Monday, December 12

Give1Save1 is Featuring Us!

We are the featured family this week with Give1Save1. Give1Save1 is a website that was created by another adoptive momma, Beth Cupitt, who had a wonderful idea. If 30,000 people gave $1 to their adoption fund, their adoption would be funded in full. Beth contacted me a few weeks ago and asked if she could feature us on her blog. How neat is that? I feel so honored that we were asked to be apart of this.  

Want to be apart of bringing our daughter home? 

Here's how you can help us bring our daughter home. By donating $1 (or more if you feel led) at Give1Save1, you are helping bring Emme home. Adoption comes with alot of costs. We have paid what we owe to our agency and a BIG chunk of that had to be paid right now at Christmas. Not only have we had to pay a lot in fees we have had to pay for airfare for both my husband and I round trip last month and now again within the next few weeks. But this time we are not buying 2... we will be buying 3! Your $1 helps in immeasurable ways. Don't underestimate the power of $1

 This week I want to take some time to tell you some of our story. Many of you know it, many of you don't. I didn't think that we had much of a story but as it turns out we do. So I am told. ;) 


The Beginning

Back in October 2009 I felt like God was telling me I was going to adopt. Or at least that is what my heart was thinking. I began to talk to Phillip about it really casually and like most husbands he sort of shrugged the conversations off and never really entertained the idea to much.  I felt like the Lord was pressing me more and more unto the subject. It was like I couldn't get away from it. In May 2010 I began to be really serious about adoption. Still not knowing where God would lead us to adopt but knowing that he was definitely calling us I started nagging talking passionately to Phillip about it. He finally responded to me with "what do you know about adoption? I think you need to read some books about it or something before you just decide to do it." So... what did I do. I got on the internet and started searching. I search hundreds of blog, hundreds of website, ordered about 3 books and come across this you tube video. 


This video broke me. I had no words. After watching the video I felt the Lord was telling me Africa, You will adopt from Africa. Which seemed like a no brainer since I have always had a fascination with Africa. It is a land rich in history, wild exotic animals, eclectic tribes and full of culture. But where from in Africa. Africa is huge and has like 50 million orphans within its borders. Where? And how would I find my child?

Phillip also felt moved to make a difference in a child life because of this video so we began to pray and research and pray harder. 

What finally led us to Ethiopia?

In July of 2010, in the midst of my endless adoption research, I stumbled across this really powerful blog post.  I have searched and searched for it again and I cannot find it. This lady had just come home from a missions trip in Ethiopia and the village they had served in was really special. It jumped out at me and captivated my heart. I felt like I couldn't breathe while reading it. I was completely in love with this place I had never heard of or seen. Before all of this I had been talking to a really close friend about our pursuit of adoption. She has always been so supportive of us. A few weeks before the blog discovery my friend (the same girl) had a dream that she adopted from Africa and the little girls name was Korah. This "village" that had stolen my husband and I's heart was called ... Korah. We don't think that it was a coincidence. We feel like God was leading our hearts to a place. I later discovered through hours of blog stalking that this lady was with a team from Project61. An amazing ministry. Out of our love of Korah and Project61 we felt like for sure Ethiopia was the place God had brought us to adopt out of. Besides there are 5 million orphans in Ethiopia alone. 

What happened next? 

We immediately felt led to our agency Celebrate Children International in Florida. We had a friend of ours do our homestudy for us and we got the ball rolling. We worked tirelessly on our dossier and sent it off to Ethiopia in December 2010. We wait for 3 months and on March 27th 2011. We saw this precious face for the very first time. 


We immediately fell IN LOVE! In our eyes she was perfect in every single way. Exactly what I had dreamed about. We accepted referral and were submitted to court on April 11, 2011. Three weeks later we received a June 17th court date. Two weeks later we found out that our court date was being postponed due to an investigation regarding our agency. Things looked really scary and uncertain for awhile. I hated that we got held up in this. I had watched several friends adopt and my heart ached for my daughter I had never met. So we canceled our flights and continued to just wait. We waited to hear all summer with the hopes that we would be able to go in late July. While others went, we continued to wait. The courts closed at the end of July with no news. We weren't expected to hear anything until after the middle of October when the courts reopened. On August 16th my husband and I cried out to God to make things move. I was broken hearted and heavy. And let me just say... God moved. The very next morning I woke up to an email that said "your court date is november 7th." I learned that morning that even in the most uncertain of times, when you have the greatest amount of doubt and disbelief, God still listens to the cry of his children and He cares. I also learned that God is way bigger then a closed court system and that when we ask him to make things move and we have faith that things are going to move, HE WILL MAKE THEM MOVE. 


November 5th 2011

 One this day I met my daughter. She is truly perfect and beautiful. She feels like flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone.  The day I met her I will never forget. I had cried many, many tears over this moment. I had, had several moments with God where I questioned his goodness on his promises and his sovereignty and timing. It is embarrassing really. I mean...who am I to question GOD?! Thank you God for your unending grace and Mercy you have shown me over the last few months. I am learning and I am growing. Any way.... our first moments were somewhat awkward. Meti (Emme's Ethiopian name) was scared to death (which we didn't realize at first but now that we know her we know she was scared silly) and she was extremely nervous. I recalled all the things I had read in The Connected Child by Karen Purvis and I used the methods on Meti. They seemed to work really great. She warmed up to me really fast and we become fast friends. It is going to take some time with Phillip. She is not so sure about men. On November 8th (the judge moved our date to the next day when we showed up) we became the proud and permanent parents of Emerson Meti Knight. The judge was beautiful and soft spoken and very professional. She asked us about 5 questions and then stamped our paperwork declaring our case and paperwork approved. I instantly started crying. Where is a brown paper bag when you need one? I couldn't believe that in those short and brief moments in that court room I became the mother of a beautiful little girl who didn't have one. It was surreal. In that one day I gained a daughter and had to leave her behind. We had an 11:25 flight out that night. It was a crazy emotional day. 

Showing me her pretty necklace I gave her before we took her back to the transition house where she is waiting for our return.


Some of our last moments together. 

Where are we at now?

We have been home for over a month now. It has been a long month. I miss my sweet daughter more then I know how to tell you. Though we had some rough moments while we were together and though she is a handful and complicated at times she is mine and she is perfect and I miss her. I have some days where I hardly think about our distance apart and some days that is all I can think about it and I feel like I may possibly cave in on myself. I know the day is coming but it needs to hurry. We are trying to focus in on the time we have with just our boys but it somehow still feels incomplete. We are waiting to be submitted to the Embassy. We haven't heard anything yet. Several families who were there the week before us have been submitted to the Embassy as of last Thursday. We can only be submitted on Thursdays. Being submitted to the Embassy is the LAST big step in our process. After they approve us we can go pick her up and bring her home. 

Specific ways to pray for our family?

1. Pray for our case to be submitted this Thursday December 15th. Pray that the Embassy will review our case and clear us to travel quickly. The wait is grueling and we miss our daughter. We are praying her home in 2011 or the first of January 2012. 


2. Spread the word! We believe the more people that have an opportunity to hear our story, the closer we will be to bringing our girl home. There is power in prayer and the more people we have praying for our case the more powerful we are. 

3. Pray for our time together as a family of 4. That God will bond us even more and that he will be getting our hearts ready for our new little addition. 

 Visit us this week at Give1Save1. Even if you can't help financially we would love you to join us in praying our sweet girl HOME. Prayers are worth far more then money. Thank you for all of your love and support. We love you all!!! 


2 comments:

  1. loving all these posts!!!

    praying her home!

    this thru! embassy!!!!!!

    praying with you!
    love you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I will pray for your family as well. Its a beautiful story and I pray one day for our family to adopt also.

    ReplyDelete

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