Day 4 Court

We started the morning off by going to court. We left the guest house at 9:30am. We stood in the crowded waiting room for about an hour. At 10:35am we went into the judge’s office with two other AWAA families. Both of those families are adopting little boys from Harar (where Jacob is from). All 3 of us are going to visit Harar on this trip! Both of those families already had favorable MOWCYA letters and they passed right there. So happy for them!!! The judge told us that she thinks that MOWCYA made a mistake and she requested a new letter for the afternoon. We left hoping to hear later today or tomorrow morning.
Then we spent the afternoon at the TH with the boys. My mom wasn’t feeling great, so she stayed at the guest house. Brad and I were going to be split three ways for the first time. But when we got there Kaleb was sleeping. Isaiah and I made a boat with legos. It was nice. He loved it! It was a great bonding time for us. Kaleb woke up about an hour later and Brad and I took turns chasing after Jacob or Kaleb. Everyone here keeps telling us how busy we are going to be when we get home 
No one from AWAA was able to go to court to check on our case today, so maybe tomorrow!

Day 2 and 3

Day 2
We spent the morning with the boys at the TH. My mom kept Jacob (in the Ergo, so the nannies couldn't scare him) out of our sight, so he had a much better day. That allowed Brad and I to spend all morning with Kaleb and Isaiah. We played soccer, volleyball, and chased them around. Kaleb is quick, we can't let him out of our sight for a second :) Kaleb thought it was really fun to climb into David's van *our driver). He thought he was hot stuff when he was sitting on the seats. I got to feed Kaleb some mushy food again, he won't sit on my lap to eat, but he at least let me feed him. i tried to give him some fruit snacks, but he had a hard time chewing them. All of his food is mashed up, he never has to chew. He has thrown a few fits when he doesn't get his way. When it was time to take him back to his room when we were leaving he threw a huge fit. I wish I could say it was because he wanted to stay with me, but I know it was that he didn't want to go into his room. He loves to be outside and having freedom.
This afternoon we went to the post office area for some shopping. We didn't even buy anything, ha! I felt too rushed. We want to go back and get some special things for Kaleb and Isaiah, but we have plenty of time for that. We ate dinner at the guest house and tried to go to sleep kind of early. I have been having trouble sleeping, like only getting about 2 hours each night since we left home. Jacob has been sleeping great at night, but not much a nap since we are out and about.

Day 3
Today we spent the morning at the TH again. Kaleb sat on my lap to eat today! He really seems to care less about us but he loves attention from anyone. This bonding is going to be a challenge. Isaiah had fun using our camera to take some pictures. He loves any chance to play soccer (football as he calls it) or just to talk to us. We found out that he had to go to court when his birthdad did a couple of weeks ago. Through a translator, he didn't seem too affected by it. Anytime we try to ask him how he feels about something, he always replies that he doesn't care, whatever makes us happy will make him happy. He is such a pleaser. Jacob played with Isaiah a little bit today. Isaiah thought it was cool when Jacob would pound it with his fists. Jacob even let Isaiah hold him for about 2 minutes today. We are making progress! Isaiah is such a good big brother to both boys. He shares all of his snacks and food with both of them (and us). He always watches for them on the stairs, etc. It is sweet to see. We met with the Doctor at the TH today. No big surprises, most of it we knew.
We also got to take pictures for other families today. It has been such a gift to us when we received pictures from others, I was happy to pay that gift forward!

Meetcha Day!

Today was our Meetcha Day with the boys! Even though we met them last year, today we got to meet them as their mom and dad! They were so sweet! Isaiah was holding Kaleb's hand as they walked out of the door at the TH. Isaiah came and gave me a big hug then hugged Brad. Brad picked him up in a huge hug. I picked up Kaleb and he was smiley and happy (thank you Jesus)! Then Isaiah came and hugged me again and he had tears in his eyes. Such a sweet moment to see him so happy too! Isaiah remembered Jacob too. He went up to him and said Jafar! I almost got a picture of all five of us looking at the camera-almost :) Isaiah was calling us Mom and Dad all afternoon, it kept surprising me. It was so sweet. Kaleb says some words, we just don't know what any of them are :) It sounded like he said Mom and Dad a few times, but we weren't sure. He remembered so much about us from last spring and from things in the care packages. He asked about our animals and if we had a car at home. he about fell over when he found out that we have two cars. He wanted to see pictures of our home. I totally meant to take some before we left, but I didn't, shame on me. Brad will have to do that when he gets home so Isaiah can see our house before we go home.

Our life is going to be busy, busy, busy. Kaleb is all over the place and Jacob isn't too far behind. They pretty much went in different directions all afternoon. I'm so thankful my mom was here to help. I'm not sure what we are going to do when we are out numbered. :) Isaiah is so sweet and is so happy to be coming to Illinois and be a family. He wanted to share everything he has with his brothers and with us. He was looking out for both of his brothers while they were playing by the steps, it was sweet to see him step into the big brother role for Jacob right away. He really likes his name and responded to it right away. Another Ethiopian girl heard him tell someone that his name is Isaiah and she said something to him in Amharic. I asked what she said and he told me that she said "that's not your name, its K******" He just laughed.

Jacob cried a lot this afternoon. Part of it was he wanted me to hold him and part was that he didn't take a nap this afternoon and part of it was that the nannies scared him when they freaked out and seeing a Big Jafar and they tried grabbing him and kissing him. He wasn't a fan. This will be a big adjustment for him.

We are so thankful that all three of our boys were together today and we can't wait for the adventure that tomorrow I'm sure will bring! We will be going to bed earlier on this trip for sure!!

We're Back!

We have arrived back in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Jacob was an EXCELLENT traveler!! He slept tons and his didn't get sick at all (he had the flu the day before we left). It is so nice to be back in Ethiopia. It feels like a 2nd home. The sights and smells are just as we remember them. It was so nice to have Job, an AWAA guide, meet us at the airport tonight and take us back to the guest house. Jacob went right to him and was smiling and loved Job just like he did 7 months ago. It was sweet to see them together again! It is now 1am ET time and I am going to try to look through our suitcases to see where things are and then try to get a few hours of sleep before the roosters, dogs, and people are up and going at sunrise! Tomorrow we will get to see the boys again! Job told us that Isaiah has been counting down the days until we came back! So sweet that he is as excited as we are!

Thank you for the safe travels prayers, they worked! It was an uneventful trip! Also we showed up with 10 suitcases that were all about 55 lbs. The handheld scale we bought was not correct, ugh. We spent about 30 mins trying to rearrange a few things and tried to buy a new suitcase (not easy to find at O'Hare) and then a lady said they are about the close the ticketing counter. So we just went over there to see what they would say about the bags. The lady was SOOOO nice. She didn't mind that the suitcases were over 50 lbs. We were also told that we should be able to bring 3 suitcases each (2 included, but a 3 for humanitarian/missionary). But the nice ticket lady has never heard of allowing 3 bags without a charge, she got her manager and he said the computer automatically charges so there was nothing they could do. Oh well at this point we were going to just pay the fees (4 extra bags=$800-yikes) But when she hit print, it didn't charge us. Praise God! Brad told her our God is bigger than computers! So we are thankful that we have all of our luggage and it didn't cost us anything extra!!!

Can't wait for tomorrow!!!

Busy Week!

We have been busy getting ready for our trip. I have been unbelievable calm. I have several friends that are stressed out for me! :) It's stressing them out that I am so calm. In some ways I know what to expect this time araound, and in other ways I have no idea what to expect. This whole experience will be such a different experience from last time. Last time we met this adorable 4 month old baby boy that came out of the TH smiling so big as his nanny handed him to us. We sat on the porch or on a blanket playing in one spot all day long. This time we are going to be greeted by an 11 year old and a 22 month old. I'm pretty sure that Isaiah will be smiling and excited to see us. I have no idea how Kaleb (22 months) will react to these strange white people who can't wait to hug and kiss him will react. We got to see several MEETCHA moments while we were in Ethiopia last time, and there were many 1-3 year olds that were not as happy to see their parents as the parents were. I'm trying to prepare myself for the worst case, but also hoping for a sweet moment as we hold them and tell them we love them. I also doubt we will spend much time sitting in one place, with 3 kids, I'm pretty sure we will be running in all directions this time at the TH!
I'm nervous for Jacob. I'm not sure how he will react to being back in Ethiopia and visiting his old orphanages. I have no idea how this might, or might not, affect him. He also is going to have a HARD time sharing mom. He likes to be held and cuddle often, and he gets a little jealous when he sees me holding someone else. I know this is a normal adjustment that kids go through when families grow, and we will all be better for it later on.
Thank you for all the prayers and enouragement along this journey!

Negative letter

We found out today that MOWCYA wrote a negative letter since our I-171h wasn't in our file soon enough. They do have it, they just haven't processed it yet. Our agency is working with them to get another letter written hopefully by our Dec 21st court date. Many families haven't had their MOWCYA letters on time but have passed court about 2 weeks after their first court date. My mom is coming with us for the first 3 1/2 weeks. We are really hoping we have passed court before she leaves so she can help with Jacob, so we can have 3 adults loving on 3 kids for at least a few days, ha! We know that adoption is His plan, in His time!

The last paper came!!!

After lots of waiting we received our I-171h this morning!!!!!!!! We need this piece of paper to be able to pass court. We aren't sure if it will make it to ET and be translated, etc. in time for our court date, but at least we have it and it shouldn't delay things too long. This is the last paper we need (from our end) for this process. Now we wait to see if the ET courts request more or not. We are so ready to get to the boys and for them to be legally ours!

On a different note, the boys birth dad had to appear in court today to give his consent. Unfortunately there are so many emotions behind every step of this process. I can't even begin to imagine how he must feel about today, and honestly probably everyday of the rest of his life. We are so excited to have the boys join our family, but we know that it wasn't an easy or painless choice for their birth dad. We will be forever grateful to him for making the tough choice of placing the boys up for adoption. We can't wait to hug him ourselves and tell him how much we love the boys and will always love and take care of them.

A New Health Update

Both Kaleb and Isaiah are healthy!!!! This is a huge praise!!! Kaleb has been sick more than he has been healthy this past year.

But....now Jacob is sick. I suppose this is how life goes with 3 kids, one gets better and another gets sick. Jacob spiked high fevers this morning, up to 104.7-yikes. The doctor is concerned about him flying to ET next week. What??? Seriously???? He has an ear infection and we are hoping that's all it is (not this viral thing going around that is lasting 2-3 weeks). He started antibiotics today and didn't have a fever at bedtime, I hope he wakes up without one too!!!

Please pray he is healthy for the flight next Friday!

Blessed Beyond Measure

We have been blessed beyond measure these past couple of weeks!!!! We have be given countless gifts that are helping to bring our boys HOME!!!! We will be leaving NEXT WEEK to go back to Ethiopia and hold two boys as our sons and tell them we love them! WE CAN'T WAIT!!!!
We have been asked if we have all the money we need for the trip. I am so thrilled to say that we are SO CLOSE!! I am in awe as I even type this. We started this adoption with about $1000 and a desire to follow God's will. God has used many avenues to bring us the money; we sold our house and used the equity we had, we sold all our stocks and bonds, empty our little savings account, we had a few little fundraisers, and TONS of faithful friends and family members have been SO GENEROUS! Seriously, I'm crying as I reflect on this. This couldn't have happened without God's hand in every step.
About two weeks ago we still needed about $10,000 for this adoption. We went ahead and applied for a credit card. Then within the next 2 weeks we were gifted a total of $5,000 from six different people. WOW!! Praise God! We didn't see that coming at all. It was another one of God's little reminders that He has this. We don't need to worry. Adoption IS His plan.
We need about $5,000 to cover the expenses for a 10 week stay in Ethiopia. We have no idea how long we are going to be there, but we are hoping its less than 12 weeks. We are trying to decide if we are staying at the Yebsabi guest house (the one AWAA uses) or try to find another cheaper place. We really love Yebsabi and the staff, but it's kind of expensive for a long stay. We tried to go to another guest house last time we were in Ethiopia and that didn't go well, so I am a little concerned to try a new place. I also LOVED seeing all the AWAA families come and go from Yebsabi, I will miss that if we are somewhere else. We will be at Yebsabi for the first week or so and see where we go from there!
I have been told that our Lifesong information is hard to find (you have to scroll all the way back about 25 entries) So here is the information for the tax deductible account again:
Lifesong for Orphans
Mowen Adoption #2363
PO Box 40 / 202 N. Ford St
Gridley, IL 61744

Thank you to all those that have prayed for us and our journey!! I am feeling better about the paperwork this week and I am hopeful we will get our I-171h very soon.

Our Adoption T-shirts Only $10

I forgot to add the t-shirts to my last post. I'm trying to get rid of these before we go to Ethiopia too! So we are selling all the remaining t-shirts for $10 each. The shirts say "Break my heart for what breaks yours"

These are the sizes we have:
Adult Shirts:
Medium-8
Large-3
XL-2

Youth Shirts:
Small-1
Medium-1

Toddler:
2T-1

12 month onesie- 1

Here is the paypal link for the discounted t-shirt price:

You can only order one t-shirt at a time, this was the only button I could get to work. If you want more than one t-shirt you can send the money through paypal to mowen2@hotmail.com
Shipping will be $2 per shirt $3.50 for 2 shirts and $5 for 3 or 4 shirts.

Thank you!!!!

African Necklaces Only $10

*Update we only have 21 necklaces left as of Monday morning!!! Praise God!!

We still have 53 African Necklaces and we leave in less than 2 weeks. We have decided to sell them for $10 to try to sell them all before we leave. They would make a great Christmas gift or just to keep for yourself! Here are the pictures of what I have left:
Long Necklaces
13 red
2 chunky red




Short Necklaces
6 red
1 blue
To purchase the necklaces for $10 each use this paypal link:

THANK YOU!!!!

From Worry to Thanksgiving

"Worry implies that we don't quite trust God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what's happening in our lives" Francis Chan-Crazy Love

Yep, that's exactly what I needed to hear this week. I have been at peace with about everything since beginning this adoption journey over 2 years ago. I really didn't worry about much at all during the whole process of bringing Jacob home. We were both ready to say yes to adopting again before we even left Ethiopia. But this week Satan has been working on me. Ugh. We still don't have our I-171h that we need to pass court.We found out on Monday that we still haven't even been assigned an officer. I wouldn't think too much about this but our friends were fingerprinted the same day and they have had their I-171h for over 2 weeks now. On Monday the only thing they wanted to talk about was how we were able to get a court date without the I-171h approval. They seemed mad that things were going out of order. I keep telling myself that God knew this was going to happen, but I have still been worrying about it. I have been so worried that I have been in tears telling a few people about it. This isn't normal for me. Satan has led me down a road this week of constant worry. We are planning on staying in Ethiopia until the boys are cleared to come home. We both think this is very important for our boys for a number of reasons. But we won't be passing court until we get the I-171h, and it makes the timeline of how long we could be in Ethiopia very uncertain. I of course have been questioning if we are really supposed to stay in Ethiopia, if its God's desire, or ours?? Then as I was driving home last night three songs in a row reminded me that this is what we are supposed to be doing. The songs said "where you go, I'll go" and "I will follow You" and "be courageous". Yep, those little reminders calmed my heart and I know that we are supposed to go to Ethiopia and stay as long as we can with all of our sons. The unknown is scary, but God is bigger than all of that. I have begun changing my prayers to prayers of thanksgiving, because HE will work this out. Adoption IS God's plan!!
I have emailed several people about praying for our paperwork and our hearts, and we have totally felt the prayers and I feel better. Now if only the people in charge of issuing paperwork would feel the need to get moving on our case! :)
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Philippians 4:6