We got home early Sunday morning around 1:30am. We are finally getting caught up on our lack of sleep from traveling and jet lag. Olivia has been an absolute angel. She is adjusting so well to all of the changes that have taken place in her little life in the last week. We went to the doctor on Monday and she weighs 11 pds 10 oz and is 23 3/4 inches long. We are anxious to see how quickly she will grow. We really feel spoiled because she is sleeping thru the night and is taking great naps. Here are a few pictures from our trip. I will really try hard to keep our blog updated!!
Dubai-(we stayed an extra day to relax and go on a dessert safari)
Some random shots from the rest of the trip
They made it to Dubai which is great news! However, we thought yesterday everything was ok with their paperwork...Turns out it wasn't. So, we had an ongoing paperwork crisis today. But, as of right now, it looks like the crisis will be resolved. We just ask for your continued prayers that everything will be in place by Wednesday, July 1!! Thank you for your prayers and support!! I will update as I know more. Lindsey's Sister, Megan
It is 11:30pm and I have been gone all day and just checked my email and found out that a document that is needed in Ethiopia before we can get Olivia's visa to bring her home is not there. They have a document that is incorrect and we have to get the correct one there before our appt on Wednesday. We are suppose to leave at 7:00am tomorrow morning to fly out and now on our drive to the airport I have to call several different agencies and see if they can get the corrected document to Ethiopia. We ask that you please pray that this document will be found and that they will be able to forward it to Ethiopia and we will be able to leave on time. I am turning this over to the Lord and I pray that he will allow the document to sent to Ethiopia tomorrow!!!
We just found out that our consulate appointment is on Wednesday July 1st which means that we leave on Thursday June 25th with a 2 day layover in Dubai and then arrive in Ethiopia on Sunday June 28th. We will meet Olivia on Monday June 29th which I cannot believe is 2 short weeks from today!!!! We are so excited and cannot believe that this is really happening. We have lots of packing to get done!!! We want to thank all of you for your support that you have given us on this journey of faith!!! We love you all!!
http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=8e3e7067a4f7538b65d314&skin_id=601&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url We passed court today in Ethiopia!!!!!!! Olivia Shay Kerby is officially our daughter. Thank you so much for all your prayers!! We serve a Mighty God!!! We have a few different travel dates. We could possibly leave on June 27th or on July 4th, hopefully next week we will know for sure when we leave. I could not post her picture video directly on our blog so I had to post a link. I hope that you are able to see her, we think that she is an absolute doll!!!!
Last Friday May 8th we received a referral for the most beautiful little girl. We cannot stop looking at her pictures. She just has the most beautiful big eyes!!!! We are now waiting to be assigned a court date and then will hopefully receive tenative travel dates. We are hoping that maybe we will be able to fly over in July or August to get her and bring her home. It is so wonderful to now have a beautiful face to put with her name. We ask that you please pray for her to continue to gain weight and that you will pray for us as we prepare to bring her home.
I just wanted to let you know that we are still waiting for our referral call. We are at the top of the infant girl list along with another family that has the same DTE date as us. We continue to pray that very soon we will get to see our sweet daughter's face. We continue to wonder what she looks like. Our friends the Semlow's are traveling to Ethiopia today. Check out their blog at www.semlowadoption.blogspot.com to follow their journey to pick up their 3 children. Thank you for your prayers and we ask that you continue to pray for our daughter that we have yet to meet and for the families that are traveling to Ethiopia.
There have been 14 referrals given out to families during the end of January and beginning of February. It has been a very exciting time for our program. There have been referrals for 2 infant males, 3 infant females, 1 male toddler, 3 female toddlers, 2 males over 5 years old and 3 females over 5 years old. This still puts our wait time between 9-11 months which means we should receive our referral between March and May. I think maybe panic mode might be setting in because I have been thinking about everything we need to get done to be ready to welcome this little one into our lives. My mind is racing and Travis is nice and laid back reminding me that everything will get done. On the unofficial list of waiting families we are between 6-9. There are 4 of us that have the same DTE but to think there is such a small number of families waiting ahead of us is an unbelievable feeling!!! I never thought we would finally be getting so close!!! We just ask that you continue to pray for the waiting families and most of all for the orphans all over the world!!!
Today marks 7 months since our paperwork was sent to Ethiopia. Right now the wait time is around 9-11 months waiting which means we will probably get our referral in May. I feel like there is a lot of stuff that we need to start doing since the arrival of our little one could possibly be just a few months away!!! We are still busy with our remodel project and I am really looking forward to getting started on the nursery!! There have been lots of families that have been traveling to Ethiopia lately to pick up their children. In October 5 families traveled, in November another 15 families traveled, and in December 8 more families traveled to Ethiopia. I promise to do better at keeping our blog updated!!!
I hope that all of you had a wonderful Christmas!! It is hard for us to believe that next year we will hopefully have a little one with us at Christmas time!! The month of December was a very slow month for referrals for our agency. Our wait time had gotten increased by 2 months because of the low number of referrals. However, January has already been a very exciting month for referrals which is such a wonderful blessing!!! 10 families have received referrals in the month of January. There have been 2 infant girls, 3 infant boys, 2 toddler girls and 3 toddler boys referred to families. Based on these referrals the current wait time for an infant girl is 9-11 months. This means that we should receive our referral somewhere between March and May. This is just unbelievable to think about. Where has the time gone?? We ask that you please pray for all the children that are waiting to be referred, those that have been referred that are waiting on the families to come and get them and we also ask that you pray for all the families involved in the adoption process. Have a Wonderful 2009!!
