Still not Submitted to Embassy:(

Yesterday marked 6 weeks since Ethan and I said goodbye to Kenesa. On Monday I received a email from our agency that all our paperwork was ready and we were getting submitted on Tuesday July 2. Once you get submitted you get a email from the U.S. Embassy that they have received your case and then you wait to be cleared. The wait can be as early as a week or take up to a month or more. Right now cases look like they clear in 2-3 weeks.

Well....we didnt get a email so I called our adoption agency. I found out that they went to submit our case and there was a document missing that the U.S. Embassy requires. I was heartbroken. What we have found out since then is not much, but that our Agency is working to get the document. I have no idea as to how long this will take. Could be a week, could be 2 or 3 weeks. Our agency was closed Thursday and Friday because of the holiday. I am praying that we will find out on Monday and hopefully we will have good news that they have the document that is needed.

I cant even describe the feeling I am having right now. It is sooooo hard to be away from Kenesa. I know that the Thomas Center is taking good care of him, but he needs to be home with us. He was 5 months old yesterday. He has been in the Thomas Center since he was 19 days old. He should be starting to do things like rolling over, sitting up and eating solid foods. He needs to be loved on by Ethan and I , and his big sisters.

Son- I am so sorry that we havent been back to get you yet. The only comfort that I can rest in right now is that God is in complete control, God knows when you will be with us forever and I am praying constantly that it will be soon. I was in tears the other day and talking with a friend, telling her that you need to have my arms wrapped around you right now, and that I just  picture you laying in your crib and it is so hard. Her response brought me to tears. She said " Kelli, you need to picture Jesus laying there in the crib with Kensea, with his arms around him, because he is". This is what I try to picture as I close my eyes and think of you . I love you so much!!!

Please be praying that we hear good news on Monday. Pray that the document is found, or a new one is done very quickly! Pray for submission to the U.S. Embassy before the end of next week and that once submitted we clear really quick so we can travel to bring our son home.

Thank you so much to everyone that has brought by donations, and given money for donations for the kiddos at the Thomas Center. What a blessing!

Not Submitted to Embassy

So we were hoping and praying that we would be submitted to the U.S. Embassy today. That didnt happen:( They are still waiting for Kenesa's Medicals to be reviewed by a Embassy approved clinic. Once that is done we can be submitted. This shouldnt take long which means we should be submitted next Tuesday July 2nd.

Please be praying that we do get submitted next Tuesday and that everything in the file is complete and that we will get cleared ASAP to go and get our boy!

This waiting is sooooo hard:(

Waiting for Kenesa

We are still waiting to be submitted to the U.S. Embassy. We did get issued Kenesa's Birth Certificate but are still waiting on his passport. I thought we would be submitted to the Embassy this next Tuesday the 18th, but since we are still waiting on the passport it looks like it will probably be the following Tuesday the 25th. You can only submitt to the embassy on Tuesday mornings, so if there is one document you are waiting on you have to wait another week to submit.

After we are submitted we will be emailed from the U.S. embassy and they will start their investigation. It can take 2-4 weeks to be cleared to come and get our son. I cant wait to get the emailed that we are cleared. This by far has been the hardest wait in this whole adoption process. I think about Kenesa constantly and just want him home with us.

Please pray that the passport office will speed up and that Kenesa will be issued his passport within the next few days. Please pray that the investigation at the U.S. embassy will go quickly and that we will be cleared within 1-2 weeks to go get our boy. Praying we will travel the 2nd or 3rd week of July.

Kenesa- WE cannot wait to have you home. We just got a updated picture of you from last week and you look like you are growing so much. I cant get over how beautiful you are. You are such an amazing gift and a huge answer to our prayers. I pray that you are sleeping, eating , and that you stay healthy. We love you to the moon and back!!

Love,
   Mom

Kenesa

Well, we are back from Addis Ababa Ethiopia. We had an amazing time! It is hard because we missed our girls so much and wanted to come back home to them, but it was so hard because we didnt want to leave our son Kenesa.

Ethan and I are both filled with so much joy about our little boy Kenesa. He is so beautiful, full of smiles and we instantly fell in love with him. As soon as I picked him up he was full of smiles. We were both able to feed him, snuggle him tons and he fell asleep on the both of us each day we were at the Thomas Center. He is such a happy boy, and I cannot wait for everyone to see his beautful smile and gorgeous huge brown eyes in person. We are beyond blessed to call him our son and cannot wait until Lucy and Madeline get to see their little brother.

We had a great time in Addis Ababa, we had a great driver and guide that took us everywhere we needed to go. We were able to do some sight seeing, eat some good meals and really enjoy the time we got to have with our boy. The plan was to name our son Isaiah Timothy Kenesa Potts. Kenesa was the name that was given to him by his birthmom. After meeting our boy we have decided to keep his Ethiopian name given to him by his birthmom. So his full name will be Kenesa Timothy Potts.

Court went good. All the documents that the judge needed were there, and we must of answered all the questions right cause after our short 4 minute meeting with the judge she told us that Kenesa is now our son! It was so amazing to hear:) Ethan and I were filled with so much joy.

So now is the really hard part. Waiting again:( We are now in the U.S. Embassy stage. There is more paperwork to be fillled out,notarized and sent off. A bunch on our part and on our Agency's part. Once all the paperwork is in place we will be submitted to the U.S. Embassy and within 3 weeks  of submission if they have everything they need then we should be getting our Embassy appointment. From what I understand this can be anywhere from 6 weeks to 4 months.

We are praying for the shortest wait possible and ask that you all will be praying alongside of us.


Thank you so much to our family that was such a huge help with our girls while we were away. Alyssa, Alex both Ethan's Parents and My parents, Jenni, Erin, Breeze and everyone else that offered to help and that I know were praying for us. We love you and appreciate you all so much. Lucy and Madeline were beyond spoiled and had sooooo much fun.

Kenesa- It is so hard to be so far away from you . Although I know you are in good hands, I want you home with us. We are so blessed to call you our son and cannot wait to have you in our arms forever. We continue to pray for you each day. Praying that you stay healthy, sleep well, eat well and smile like you were when we were with you . We will be back as soon as we can to bring you home. I wake up at night thinking about you and probably think about you every 5 minutes during the day. Love you to the moon and back!

Here are a few pictures of our boy. He is almost 4 months old.

God is soooooo Good!

Love,
    Mom

Sorry not good with the computer . I cant rotate the pics. :)

Ethiopia

We arrived in Addis Ababa yesterday at 2:30 after a long 18 total hours of flying. We had a layover in Dubai on Saturday night and then flewn into Addis on Sunday. By the time Ethan and I arrived at or guest house we were exhausted. Our bodies are having a hard time adjusting to the time change and then add all the jet leg onto that. But Praise God! We arrived safely the flights were great. Emirates airline is AWESOME! Our bags arrived in Addis, we didnt have to wait in line in Addis very long to get our visa, and we got right through immigration. The only little hiccup we had was in Dubai when I got stuck in the security machine for like 10 minutes and they couldnt figure out why the doors werent opening to let me out.

We got picked up at the airport and arrived safely at the Guest House. Our room is comfortable and food downstairs that we had for dinner last night was good. We had pizza:)

It is pretty loud were we are staying , and about 5 times a day there is a call to prayer played on a loud speaker right outside our window. The first one being at 5am.

Today we get to go meet our son! We are so excited!! Our guide/driver is picking us up at 9:30 and then we get to spend time with our boy from 10-12. After our visit we are going to explore some more of Ethiopia. Do some shopping, take lots of pics and see what our guide recommends for food today:)

Thank you so much for your prayers. Please pray that we stay healthy, get good rest , enjoy this beautiful country, enjoy the time with our boy, and that everything goes smoothly for court on wednesday.

Son- Dad and I are finally here! I cant believe that in just 3.5 hours I will get to see you and hold you for thd first time. We are so excited to snuggle you , feed you and just enjoy these 2 days that we do get to have with you. We are excited to explore this beautiful country that you are from.

We talked to the girls and they are so excited too! We have brought a few of their toys that they want us to take a picture of you with:) they love you to the moon and back.

See you in a few!
    -Mom

Praying for you

Son-
     It has been so hard these last two months as we wait to hear when our court date will be. I cannot wait to get off the plane in Addis Ababa and come to the Thomas Center to meet you . We get monthly pictures of you. We should be getting a new one anyday now and I cannot wait to see your beautiful brown eyes. You are growing so much and are a healthy baby boy. Dad and I have decided on your name, we have your room all ready at the new house and I have been sleeping with your blanket that I will give to you when we see you for the first time.

A family that came to meet their son at the Thomas center a few weeks ago brought a package to you from us and they said you were the happiest little baby. They read you the card from us and showed you the pictures that the girls made for you . Lucy and Madeline are so excited to meet their little brother. Lucy has already decided that she wants to give you her curious george pillow, and she already put it in your crib. Madeline put a Night light in your room for you too:)

Next Wednesday May 8th is your Birthmoms courtdate. If she shows up at court and the judge signs off we will then be assigned our courtdate to come and meet you. If she does not show up then another date will be assigned a few weeks out to see if she can make that date. We are praying for your birthmom and that she is able to make it to court and that all the documents are in order for the judge to be able to assign us our courtdate.

Son, we cannot wait to see you for the first time, to hold you, to sing to you , to rock you , to change your diaper, to pray with you, to feed you and to just have you home with us forever. We think about you all the time, pray for you constantly and are praising God for bringing you into our lives.

Love you to the moon and back!

Love ,
     Mom

BIG NEWS!!!!!

WE GOT A REFERRAL!!!!

I am sure lots of you already know, but for those of you that havent heard yet we accepted a referral for our little boy on Feburary 25th. On Friday Februrary 22nd I was at home with the girls and got a phone call from Alicia at our agency. I didnt recognize the phone number, because she was at home that day calling from her cell phone. I almost didnt answer because I didnt recognize the number, but am so glad I did. She talked for a bit and I was telling her how I was about to head out to the agency to drop some things off for the Thomas Center. After telling her that I started to wonder why she would be calling me from her house, then she said "Kelli, I have some good news!" my first response was " no way, do we have a referral?" and she said "Yes" then I went on to say " SHUT-UP" ( i know nice response) I was so excited I started crying and pacing the room. The girls were following me around asking what I was doing and what was wrong. " You have a brother!!" I said. We were so excited!!
Alicia went on to tell me about our boy, I was so overjoyed and excited I couldnt control myself. At the end of our conversation she said she had emailed me his pictures. As soon as we hung up I called Ethan of course and told him I was on my way to his office so we could look at our son together for the first time. Once the girls and I got to the office we all sat down together and opened up the email and saw our beautiful son for the first time. " He is perfect" Ethan said. With tears in our eyes we just starred at him and then of course called Nana, Papa, Grandma, Aunts and Uncles and told them that we got our referral:)

So since then we have been submitted to court. We found out 2 weeks ago that the first court date which is the guardian court date is scheduled for May 8th. If court passes that day then we will get assigned our court date. We are praying that we will be traveling by or around the beginning of June to meet our son and go to our first court date. If that passes we are praying we will be bringing him home by the end of August or sooner.

Although this is amazing news, there is still a lot of waiting and paperwork that needs to be done before we bring our boy home. It has been extrememly hard waiting now that we have a picture of our boy. We love him so much already and just want to bring him home now! I know that God has perfect timing and that he will be home in our arms at the right time.


Son- You are beautiful:) As soon as I looked at your picture I fell in love with you . I cannot wait to kiss your big cheeks and rock you to sleep at night. The last month and a half have been extremely hard. I wake up at night thinking about you and praying for you . Praying that you are being cared for well, wondering if you have smiled for the first time yet, wondering what your cry sounds like and just praying that everything speeds up so we can have you home.

We just moved into our new house last weekend. The crib is in your room and Dad is gonna get it all set up. Tons of friends and family have given me the cutest little boy clothes and I cannot wait to see you in them. The girls picked out a special baby blanket for you and they cant wait to hand it to you .

We sent a package to a family that is coming to the Thomas Center in the next couple of weeks to meet their son, and they are gonna get it to you . The girls drew you a picture and wrote your  name all by themseleves. We sent you some cute little onesies, and sweats:)

I pray for you everday and think about you constantly. I am so excited to hold you for the first time and to introduce you to our wonderful big family that love you so much already.

Thank you Lord for our little boy:)

We love you to the moon and back son:)

Love,
    Mom