Six days...

We are leaving to go get Mathios in six days! The last week of our life has been absolutely crazy. We found out late last week that Mathios has continued to have feeding issues and they have put him on an NG feeding tube. Of course this greatly worried us so we decided to take advantage of the resources at the International Adoption Center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. We have been able to talk with the doctor there and she's helped us formulate a game plan for getting him home. We were encouraged this week to find out that he has started to eat some food again, but don't know what the situation will be once we get there. So we are preparing for the worst (which includes the two of us knowing how to put in and care for the NG tube!) and hoping for the best. We are so thankful for the support from the IAC and will do Mathios' follow-up care there when we get home.

We didn't receive our concrete travel dates until Tuesday and didn't realize what a miracle it was until later in the day. On Tuesday afternoon we were informed that the agency that handles all the paperwork and processing for adoptions in Ethiopia was suddenly shutting down for two weeks for training- effective immediately! Our agency's staff worked diligently after business hours ensuring that our final piece of paperwork was complete, thus enabling us to travel next week. It is truly miraculous! There was at least one other family that was supposed to be in our travel group that didn't get the necessary paperwork completed and their travel was put off until mid-August. We are praising the Lord that now is the time for us to bring our son home!

In between all the phone calls, doctor appointments, shopping, laundry, list making, packing and preparing to leave we've also been trying to make the most of our last few days as a family of three. Haven is so excited to have her brother here, but the anticipation of being apart from us has been hard for her. Please pray for her little heart!

So we leave in six days and we'll be ready. We have a few transportation details to work out and I'm sure we'll be at the store a few more times picking up "just one more thing". But come Friday, we'll have five suitcases packed and our hearts set toward Ethiopia. Can't wait!

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