Maybe...baby

It's 4pm in Ethiopia right now. I imagine that if all is going according to the plan, someone from the Tikuret orphanage staff is driving to the Finder's house to pick her up. Perhaps they wind through the broken down streets, swerving to miss a group of goats or a skinny, leathered man trying to master the donkey pulling his cart.

Perhaps she reaches the Finder's house and the Finder has not disappeared, but is ready and willing to travel the five hours to Addis Ababa to spend the night and appear before the Embassy Wednesday morning.

Maybe this is happening right now as I begin my daily chores of cleaning bathrooms and ironing clothes.

I hope that maybe the orphanage staff will talk with the Finder about our case and maybe they will talk about the ONE true Finder. That is my hope. Perhaps someone will come to know HIM in all of this...maybe.

If all goes according to plan, maybe we'll wake up tomorrow morning and have an email from the Embassy (my penpal) telling us we're clear to travel to pick up Melaku. Maybe there will be no email.

For now, we will ask God to move in hearts like no one else can and we will ask that HIS will is done and not ours.

In our minds it would have been better to have traveled weeks ago, to be home and somewhat acclimated now. It would have been better to have finished this adoption a year ago...maybe.

We have to understand that this journey, even our little personal journey is so much bigger than us. Just like we're all smaller members of a bigger body of believers working together, so our lives are smaller parts of a bigger story.

Thank you for being on this journey with us, for being in this story with us. We'll be lifting Melaku, the finder, and the Embassy up all day and eagerly waiting to check my inbox in the morning, but our hearts are at peace that whatever the outcome of this day---God's will is best. That we know to be true.

This is the very first picture we received of Melaku. He was only six months old and had been in the orphanage for three months.

This picture cracks me up. I love his face! What's he so tickled about?!