We're Home!

For those of you that don't know, I just arrived home on Saturday afternoon after spending 10 days in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. There were a lot of circumstances that lead to this last minute travel and I hope to blog all about it. I was able to journal while in Ethiopia and I will also share that with you when I am able to find some time. Here's an email I sent out to family and friends yesterday:

Hello everyone. Denver and I made it home safely on Saturday afternoon at around 1:30. I'm still in shock and can't believe that the events of the past two weeks really happened. My emotions have been through the ringer - pulled every which way. When I left for Ethiopia two weeks ago, I had every intention of staying as long as I had to and at that point it looked like it was going to be weeks or even months. Now here we are, two weeks later, all together as a family of six. God is good! Despite the extreme stress and uncertainties and although this trip was not AT ALL what it was supposed to be, we saw God's hand working clearly many times. He watched over all of us, kept us safe and healthy and never once let us down.

When I think about saying thank you, I don't even know where to begin. So many of you played huge parts in all of this and we want you to know how much we appreciate you and what you've done for us. We couldn't have done it without you and your support and prayers mean so much.

Denver is doing relatively well. He has been through a lot and he is extremely overwhelmed. Aside from two parents that love him to bits, he has three siblings that are in his face 24/7. They can't get enough of him and he needs to get used to all the activity in our home. He's a happy and content baby and he's eating and sleeping really well. Him and I are still getting used to Canadian time but the jet lag doesn't seem nearly as bad comign home as it did going there - for that I am thankful. Last night Denver fell asleep at 6:30 pm and I followed about an hour latera. The next thing I knew, it was 4:30 am and Denver was awake and ready to play. I feel quite refreshed today after having nine hours of solid sleep - can't remember the last time I slept so well.

Please continue to pray for us as we go through this time of adjustment. We're all getting used to the changes and it's going to be a while before we're back to some sort of normalcy - is there such a thing as "normal" with four young kids??? I also want to ask you to continue to pray for the situation with our agency and all the families that are caught up in the mess. We have some dear friends that were waiting for referrals, some others that hope to travel soon to pick up their kids and some new friends that I met at the guest house in Ethiopia that are waiting for visas so they too can return home soon. We know that God can make these things right and we pray that His will be done.

On my last day in Ethiopia I was able to visit the orphanage where Denver spent the first month of his life (before he was brought into our agency's transition home). One of the caregivers there was wearing a shirt that said "God will never let you down" and I thought it was so appropriate after all we had been through. I just want to leave you with this verse from Psalm 55:22: "Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall".

Love you lots.

Karen

Here are some of the pictures that were taken on Saturday. I can't believe I'm posting the one of me doing the ugly cry but I think it portrays the relief I felt at finally being on Canadian soil with our entire family all together.