Welcome to America!

Wow! It's been a busy week. Since last Wednesday morning when we picked Heaven up in Washington DC, we flew back to Nashville that afternoon. We found ourselves rushing her to the doctor for chest pains on Thursday. However those was just from dehydration and fatigue from 22 hours of flight. After she sleep for 15 hours she got to go to Justice, we got her new clothes and shoes. She has learned how to drive our golf cart, on the wrong side of the road. We have played many games, basketball in the pool, basketball outside, went to some friends house who had her a welcoming party, we went to church and got to meet lots of new people, went out to eat, went grocery shopping, loves to take a bubble bath, and managed to get Travis, Joanna, Samantha, Tabby, and Kolton to play polly pocket. She has also endured 5 hours at Vanderbilt having test done, she has got to talk to Worldu and Maste they both are from Ethiopia. She got her first shot of penicillin, she will need this shot every 28 days for the next 40 years! Overall she has been amazing and such a huge blessing for all of us. I am somewhat overwhelmed that God trusted us so much to bring Heaven into our home. She is a huge blessing from God to our family. So far we know that she will need open heart surgery, we just don't have a date yet. Physical therapy will start soon for the Spina Bifida and then we will be making the next step with this also, whatever that may be. Please keep praying for Heaven for her health issues, and for us to know just the right thing to do for her. God has been truly amazing through all of this, He deserves all the Glory! Heaven is truly a miracle from Heaven!

Heaven's almost Home

I am truly amazed at all God has did in the last 3 weeks and also what He did 42 years ago. I love how He has a plan for everything. This Wednesday we will pick Heaven up at the airport, to begin all sorts of new things with her. Good doctors, medicine to help her feel better. A hospital where she will be the only child in the room, not 1 of 10 where she was last time and had to witness 3 of them die in 1 week. Clean water, food not out of a garbage dump but out of a pantry where she can go anytime and get something to eat. A bed to sleep in and not the floor of a shack. A roof over her head that doesn't leak when it rains. A family that will never leave her, like her parents did when she was a baby. Brothers and Sisters to love and play games with. Clothes from the store where they are clean and not from a trash dump where they are soiled and have been thrown away. Yes, this will all come at a price, she will miss her Grandmother and friends. However by stepping on that plane she has Hope and a Future. She will have went from dying in Ethiopia to America in less than a month. God is so good! So now I want to tell you about 42 years ago, my husband was born to a women that didn't know who his father was. She gave him up, yet keep his older brother since he could feed himself. She chose a life of partying rather than raising her boys. Tim was born premature and almost died. Until his aunt and uncle stepped up to raise him as their own. They were both older, they both had a previous marriage and together in all had 10 children. But with out any planning they jumped right in and decided he deserved a chance. When Tim was a young adult he realized that God had saved his life and He felt he owed God something. He told me when we first started dating that He felt he owed God a life. He has felt that way for more than 20 years and this year on his 42nd birthday, we bring Heaven home. This is truly a gift that only God can give. God has big plans for this sweet little girl, I love that fact that we get to be apart of her amazing story. So this Wednesday June 15th we will celebrate with Tim and Heaven, as they bond together and we all start a journey on a path lead by God.

Please continue to keep us all in your prayers for safe travels and for a doctor for Heaven.

Hope for Heaven

It's been a long week with very little sleep. I have been on Africa time and Tennessee time. However I can now just go back to Tennessee time, no more late nights calling Sumer and the embassy, plus sending emails. Last Wednesday at 10:30 am I received Heaven's passport and at 2pm I hit the send button on my computer it was the application for Heaven's visa. Now it was night time in Africa so I couldn't do to much. I contacted some politicians and got them on board, they sent the Embassy some emails and pushed a little. I must say I'm not a big fan of politics (Sorry Jon) however I'm really starting to like them. So Thursday morning we found out that the guardianship paper didn't get an official stamp on it from the Ethiopian government and that the offices was closed so we would have to wait until morning to get a stamp. Which meant that no matter how hard we pushed Heaven's chance of making it on that plane was slim to none. On Friday they didn't get the stamp until after the embassy was closed. But we was able to get an appointment for an interview first thing this morning. God has had his hand on this the whole time! A week ago as I was nerves about putting a little girl that was was in cardiac arrest a few weeks ago on a airplane that fear totally left me. It was a week ago Sunday and I had ask a sweet friend to travel with me, which will also be Heaven's pediatrician, she told me we could work something out. As I set through that church service I realized we didn't need to work anything out, God would do that. As I set there through service (Sorry Pastor Tom I have no idea what your message was, however God was showing me one sitting there)all I could see was a plane traveling west in the air with giant hands around it, the fear of putting her on the plane was gone, because God would have the plane in His hands that she will be boarding soon. Back to today... Heaven got her visa! She will be here soon. Now off to make some very important travel plans!