Home For (Almost) Three Weeks

I've been gently reminded that I haven't updated my blog since we've been home....So, here goes:

Here are some pictures because I know that's what you really want.

Daddy came to Ethiopia for Tariku's embassy appointment and to fly home with us!

Tariku loves "helping." His favorite thing to help with is dishes.

Feed the ducks at City Park

Tariku LOVES music. There are a couple of movies that he really likes and he calls them by the name of songs that are in them. Right now his favorites are "Life is a Highway" (Cars), "Goin' Down the Bayou" (Princess and the Frog) and "I like to Move It, Move It" (Madagascar).

One afternoon my sister Rachel and I came home from the gym to find Dad, Tariku and Uncle Tyler sitting in the church's van, rocking out.

He says everything with the cutest little accent. It's hard to get it on video, though. Every time I pull out the camera or the flip he stops whatever cute thing he's doing and wants to be the camera operator.

It really has been a great three great weeks. Eli Tariku has adjusted marvelously. There were only a couple of mornings that we were up at 4am because of jet lag :)

A Few Really Great Things....

 Things That Are Great:
1. Tomorrow we get on a plane, when we get off, we meet our little man!
2. Our flight actually leaves at 11:30am, not 7:30am like we had in our head - we'll take a couple of extra hours of sleep.
3. Our awesome family, church family and friends - we've truly been OVERWHELMED by the support and prayers.

Things You Can Pray For:
1. Little Man (you can do this for the rest of your life, actually)
2. Safe Travel
3. Our first interaction with Eli Tariku! Monday,1pm Addis time, 5am Central time
4.COURT DATE - FEB. 9TH, 3 pm Addis Time, 7 am Central Time - All of the right documents need to be in place in order to keep the process moving.

Check out this sweet smile!

Can't wait to see it in person!
 
Okay - sorry we've been so slow to post...I know you guys are all just on the edge of your seats waiting for an update ;)


Here's the latest news:


1. We fly to Washington, D.C. on Feb. 5 (a week from Saturday!!) Dear Burglars, there will be people staying at house and they will be packin'...

2. We fly out of D.C. the next morning - straight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia! When we land it will be 7am on Monday morning (their time)

3. We will get to meet Little Man!! we'll probably freak him out big time...after all, we've been preparing for him for OVER A YEAR (and we may be a little excited), and he doesn't even realize we're coming!

4. February 9th is our court date - please pray that all of necessary paperwork is in place so that the court date doesn't have to be rescheduled! If all goes well, we'll officially be a family of 3!

5. At some point after court, Eli transitions fully into our custody! Yay!

6. Jon's flies home on Feb. 15, Anna and Eli hang out in Ethiopia until the American Embassy finishes Eli's paperwork and issues him a visa to come home. The expected wait time is 6-8 weeks, but we're really hoping for something sooner. Anna's mom will fly over at the end of the trip, stay for about a week and fly home with them! 


We appreciate your prayers. We have a lot do before we leave - especially since Anna is preparing to be gone for so long. Please keep Little Man in your prayers. Pray for continued health and safety and a smooth transition.

Guess What?!

We've got a court date!!

February 9th!

We're still waiting to hear if we will travel once at the court date and then again to bring him home or if Anna will be allowed to stay the 6-8 weeks between court and embassy. Apparently there is a meeting tomorrow where this possibility will be discussed. We'd appreciate your prayers - we're really hoping Anna can stay.

New Details about Lil' Man!

So....we were hoping that our next post would be announcing our court date, but we STILL don't know when that will be. We've been told to expect it to be in mid-February, but we're hoping and praying for something sooner! We can't wait to get our hands on our little man!

We did get some exciting news yesterday, though. A family from Baton Rouge is in Ethiopia right now for their court date. They delivered a gift bag to Eli for us and sent some pics! This made our day since the most recent pics we had were from August. He's grown so much - definitely looking like a little boy and not a baby! Too bad we can't post pictures. He. is. adorable.

Here's the email we got yesterday (with my comments inserted):

Eli is a DOLL (obviously).  A VERY coordinated doll I might add (whew).  Jon will have an athlete on his hands I do believe (Jon hasn't stopped doing his happy dance).  AND he is a LOVE.  He is engaging, warm, and very interactive.

Eli loved the gifts. His absolute favorite was the blue camera which he carried around for the 2 hrs we were there only surrendering it when his hands were too full to balance it all (yep, best parents ever).  S went through the whole 'book' with him (despite the Georgia T-shirt (Go Dawgs!)...Geaux Tigers -- LOL).  WE HAVE VIDEO! (CANNOT.WAIT.)  Actually we have a couple of short videos of him.  They are too difficult to send from here due to the size.  All of the kids were intrigued by the recorded reading.  They gathered/crowded/surrounded us while we gave him your gifts .

I figured this out about him-  He loves balls and interactive toys.  He catches on quickly (hope so - we'll be teaching him his third language! Is your toddler trilingual??) and isn't too reluctant to share (unless it is his new blue camera LOL).  Chu Chu dressed him up in his new SEC duds which fit beautifully.  

Eli has a BELLY on him (yay for weight gain! thanks for your prayers!)!!  He may be able to wear a size up in shirt now so even that much bigger by the time you travel.   This is something I always wanted to know- WHAT SIZE do I BUY?!  

Will fill you in more later.   Ask me any questions and I will answer them the best I can.  He sat in my lap a LOT.  

Eli is going to be a beautiful addition to the Palmer family.  You are blessed.

Yep. We are blessed! Here's a snip-it of our little linebacker!

That Changes Everything.

For the past year and a half we've been thinking about orphans. Praying for orphans. Reading about orphans. Researching the stats about orphans. Advocating for orphans.

Even though we've known the worldwide orphan crisis is real - it was abstract. The shear numbers were overwhelming. The problem seemed too big. The solution seemed allusive.

Then on Friday, November 5th we were introduced to a little boy. And that changed everything.

The "worldwide orphan crisis" was narrowed down to one little boy.

It is no longer abstract - he is a precious 2 and half year old little guy with curly hair.

The problem of orphan will soon be met with the solution of son. And that changes everything.

We couldn't be more excited to be able to put a name with a face. We're ecstatic and humbled and that God chose us to parent this little guy. Unfortunately we can't post his photo online, but his sweet eyes should give you an idea of how cute he is. We love him already -  and that changes everything.

24k

Everyday 24,000+ children die from poverty related issues like:

malaria
tuberculosis
unclean drinking water
malnutrition


24,000. Everyday. And we are adopting 1 (2 if we're lucky).


What about all the others? The financial cost of international adoption is significant. There are agency fees and paperwork fees and plane tickets to be bought. It adds up fast. Some argue that the money spent to adopt one child could be used to feed many. And they are right. $30,000 would go a long way in Ethiopia.


But just because a child is fed doesn't mean all his needs are met. Children thrive in families - where they feel loved and secure. A mosquito net may protect from malaria, but it doesn't nurture or teach.


The process may be slow, but we are committed to it. So we wait - not just with a house, health insurance and a pantry full of food, but with arms ready to embrace, words ready to encourage, love ready to give, and basketball drills ready to be taught (seriously).

But, we can't forget about the 24,000.


While we've been saving vigorously for the adoption, we wanted to give to those around the world still in need and we wanted to make sure we didn't forget. God wanted to make sure we didn't forget. And so he gave us rice nights.





One night a week, instead of a full-fledged meal, we eat only rice. It reminds us of the millions around the world who don't have enough to eat. It prompts us to pray for them. And since rice is so inexpensive, we save the money we would have spent on dinner and give it those in need. It's a win - win.

This "journey" has been so much more than we ever bargained for. We're seeing things we've never seen and being challenged in ways we've never before experienced. It's definitely a growing process - complete with growing pains. But it's good.

Explaining "The Wait"

We have officially been "waiting" for 7 months now (that's AFTER our paperwork set on desk in South Georgia for 3 months). My mom called the other day and proclaimed that she couldn't believe this process had "already taken 2 years!"

Yeah. She's not the best at math. But mostly I just think she's just eager to be a grandmother (wow, that makes her sound old). This is the woman who bought a crib 2 weeks after we told her we were adopting.

So, if there are are 4.5 million orphans in Ethiopia alone (and there are, according to UNICEF), what's with the "wait"?

Well, there are several reasons.

Just like we had to spend several months (4, to be exact) collecting paperwork, each child must have correct paperwork, too. It's a pain, but it's necessary. The paperwork documents the child's life up to that point and how he or she became an orphan. Paperwork is important to preventing child-trafficking. (I know, it seems really crazy that child trafficking happens when there are so many children in the world truly in need...) Anyway, for our paperwork - I worked like a mad-woman - drove all over creation to pick up documents (had family members drive all over creation to pick up documents) - and it took 4 long months. Imagine social workers and orphanage directors attempting to gather the proper paperwork for children in their facilities. Internet certainly isn't reliable, multiple languages are involved, children often come from remote areas, etc, etc, etc.

Courts in Ethiopia - the ones that process adoptions - close for 2 months out of the year for rainy season. So NOTHING happens during that time. And, when rainy season has passed, there is a log jam in the courts.

Ethiopia (like any country) has limited resources to put towards intercountry adoption - there are a limited number of workers at the various Ethiopian agencies responsible for processing adoptions and apparently they only have 24 hours in their day, too....bummer.

Also - we're adopting a baby. There are many, many waiting children in Ethiopia. Paperwork is already in order. They are just waiting on a family. We are adopting a baby for various reasons. He will be our first child and we thought it would probably be best to start with an infant who wouldn't know that we don't know what we're doing. Let's be real, a 7 year old would OWN us.

So, that's the deal with "THE WAIT" - hopefully it will end soon!

Break The Cycle

I spent last night hanging out with two 16 year old girls. That's not so unusual for me - the wife of a youth minister. But this was different. We didn't hang out at Starbucks or go to a movie.

We hung out in their prison cell.

It wasn't K's first visit to Rivarde Juvenile Detention Center. She'd been many times before, almost always for fighting. H found herself locked up and awaiting trial as an accessory to murder. She showed us the newspaper clipping that reported the story.

K is the oldest of her mother's children, but the youngest of her father's children. It is a fragmented family. While she's serving her sentence, her 6 month old son is being kept by his father's family. The cycle has already begun to repeat itself.

H lived with her grandmother. She has no idea how long she will be incarcerated. The 17 year old girl who committed the murder has already been tried as an adult - and found guilty.

Both girls have hopes and dreams. They desire a different life. But somewhere, somehow the cycle has to be broken.

That's why First Baptist New Orlean's Rivarde Team goes week in and week out. We know that a relationship with Christ can break the vicious cycle. Christ is the Ultimate Cycle-Breaker. He came because humanity was stuck in a sin-sacrifice-sin-sacrifice cycle. True repentance had been replaced by rote ceremonies and sacrifices. He saved us from such drudgery. And because of Him, we have crossed from death into life. 

God forgives, reconciles, restores and makes all things new. Pray for K and H - that they will allow Christ to break the cycle and make them new. Pray for the Rivarde team who speaks words of life into the lives of incarcerated teenagers each week.

FBNO - Fire Up the Pastor Search Committee...

Fire up the Pastor Search Committee...Not sure he'll be with us much longer....

Transformation

This was a sign we passed leaving the Songhai neighborhood...I had the taxi drive stop and back up so I could take a picture...Is there a barbershop anywhere else in the world where you can go in looking like a black African man and come out looking like a very white Alisa Milano?

For more about our actual work here check out David's blog at davidecrosby.blogspot.com.

Jet Lag

So...today was our first full day in Ghana - and it was a great one! We went down to the Makola Market to meet and interact with the Songhai people in the area. We walked about three miles through the market stopping to talk and give CDs about Jesus to the Songhai vendors.

Currently, there is no church - Ghanian or American - seeking to reach the Songhai in Accra, Ghana. Many of the them have never heard the gospel.

Jet lag had caught up with some of us at the end of the day... We sat down to eat a delightful dinner at a restaurant - of course, Pastor David's food came first - which he proceeded to gloat about...

But, it meant that he had to wait for all of us to finish eating...and that's when the jet lag bear jumped on  his back.

While he slept, we finished eating, got out of the booth and left the restaurant. We sent the doorman back in with a camera to take a picture - the flash on the didn't wake him up and nor did the entire restaurant laughing at him.

The doorman finally shook him and said "your friends left 10 minutes ago. Why did they leave you?"

Picture for your enjoyment:

For a more informative blog about our day check out David's blog. He woke up to write it for you...

Fathers to the Fatherless - Video should work now...

Below is a video of adoptive fathers that was shown at our church this morning...

He's Ready for Eli!

Jon picked up every little guy under the age of 2 while we were in Ghana. Below are just a few examples!

An Orphan's Grief

One of the things about our trip to Ghana that I haven't been able to shake was our experience at the orphanage. I've worked with children in schools in Central and South America, Africa and Asia. And, despite all of the reading I've done throughout our adoption process, I wasn't prepared for the difference. 

Orphans, no matter how young, have experienced a traumatic, life changing event - and they know it. The little girl I'm holding in the picture below was in her crib sobbing uncontrollably. Even after I picked her up (which calmed every other baby in that facility) she just sobbed and sobbed and sobbed. (I had to put a heart over part of her face to not break any laws).

My initial thought was that in all of the chaos of getting 43 babies fed, she'd been skipped and didn't get her bottle. She was just hungry.

I approached the head "auntie" and asked for a bottle for her. The auntie's response let me know that it wasn't her tummy that was yearning for something, but her heart.

She had been dropped off at the orphanage only 3 days prior. And she was sad. So sad.

I don't know exactly what tragic circumstance brought her to this orphanage. But unfortunately, her experience is shared by 145 million orphans worldwide.

These children experience intense grief at such young, tender ages. I've not only read about it in adoption books, I've seen it in this little girl's eyes.

Pray for orphans worldwide - that God would heal their broken hearts, mend their little spirits, and put people in their lives to show them love.

Exciting Things in Ghana

One thing we talked about several times throughout the week was that we were engaging a people group, the Songhai in Ghana, who have not been engaged with the message of Christ. We discussed how planting seeds is part of the process and we probably wouldn't see "fruit"....

So, I was really excited when I read the missionaries report that he sent out..here's a portion of it:

Monday of this week the team went to an area in Adabraka near the downtown area of Accra and handed out cd's with the Gospel on them and we gave out some dvd's with the Jesus video on them.  They played one of the Jesus videos while we were there and several were gathered to watch. 

      Now before I go on, I need to introduce you to a fellow named Mustapha Musah (pictured above with his family and our team), he is my friend here who helps me in this ministry.  He is a former Muslim, and his family is Muslim royalty, he was in the line of Chiefs and Kings in his family.  Mustapha accepted Jesus as his Savior just about three years ago and his life has never been the same.  He is a very soft spoken fellow, very family oriented, very easy going and very determined to follow Jesus!!  He has lost much since his becoming a Christian, he was thrown from his house, they tried to take his wife and son away, they have made his life hard, but Mustapha just keeps on praising God and going on with the life God has given him.  He lives now in an area near the guys in Adabraka the team visited. 

      Monday after the team left, Mustapha went home and found his water was not working.  So he went to the public toilets in Adabraka to shower for the evening, while there some of the Songhai we had visited earlier in the day saw him and called him over. "Why did the young white people from America have a video in the language of the Songhai?" they asked, Mustapha told them that the Songhai were the only reason the Americans had come to Accra, that they had come just to share Jesus with them!  They were so happy to hear this news, Mustapha said they could not believe someone from America would spend that much money and come all the way to Africa to share Jesus with them!!  They just could not quit talking about how much this meant to them, so much so they invited us to come to the area they live again one evening to tell them more about this Jesus that Loves them so much He sent a group from America to tell them of His love!  Praise God, He can do all things!!!

Songhai woman and children      

 

 

Men gathered around the tv and immediately put in the DVD we gave them about Jesus in Zarma (Songhai language)

 

Right after Mustapha told me of this and we had a time of prayer and fellowship together over God's working, Mustapha went to pay a bill and while he was out the Albasan guys asked basically the same question, "why did the young Americans come to see them, and why did they give them such wonderful gifts?"  Mustapha again told them that they were from God, to share the Love of Jesus and His Gospel with them.  They all then told him about listening to the cassettes and wanting to know more!!!!  I am so exited by now just typing this I want to Praise God, this is such sweet and such beautiful news to hear them say these things. 

Songhai Albasan (onion) boys...the one on the front in the red has the cassette player and tape we gave him earlier in the week.

Wow.

Your Kids Were The First

 (Photo of our group with Dr. Theophilus and his wife. They run the school we worked in all week)

Gomer, the missionary we worked with on this trip has been in Accra, Ghana since January seeking to develop a ministry to the Songhai people. Many of the Songhai have come to Accra from Niger and Mali looking for work. They are a largely unreached people group and up until Gomer moved to town, there was no work among them in Accra.

Gomer has spent some time networking with churches and ministries in the area and no one in the area knows of any teams or groups that have worked among the Songhai here.

As far as we know, the FBNO youth were the first. I'm still processing this...these teenagers from New Orleans being the first group to try to engage the Songhai people in Accra, Ghana....

We didn't come here and plug into some system or established ministry. These kids hit the streets, striking up conversations with people - learning about the Songhai culture and worldview...sharing their faith...giving CDs with the Gospel message in Zarma (Songhai language)...teaching English to meet a need and build a relationship....

Orphanage

Today our only "mission" was James 1:27 - to care for orphans and widows in their distress. The orphanage we visited houses between 200 to 250 children on average. We weren't really sure what to expect.....Immediately upon arrival David had a drum line going. These little fellas had rhythm!  

We spent
 the morning helping out in the little baby nursery. There were 5 "aunties" who were responsible for 43 babies. Needless to say the babies loved being held. Our youth were great - they held and loved on the babies despite their soaking wet cloth diapers.

Probably the sweetest thing I saw today was Trey Gibson consoling two little babies who were very upset. He knelt by their crib for probably 20 minutes rubbing their backs and talking to them. At one point I walked by and he was singing "Jesus Loves the Little Children" to them. I almost cried. (hopefully trey won't kill me for blogging this...pretty sure he doesn't read my blog, so don't tell him) Later, I asked the nurse if there was a bottle for those two little ones. She said that they'd already been fed and they were inconsolable because they were brought in only 3 days ago. I'd guess they were between 6 and 9 months old.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

 So today it pretty much rained all day long. The onion boys weren't out by the road with their onions so we didn't get to spend any time with them.  We were able to return to the school...above, Sophie being greeted by a kiddo and below, Megan helping some kiddos with a craft. After the school, we went again to teach English to some Songhai adults living nearby. Despite the rain it was a good day!

Day 3

Today we spent some more time teaching the Songhai "onion boys" English. They are so eager (read desperate) to learn. We also got to give them walkmans and cassettes about Jesus in their native language. They were really excited about these gifts.

 so when we arrived at the school today there was a little baby there who was crying and kind of fussy...he's much younger than all of the other kiddos. So, Trey, being the kind person that he is, scooped the little guy up into his arms...and, was a little surprised to find the boy was bare-bottomed..

Today we also got a chance to talk to several groups of Songhai adults. We gave away CDs that contained the gospel message in the Zarma language and set up some appointments to show the Jesus film tomorrow. Thanks for your prayers!