Please check that you have not left behind personal belongings.

This statement, "Please check that you have not left behind personal belongings," hit me like a ton of bricks as we landed in the DC airport last Wednesday morning.  While I do not view my children as "belongings," I was very acutely aware that I had indeed left something of great value behind in Ethiopia, and the tears flowed freely.  I am just letting you all know up front that the pain is real and the heart is raw.

Tonight at church I had to walk away (and essentially hide) as a well meaning friend asked where our last child was.  He was under the understanding that we were bringing Sophie home this trip.  Jason answered, I walked away, pretending to be busy with my other four, fearing I would burst into tears.  This is really hard, really hard.  Hard not knowing when we will see her again.  Hard not knowing when she will come home.

Leaving behind our daughter was and is not an easy thing to do.  Trusting in Jesus, and his perfect timing through this whole process, has not been an easy thing for me to do.  Watching the Ethiopian government talk about and toy with the notion of shutting the program and country down, is not easy thing to do.  We are so close to having her home, and yet we have no idea if it will really happen.

Please continue to pray.  We felt it while we were in Ethiopia.  We knew we had saints in our corner cheering us on and petitioning on our behalf and it was so very humbling.  We needed it and we still do.  The Ethiopian government has begun new changes as of the 10th of March that once again, make the road longer and less sure for adoptive families.  We do not know at this time what it means for us and our case.

We were blessed and continue to rejoice that we did in fact receive the much needed and hard to come by MOWA (ministry of women's affairs) letter while we were in country and did PASS court.  However we need one more letter from MOWA for our embassy case.  So we continue to ask God to intervene on behalf of our family and Sophie.

Please continue to pray with us.  We desperately want our daughter home.