Travel Postponed

We received official word Friday morning that our finder interview had been moved to April 17th.  Even though I was expecting this, I had still been hoping and praying for a miracle and that we could still keep our original travel plans.  I'm not much of a crier, so I just immediately got mad.  Mad at the fact that we weren't leaving for another month, mad at the US Embassy for requiring a stupid finder interview anyway, mad at the fact that I had moved mountains to get my work schedule rearranged and the kids taken care of for a week while we'd be gone and really mad at our finder for being such a douche bag and not showing up for his original interview.  Why does this process have to take so freaking long?

I guess the weight of the previous weeks stress finally got to me when I walked into my favorite, local coffee shop for my daily latte, and my favorite barista asked me how I was doing and the tears started flowing....and flowing and flowing.  I could not pull myself together, for like 2 hours.  Poor barista didn't know what to do with me.  Can we say awkward?  So it was then work as usual with smudged mascara and a red face.  I guess that sometimes girls really do just need a good cry.  I feel better now.

So now we just wait.  Our tentative travel dates are now April 20-26.  We are trying to get the interview moved up and praying like crazy that our finder actually shows up this time and that we will get cleared easily.  It is comforting to know that Robel's life is the same.  He is too young to understand that he has a family in Texas and is in a wonderful orphanage where he has great care.  He is healthy and thriving and has hundreds of people praying for him every day.  What more could a momma ask for?  God's timing is always perfect, even if we don't understand it.

The 11th Hour (adoption update)

There are these moments, while you are in the adoption process, where you feel like you got punched in the gut.  It's not that hard to do when you are dealing with the fact that your child is on the other side of the world and everything that you have to do to get him home is in other people's hands.  Every little, or big, set back just takes the wind out of you and proves just how little control we have.  This is exactly what happened this week. 

The ONLY thing we are waiting on in order for us to travel is Robel's finder interview.  The US Embassy has to interview either the child's birth parent, or the person that found the abandoned child.  The interview was set for yesterday at 7:30 am, which would be 10:30 pm Thursday night-our time.  Our finder would have to travel over 5 hours to get to his interview, but agreed and everything was a go.  We were expecting clearance Friday morning and then could travel as soon as we liked.  I started looking at plane tickets once the interview was set to get an idea of potential travel dates.  Let's face it, with 4 kids and a job, trying to leave the country for a week is like moving mountains.  There were very little travel options online, so I contacted our travel agent to have her look.  She was having a hard time getting us flights as well.  We made the decision based on faith and went ahead and booked our tickets for a week after the finder interview.


All day Thursday, my stomach was in knots.  Thursday afternoon we received an email letting us know that our finder couldn't make his Embassy appointment.  Punched in gut feeling times 100.  Unfortunately for us, Ethiopia is 9 hours ahead of us, which means that everyone there is already headed into their weekend.  Which also means that we don't have any answers as to why he couldn't make it, no answers as to whether or not he can reschedule or when that could possibly be?!  Can Monday get here soon enough?  We are suppose to board a plane in 8 days.  Stressed doesn't even do this situation justice.

After speaking with our case worker, we decided to keep our travel plans as is.  We are going to trust that we get this interview taken care of this coming week, that everything will go smoothly and we will get cleared to come get our son before we board a plane in 8 days.  Did I say that already?  Holy crap.  Please be in prayer with us that all of this happens, that we can keep our travel dates the same, and that God is preparing our sweet Robel's heart for us!  Good grief I can't wait to get our little man home!