Update from Africa

So Far…So Good
We left our home Friday at 11:30…it is currently Sunday morning 6:08am (Austin time) and 2:10pm Addis Ababa time. Our travel has been long and uneventful. One of the most unsettling parts about this trip (for Leah) would be the traveling portion. More specifically, flying. While Brent LOVES it, I, on the other hand dislike it. Many of you knew this deep fear of mine and thus, prayed. Let me tell you that God answered your prayers!
On the Austin to Houston leg…the plane was packed and since we had purchased our tickets 48 hours in advance, there were no seats together. One of our prayers has been for God to use us, teach us, and keep our focus on His kingdom – not just our adoption. Well…Brent sat near a precious gal who was from North Carolina and was intrigued and full of joy for our adoption. They were two rows in front of me and at one point she turns around and in a fairly loud voice shouts “congratulations, I am soooooooo happy for you!” The entire trip they shared about “real life” and God was present. As for me, I sat next to Sarah. Guess who she works for? A Glimmer of Hope…which is an agency that is solely focused on Ethiopia. (Check out their website www.aglimerofhope.org). Currently, they are focusing on a village to bring clean drinking water, a school and a health post. The village has about 5,000 people in it and their desire is to transform it and building relationships. Sarah and I had great conversations and what are the chances God would place us near this precious friend, who too has a heart of Ethiopia and is giving her life works to be part of this incredible effort. Go God!!!
Now, in Houston, we had a 4+ hour layover. One thing we did to pass our time was go to the ExpresSpa. There I met Gigi…she was a neat woman, who is a single mom trying to make a living. We shared about our journey and she shared about her life. While the manicure and chair massage was “heaven”…my time spent with her was even better. You know when you have this soul connection and you are simply sharing about “real life.” Two strangers…on two separate journeys…with struggles and joys…and we were able to share life.
The big mountain to climb was the Emirates flight from Houston to Dubai. This is where God showed up big time. If you ever have a chance to fly this airline – take it. Let’s just say, I sat by an old man (for those of you who know me – I LOVE the elderly, especially old men). He was enroute to the Philippians and had quite a bit to say about everything. When we weren’t talking…Brent and I were watching a movie. Yes, 4 of them. We each had our own screen in front of us and had the pick of movies, music, games and choices galore. It made the time go by and the long flight more tolerable.
Once in Dubai it was morning still in Austin and evening in Saudi Arabia. We had each maybe slept 2 hours on the plane total. Sweet! We thought…we’ll go to the hotel and eat dinner…then off to bed. This was the case but it is 3am here and I am so awake! (Brent is sleeping beautifully in the twin bed next to me. Yes, so romantic!)
In the last 40 or so hours we have seen 6 movies and have had 6-8 hours of sleep. Let’s just say we are TIRED. What is waaaaaaaaay cool is the weather. Our triple digit heat wave for the last 60+ days in Austin is overshadowed by the pouring rain. Right now it is easily 60 degrees. The sound is lulling us to sleep. There is a pot boiling us some hot water for our Oatmeal and Mac-n-Cheese lunch. We’re unpacked. We’ve set up home for the week and now we wait…Brent and I feel like were living in a dream state (being sleep deprived does not help). We are soooooooo excited we can barely stand ourselves, yet trying to keep our expectations low.
In closing, most of you know we are in Ethiopia on an “off week”…our agency sends families every other week to Addis Ababa. Due to our “special circumstances” the U.S. Consulate has granted us a special appointment. However, other agencies are represented this week in Ethiopia and we had the privilege to meet some families traveling from the U.S. One family in particular is from New Mexico, her name is Leah, they have 3 kiddos and are adopting a 5-month-old girl. The crazy cool thing about this family is their connection to Bo and Amy’s school. This couple came to meet with Veritas staff two years ago, in hopes to start their own University Model School. Last year was their first year, they’re on the board and know the leadership of our school. Of course, we had many things in common with this family and God stepped in and gave us the assemblance of being with a group, just not one connected with our agency.

Today, Corban Tekele Phillips became our son – officially!!! We, the Phillips, stand in awe of who God is and how He has answered our long awaited, prayers. May you too stand in awe of the One who carries us through this thing called life!

Here is a synopsis of our adoption journey…

Somewhere in the late 80’s…God captures my heart for adoption

Somewhere in 2007…God captures Brent’s heart…

On the day Brent says he is certain we are to adopt, I start panicking and begin to second-guess…mainly, because we have no money. If you know anything about International Adoption – it is expensive. So, on the eve of Brent saying – yes…I go to bed begging God to affirm our decision. For “doubt” and its cousin “fear” begin having a hay day within my soul. (Brent knew not the depth of my struggle). As the next day progressed, I get a call late afternoon. Brent begins to share how a friend, whom we have not heard from nor seen in over 9 months, gave us a Christmas card with $2000 in it. While Jon did not know anything about our desire to adopt, God had moved his family to give us a huge gift to encourage and bless un in this new season we found ourselves in (new church plant, new neighborhood, schools, friends, new paycheck, etc.). Of course, I balled and confessed my doubt – God had affirmed.

I share this because God touches many with the desire to adopt and when they find out the costs they don’t move forward. I beg you not to let the $$$$ ever detour you from adoption – we are a living testimony that He provides. This is one area I could go on and on about…

January 2008…we send in our application to AWAA and begin what is called the paper pregnancy.

June 2008…while looking at the Waiting Child List (children who have special needs)…a little boy jumps off the screen and into our hearts. From the beginning we felt God ask us to be open and so we were…and on a particular evening, we all fall in love with “Eric.” We spent months preparing to bring him home.

Eight months go by…on the day we are taking Luke for his first MRI…we receive a phone call from our agency with extremely hard news. The short of it is…another adoption agency had also had Eric in their system and a family in Italy was adopting him. Since they were ahead of us in their paperwork…Eric went to them. Crushed…broken hearted…it felt like a miscarriage and we grieved.

Days later, we receive news that Luke has a low-grade brain tumor and Epilepsy (again). He will need surgery to remove the part of his brain that is damaged. In our endeavor to grasp it all…we trusted God’s timing would be best.

After praying, we believed God still wanted us to move forward to adopt another little boy…the new timeline sets us in motion to have a “new referral” around mid June. Certainly by the time our new son comes, we will have journeyed through Luke’s surgery. NOT!

Our new referral comes months early (unheard of in the adoption world) and on April 15, we receive Corban. Instantly, we all knew he was to be the one God has for us…but Lord, the timing does not make sense.

Luke’s surgeon tells us “to go get your son” and surgery can wait until August or September.

Our first court date is mid May and we have a tentative travel date of June 6^th.

However, we do not pass court...many, many times (Long story – I will spare you the details). The bottom line, there is a discrepenscy in whether Corban’s mom was deceased or merely had disappeared. We knew, from all sources, she had passed away…but the judge needed proof.

All summer…the journey of paperchasing ensued…every Wednesday we would receive an update that would take pages more to write about. Every week, was full of “ no new news”…even one time the mention of “You have a good chance you will travel in 1 or 2 weeks (so we bought our tickets)…but, our agency was given wrong information and it was “false labor.”

Then last week, we realized the timeline, even if we did miraculously get the paperwork in and then pass court…it would be too close to Luke’s surgery (September 8^th) to travel. This chapter is closed…now we will wait to travel in October.

We settled into the “wait until October” and “focus on surgery” plan. I must admit that it was nice not to be married to our phone, and email, and wondering how these two worlds were going to collide…this new life I was getting used to. God, Your timing is what we long for…Your purposes…

So, yesterday (8/19/09), we receive a call from Luke’s surgeon, and the doctor needs to move surgery to the end of September. What?! We have waited for so long, we are ready to get Harry (what we have affectionately named Luke’s tumor) out and help him move on with his life. And, secondly, what does this mean for our adoption…we will have to wait now until November.

Today (8/20/09), out of the blue...the call comes…” we passed court”…after 3+ months…our son, who has been ours from the beginning of time, is now “officially” part of our family.

The end of the story is still to be written…if we are able to move surgery back to mid October we will go get Corban in the next few weeks. If not, we will wait until after surgery when the doctor clears us to leave the country.

All of this to share, God is good…He has provided…and will continue…He is bringing a family together as only God can do. May God’s love connect our hearts with the heart of a little boy oceans, mountains, and miles away…Corban – we are coming!!!! And we are beyond grateful for your life.