Parting the Sea Walking on Dry Land Kind of Prayers

Most of you who follow our story have seen that I have slowly been sharing about the trip. I have told many of you that it was the best and worst trip of my entire life. It truly was an emotional rollercoaster.

Many of you have been private messaging us, calling us, and texting us and asking us, "What is next? How do we pray? When are you going back? What is the timeline?"

First of all, I have to stop and say once again we are so blessed to have such faithful, loving, and supportive friends and family. Seriously, you have no idea what you all have meant to us and how you have truly impacted our lives and this process. I know many of you have been so sensitive and cautious of how to approach us and love us, and we want you to know that everything you have done has not been overlooked, and we are sorry if we haven't truly expressed our gratitude in ways that confirm our love and appreciation to you.

I am a woman, so I am guilty of spider webbing (going off on another point and then eventually or almost always making my way back to the main point). I have to stop for a second and just explain the impact you have had. Many of you are unaware of the extreme emotional difficulties we faced in Ethiopia. I know many of you could imagine or guess, but the second to last day of our trip was probably one of the hardest days of my life. We toured where Zane would be moving because his home was closing, and I was not okay you guys. I mean seriously, I was an emotional wreck. We went before church service and not kidding, I cried the entire service; I couldn't eat lunch and tried to keep it together in the restaurant and really struggled; I cried pretty much the rest of the day. I messaged some of you with some of the details and said PRAY NOW! I CAN'T DO THIS! Guys, I can't explain it other than God supernaturally put my heart, body, and mind at rest. The next day, we spent our last day with our son, and it was one of the best days. We just had fun and enjoyed our time as a family. I could say that maybe I was just all cried out and physically had no more tears to cry, but as we pulled away in the van, and Zane was waving to us, I had no fear or anxiety. I was at peace. I am telling you this because I felt your prayers in a way I have never felt before. So thank you for praying for us and Zane while we were in Ethiopia.

Okay circling back....

So many of you have been asking us about updates, and we have basically said nothing is certain, and we weren't really sure what was happening. Daily, we have been receiving news from the US Embassy, from the media, from other families in country, and everything sounds different or changes source to source, day to day. The process itself is super complicated and hard to explain to people who aren't truly walking through it, and so in order to avoid confusing you all, and to be quite honest trying to avoid having to answer more questions we don't have answers for, we have really just been waiting for some concrete answers and details. You see until something is in your hands and signed, you have no guarantee in Ethiopia. They could say oh tomorrow we are going to do this, and then tomorrow they do something completely different.

Many of you have thought that this was a Ethiopia verse the US deal, and it really hasn't been that at all. This has been a political situation within Ethiopia itself (We as Americans should get that! Okay. No political comments.) The Executive branch and the Judicial branch were not seeing eye to eye. The Judicial branch was following Ethiopian law, and the Executive Branch (or parts of it dealing with adoption) were doing their own thing. Lots of things have been happening in Ethiopia that have made it very difficult for us to get new information. First, MOWA (the department in charge of adoptions) has been in trainings/meetings for the past month and has refused to give any comments or insight on the suspension. Second, one of the heads of MOWA was put in prison because the courts were saying they were not following law. Add in lots of scared people, terrible internet, and other factors, and it hasn't been the easiest to navigate.

We are so very thankful for the US Embassy workers and our adoption agency's workers in Ethiopia. They have cried with us, and they have been working so hard to get information and make some type of progress. I could keep talking about the politics, but most of you are just reading to hear where we are, so I will stop and give you the latest official update.

So last week, the US Embassy decided that they were going to try to help move things along by doing things they typically do after the Vital Letter. We need the Vital Letter for his passport, and typically the US Embassy does a medical interview after we have everything else we need. They were able to get Zane a temporary ID, and he was able to meet with the US Embassy and have his medical interview. One of the families in country said he looked happy and healthy although they did hear he got carsick on the trip to the Embassy. Yesterday, we heard that he cleared everything for his medical interview! Woohoo! We were so happy to hear we made some progress. Sadly, we don't know what the fate of Ethiopian adoptions will be, but on Friday, we were told we know we will be able to get Zane home, it is just a matter of when. This frustrated me so much. If you know you are going to let him come home then why won't you just let him come home!

Through this entire suspension, Jeffrey has been praying "Parting the Sea Walking on Dry Land Kind of Prayers". I will be honest and say my prayers haven't always been as bold. This has been a test to my faith, and it has not been easy. Jeffrey told me one night, "Rach, the land was dry! The bottom of the sea was dry. How else can you explain that except God. We have to stop looking at the situation and trying to figure it out and just trust and believe God will part the waters. We are going to make it across, and it will be a miracle!" I am so happy and in awe to tell you today, God parted the sea. I don't know how. It is unexplainable, but today we received Zane's VITAL LETTER! Our agency told us that we are hoping to get his birth certificate tomorrow, and we will then be able to start working on his passport. We are eagerly waiting for the US Embassy to email us dates for our Embassy appointment. Apparently they give you three dates, and you better believe we are picking the earliest one! I can't believe I am typing this.

This morning in my quiet time, I read Isaiah 45. This is verse 2 & 3.

I will go before you
    and will level the mountains;
I will break down gates of bronze
    and cut through bars of iron.
3 I will give you hidden treasures,
    riches stored in secret places,
so that you may know that I am the Lord,
    the God of Israel, who summons you by name.

I told my Bible study group that I was claiming that over myself today! Thank you, Lord for making a way when there seems to be no way!