"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved." Ephesians 1:3-6

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Prayer Requests and Flight Info

If you would like to pray for us while flying, here are the specific times and places we will be:

Depart Phoenix April 4 @ 11:20pm
Arrive in Charlotte April 5 @ 6:10 am (3:10am AZ time)

Depart Charlotte April 5 @ 7:30am (4:30am AZ time)
Arrive DC April 5 @ 8:50am (5:50am AZ time)

Depart DC April 5 @ 11:00am (8:00am AZ time)
In the air for 13 hours and 30 minutes!!! 
Arrive in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia April 6 @ 7:30am (9:30pm on April 5 in AZ)


We would ask you to pray for comfort for us and our children, Raelynn and Declan, who will be staying in the US as we depart from Phoenix tonight.  We'll be getting to the airport around 8:30pm.  Please pray for our safety while we are in the air and in country, but also for our children who will be back here with their grandparents.  We pray that God would keep them safe and there would not be any sickness (although Declan has an ear infection right now!) and there would not be any emergencies. 

April 9 is our court date in Ethiopia.  We have not been told what time it is yet.  It will probably take place while America is sleeping.  We ask prayer that the judge would have favor upon us and allow us to adopt Elliana.  We do not foresee a problem, but you really never know what could happen.  We praise God for the smoothness of the process so far and pray it continues that way.

April 12 we leave Ethiopia, which means we leave Elliana.  Please lift us up in prayer specifically that day, as it will be so so hard to leave her.  Our flight leaves at 10:15pm on April 12, which is 11:15am April 12 in Arizona and 2:15pm Eastern Standard Time. We'll be in the air 17.5 hours and arrive back in DC at 8:30am on Saturday, April 13. We get back home for good at 6:00pm.
We know separation is only temporary, but it does not lessen the pain of being separated.  We know we will leave her in God's hands and trust that he will protect her and keep her until we will be united again forever.  Please pray for her health and safety until we can bring her home.

We lay ourselves down at the thrown of grace and are ready and willing to be changed.  We know this experience is something that is going to change us forever and we pray that God would give us open eyes and hearts to see what he wants us to see and be open to how he wants to use us while we are there and in the future.  We never did this for us.  It's all for him and for his glory alone.  Our ultimate prayer is that God is glorified and that others would be drawn to him through this.

We would love encouragement through God's word that you would like to give us.  His Word is the rock that we can stand on and his faithfulness and steadfast love endures forever. It is living and active and will be the help and encouragement we need.  We stand on every promise of His word because we are his adopted children through the blood of Jesus Christ!



2 comments:

  1. Thank you for the posts and all the future updates. Looking forward to reading them all and of course seeing pictures on your return! At least now you'll get the photos of her exactly the way you want to remember her! God has given you this special time with her, although short, to hopefully tide you over until she's here forever. Her life will be changed too so we pray for her after April 12th as well!

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  2. "Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." Genesis 28:15

    God is with you guys all throughout your journey! HE is carrying you- and HE is carrying your children- all 3 of them!

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