Welcome! We've decided to start a blog (I have no idea what that means, but it sounds very cool!) to keep our family and friends up-to-date with our adoption of a beautiful 3 year old girl from Ethiopia, named Ana. Kyle and I feel very blessed that we are able to experience this very wonderful, but very exhausting process. It will be a year in February since we first started our adoption process and we hope to have Ana home with us by the early part of February 2009. We aren't able to post pictures of Ana on this blog until we have Ana home. The Ethiopian government is very particular about their children being displayed on public websites and as much as we want to share her with all of you, we are going to follow their wishes.

We have been assigned a January 19th court date in Ethiopia. Our in-country representative will go to court for us and present all of our paperwork. As many of you know, we did not pass our first court date which was on December 3rd. The Ethiopian government is requiring a new document from the region in which the child is from stating that they are a true orphan and we didn't have that document by the time of our court date. We are told that our rep does have that document now and we should pass on the 19th. We hope to travel to Ethiopia 2-3 weeks after that! Your continued prayers for us to pass are so very much appreciated!

Kyle and I are so ready to bring Ana home. Matt, Andy, and Tina are as well - they can't wait to meet this little girl that we have been talking about and looking at her picture every day since September 18th, when we got her referral! Tina is especially looking forward to having a little sister - a girl to play dolls and dress-up with!

I want to thank all of my family and friends for praying for us - for almost an entire year!! We appreciate your love and support more than words can explain! And most of all we thank God for placing adoption on our hearts and for helping us see this through! A verse from the Bible that we have held near to our hearts is James 1:27 - Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. We are very thankful for and so undeserving of this gift that God has given us!

We hope you can follow our travels and Ana's homecoming!

God Bless You,
Kathy