Hello From AFRICA!!!!!

Bonjour! Today is Wednesday. We have had a very busy week and have taken lots of pictures! Can't wait to post them.
Until this very moment, we have not been able to get internet access. I am sorry, I know many of you want to know the scoop. The IA is very very touchy and we have to be so patient...
Isaiah is doing well. He is malnourished and wears a size 9 months bottom and 12 months top. He has parasites, so he has very watery diarrhea often. We are changing clothes at a rapid pace. He is very quiet with us, but he has not cried much at all.
We went to the orphanages yesterday and spent a lot of time with his birth mother. She ran to the car and flung open the door, grabbed me, hugged me tightly, and wept on my shoulder. It was a very moving moment and I will never forget it. She is young and she now works at the orphanage, so Isaiah has been with her until now. He loves her very much and smiled and played a lot with her. it was priceless. we have over 250 photos and 13 videos that we will post to shutterfly when we return home.
It looks like we will return as scheduled on Sunday night, flying into Pensacola.
The airport experience was not as bad as we had thought, it was without hickups.
I will give details about it later to anyone who will need the information for future travel...
St. Anne's is good, but very very basic. Cold showers, power outages, rarely internet service (maybe every few days), but we do have air conditioning.
The traffic here is CRAZY! Everything goes, and i mean everything!
The children at the orphanages stole our hearts! They were soooo precious and made us wish we could take them all home with us! Hugs and beautiful smiles were readily available.
We love you all and will post if we can and when we can!
Thank you (Merci) all so much for your sweet prayers! We feel them!
(oh, btw, please pray for Greg as he is getting a head cold)
I know by the flights to Africa that the flights home will be very exhausting, but we will be making doctor visits for Isaiah for several weeks. He has had chicken Pox and Malaria just very recently and is still getting over them. He will need several visits, I am sure... He is very thin and as light as a feather...but he is strong willed, so he has a fighting spirit that will help him recover!
We love you All,
Greg and Tina

Our Journey to Isaiah...

As we look back on the past 20 months, we are amazed at God's faithful hand. He burdened our hearts to adopt once more. He opened the door to Africa. He showed us little by little His plan, but only as much as we needed at the time. He gave us glimpses of His Glory and big helpings of His Love. He has led us faithfully and gracefully. He has given us a picture of who He is. He is not man that He would focus on possessions and self-indulgence, He is God and He has led us to focus on Him and on His orphans. They are His Heart. We desire the very Heart of God. We are made in His image and our prayer is that we would reflect His likeness and care for the needs of others, putting our desires aside and following in obedience. We have traveled a long journey, but in truth, we are just beginning another new journey with Christ and with His child, our son, Isaiah. We are so blessed to see Him at work in those around us. Every time we turn around, someone is being faithful to His call and following Him with full surrender. We thank our Lord Jesus for each of you who have touched our lives in such a precious way! You Are A Blessing! We Love You!!!

Praise the Lord!!!! We have liftoff!!!!

Family and Friends, We are going to Africa!!! WoooHooo!!!! Praise the Lord!!!

YAY!!!

YAY!!!!! Our Visas came in today!!! Woohoo!!! Isaiah's Visa will be in tomorrow!!! We are making our travel plans final!!!! It is time!!! We will be leaving on Saturday!!! We will do our best to update everyone on this blog while we are in Congo... as long as the internet cooperates :) We are so excited and are looking forward to meeting our son!!!! PRAISE GOD!!!

Waiting, but busy...

I have received word that the Visa investigation is done and the paperwork is being processed for our son!!! We should have his Visa on Wednesday and we should have our Visas on Wednesday as well!!! God has blessed us so much and we are so thankful for our family and for our adoption group from One World Adoption Services. We have also been blessed by Joshua's pre-K class at Covenant Christian School. They have committed our adoption to prayer this school year and they are almost as excited as we are! We are so thankful for them!
We are taking orders for pictures from others who have adoptive children at the same orphanage. It is exciting to know that we will be able to bring joy to their hearts as we bless them with photos of their beautiful children! And we can't wait to love on them ALL!!!
As of now, we are still on target for traveling on April 7th. We will fly out of Pensacola, on to Chicago, then to Brussels and then to Kinshasa. All in all, about 34 hours of travel one way...:)
If you talk to us and we don't seem to be listening, please forgive us, it is only because there are about 200,000,000 things going through our minds...lists, schedules, items to get, etc...
And if we answer you when you haven't asked anything, please just nod your head in agreement, it is only because we are a bit crazy right now with all the planning and such, so we are actually probably talking to ourselves...:)
We are blessed to have such faithful friends as you! Thank you!

WOW!!!!

God is at work! TODAY...we got news that the Interview went very well... and then we received our letter of invitation to enter the DRC... and then we made tentative travel plans... and then we sent off for our Visas!!!! Wooohooooooooo!!!!!!! Praise the Lord! God is good all the time!!!! If all goes well and we receive Isaiah's Visa, we will be flying the friendly skies on April the 7th!!!! We hope to return on April the 14th... SOOOOOO, we need your prayers! We need God's people to step forward and pray for our trip. We know He will rise up mighty prayer warriors for this mission He has called us to. So, please, please, please remember us in prayer...THANK YOU!!!!

Depending on the Lord...

Well, I wish I could give you certain information, but as we have discovered for the last 19 months, there are no certainties when dealing with the DRC.

Here is what we know right now. Our Embassy Interview appt. that was supposed to be this past Monday will now be this coming Monday. One week delay. Not too awful bad. Once the interview takes place, the US Embassy will conduct a brief (hopefully) investigation to make sure everything is on the up and up before they issue our son's Visa to enter the US. Just b/c we have adopted him, does not guarantee admittance to the US.

While this is happening, we will apply for our Visa's from the DRC Embassy in Washington, DC, which has a 3 day turnaround. We will make tentative travel plans and we will get paperwork copied off. We will reserve a place to stay (St. Anne's Parish). We will register with the US Embassy in Congo so they will know when we are planning to come.

The coordinator at the Embassy feels as though it is probably possible for us to travel on April 7 and very possible to travel on April 14. So, in 2 weeks, we could be on our way and in 3 weeks we most likely will be on our way. Whew! So, there you have it.

Basically, we are praying and asking God to take us there on the date that He wants us to go. We want to travel when He wants us to travel. We are okay with whatever He so chooses.

We are washing clothes, cleaning house, and packing up. We are preparing the fields for the harvest...and we are soaking in God's goodness in bringing us to this point...what a joy to be His child! What a joy to be loved by Him!