People are good

When we started out on this journey, we stepped off without much sense of what it would take to bring home a little boy from Africa.  Obviously, we know a lot more now; having studied, conversed and visited Ethiopia.  But last January, we simply took a leap of faith, believing that our trust in God would lead us to a way.

Our visit to Ethiopia last month gave us great hope that the prospects for Tommy's physical and speech rehab are quite good.  Most of the difficulties with the court and embassy process in ET have gotten smoothed out.  Now we just need to get back over there and retrieve our boy.

Among the issues we've been wrestling with is the cost.  With agency, processing and travel, it will cost around $32,000 by the time we get him home.  And, we've already discovered that, while our health insurance is quite good, it won't cover all the expenses of getting Tommy well.  In fact, the therapies he needs are the ones it specifically limits (like speech rehab, OT & PT).  So, we're expecting our 2010-2011 costs to be somewhere in the $50,000 range.  For most everyone I know, especially us, that's a ton of money.  Fortunately for us and Tommy, we've had lots of help.

• Brittany's Hope Foundation gave us a Special Needs grant
• Holt International agreed to reduce their fees by almost half
• Our parents donated a big pile of 401k money and 160,000 frequent flyer miles, which got us from America to Europe and back
• A bunch of friends and family made incredibly generous contributions by mail around Christmas
• Out of the blue this week, a lady Jenny works with offered to help us fundraise by inviting people to her restaurant/bar and donating a portion of their profits at the end of the night.
• A very, very close friend made a gigantic contribution last week that took us over the top for our agency and travel fees.

So, while we're counting our travel as 100% funded, we're still accepting peoples' contributions to help pay for medical costs because we think they'll be substantial.  While we're being very careful to not appear to be, or actually be, greedy, and we don't want to take advantage of anyone, we do want to remain open to accepting help from anyone who feels moved to help Tommy.  And, we definitely remain both grateful and humbled by the generosity and love of our family and friends.

Better than a month of Sundays

I've thinking on it, and I just can't figure out whether I'm annoyed or just plain awed by how sometimes I can experience, feel, learn and comprehend more from a 6 minute video than I get from a whole month of Sunday homilies at my church.  I guess it just goes to show that God knows where we really live.

Just about the time I'm struggling with the fact that we left Tommy in Ethiopia, and that we won't see him again for 60, maybe 90 days, I got a really strong urge to find this video online.  I've liked the song for a long time, but this is the first time I've seen it played.  And, there were several versions available on YouTube.  For some reason, I picked this one from way down on the list.  Turns out it was the seventh from the top.

If you're struggling a little bit right now, with anything at all in your life, I encourage you to listen to this all the way through.

Ethiopia trip 1

We're back home, and after some desperately needed rest, we want to share some of our experience from trip one.  A quick summary:

Saturday 1/8: Depart Cincinnati 2pm.

Sunday 1/9: Arrive London 7am; 10 hour layover; quickly see all that London has to see.

 And of course

Depart for Ethiopia 6pm.
Monday 1/10: Arrive Ethiopia  7am,

go to Jemimah House, which was run by some of the most kind and thoughtful people I've ever met.  This is Belamish, the hotel manager.  She worked so hard to make our stay comfortable and fun.

We traveled in and around Addis Ababa, the capital city, enroute the Care Centers and court.  Here is some of what we saw.

I'll remember three things from Addis the most:

1. The people have strikingly beautiful features and smile a lot.
2. Abundance is juxtaposed against abject poverty throughout the city. There is a burgeoning middle class in which people work very hard, and capitalism is struggling to get its footing. There is a TON of building going on, from very solidly built homes to large commercial structures. The nascent infrastructure just isn't sufficient to support all the people who live and work in the city. These folks do A LOT of walking.
3. The beds, food and coffee.

Tuesday 1/11 & Wednesday 1/12: spent a total of 5 hours with Tommy at Care Center 2. We are soooooo grateful to these amazing people, who have worked so hard to get and keep Tommy well.  We're not yet allowed to show you his face, but trust me, he's a beautiful boy with a glowing personality that shone through. He's engaging and warm, and he's doing better than we could have hoped for.  His smile is so bright; he just shines!  Although he stands on the wrong side of his foot and his balance is terrible, he can walk! Although his vocabulary is pretty limited, he can talk! We used toys to evaluate his perception and communication skills and discovered he is sooooooo smart. And although his right hand is permanently clenched, he can move his right arm a little bit and can deftly manipulate toys and food (and parents) really well with just his left hand.

At court on Wednesday, there was a small snafu; some of our paperwork was lost.  But, Getashaw, Holt's local lawyer, said don't worry, he'd take care of everything, and he did.  By the time we got home, we found out our case was adjudicated and Habtamu is our son!  

Again, we just cannot thank the people at Holt, in America and Ethiopia, enough for how well they've treated Tommy.  They've not only showed him compassion and care, but deep love.  And we can tell, they've certainly done more than just their job for him.  We're positive he's 1,000 times better now than when we first met him 9 months ago, and it's clearly due to the extra effort they've shown.  The impact they've made on Tommy's future, and our family as a whole, is immeasurable.

Trip 1 underway....here we come, Tommy!!!

Jenny & I are at Cincinnati airport enroute Chicago, enroute London, enroute
Addis; we get there Monday morning. We are keeping all of you in mind as we
continue this exciting and God-filled journey. Our close friends and visiting
family (who are now watching our other 4 kids till we get back) held a big
prayer circle for us and all of you yesterday at our home. We all prayed for
easy and safe transport, beautiful and healthy children awaiting us, 100% yes-es
at court, a smoothing out of the process for those in line behind us, and for
the rest of the waiting children to find families very, very soon. Hope to
check back in sometime, somehow in ET, but more likely on the other side.

Tommy can you hear me?

Less than a week from now, our family tree will be forever changed.

Tommy can you hear me?
Can you feel me near you?

Tommy can you feel me?
Can I help to cheer you?