HOPE

   Adoption is amazing in so many ways! It is incredible to be blessed to watch our new brothers growing and maturing and trying new things. It is also amazing how God uses adoption in His sanctification process in each of our lives! :o) Pre-adoption, who knew that this eldest Grant daughter is selfish (gasp)?!? Truthfully, it is such a blessing to see how God uses the process of adoption to form us to be more like His Son.

   A few days ago, I was holding both of my little brothers as we looked at and talked about a photo frame that hangs in our front entry. It contains care package and referral pictures of both boys, surrounding an abbreviation of Jeremiah 29:11-

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD..."plans to give you a hope and a future."

   Ethan pointed to this verse and asked me what it said, so I gave him a five-year-old rendering, then read it the way it's printed.

   "That for me?" Ethan asked. Then he continued talking about the pictures.

   That stuck with me, though. Yes, Ethan, that promise is for you. For you and for Levi. And for every single precious child who is waiting for a forever family. For every daughter or son of God. For every adoptive family who is struggling and waiting through the process, longing to be united with their children and siblings forever. I know not everything God does makes sense to us. Especially in adoption. The never-ending piles of paperwork, the inadequacy of government officials at home or abroad, the timeline that keeps stretching longer and longer. The struggles and trials of real life after they finally come home, the bonding issues, the memories. But God gives grace, and it is His plans that will ultimately conquer- plans to give us a hope and a future. Praise the Lord!

V. for the Grant Family 

One week and counting!

It is difficult to believe one week has passed since Mom, Dad, Ethan Gezahegn and Levi Yishak walked into the Sacramento Airport terminal and we were suddenly a family of eight. And we are so encouraged that we have survived the first week! Hurrah! Here are some pictures and an update from week one...

Levi Yishak has been improving a little bit every day in the eating department. He is becoming more loving every day towards Mom and Dad- today he willingly ran to welcome mom with a big hug when she arrived back home from taking all the girls to a piano recital. He is napping well every day but has been having some troubles staying in bed at night, both before he falls asleep and waking up in the middle of the night or early morning and wandering around the house. One night Levi had apparently gotten up and was walking around the house. Dad heard him so he got up out of bed to go find him. What with it being the middle of the night and dark, however, he couldn't see Levi until Levi ran out from behind the sofa giggling!Yikes!

Ethan is also improving with regards to eating... he is learning to try 'just one bite' to see if he likes things, and generally, he does. We've been surprised how both boys will not be willing to try so many things on looks alone, and then end up saying "yummy!" after just the first bite. We've also been impressed with how many  English words Ethan is learning by just listening. The first few nights at bedtime he would lay in his bed solemnly and just cover up with his covers. Two nights ago when we started singing our final bedtime song, Ethan began to sing the song all by himself, in English with an adorable Ethiopian accent...

"Good night Yishak! Good night Yishak! Good night Yishak! It is time to say goodnight!" and then he proceeded to sing the rest of the song with us, naming the different family members, all in English. It was cute! 

Ethan is pretty moody, especially when he doesn't get what he wants. He switches very quickly between being very cute, giggly, and agreeable to pouting and becoming very sullen, but he is beginning to learn how respond properly to disappointments. He is a bright, silly, fun boy most of the time and is quickly becoming a part of the goofy Grant Gang!  

Ethan saw a picture of Levi sleeping on an earlier post and wanted me to take one of him going "mata-mata"- so I did!

Is that not the cutest face ever?!

Our handsome little boy!

Here is Ethan 'helping' us 'wind' up the hose :o)

Both boys have been having fun playing in the sand with new toys

Please continue to pray for our family -  the adoption process is wonderful, but also difficult, and we appreciate the continued support and prayer from all our friends and family!

Savannah for the Grants

CLEARED TO TRAVEL (May 16, 2011)

I woke up thinking, "I would love to see an email this morning stating we are cleared to go pick up the boys!". I put the tea kettle on and turned on the computer. As I scrolled through the email subjects, I saw one that said, "Case cleared for Grant's Family", which I immediately opened to read. Praise the Lord - it was our clearance from the embassy stating we can make an appointment and come pick up the boys! I ran in to tell Scott (who is home today on his day off!) and he came rushing out to read the email. We jumped up and down and thanked the Lord, and picked up the phone to confirm the news with America World. We spoke with the travel coordinator who assured us, "Yes -this is the good news you have been waiting for!"  So... Scott has already called the travel agency and they are working on options for us right now and will be calling us back. We hope to leave next week, which means by the end of this month we will be home officially as a family of EIGHT! We will update here as we finalize plans. Thank you for your ongoing prayers for our family throughout this whole adoption process. Please continue to pray for our upcoming travel, for the girls' as they stay here with friends, and for the boys hearts to feel loved and to love us back. 
     Praising God and jumping and doing a little jig....the Grants

SUBMITTED TO EMBASSY - May 11, 2011

We woke up to wonderful news this morning. An email from America World relayed that our paperwork was submitted to the embassy today, and our America World worker also received verification from the embassy that they were able to access our updated, corrected form. We are praising God this morning for this bit of "fresh air", and now we eagerly await our clearance from the embassy so we can head to Ethiopia and get our boys. We anticipate leaving within three weeks, but we're praying for sooner than that!

Thank you for lifting our family up in prayer! We ask you continue to pray that our paperwork now is on the TOP of someone's desk there at the Embassy in Addis and for us to get our clearance right away!

Alicia (left) delivering our package to the boys on Monday. Jonas is helping blow up the punch balloons!

Thank you! With a joyful heart, Alison & the family

Another "NO" for this week

Just got my email from America World:

Scott and Alison,

I was able to receive confirmation today from our in-country staff that your family’s paperwork was not able to be submitted to the embassy this week. We anticipate being able to submit the paperwork next week and will confirm with you as soon as it has been submitted. As you continue to wait, know that our prayers are with your family. We know this final stage of waiting can be the hardest and will continue to do all we can to allow your children to come home as soon as possible.

 So disappointing! It better be next week, or I'm leaving without an Embassy appointment and showing up there myself, papers in hand!

The wait for embassy clearance

Once you pass court, America World states it takes 2-5 weeks for your paperwork to be processed and submitted to the Embassy. Once the paperwork is submitted, the Embassy will let us know within two weeks if we are cleared to travel back to Ethiopia to bring the boys home, or if they need additional time or documentation before clearing a family to travel. So far, we have been "NO" for being submitted at week two, "NO" for being submitted at week three, and "no answer" thus far for week four. Apparently there is an Ethiopian holiday and America World has not received their update this week for who was submitted to embassy. So....we wait... and pray.... and wait.... and pray. We were told last week that it took a while to get our court decree and they were then just waiting on the boys passports. We pray we were submitted this week, but if not...there is still next Wednesday! We sent a letter to the boys via Facebook to a woman who we travelled with for court and she is staying in Ethiopia until Embassy. And we also sent packages this week for the boys with another family we travelled to court with...they have already been cleared and are returning this Saturday to Ethiopia to bring their little daughter home. So...at least the boys will know we are thinking of them. This wait has been SOOO incredibly difficult for all of us, so pray that our hearts are submitted to God's perfect timing. We miss our boys!

The eager travelers

Here are the eager travelers taking a self-portrait during their travel conference call with America World. Perhaps we should have paid closer attention rather than take this picture, but hey...you want to capture these fun moments, right? Now...what did they say we should bring?!?

Good news, good news....

We had our pre-travel conference call yesterday, which was an exciting time and makes it feel like our upcoming trip is real and actually going to happen! We are so excited!  We are in the midst of shopping for last minute things and beginning to pack. Hurray!

Today we received more good news from America World...an update on the MOWA situation which stated:
 

We are writing to update you on the current situation in Ethiopia.  While meetings between Ethiopian government officials continue, we have seen positive steps.  Within MOWA, there have been significant and positive personnel changes which have resulted in overall staff turnover and changes in the adoption unit.  This unit is now called the Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs (MOWCYA).  We are hopeful and expectant that the new leadership will not only support processing an adequate number of favorable recommendation letters, but also implement policies that will best serve the children.  Due to the staffing changes, we anticipate much transition over the next few weeks.  However, we expect that once everyone is settled into their new positions, MOWCYA will work to process a higher number of recommendation letters than they currently are able to process. 

Another huge blessing today was receiving an update from Lifesong. We opened our email to find both large and small donations which will now cover our entire airline expenses for this first trip. We thank you and praise God for your generosity!! What a mighty God we serve -  One who works in hearts, minds and pocketbooks to bring blessings to others.
 
We are praying our case will have favor with the Ethiopian officials (especially those at MOWA who need to write our final approval letters) and we look forward to bringing the boys home as soon as possible. Once we pass court and officially become the boys' parents we can post pictures. Brace yourselves for the upcoming onslaught of pictures from this proud momma!!

Well...I'd better get packing!

Adoption update

Happy New Year! The Grant family adoption is progressing slowly but surely with the start of 2011. Today we received word that our boys'  paperwork has finally been cleared by the Shalom Orphanage/Sidama region officials. With that clearance, America World is now able to submit our paperwork to the Ethiopian court system tomorrow, and we have been told we should have a court date in about two weeks. This paperwork delay has set us back a month behind our original schedule, and now we are hopeful for a court date in late March. We have been receiving monthly updates and pictures of the boys from America World, providing us with current information. We have also been able to send two care packages with other adoptive couples travelling to Ethiopia.  They have delivered the packages to the boys as well as took pictures and video which they have sent to us. The boys are so cute, and thus far have been growing accustomed to the new orphanage as well as a whole new language (Amharic) which is spoken in Addis. Our hearts long to be there with our boys and to bring them home, but we remind ourselves daily that the Lord has the perfect plan and perfect timeline in place. Thank you for your ongoing prayers and support!

New parents....just like that!



Alison signing the acceptance letter

 On Wednesday morning, November 3, we signed and sent in our referral acceptance for two cutie-patootie young boys! And just like that....we are new parents! A family of EIGHT! How amazing is that? God gave us a special little treat the next day as we left the hotel where we were staying for hubby's work conference. Our shuttle bus driver was a very friendly man from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia! We got to share our good news with him, get his insights about his country, and learn how to pronounce our older son's name! :o) It is a bit awkward to have a son whose name you can't pronounce! So, with that blessing, we hopped on the shuttle bus, hopped on the plane, and eventually made it home to our wonderful kids last night. When we got home we were greeted with another blessing - we found that some dear friends had been to our house to decorate and place balloons, congratulation signs, and a bag of boy gifts on our front patio! What a fun homecoming. We are blessed, and we rejoice today as a family.




We modeled some of these boy toys and decided a new era in the Grant life had begun- toys of this nature have never before been seen in our home!

We loved this sign from some dear friends...



A fun surprise- our friends had decorated our fence and front porch to celebrate our referral acceptance!



God is good!

 

Puzzle Fundraiser

Are you able to donate $5.00 to our adoption? Then you can take part in  our very fun fundraiser! We have purchased this 100 piece puzzle, "An African Afternoon," and we are "selling" puzzle pieces for $5.00 each. For every $5 you are able to donate, we will write your name on the back of the puzzle piece and begin assembling the puzzle. As soon as the 100 pieces are sold, we will glue the puzzle together and be able to frame it and hang it in our new kids' room and have a beautiful, permanent record of some of the people who helped bring our new children home from Ethiopia. We will take pictures and post them with the progress along the way. Would you consider sponsoring one or more puzzle pieces in order to raise the final funds we need to finance our adoption? Thank you for your support and encouragement!
Email: grantfamilyfarm@frontiernet.net

We received a referral today!

What an amazingly exciting day! We would like to request prayer from all of you as we consider the referral we just received for a young sibling set! Please pray for wisdom as we look through their files and make this big decision!

Mom and Dad had just left to go shopping  when the phone rang  - it was our America World social worker. She said she would call Mom and Dad on their cell phones, which left the four of us girls at home, waiting in excruciating turmoil and curiosity while we waited to see if the call had been our referral! Lucky for us it was only about four minutes before Mom and Dad came screeching back into our driveway with the big news that the call had been for our referral! We all screamed and rejoiced and screamed some more, and then poured over the email pictures and information.

Please continue to pray for us as we make this big decision! More to come soon....




Jumping for joy!!! This was Ashlyn's reaction to the exciting news- we were lucky to have our camera handy!

Samuel, another little boy from Ethiopia, was very excited to see the picture of the younger sibling, and promptly said "Boy-boy, friend!" and kissed the picture! How cute is that?!