8 Days and We're on Our Way to Bring Our Boy Home Forever!!!

YES, it is true...our flights are booked and in 8 days I will be leaving for Ethiopia for Embassy and to bring Fetinet Nikao home finally be a family of FOUR!!!!

Soon these two boys will be together forever as brothers!!!

On Thursday we got the email from embassy saying we were CLEARED and we were beyond excited but we didn't think that could be right because they didn't have our updated 171H yet.  It wasn't fully right, we soon found out we were cleared still but couldn't book an appointment until they got that form.  I called our USCIS officer and let me tell you how amazing this lady has been...getting us a fingerprinting appointment just in time, answering all my questions and putting up with my daily calls, she assured me they will have this form by THIS Monday and as well she emailed info over so they would know it was there.  She also made everything very personal and just was a blessing when I didn't expect it from a government official.  I then emailed the embassy (yet again) and they got right back to me, assuring me that as long as they had our form by June 22nd, we would be able to have our embassy interview during the last week of June.  So with airfare rising and flights getting sold out by the hour (literally) I booked our flights and got a nice surprise in that on the way there and back we have a short layover in Chicago so my parents and anyone else who can make it will get to meet Fetinet briefly and welcome us there :)  Also we ended up paying $1,000 less than expected!  God has just been doing miracles in our family's case lately and we are beyond grateful...really there are no words for all that has happened in the last couple weeks!  God is Good!

Now, here's where I need your help.......
This time around Jason will be staying home with Jalen to work and watch him but it is required through our agency that I have an adult companion to travel with me.  My sweet friend and Godmother to Jalen and Fetinet, Jen, is going to be my companion and while she is there she will also be providing physical therapy services to special needs orphaned children.  If she couldn't go, Jason would have had to, and we would have been buying another flight so I feel I need to help as much as I can to help her raise the money it is costing for her flight (not to mention she is missing a week of work just for us).  She was able to use some frequent flyer miles to get a few of the connecting flights covered but she still needs $1,757 to cover the rest of her flights. We have been doing this fundraising thing for a while and I know in the beginning I felt awkward, bad, weird, etc sending out emails and such to help us get the amounts we needed but I learned quickly that in every fundraiser and every donation that came in, God was using special people to make our journey and story just that much more exciting and really more glorifying to Him.  I have made life long friends with people I met through fundraising, and in each one, our story was shared, the need for orphan outreach was shared and more families have come to decide to pursue adoption, foster care or just have a different outlook on the needs of these children in general so money aside, so much good has come from it all.  Jen is new to this so she is back in that "feeling bad asking for money" stage and I want her to see that people genuinely like to help and if God places it on their hearts to help her, they will and if not, nothing is lost but who knows what will be gained from it???  SO, help me bless her and raise the money to cover her flights as it is a HUGE help to us and I know she will be a HUGE blessing to the children she will be working with while she is there!  You can donate via my paypal account, just use the button on the LEFT that says "Help Jen Get To Ethiopia" or contact me via email here and let me know how you would like to help. Thank you and have a wonderful Father's Day weekend!

Jen and I after PT school graduation (2009) and my little nugget Jalen in my arms :)