Courts to Open???

The courts were supposed to open sometime last week and were postponed due to training. Ahhhh!! Luckily I was in Washington meeting my 4 week old niece Hailey and visiting family and was highly distracted. I am distracted no more. Bring on the court dates. Everyone is hoping that the courts opened today to hear cases as last weeks cases were rescheduled to the end of October. Our hopes for an October court date are quickly fading. We are still trying to be optimistic for travel in November but it does not look too promising. Hope that I can post our date very soon!!

Updates

Update on Baby John T.:

Our case worker called yesterday to let us know that she was sending pictures and answers to some questions that I had asked about our little man. We were on a walk so rushed home and hit refresh on the computer until the e-mail came in. She sent us 50 plus pictures of him!! Some older pictures and some newer ones. His hair has really grown in and he is looking more like a baby instead of an infant. She also let us know he was taken to the eye doctor to what they think is a clogged tear duct which is very common in infants. In fact, Emma had the same thing for about a month when she was a baby. We are of course worried that it could be something more but can’t really do anything else to find out until we bring him back to the states. Hopefully it will just clear up on its own and there will be no worries. The questions I asked about developmental milestones all came back positive. We are hoping that this update holds us over until we get a court date. The courts open next week but we were told to be prepared to wait a while to hear anything as they are really busy when they open back up.

Formula and Diaper Donations:

The donations of formula and diapers have started rolling in. Thank you so much for those of you that have already contributed. One idea I wanted to throw out there: I went to the woman Dr. today for my yearly checkup and just happened to ask if they gave away formula to expectant mothers and if so, if I could have some. I walked away with two cans of formula for free!! I know pediatricians often have this as well. If you are heading to the Dr. any time soon for yourself or your little one and you don’t mind asking, this would be a great (and cheap) way to get formula. If anyone is in Wenatchee and reads this and would like to contribute, Emma and I are going to be in town next week. Just give the donations to someone in my family and we can bring them back with us when we fly back home….

Financial Update:

We are so close!!! Only $900 to go and we will have the amount we need for our next and LAST set of fees. I don’t really have words to express how encouraging this is to us as we wait to know that so many of you are helping us bring our son home in such a real way. Please let me know via email if you will be sending something in so that I can let everyone know when we have reached our goal.

New Fundraising Opportunity

Anyone need to order any magazines?!?! A fundraiser has been set up in our name. If your magazine subscriptions are about to expire, or you have been meaning to order a magazine and haven't gotten around to it please follow the link below and you can order your subscriptions online. The great thing is, 40% of every sale goes to our adoption fund!!!

http://www.qsp.com/profile/tffu

These fundraisers are normally set up for schools so if you see any weird wording, you can just ignore. If you know anyone else that might be interested, please pass this link along!

Thanks and thanks to Heather for setting this up for us!

Sarah

Two Weeks Until the Courts Open

No news to report but only two weeks until the courts open back up and we HOPEFULLY hear about a court date. We are working on getting our shots, collecting donations for the orphanage, and enjoying time with Emma before baby brother hits the scene. We are still hoping to get a court date in October and travel in November.

Just a reminder to start collecting formula and diapers......November will be here before you know it (I am obviously having an optomistic day today...)!

Great News on the Financial Front!

We applied for a grant through Caroline's Promise and were very hopefull that this would be an avenue to help us reach our goals for our final adoption fees. We found out last week that we did not get this grant and were pretty dissapointed. That same week, our church had decided that they wanted to help us with our adoption by giving us $2,000 toward our final adoption fees. On top of this, the Abba Fund agreed to match up to $750 of our church's giving. So within hours of being dissapointed, we found out that we had been given $2,750 toward our adoption! We are so blessed that we have such amazing people around us that allow God to work through them to encourage us just at the right times.

It looks as though we have about $6,000 of fees remaining to be paid when we travel ($1,000 more than I had previously estimated). This means that with the church's grant and the donations recieved since we last paid fees we have about $2,500 to go. We have been so blessed by all of you that have joined with us in this way. Thank you!

A little over a month......

We met our son through pictures and paper a month ago Friday. Since then, we have heard no news on his wellbeing, his growth, his personality, his needs, or just overall how he is doing. We understand that this is just part of adoption but it is so hard. I just want someone to send me something, just a small token of information that will pacify us for another long month of waiting. We haven’t heard any news of a court date and have been told that this probably won’t be given out until after the judges come back from recess on October 5th. Some days aren’t so bad. Other days are very long and hard. Our family feels incomplete, like we are missing someone. Is it possible to miss someone you have never met? Emma talks about her baby brother daily and seems to miss him in her own way as much as we do. We are all ready to be a family of four and hope that these next months pass quickly as we wait for the word that he is in fact ours to keep……

Orphanage Donations Needed!!

Baby Formula
Powdered, any brand
&
Diapers
smaller sized, any brand

We are gathering diapers and formula to bring with us to help provide for the needs of the orphans at Hannah’s Hope Ethiopia, the orphanage our son is in. These items are hard to come by in Ethiopia and families that travel to pick up their adopted children are the main sources of donations for Hannah’s Hope. Any items given to Hannah’s Hope in excess of need are distributed to the nearby orphanages that are also in desperate need. Therefore, we will be packing light and taking as many extra suitcases as possible filled with formula and diapers.

It is our goal to collect 150 pounds of formula and diapers by November.

If you would like to help please:

Give diapers or formula to John and Sarah Pell and we will pack it with our materials or order these items online and have them shipped to our home. (If you do not live in Greensboro but want to help, please contact us and we will find a creative way to make your donation work).