be going through.  Praise God for bringing us to this point in our journey!