Launch Date - Sept. 3rd

We are leaving for Rwanda on Sept. 3rd! One week from today! Oh my...I'm dreading that this week might be the slowest of my life. All the suitcases for the orphanage are packed. I could not believe how much stuff we were able to fit in! Thank you, everyone for the abundance of donations! If you'd still like to contribute, we'll be taking a money donation to buy some much needed items in-country.

We are traveling with the Higgins family and the Himes family who are adopting from our agency, both of whom are adopting two children each. (Check out their blogs at http://higginsadoption.blogspot.com and http://lifechange.typepad.com/lifechange/). I'm so glad we get to travel as a group. Not only does it help defray some of the costs, but we get to be support for one another as well. We are actually leaving a few days earlier than the rest of the group, for no particular reason, mostly just because we could. :) We will arrive in Kigali on the 5th, with the rest of the group arriving on the 7th. We can't go to the orphanage any sooner but are looking forward to spending a little extra time in Rwanda (I mean really, how often do we go to Africa?).

Please pray for us that everything will continue to fall into place and that this week will go by fast!

Baby Showers of Blessings

This past Monday night some friends from our church (check it out at www.wyrchurch.com) gave us a baby shower! We also combined it as a benefit for Home of Hope, the orphanage where Moses lives. What a blessing! Not only did Moses get some very cute clothes (I love boy clothes!), but we were overwhelmed with everyone's generousity towards the orphanage. We got lots of blankets, clothes, shoes, and a few toys to bring with us. Some of our friends chipped in money to help us buy a video camera, since our old one was stolen on a missions trip to the Ukraine. We found the neatest little camera made by Kodak. It's about the size of a Blackberry phone and it's so inexpensive and simple to use. I really wanted to be able to capture as much as we can of Rwanda for Moses, and thanks to our dear friends, that is possible.

We also found out on Monday that we'll travel the first week of September and come home about two weeks later. AWAA referred us to an excellent travel agent who's doing a fantastic job finding us reasonably priced tickets. So now the excitement really begins! I've started packing bags for the orphanage (mostly because all the donations were overwhelming my couch and they needed to go somewhere else). All that's left to do is malaria medication and last minute paperwork.

Evey morning when I turn the computer on, sweet Moses' face pops up on my screen. Our girls run over to the computer shouting, "Hi Moses! Good morning Moses! We love you Moses! You're coming home soon!" and that is quickly followed by Trina (the 2 year old) saying, "Me hold him. Me hold him." She is so excited to hold her little brother! I don't have the heart to tell her that he is nearly as big as she is, and I'm sure he will pass her up in a year or so. We are continuing to pray for the transition from being a 2 to 3 children family. The girls get to stay with Papa and Grandma (Grandma is unequivocally at the top of Trina's favorite person list) while we're away. A fellow adoptive friend of mine gave me the suggestion to leave small presents (like from the Dollar Store) for our kids at home to open every few days while we are away. I think it's a great idea and have stocked up on new coloring books, pretty hair ties, and fingernail polish. Girly heaven!

Rwanda or bust!

Forever Ours

We got our court ruling today, and we passed! That means that Moses David Ishimwe Limmer is legally, completely, forever our son! Since we are 100% his parents in every way, we can now post pictures of him for the whole world to see. This picture is about a month old, and he looks very, very serious. I have since heard that he is really a very outgoing, jabbering, loving child. We can't wait to be the ones to hug and kiss him, feed him meals, give him baths, kiss his owies, tuck him into bed and be the first ones he sees when he wakes up. Wow, is this little boy in for a world change!

The big question now is, when do we leave to get him? We have to wait on a travel document for Moses to be processed so that he can leave the country with us, and as soon as that is in order travel dates will be set. Rwanda, here we come!

Court Date

This morning we got a surprise phone call; evidently there was a last-minute opening in Rwanda's court schedule and they went ahead and held our court hearing. This is the hearing where the judge will officially rule that we are Moses' parents. Even though they held the hearing today, we won't find out the ruling for several days. Once we have the ruling, they can start processing the necessary documents that Moses needs to leave the country and we can start making travel plans. So it's looking like we'll be able to travel in August!

God is in Africa

Every night when we put our two daughters to bed, they each take a turn praying and usually, they mention Baby Brother Moses in Africa. This particular night, Asia (the 4 year old) said, "Thank you Jesus, that God is in Africa." I felt the Lord nudge my heart and ask, "Did you hear that?" God has been using Asia through this entire adoption process to remind me of His plan and provision, from being so insistent about Moses' name to helping me remember that Jesus is cradling my sweet, baby boy so many thousands of miles away. Thank you, Lord, for all of my kids, the ones who I can hold and the one I cannot.

Officially Moses

It's official; his name is Moses David Ishimwe Limmer. We feel like God Himself picked out his name and who are we to change it? (If you haven't heard the story, see the post below) God has shown us His faithfulness over and over, and Moses' name is one more reminder of the destiny and purpose He has in store for our son. We added the name David, after Justin's father, and it means "Beloved". Very fitting for our little guy! He has been loved in our hearts for such a long time, and we can't wait to love him in person! "Ishimwe" means "Give thanks to God" in Kinyarwandan, the language spoken in Rwanda. We can't stop giving thanks! What a precious gift our little Moses is!

I've been thinking a lot about Moses' birth mother, and how his story has so many parallels to the story of Moses in the Bible. I have been praying for her and envisioning what she must have felt the day she gave up her precious son. I'm certain that she felt that there was nothing she could offer him and praying for life for her baby. A hope. A future. God knew and saw her heartache. He moved on the hearts of ordinary people, thousands of miles away to act in obedience, even when we had questions and doubts. Little did we know the blessing in store for us, and ironically enough, we started the adoption process just weeks after Moses was born! So many emotions! So much reassurance that God is moving on our behalf and has ordained this adoption!

Please pray with us that we'll get a court date soon so that he can be ours in every way. As soon as we pass court and we are his mommy and daddy on paper, we can post a picture.

Referral!

Finally! The day we've been waiting for is here! Our agency, America World called this afternoon to tell us that we have a beautiful, 13 month old little boy (and he is beautiful! I'm telling you, you could get lost in those big, brown eyes.) He is gorgeous! I'm really at a loss for words right now, and wish I could just show you a picture. Unfortunately, we're not allowed to post pictures on public forums (like blogs) until he's legally ours.

Along this whole road, I've seen God's hand move in tremendous ways, but I've also experienced incredible worries and doubts. When we very first started adopting, Asia, our oldest daughter who is 4, told us, very emphatically that her baby brother's name was Moses. So you can imagine my surprise when Terra, our coordinator, told me that they had a precious little boy for our family, and ... you guessed it ... his name is Moses! I cannot doubt the hand of God! He knew all along the perfect child for our family! We're not sure right now if we'll keep Moses as his first name, but it will definitely be in there somewhere.

Now we wait for a court hearing to legally make us his parents. We so appreciate your prayers as we get closer and closer to bringing Moses home.