It is always amazing to see God REALLY move in your life….and I can tell you each and every time God has had to move us into His plan, or we would not have adopted nine children!!  Usually, our route to adoption involves fasting, prayer, and miraculous signs. . . this was ABSOLUTELY the case this time!  From random strangers, television shows, and even all of our family’s support . . . to healthy physicals, a new job for my husband with adoption benefits, and God’s provision of the finances!  I could go on and on, but for some reason God spoke in our hearts to go to Ethiopia . . . and there is no better place to be than where God calls. 

So we began the joyful, arduous and sometimes frustrating, but always faith-filled trek to finding our daughters in Ethiopia.  Now, this is the same every time we adopt . . . lots of paperwork, notaries not signing their documents right, returning to the doctor’s office three times to get the form done right!, five long months of wait for our CIS approval, lost dossier at the Secretary of State, you get the picture…NO, THIS DOES NOT COME EASY, and I have done it before, and I am a PROFESSIONAL! But nothing worth having comes easy . . . and it could be easy to give up!!  All of this is what we see in the “physical realm.”  But in the spiritual realm, our hearts were being joined with Ethiopia and our newest daughters . . . whoever they might be.  God knew them and knew their pain and suffering . . . and was holding them in the “palm of His hand” until we could hold them in our arms. 

When my feet finally hit Ethiopian soil, I couldn’t wait to meet my new daughters.  I had worried about them, how they must be feeling, if they were scared or sad or worried.  They weren’t!  They were all smiles and couldn’t wait to go to America!  Our oldest daughter was so excited that she would not go to sleep on the airplane on the long trip home…she was having the time of her life and she didn’t want to miss any of it!  (The attached picture was taken within the first 3 minutes of our meeting and becoming a family!)  Needless to say, they are well bonded, well behaved and totally delightful children…and very little of this can we take credit for!  We just know that we are so blessed to be their parents! 

Now we have been home from Ethiopia a little over two months.  Our daughters are completely FABULOUS!  Of course, I am their mother and I am allowed to say this, but it is MUCH more . . . or should I say, THEY are MUCH MORE than we had ever hoped or dreamed or imagined!  They almost seamlessly fit into our family . . . and how they love all of my children, which has never been the case when we adopted before!!  My daughters are considered older than usual to be adopted, at ages three and seven.  They have their stories of pain and loss . . . and they have their resilience and resolve . . . and JOY that amazes me daily!  My daughter skips off to school every day, singing and happy.  She cries for her Ethiopian mom, but in the next sentence tells me how much she loves her American mom and family!  I know she longs for her Ethiopian family . . . how could she not?  I am just glad she trusts us enough to share her pain, and we can be conduits of healing in her life.  How amazing of God to allow us to be used like this in their lives . . . and now to be the ones HOLDING them.

Ethiopia has captivated my heart…all the children that I saw while I was there were kind and sweet.  They all longed for a family.  I noticed with one child at the HOH, that every time a car would drive in, he would ask if that was his Mommy and Daddy.  These children are WONDERFUL!!  I’ve been in 20 countries with my work in adoption, and I can honestly say, Ethiopia is special.  The children are special.  Yes, they are orphans, they have had great loss, but they have great PROMISE!  All they need is the love of parents….and families.  Could God be calling you to care for “the least of these?”