What happened yesterday?

“We should hear something on Wednesday.” That had been my response since last Wednesday to the question, “When are you going to get Gus?” We’re currently waiting to be submitted to the US embassy. The embassy only accepts adoption paperwork on Wednesdays and we had good reason to believe that it would happen yesterday…and it almost did.

Turns out, everything was ready. Gus even has his own little passport. (Well, it’s not truly a little passport, as in, a smaller passport. I suppose that in this context little is a synonym for cuter. My passport on the other hand is neither little nor cute.) But when they got ready to submit they were missing a document and some photocopies. Ugh! AWAA called us and we sent the missing paperwork FedEx international priority mail to Addis. It should be there Monday and then my guess is that we will be a go for next Wednesday.

I truly think we’re weeks away from bringing him home. Do continue to pray that we can clear these last hurdles. And pray that God will continue to provide the final funds necessary to finish the job. He has been so faithful in that regard.

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So What's Next?

August David Cleland is officially and legally our son. The only problem is that we can't bring him into the US just yet. Over the next week or two our agency will be gathering the necessary documents for submission to the US Embassy in Addis Ababa. Once those documents are submitted the embassy has 10 days to decide if they need any further investigation into his situation. Because he was abandoned we don't have much reason to suspect that they'll need to do anything. At that point he'll be issued a passport and a visa and then we can bring him home.

Because he has now been adopted he could be with us (in Ethiopia) at any time. It just occurred to me that there is an illustration here about our present state of adoption in Christ but I'll save that for another post. Every now and then the thought enters my mind that we should just go get him and wait there. We'll see. We do have two kids here at home to take care of.

It is absolutely thrilling to be at this point in the process. This has been a long ride and it's been hard at times. But the thought that we're weeks away from having him home with us makes it all worth it.

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One Less Orphan

Finally! We received word this morning that August David Cleland is officially our son. We are so thankful to God and to all who have prayed. Soon he'll be submitted to the US Embassy so that we can obtain the papers needed to bring him to live here. I'll post more soon.

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