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!

The Puzzle is Complete!

MANY thanks to all who contributed to the puzzle to help Victoria and I travel to Ethiopia.
It is now finished- Praise God! 
 Thank you again for your support and prayers!
Savannah

Puzzle Update- December

Merry Christmas! Here is an updated puzzle picture as of December 7th. We have been blessed by the generosity of many people donating in order that Victoria and I might be able to fly to Ethiopia. There are only FIVE puzzle pieces left, so if you want to take part in this fundraiser, now is the time to do it!

Thank you again so very much!

Savannah

Puzzle Update

46 pieces sponsored....54 pieces still available! Thank you to all who have sponsored puzzle pieces so far. We appreciate your support!  The puzzle is taking shape and looking great.... we can't wait to see the finished product.

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?!