Dossier

Dossier
This is the package that carried our hearts through Paris, Dubai, and on to Ethiopia :)

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Our First Meeting

This is a video I made to show how special our first meeting with our boys was...enjoy!



Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Our family...

I am here to tell you that MIRACLES DO STILL HAPPEN! God is so good! We were told last Friday that we did not pass court. Courts were then closed for two months for rainy season, and all of us who didn’t pass would just have to wait until they reopened for our cases to be looked at. This was a hard pill to swallow. We didn’t pass because of a mistake on MOWCYA’s part, and then we were just out of luck. Shane and I were reeling from this information, and he is on the other side of the world. Fast forward to Monday.
I get a call from our agency saying that the courts for whatever reason had decided to stay open a few extra days, and that they would advocate for our family again to see if they could get our letter re-written. They could make no promises, and said just to pray. I have to be honest, I was struggling with prayer at this point. I had poured my heart out in anguish last week, had prayed in faith that God would move this mountain, had cried and begged, and we didn’t pass. I even called my dad on Sunday to talk to him about prayer. “Dad, why do we even pray if ultimately God is going to do what He wants anyway? I feel like He has never answered my prayers in the way that I have asked, so shouldn’t I just sit back and say ‘your will be done’?”. (I’m so glad that I have an earthly father who knows the Lord, that I can talk to when things of my heavenly father aren’t clear to me.) One of the things my daddy told me was the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead in John 11. (paraphrasing) Mary and Martha had asked Jesus to come heal their brother because he was sick. Scripture says although Jesus loved them, he stayed where he was for the next two days. In that time, Lazarus died and was buried. Jesus then came to Bethany, and Martha met with him and basically said – if you had been here, this wouldn’t have happened. Shortly after, Jesus went to Lazarus’ grave and said “Father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.” He then raised Lazarus from the dead, and many people believed because of it. That story really encouraged me these last two days before we got the news today. We don’t tell God what to do. We can pray and ask, but sometimes God doesn’t answer the way we want, because He knows that His name will be praised and spread further if He waits, and His mighty power can be shown. Well, He really showed His mighty power today. Courts shouldn’t have stayed open these last few days, but God made it happen. He worked a miracle for us and for our boys, and MAY HIS NAME BE PRAISED.
Enjoy the pictures of our first meeting with our boys…Christian Abiti Somers and Joash Negalegn Somers...WE PASSED COURT!!!
















































Friday, August 5, 2011

These past few days...

So I don't have a lot left in me to write, and I'm still processing everything from this week, so bear with me. On Wednesday, I was sitting at our kitchen table with a friend who was showing me an awesome reading program to do with the boys...the phone rings and it's AWAA. I answered with excitement because we were waiting to hear if we passed court by Friday, and it was early. It was our family coordinator, and she told me that MOWCYA had written a recommendation letter to the courts, but that it was unfavorable. She said that they had overlooked our homestudy update...that was there the whole time. She continued to say that there were two days left for them to subpoena the new corrected letter, MOWCYA to get it written, and for it to get hand delivered to the court by close of business Friday. She said it was totally possible for this to all happen, and to be praying. It hurt so bad to know that we could suffer because of a silly mistake, but we were still hopeful. We also heard a few hours later that all of our friends in our traveling group had passed...we were so happy for them, but that hurt too.

Fast forward through two days of intense anxiety, lots of desperate prayers, and frail hope. We waited all morning for news (me here, and Shane in Romania). We got an email from our agency at 2:00 saying that they were still working on wrapping things up in Ethiopia, and they would give us news as soon as possible. The call finally came at 2:47, and was to inform us that "unfortunately, you did not pass today". Hopes and prayers for a miracle...crushed. They said that the letter was never re-written. (What the heck have they been doing over there the past two days?!)MOWCYA will still be writing letters over the court closure, so we should pass as soon as courts re-open, which isn't until the end of September/early October. I can't get my hopes up over anything anymore. We have had so much bad news over this process. One day soon I will have renewed hope, but not today. So many unanswered questions about what transpired over there this week in reference to our paperwork - answers we will never get.

One thing I do know, God is still good and still on the throne. This is not a surprise to Him. From my human perspective, there is no good that could come out of this. The boys suffer, we suffer, those around us suffer. But from God's viewpoint, I know there has to be a good reason for this. This is all I can say for now.

"Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest." Psalm 126:5-6 I'm cryin' now, but boy will I be a-singin' when I finally return with my boys...