Pray. And then pray some more.

Couple of things for you guys to pray about:

We received news yesterday that the CDC (yes, the United States side of this whole process) has implemented new policy effective March 23 that says that “immigrants from Ethiopia” (aka Charlie & Sam) must have a negative TB test AFTER passing court and before travel plans can be made. In a nutshell, what this means is just a delay to travel plans while we wait for TB tests to come back. Your prayer can be that neither of the boys have TB or have been exposed to TB because if they do come back with positive test results, they will keep them for “6 months of Directly Observed Therapy at the IOM Clinic in Addis Ababa before they can have a visa approved”. (Honestly, that might just put me over the edge!) There are many families that are at the same place that we are right now in this whole process. Please just pray for all these kids and their families...and pray that with this new policy, that they implement it in a speedy fashion and it provides as little delay as possible for children waiting to come home.

Also in the update yesterday…(Well, let me preface this with what typically happens…) When we go to Ethiopia to pick up the boys, we will have an Embassy Appointment in order to get the paperwork needed to be able to bring them back into the United States with us (I think that’s what this appointment is for). This appointment used to been done once a week on Wednesday, making it easy to schedule travel to pick up kids. They have now decided to only have these appointments available twice a month, which will most likely result in more delays from court approval time to travel time. Please pray for patience for us and the other families that will be waiting even longer to bring home their children.

I feel like the further along we get, the more hoops they have for us to jump through. Some for a reason--yes, I understand that the CDC doesn’t want kids with TB coming into the United States untreated; others for no good reason--why only have embassy appointments twice a month?? I’ll tell you…it’s a tad bit frustrating.

We covet your prayers. I wish I could explain how much in words, but I don’t know that it is possible… Almost as much as I want to wrap my arms around two little boys and never, ever let go—does that help you see how much I desire and need you to pray??