So it is Monday morning we had coffee at their equivalent to Starbucks. Everyone loved the coffee - I opted for strawberry juice - SO GOOD! A few of us, myself included were not feeling our best - I think it was just the anxiety, emotions, lack of sleep and the altitude that was getting to us. After coffee - we had an orientation meeting to help us better understand what to expect on the trip. Then we headed upstairs to lunch, we waited for another couple to arrive that had their flight delayed. The next stop - to meet our children. Later that evening we went to a traditional Ethiopian restaurant and watched traditional Ethiopian dancing. Here are some pictures.       Add Comment Our Journey - Originally Written 11/24/08 06/20/2010
We left Portland, Oregon at about 9:30 am on the 15th. We thought we had a straight flight to Washington DC, Dulles - but that got changed. We had to fly to Chicago first - no big deal - it was to be a stop only, and not a plane change. Once we were on the airplane - we were told that we would have to have a plane change in Chicago. When we finally did arrive to DC, we only had 45 min until it was time to board the plane for Ethiopia. Due to all the changes, our luggage did not make it to Ethiopia on Sunday night with us. The luggage did show up on Tuesday morning.    Early morning on the 15th of November, we took 8 18 gallon totes and 2 25 gallon totes, plus one piece of luggage each for my Mom and I. When we got to the airport - a wonderful man helped us with all the luggage - we were so thankful for this. No excess baggage fees were waived, but we did have one piece of luggage that was over weight - they waived that fee for us. Here are some pictures of that day. Well here it is November 15th. I leave in about an hour and a half. Bags are packed, 10 rubbermaid totes with donations are packed, kids and husband are asleep - all is well. Yesterday we had quite a scare, Duni, our family coordinator, called me in the morning saying "I have an urgent situation with your paperwork" - I gasped - immediate mama mode took over. She said that last week everything was fine according to the consulate, but today, they were missing our addendum - without it they will not release the kids to me. After several phone calls to different government agencies, all is fine and the proper paperwork was wired to Ethiopia by noon. I really feel that we all need to fight for these children, it seems - to me - that the enemy does not want these babies home, even to the very last minute he is fighting to keep them from their families - those that are in process - Pray, Pray, Pray for your kids, for the paperwork, for the government agencies - both Ethiopian and US, Pray for the adoption agencies and the employees, the care takers, etc. I truly believe that this is a spiritual war. Do not loose faith or hope - in all things praise God - that is what I had to remind myself yesterday while we were running around getting yet another document notarized. This will probably be my last post until we get settled in Ethiopia. Justine Well, Yesterday was a long and exciting day. It was shopping day for aid that we will be taking to the orphanages. So far I have 40 Costco size cans of formula, 32 cans of tuna, 36 bottles of pediasure, a few jars of babyfood and two big bags of protein drink mix. I have more coming from other places - once we have it all in one location - I will take a picture and post it. I have had to hold back money from the donations to help pay for the totes and the baggage fee. http://gamblefamily.weebly.com/adoption-and-orphan-care-blog.html After talking with a United International person yeterday, I found out that the baggage fees are going to be $180 for each extra bag - Yikes! Our church gave me $1200 to help cover this - Praise God - still needing $420. If I can raise more to go toward that $420, I will spend more of what I have held aside and get more donations to pack and take with us. If you want to donate, my paypal account is justine@bridalpeople.com We are getting so excited. Last night at dinner we were all talking about what it was going to be like to have two new people in the house and two new faces around the table - oh - it will be so amazing, challenging, fun, confusing - and so many other marvelous things. We also found out that one of our good friends will be joining us in Ethiopia to bring home their other daughter - so excited to have a familiar and loved face with us. Also, so glad that our kids know each other - hoping that will help them keep up their language some. Well that is it for now - so much to do - so little time. Thank you so much to all of you who have helped or will be helping with Project Impact, painting my daughters room, helping me pack, childcare - oh the list goes on and on. You are so loved and we are so blessed to have you in our lives.   We began talking about adopting from Ethiopia in 2006. We knew we wanted a little boy, but something in me told me we should consider two children. After much discussion, Bill and I agreed that we would be open to a sibling group - we began the official process in September of 2007. It took me three months to put all of our paperwork together. We sent off our dossier on January 2nd. On August 19th of 2008 we received a referral for two beautiful children, a boy 4 years old and a girl 6 years old. His Ethiopian name is Meheretu - this means "The Lord's Mercy". Her Ethiopian name is Yenenesh - this means "You are mine". These are beautiful names that their birth parents chose for a reason - we will be keeping these names as their middle names. We want them to know that their birth parents loved them very much and those names are special. Likewise, we love them very much and want to give them a name special from us. Meheretu will be Carter Meheretu Gamble - Possibly Carter Jace Meheretu Gamble. I really like Jace for two reasons - 1st - It means the Lord is my salvation, 2nd - I like CJ as a nick name. Yenenesh has a bit of a story with her name. It was August of 2007 - You see, before we settled on being open to two children, I had a dream. Now mind you, I generally dream about crazy things that make no sense at all, so when I have a dream that I can understand, I pay attention to it. So picture this - An African woman is leading me into a room in an orphanage, and the dream starts up with her speaking to me mid sentence. She says "and this is your daughter, her name is Maraya and she is five years old." Well, I had never heard of that name before, so I googled it first thing in the morning - It means The Lord is my Teacher. From that moment on I knew God was telling us that we had a boy and girl waiting for us. Here is the kicker - It was one year later in Aug of 2008 that we received the referral for a four year old boy and a six year old girl - When I had the dream in Aug of 2007 - She was five years old - just like the woman in my dream told me. Her name will be Maraya Yenenesh Gamble, Possibly Maraya Grace Yenenesh Gamble. We were expecting to have our court sometime the end of Oct 2008 or beginning of Nov 2008, but we were so blessed - we received a phone call this week that we passed court and they asked if we could travel early. We were not scheduled to travel until 11/29, but we are now leaving 11/15! |
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