We're on our way!!

We have received our embassy date (June 12th) and we are headed to Ethiopia for our 2nd trip today!

We can't believe we'll be reunited with James in less than 1 day and that he's coming back with us this time! Praising God and anxiously excited!!

Our First Trip to Ethiopia!

Thank you so much for your patience to those of you who frequently look at our blog and find no updates!  Life has been busy and I have not been as consistent as I would like with updates.  Sorry!
 
Well, we now have a big update because on April 8th, we got the call with our court date and were told that we needed to be in Ethiopia at least 3 days prior to our court date of April 22nd.  So, we hurriedly got our flights arranged and travel plans set and began preparing for our long-awaited first trip to Ethiopia.  We left Sunday, April 13th, in order to have enough time time to drive from Louisville to Greeley, CO, where Jenny's parents live.  We arrived safely in Colorado and were able to spend 2 days getting our other 3 kids situated with their Paps and Grams before we took a red-eye flight out of Denver late on the night of April 16th.  We then had a total travel time of about 24 hours to Ethiopia and made it safely into Addis Ababa at about 7 AM Friday, the 18th.

Our brother-in-law, Stephen, picked us up from the airport and we stayed with the Kennedys during our stay in Ethiopia (Jenny's sister, Shelley's family), which was a huge blessing to us!  We survived jet-lag pretty well the first day and enjoyed seeing some of downtown Addis and also the area around where the Kennedys live.  We finished the day by going to a place with Stephen and Shelley where we got to see some monkeys and then have dinner and our first yummy Ethiopian Macchiato. ;-)

After getting settled in our first day, we were able to go to James's orphanage the next morning.  It was so amazing to get to see James in person the first time and get to spend time playing with him.  He was a bit timid at first, but once we pulled out some matchbox cars, he warmed up pretty quickly. :-)  We are so glad that now that we have been to court, we are able to post pictures of our boy!  Excited for you to get to see what James looks like!

We got to spend about 2 hours with James, and then we had to leave.
The next day we went to church in the countryside with Stephen and Shelley.  It was such a neat experience.  Adam was even asked to preach the sermon! ;-)  He did a great job!

We were so blessed to be able to worship with other believers in Ethiopia!  It was amazing to see visibly that our God is so wonderful and powerful in the way that He works in the hearts of His people.  He is God over all the earth and isn't bound by distance, language, or any obstacles.  The fact that He has His people spread throughout all the world and that He is actively working in the lives of his people all over the world is amazing to think about.  We were so encouraged to get to see a piece of this in Ethiopia!

On Monday, we got to see our James again at the orphanage.  We took some play-doh (as per my sister, Kelli's suggestion.  Way to go Kel!) to play with him, and he was intrigued by it and enjoyed playing with it for quite some time:

The front gate to the orphanage:

James's first "selfie" ;-)

It was really sweet, on this day, James was sitting with Adam and leaning his head against him.

The next day we had our court date.  We weren't sure what to expect, but we were surprised that it wasn't a big deal.  We were in the courtroom for about 5 minutes and were asked a few basic questions and then told that once court was done that Sete (James) would be ours and that there would be no reversing things after that. ;-)  We praise God that things with court went so smoothly!

Here we are waiting our turn:

We then got to see James one last time before we left Ethiopia.  We were thankful to be spending more time with him, but we were usually in the room with a number of other orphanage staff most of the time, so by our 3rd time there, we both felt like we were more and more looking forward to bringing James home with us and having him just to ourselves. ;-)  We are thankful, though, that James seemed like he was comfortable with the orphanage staff and that they are taking good care of him while we are waiting for the process to be final and for our second trip to bring him home.  We are excited to get to fully make him a "Grusy" upon our next trip.  Adam said, "I just can't wait to put James in Grusy clothes, and to take him home and make him a full Grusy!" :-)

Here are some other cool experiences that we had while we were in Ethiopia:
getting to see a sheep slaughtered for the Easter holiday, eating raw sheep meat, spending precious time with our family in Ethiopia and being so encouraged by the Gospel work that they are doing, getting to have special time with our nieces, going to the country-side and seeing a village there, getting to go to a number of Ethiopian homes to have authentic Ethiopian food and fellowship, having Ethiopian coffee numerous times, and experiencing the crazy driving/traffic and the culture in Ethiopia.

We were only in Ethiopia for 1 week, but with all that we did, it felt like we were there longer!  We are so thankful to our good God, who gave us travel mercies, gave us sweet fellowship with family and fellow believers, and gave us sweet time with our son James.  We praise God that He has been sustaining James and keeping him safe, and that God is preparing the way for us to go back to Ethiopia to bring him home and fully make him a "Grusy."

Thank you for your prayers and support of our family!  We are so excited to share this post of pictures and details with you and we hope you are encouraged to see what God is doing and the way that He is faithfully working out His perfect plan in our family!

What we have been waiting for!!!....

I am sorry that I have not been diligent in keeping the blog updated!  

But, I am updating now with wonderful news!!  We just received our referral this last Wednesday, November 7th, at about 10:30 AM!

We got a call from our adoption agency this last Wednesday morning asking us if we would want to consider a little boy who was 4 years old, about to turn 5 in January?  We were told that if we wanted to accept his referral that this would mean switching to our agency's new partner agency in Ethiopia, called Dove Adoptions.  This would mean that we would have to pay a $12,000 referral fee instead of $9,200.  And we would also have to redo our dossier paperwork, which would require more fees and work on our part.

In God's kind providence, Adam was home on Wednesday morning preparing for/studying for a Hebrew exam the next day (which he is normally at work on Wednesday mornings...)  It was so kind of The Lord to give us our referral call on the morning when Adam was home, because we were able to talk about our decision in person and get to see his information together instead of trying to talk about it over the phone.  

So, once we get the call, Adam and I talked it over for about 5 minutes, and then decided that we felt that this was God's doing and provision for us, and that we wanted to call back to accept the referral!  Seeing how God has sustained us and provided for us during the process so far has given us much hope in thinking about the additional finances and effort that is now required with accepting our soon-to-be son's referral.  

Adam and I called back to our agency and said that we would like to accept his referral, and then we were sent a picture of him and some additional information (we aren't allowed to share his picture now, but can after our first court date and trip to Ethiopia).  

We are so thankful and are praising God for His goodness to provide us with another son!!!

We are now in full-throttle :-) trying to get our dossier put together again and trying to stay on top of any other paperwork that we need to do in preparation for our court date.  We have been told that, if things go smoothly, we could possibly travel in February.  But, we have to hold that loosely, knowing that there can be hang-ups along the way.

We are so excited to share this news with you, and hope that you will praise God along with us!  We also ask you to keep us in your prayers!  

1.  Please pray that paperwork will go smoothly and that we will be able to travel for our first trip and get our court date sooner rather than later.  Also, pray that God would continue to provide for us financially. 

2.  Also, please pray for our soon-to-be son, James Paul Sete Grusy!  Pray that God would be sustaining him in the orphanage and that God would be preparing his little heart and mind to enter his new family.  

3.  Pray for Adam and I, Ethan, Emma, and Lydia, as we all prepare to welcome him as one of the Grusys.  It's been precious to see Ethan, Emma, and Lydia all very excited about the news!  Lydia has been saying almost everyday, multiple times a day since the referral, "When is my friend coming out?  I'm so excited!"  And Ethan has been talking about looking forward to sharing a room with him and getting to play with him.  And Emma has been excited about throwing him a "welcome home" party!  So sweet and such a blessing to see our kiddos excited about their new brother!  Please pray that God would continue to make them excited and that they would welcome their brother and love him well during this upcoming transition.  Also pray that God would give Adam and I grace, wisdom, and strength as we prepare for and anticipate meeting James for the first time.  Pray that God would give us the grace we need to welcome James into our family well, and to care for and love him in a way that is sensitive toward what he has been through in the past.

Thank you for all your loving support and prayers!!

In Him, we wait..

                                                                   Job 42:2

      I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted!

Here is our latest update on where we were on the wait list:

in June:

#80 on the healthy list

#7 on the special needs list

And, for July, we are currently:

#71 on the healthy child list

#6 on the special needs list

We are thankful that there was more movement this month!!

Although we still feel that things are moving slowly, we are encouraged by how God is keeping us trusting in Him and resting in the fact that His timing is not delayed, even if ours feels like it is.

Please continue to pray that we would receive our referral soon and that God would be keeping our son safe and preparing him to enter our family.  Pray that we would trust God's timing and not grow weary in the wait.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support!

May Numbers...

"The strength of patience hangs on our capacity to believe that God is up to something good for us in all our delays and detours"

-John Piper

It's May, so we do have new numbers:

We are now #82 on the healthy child list and
#7 on the special needs list (although it does look like we are #1 on this list for a boy)

Waiting yet another month is hard.  But, we praise God that we do still see His hand in our waiting and in keeping us grounded in Him and the Gospel.  There is great comfort in knowing that God has specific, good purposes in our waiting!  We pray God continues to keep us trusting in Him and His perfect timing, and that He would be preparing us to meet our son and parent him in a way that is glorifying to God.

To end this post, I want to share an adoption video that reflects the beauty of adoption and makes us so excited to see God continuing to unfold this adoption story of ours:

http://vimeo.com/36862661

Wait List numbers for April

Since there hasn't been much movement or change for us, I have neglected to update for awhile.  

So, I will catch up on where we are.  The 1st of March, we were told by our agency that we had moved up one spot on the waiting list, from # 91 to #90 and stayed the same on the special needs list.

We just received word yesterday that, we actually moved up a few spots this time on the list from 91 to #86.  And we are now #7 on the special needs list. 

It has been hard to wait already, and we haven't even been at it very long.  It's crazy to think that we could get a call today with a referral, or we could wait for another 6-12 months before we hear anything.  

We have been told that we are next in line for a boy on the special needs list (because everyone in front of us at this point is wanting a girl, although that could change if someone else changes their mind and switches to a boy).  We have also decided to extend our age preference to age 4.  So, we are now on the list as wanting a boy, age 0-4.  

It has been a true comfort to rest in the Gospel and God's sovereign plan for our family as we wait.  We know and trust that nothing is outside of God's control and that He knows the perfect time for our son to join our family.  

Please pray that God would continue to prepare us and our son in Ethiopia for the time that He has planned for us to be brought together.  Pray for us to grow in our faith and deepen our trust in our sovereign God during this time.  Pray that we wouldn't become impatient and frustrated as we wait, but that we would delight in God's perfect timing.  

Thank you for your interest in our adoption journey and for your prayers for us!    

Drum Roll...

So, being that it is February 1st, we just received an email from our adoption agency telling us what numbers we are on the waiting list, and, here they are:

                    We are #91 on the healthy child list

                    We are #8 on the special needs list

(For those interested, the way that they do the waiting list is by numbering dossiers as they arrive in Ethiopia.  This number tells us how many families are in front of us waiting for children.  Not all families in front of us are requesting the same age/gender of children)

The above picture shows us at the Lifeline office with our social worker, Lyndsey.  This lovely lady gets much of the credit for getting us to where we are in the process.  We are so thankful that God has blessed us with such a sweet, hard-working social worker, who has been such a help and encouragement to us.