A Trip of a Lifetime

The past month has been a complete blur. On Tuesday October 27th we received a phone call asking if we would consider traveling to Africa in two days. What? No way? Well, after complete shock we said yes. At that point it was only a "maybe" until the next day. To make a very long story short, we had til the end of October to get our two court dates completed otherwise we would be postponed until early next year. After a restless night, we found out midday on Wednesday that we got the go ahead to travel on Friday. A big team of people stepped in to help. My coworkers covered my shifts at work. The care of our children here was arranged and our bags were packed. Still didn't feel real. It was so surreal to finally be at this point in our journey.  On Friday we left for Tanzania, Africa. We traveled for two days to get there and our flight time totaled to about 23 hours. Holy cow..right? On October 24th, we arrived and meet our children. There are no words that can describe that experience for us. We have looked forward to that moment for so long. Helen and Innocent welcomed us with smiles and hugs. That started our 14 day journey in Africa in getting to know each other.
We spent seven days in Arusha, Tanzania. During that time we had meetings with our lawyer, social welfare, and attended court. We also ventured out a little bit to some local restaurants. We visited Helen's orphanage and meet some of her friends. They welcomed us with dancing and singing. While we were there the country had a presidential election. The news was talking about potential riots and protests. We were obviously concerned about our safety. We prayed and prayed that our court dates would stay scheduled. God paved the way and kept the country peaceful. We attended both court dates as scheduled and the judge moved us onto the next step. The judge scheduled us for a adoption ruling of December 2nd. On December 2nd, the judge and lawyer will open our case again and hopefully put a final stamp on this adoption. We do not have to be present for this.  From that point, our lawyer will formulate the final documents to submit to the Tanzania. After court was complete we traveled to Karatu, Africa about 3 hours away to visit the children's orphanage. This day was rough. Matt was so sick that day. He had horrible vomiting and abdominal cramping. He was such a trooper. Traveling on African roads and feeling nauseous is not easy. God bless our driver Samuel. He was so patient with us and he kept apologizing that Matt was sick.  Our guess is that Matt ate some bad food at a restaurant the day before. He stayed in bed for the whole day and tried staying hydrated. So glad I took that Zofran with us. The next day he was worn out but was doing much better.
We stayed the next six days at Falco's Children's Orphanage. Here we were welcomed by loving "mama's" and 45 children. Each one of these kids are so precious. The Lord put my heart early in this visit that these kids needed shoes. Their shoes were so worn.  Matt and I are on mission to bring 70 shoes back to Africa with us in the spring.  We want to show them the love of Jesus.
We took this time to get to know the culture as much as we could. Our driver, Samuel, taught Matt and I some Swahili. We also received a couple cooking lessons. One day we left the orphanage and went on an all day safari. We saw so many animals in their natural habitat.
I learned so much while we were there. Things are a lot simpler there and I take so many things in America for granted. The biggest one being water. I turn on the facet on at home and there's a endless supply. We saw Africans lining up water barrels at the nearest water access just waiting for their turn for clean water. Tanzania has a rich culture. I hope we incorporate as much as we can when we bring Helen and Innocent home to America.  The people that we meet in this orphanage have such a love and passion for the Lord. We left in pure amazement knowing God has weaved this journey for us. As Helen said to me when we were leaving, "I'm not sure why your crying mama, your coming back to get us." Yes baby girl we are. There are several steps that have to be done before we can go back to bring them home. We don't know the exact time period. The hope is this spring. Matt and I will publicly share pictures soon.We are waiting for things to get finalized first.

We also wanted to take a minute and thank everyone. So many of you have partnered with us from day one in praying for our family...THANK YOU!!! Your generous hearts have helped make this possible. Exactly one year ago we started this journey. We were scared, but we knew exactly what the Lord wanted us to do. How could we provide all that is needed to adopt two more children? We took a BIG step of faith. We have continued to trust in the Lord. He has provided everything that has been needed. I love that the Lord has stepped in and has made the impossible possible. Whatever the Lord asks you to do just follow. The journey won't always be smooth and easy, but it's his will. Be in prayer and the Lord will give you his desires. So I challenge you to take that step that you think you can't and follow the Holy Spirits lead.
We ask for prayers for the upcoming steps, the first one the adoption ruling of  December 2nd.