Waiting for Embassy Date

Please pray for our Embassy date. It normally takes 4-6 weeks after the court date and we still have not heard when our Embassy date will be. We know that several couples were not able to go to their date on November 27th. We hope that this does not cause our date to be pushed out. It is our understanding that there are only two Embassy dates per month so this could possibly push our date until after Christmas. Since both of our jobs get busy in January this will get difficult for us to spend the time we need to with them when we get home.

Introducing Leah Hope Mayfield

We would like to introduce Leah Hope Mayfield. She was born on June 22, 2006 and added to our family on November 5, 2010. Her sister came on Friday and gave her permission for her to be adopted so she is now officially our daughter.

MOWA Meeting

We had our MOWA meeting for Leah last Friday and it had a positive result. Her older sister was not able to come in and give her consent last week. She is scheduled to appear before the court this Friday, November 5 to give her consent for her to be adopted. Please pray that this all goes well. After this happens we will have passed court for Leah and can start proceeding with the next step of getting ready for the embassy date.

Prayer for Mike's Dad

Please pray for Mike's dad. He has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. They took him to the hospital this morning because of very low blood pressure and vomiting. They found that he has an infection due to a stint that had collapsed in his bile duct. They are keeping him in ICU until they can transfer him to KU Med and meet with the surgeon about the cancer. They found out about the cancer while we were in Ethiopia and told us the day after we got home.

Introducing Rachel Faith Mayfield

We would like to introduce our newest daughter, Rachel Faith Mayfield. She was born on August 26, 2009 and added to our family on October 22, 2010.

Passed Court (Kind of)

We are home from Ethiopia. We were not able to get on the internet over there after court to post. We passed court for our baby without any problems. We found out during court that our older girl has a 26 year old sister who has not yet given consent for her to be adopted. We have been told that they will get her to come in next week and give her consent and then we can pass court. We do not have to travel back for this. We were told that the sister was aware of her and was not able to take care of her so she would be willing to give her up. This must be done before we can receive the MOWA ruling for her which is supposed to happen at the end of the week. Please pray that this will happen this week. The longer this takes the longer it will be before we can bring them home. We will post pictures of the baby soon after we get some rest and are able to get the pictures uploaded. Thanks for all of the prayers while we were there and traveling.

Got To See Them!

We arrived in Ethiopia on Tuesday morning and got to see Rachel on Tuesday afternoon. She cried when we first took her but quickly calmed down when we started singing to her. She seems to be a little croupy but they said she was fine. We wish that we could bring her home and get her to a doctor so that she could start feeling better. We saw Leah this morning. She came in smiling but a little leary. She was happy for about 20 minutes while we walked around and looked at toys. She suddenly started crying but we didn't know why. Another family came in to see their little boy and brought balls and toys. We started to get the soccer ball to play with and she pointed at the shelf. We got a balloon off the shelf and she instantly stopped crying and was very content. She sat on Sandy's lap after that happy to hold the balloon and play with a simple little toy that the other family had brought. When it was time to leave they said something to her and she came and gave both of us a hug and kiss. They would only allow us to leave a photo album for a gift for her. We went and saw Rachel again this afternoon and she cried a little bit at first but soon was content with us. She didn't do much since she is not feeling well so we just held her.

Ethiopia is quite different from the US. There is a bit of a culture shock at first. People drive in whatever lane they feel like and people walk across the streets and along the street while people are driving very quickly. It is a new experience. There is also a distinct smell to the city. It smells of diesel and eucolyptus. There are animals and small stalls set up all along the road to sell items. We have even encountered animals in the middle of the road. We are amazed that there are never any accidents and no people or animals ever get hit. The people here live in incredible conditions and we are now very thankful for all that we have. We know that we are richly blessed in the US.

Please continue to pray for us that all of our paperwork would be in order for our court date on Friday. We will update our blog when we are able to get access to the internet again. Thank you for all the prayers for us while we are here.