Gotcha Day! Officially

As I write this blog our son is sleeping in our bed. Today was an amazing day that started early with getting Cooper from HOH and applying for his passport and ended with a "To Whom It May Concern" letter in our hands that meant that Cooper could remain with us forever.

There were some neat answers to prayer along the way today as well. From our POA convincing the Immigration office to process all of our children's passports by Friday, to the Minister being in her office this afternoon, to hearing that several families just got referrals on the same day that 6 Rwandan children were officially adopted into their forever families, God has remained faithful.


There is still much to be done and experienced on our journey, but we will sleep soundly tonight with Cooper next to us knowing full well that God has amazing things planned for us!

(Ghost blogger - Chad)

Today

Today was a day like no other we have experienced. Today we flew halfway around the world to meet our fourteen month old son for the first time. Today we held him, sang to him, and played peek-a-boo with him. Today was the beginning of our forever with this precious boy.

We arrived in Kigali over two hours later than expected, so we rushed straight to the orphanage. We all waited in a little room, pinching ourselves to be sure we were really in Rwanda, really about to meet our children for whom we have waited. A few minutes later, we saw our frightened children being carried toward us. Cooper was hesitant to come to me, but once he did, he held on tightly to my shirt. Chad and I both took turns holding him, and while he didn't cry, he certainly did not seem happy. My heart welled up with emotion, knowing, for the first time in my life, I had absolutely no idea how to reassure our child. How I look forward to the coming days when we will learn how to make him smile and laugh!

It's off to bed now. We are tired. Tomorrow we will pick Cooper up at 9:45, dress him in clothes we have brought for him, take him out to lunch with our group, and come back to the hotel for a nap. We will have to return him to the orphanage at 5pm tomorrow, but Monday we should be able to have him with us for good. I'll leave you with a couple more photos of the day.

Washington DC

Two flights Down, two more to go! We made it safely to Washington DC this evening and are settled in for one more nights sleep in the USA. We will leave DC tomorrow morning on Ethiopian Air for the long flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We will follow that with our final flight to Kigali. Two other families from our agency, the Smiths and the Bowers will be flying with us on these flights. We are excited to meet them tomorrow. We are hoping that our next post is after we have met our son!

On Our Way

We are sitting in the Moline airport, ready to begin the first leg of our many-legged journey. This leg takes us from Moline, IL, to Chicago. Then we catch a flight to Dulles and spend the night at a hotel. Tomorrow's flight leaves at 9:30 EST and arrives in Addis at 8:30am Saturday (11:30pm Friday Central time). We then fly to Rwanda and arrive at 1:15pm Saturday(5:15am Central time)

What a full day it has been already! We spent last night with my family, and by this morning all my sisters and their families had arrived. My mom squeaked in a family photo right after my PA sister and family arrived and right before we left. Chad's mom and dad graciously delivered us to the airport, ran to Wal-Mart to get an umbrella stroller (since we forgot ours in the back of our van), and are headed back to a big Thanksgiving meal with my family. While we would love to be a part of the festivities, we are certainly thankful to be headed to Rwanda to pick up our boy.

Leaving Soon!

This is incredibly hard to believe, but we will be holding Cooper in our arms four days from now! We found out this morning that we can leave from D.C. on Friday morning and arrive in Kigali Saturday afternoon! It has been such a whirlwind of events, and many, many more whirlwinds must happen to make this a reality. I'm not sure how much sleep we will be getting between now and then, but we will soon meet our son for the first time. We will do our best to update the blog from Africa, so stay tuned!

Cooper Moise Anastase Safari Spore

A picture is worth a thousand words.:)

Inheritance

Today was a really important day in the life of our family. Our court date happened in Rwanda, and a judge decided that (Cooper's) life will forever be intertwined with ours. Today he is Cooper (with a few names in between) Spore!

Yesterday Chad and I were talking about what would change at the moment the judge made this decision. At that moment, Cooper went from owning absolutely nothing to being joint heirs with our other four children. At that moment, he went from having no one to call his own to having a Mommy and Daddy, two sisters and two brothers, two grandmas, two grandpas, four great-grandmas, two great-grandpas, four aunties, five uncles, eight cousins, way too many second cousins to mention, and a church family who has sacrificially given and prayed for him for months!

During this entire adoption process, we have seen many parallels with what God has done for us when He adopts us as His children. I think we saw the strongest, most beautiful parallel as we were talking about Cooper's inheritance. At the moment each of us accepts Jesus' forgiveness for our sins, we are grafted into God's forever family. We go from being spiritually bankrupt and destitute to being joint heirs with Jesus Christ!

And today, Chad and I have gained a son. We are humbled and amazed that God chose us to love this beautiful baby boy. It is possible we will leave as soon as this Thursday to go get our son. Please pray we can get plane tickets!

Spore Seven!!!

Through tears and laughter I write to let you know we are one step closer to being the Spore SEVEN! This morning we received a referral for a beautiful baby boy. I can't post a picture here or tell many specifics, but we will love sharing more with you in the coming days. Suffice it to say, he is the most beautifully formed baby boy I have ever laid my eyes on (okay, so it's a tie with his two big brothers)! H has already told me he is going to teach him how to brush his teeth and how to swim. Please pray we will be able to complete things before the end of November so we will be able to travel to get him before Christmas. We are rejoicing today!

Referral Coming SOON

We just received an email from our agency saying the Ministry will be contacting us directly with our referral soon! It is the first definitive news from our in country representative that we will hear something soon, and it has me checking my email like a crazy woman. Chances are, it will be a couple more days. Maybe tomorrow?


This morning I told Chad I was reaching my breaking point. Isn't it just like God to know where that breaking point is, bring me right up to the edge of it, and come through in an amazing way?! I would imagine my next post will be filled with some wonderful news. Stay tuned....