Christmas come and gone...

Hi everyone,

Well, another Christmas has come and gone. Like so many others, this one was filled with the sounds of children squealing with happiness as presents were opened and the excitement of anticipating the arival of Santa. It really is a joy to watch our niece and nephew open their gifts.

However, this Christmas was just a little bitter sweet. We had hoped that we could have our sweet little Henok home with us to celebrate his first christmas, however, that just didn't happen. The sadness of not having him here will fade quickly, as we realize that in just over a week we will be Parents for the first time.

We continue to pray (and ask for your prayers also) that Henok's court date, 01/04/08, will come and go without any problems and that we will finally receive the gift we have waited so long for.

We are making our final preparations for travel and gathering up all of the humanitarian aid that we will be bringing with us. It seems like so much has to be done, but it really is small compared to what we have already accomplished. God has been so good to us throughout this whole process and we just thank Him so much for His faithfulness and mercy.

From our Family to Yours, we wish Peace, Love, and Joy in the year to come.
Happy New Year!

In His Service,

Matthew

Waiting Patiently....

Hi everyone,

Well, we've booked our flight tickets and made our reservations. Apparently Addis Ababa has become quite a major tourist destination as many of the hotels and guest houses are all filled up... ;(

We were finally able to make reservations to stay at the Addiskidan Baptist Guesthouse. It's a nice guest house and as a plus we will get to share it with another family from our area that are going with us to get their 2 children! We picked up some of the calling cards to make it easier to get in touch with the right people. Internet email seems to be touch and go. Of the 19 places Renee emailed, I think 17 came back as undeliverable, and the other two were nice places but a bit more expensive than we had hoped for.

We are so grateful to God for taking care of us in getting us the flight tickets and reservations we needed. All in all, it will come out much less expensive than we were planning for (Praise God!).

WOW this wait is excruciating. I thought the last 5 months were bad, but this last month seems to be crawling by.. ;) God has tought me during this process that His timing is never to early and never too late... Just always at the right time.

I'll update soon. Till then, take care and have a Merry Christmas!

In His Service,

Matthew

We have our Court Date

We are very happy to share with everyone that we have our Court Date!

The Court Date is set for 01/04/2008, and we will be expecting to be in-country the week of 01/14/2008!! Praise God!

Please continue to pray that everything goes well and there are no problems!

In His Service,

Matthew & Renee

Adoption Funding COMPLETE....

Hi everyone...

We have very exciting news. We have completed the funding for our adoption!!!! We received a $3000 matching grant 2 weeks ago from Life International. Because of the very generous donations from Renee's Grandmother, and our Church Family, we received all of the funds needed to max out the matching grant. $6000 towards our adoption finishes us out!!!

God's Grace and Mercy are endless, and we give praise, honor, and glory to Him for the way he has faithfully provided for this adoption every step of the way. Please join us in giving Thanks to God for what he has done!!!

Now, we are only waiting to hear back from our in-country representative on when our court date will be. Once our court date is complete, we will be traveling within 2 weeks to pick up our son!

In His Service,

Matthew & Renee

Surprise Pictures of Henok

Hello everyone!

Just a small treat for you all today. Last week we received some pictures of Henok taken 2 weeks ago by the Grange family while they were in Ethiopia picking up their beautiful little girl Zoe.

Drew and Carey had seen our blog just before they left for Ethiopia and rememered Henok, and took these pictures for us.

We cannot express the gratitude we feel, and we thank you both from the bottom of our hearts!
So, here's our boy... ;)

We hope everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving! Take care and I'll write again soon with updates... ;)

In Christ,

Matthew

Dossier on it's way to Ethiopia

Hello!

We got word today from Gladney that our Dossier has left the country and is on it's way to Ethiopia! One step closer to having our son home with us!

Please continue to pray that everything goes well with our adoption funding, and say a special prayer of peace for Henok, as he is very anxious and excited about coming home soon.

In all things, we will continue to Praise His Name!

In His Service,

Matthew

Mr. Dossier goes to Washington

Sorry about the title, I just thought it was funny... ;)

We got word today from Kate that our Dossier is now completed and is on its way to Washington! After about a week in Washington, it will be on its way to Ethiopia. After about 3 weeks, we will finally get our court date scheduled!

We are getting so close... We still have some financial needs that have to be sorted out and we would really appreciate it if you would continue praying that God will meet our financial needs to complete this adoption and bring our son home. Thank you!

In His Service,

Matthew & Renee

We got our I-171H

Hi everyone!

Well, our wait is finally over. We received our I-171H from CIS today, so we are now offically approved to adopt Henok by the US Government, and finished with our Dossier!!! Now we get it notarized and sent to Kate to process with our dossier, and then we wait for our dossier to be sent to Ethiopia. The next big step is to get our court date in Addis... Then we travel a few weeks after that!

Such an exciting day, indeed! We give thanks to God for bringing us this gift today.

In His Service,

Matthew

Dozier's Get a Court Date

Hi Everyone!

We got word this week that the first family from our group down here in Texas got their court date set, and will be traveling to Ethiopia the week of December 10th. Congratulations!

We are so very happy that this is finally starting to come together for the families here. Several other families have had their dossiers sent to Washington, DC for final authentication before being sent to Ethiopia for translation and authentication there. It won't be long before we have many new Texans to celebrate with!

With this great news comes a small glimmer of sadness. Our hopes of having Henok home for the Holidays this year are slowly slipping away from us. We are still waiting to hear back from CIS on our final approvals. Once we get that, then it's still about 6 to 8 weeks until we travel, barring any other complications.

So, it looks as though we may be traveling in late January or early February to pick up Henok. I guess it would be a treat to be able to travel to Ethiopia and pick up our son for our 5th anniversary!

In all things, we give glory to God, and thank Him for this honor that He has given us.

In His Service,

Matthew

Grace Falls Like Rain...

It has been so amazing to watch God move in our lives through this adoption process. Even though I have seen His generosity over and over, it still moves me when it happens again.

We received the wonderful news today that we received an anonymous donation of $5000. To God be the Glory!

From the bottom of our Hearts, we give thanks to the individuals who made this gift possible, and we pray someday to be able to repay the kindness and generosity that you have shown.

Thank you!

Matthew & Renee

God is so Good...!

Hi Everyone,

Sorry to be so longwinded, but here it goes...

I have to admit that I have been really down lately. Praying has been so hard the last few months because I feel like a broken record. "Please God. Please let the paperwork be done soon. Please let us get the money that we need to pull this thing off." I entered this Adoption with the knowledge that we just didn't have the funds necessary to do it. We had been preparing for it, but we totally underestimated just how overwhelmingly draining this would be... both emotionally and financially.

Back in April when we found out that children from Ethiopia were coming here for the Gladney camp, we met with some of the members of a neighboring church that were already committed to adopting some of the children. They wanted us to come and talk to them about it and see if we were interested. In the back of my mind, I was thinking that this was crazy, and definately not possible. Renee was so excited, and I was feeling really sad knowing that I would have to break her heart again by saying no. We just can't afford this now. It's just not possible.

We listened to what these wonderful people had to say, and it all sounded really great. And to add the icing on the cake... We had to make a decision by tomorrow!?!? What? One day to decide something SO important? There's just no way that this is possible. We left there that night and talked about it, both of us admitting that there was one boy that we were drawn to. Both of us were drawn to a boy named "Henok".

Renee asked me on the way home what I thought about it all. She was ready to jump in right then and say YES!. I just kept feeling that this just wasn't possible. She agreed I was right, and didn't give me too hard of a time about it. However, she asked me to pray about it and see what Gods will was. Laying it all down and letting God decide has never been one of my strong points. I always let my 'logic' take over. Far to many times in my life I have ignored the call that God was placing before me in favor of my 'reasoning'. That night I tossed and turned praying to God to lead me where he wants me to go. But still I asked God, "How is this possible?" We just don't have the money to do this. I finally drifted off to sleep very late.

The next morning on the way to work, I prayed and prayed that God would guide me in this decision, and I kept asking God just how we could fund an adoption at this time. Once I got to work, I furiously scoured passages in the Bible to find some sense of Gods will for this. I had almost given up when I opened the bible that morning at the office one last time before finally getting to work. It was Gods hand that guided me to the passage that was before me. There was no mistaking His Words. I opened the bible and was brought directly to Mark 9:23.

My question was "How is this possible?" Gods answer was clear. Jesus said, "Everything is possible for him who believes." Ok God. I understand what you're asking of me. I'll just be obedient to this call, and you'll take care of the rest. I called Renee immediately and told her that we needed to adopt this little boy. She was VERY happy to say the least. We both agreed then that we would sit back and watch God amaze us with his generosity and faithfulness...

Up until last Thursday, I hadn't prayed in over two weeks. I was feeling really down and questioning whether or not I made the right decision to go forward with this adoption. I was feeling like I put us in a really bad financial situation, and was worrying how we were going to get the rest of the money together. I confided in Renee about my prayer problems, and she was insistant that I pray immediately for Gods guidance. Still, in my weakness, I couldn't pray.

Friday morning on the way to work I broke down. I asked God to forgive my doubt and to restore my faith. The prayer seemed to come so effortlessly. I reaffirmed my faith that somehow, someway, God would make this adoption happen and that HE would take care of the funding. He said he would do it. I believed it then, and I believe it now.

I got an email Friday morning from Gladney after I got to work that we were awarded a $2000 grant from the Ashenafi's Gift organization...... God is so Good! Even in my faithlessness, He shows me just how faithful He is, and reminds me that He keeps His word.

Needless to say, I have a renewed sense that we made the right decision. We chose to be obedient to the call of God even when it didn't make any sense to us. Now I pray each day that I can be that faithful in all the parts of my life.

Matthew

Unexpected Surprise

Hi everyone. Well, today we received a most unexpected, yet totally amazing surprise. We received a comment on our blog site from Guus and Jeanette who live in Holland. They had seen our blog and wanted to share something wonderful with us.

They too have adopted from Ethiopia, and as it turns out, from the same orphanage that Henok lives in. They have two very beautiful daughters, who i'm sure have brought such a wonderful happiness into their lives! They are adorable...

Now, on to our surprise. During their trips to visit Kechene Orphanage in 2000, 2004, and 2007, they had the opportunity to meet many children that were in the orphanage. Jeanette said that they remembered Henok, and had some pictures of him from their visits, and offered to send us the pictures!!!

Even though Renee and I have been so happy to have been given the opportunity to adopt Henok, who is 11 years old, we were sad that we never got to meet him and know him when he was younger. This surprise was such a wonderful gift from God and an answer to many prayers.

To Jeanette and Guus: Thank you so much for for this special gift you have given us. We look forward to hearing from you again and getting to know your family as our children grow. From the bottom of our hearts, Thank you!

Now, for a quick teaser pic, here is one of Henok from 2004. He was about 7 or 8 at this time! Hope you all enjoy this as much as we have.

Matthew

CIS....DONE

We went to Houston today and had our fingerprints done at the CIS office. There were a ton of people there and it took us several hours before we were called to get our prints. However, it is finally done, and now we wait......

This is a major hurdle, and now we are looking for that I-171 to come in the mail hopefully within the next 6 weeks! This is the US Governments official approval for us to adopt, as well as the document we need to get Henok's official Visa to enter the country.

We are in full swing with our Dossier. We sent the first round of documents to Kate at KBS Dossiers. As expected, there are some changes that were needed, but nothing out of the ordinary. Renee's birth certificate was too old, so we had to order a current one from California. No biggie... We should have that in the next week or so.

It looks like the last major hurdle will be getting the rest of the funds together to pay for the adoption. However, we entered this adoption process knowing that it would be God who makes this adoption happen, and we have full faith that He will provide the funds to make it so. We have applied for several grants, but it looks like we will need to do some sort of 0% interest covenant loan to finish out the cost of the plane tickets and whatever other costs come up on our end. No big deal, but we are still trusting God to bring us the funds!

That's all for now. Take care and God Bless!

Matthew

CIS Fingerprint Appointment!

Hello all! We got our CIS fingerprinting appointment paperwork this weekend!

We have to go to Houston on 9/11/07 to have our fingerprints done. One more thing checked off the list. We also got 5 more notarizations done! Everything is coming along good with the Dossier. We will be sending a bunch of of paperwork to Kate soon to start the authentication process.

We also got our first letter from Henok last week. What a rush! He is such a sweet young man. We were so excited to get mail from him! He says that he is doing fine and misses everyone here.

Well, that's it for now. Will write again when we get more info.

Matthew

FBI Clearances Returned!

Hey... we got our FBI Clearances back today. "No Arrest Record" as we suspected for both Renee and Myself. Good news, to say the least.

Not a whole lot else to report. We are in a bit of a waiting game right now. We are still waiting to hear from CIS about when our Fingerprinting will be scheduled. That's the really big next step, and it can't get done fast enough.. ;)

Well, we have filled out a few grant applications and such...to help cover the Gladney costs for the adoption. However, we still need to come up with a way to fund the rest of the fees that we don't have to pay directly to Gladney (i.e. $5000 or so for plane tickets to Ethiopia, and the whole dossier authentication and such...) We remain humble and watch God provide each step of the way, and he will provide this as well.

Take care, and check back often for more updates!

Love,

Matthew

Officially Gladney Approved!!!

Hi everyone... Great news today. We received our official Gladney approval along with our Homestudy approval today!!!!

This means that they will now send our Homestudy to CIS and we can begin the process of getting our US immigration approval! Hopefully sometime in the next month or so we will get our appointment to go get fingerprinted for CIS. This is the next major hurdle.

God is so good!

Love,

Matthew

Henok's U.S. Adventure

So we took like 900 pictures while Henok was here, and I thought it was time we share some of ours and Henoks favorites. These are the pictures that he took back to Ethiopia with him so he wouldn't forget us. Enjoy!

Link moved to Top of Blog

You can also click the link below to look at the full resolution pictures individually. You will need to sign up for a Walgreen's Photo account to view the pictures, but with that you can also order pictures and have them printed at any Walgreen's near you, or you can download them to your PC and print them for FREE! Enjoy!

Henok's Photo Album

Making some progress...

Well, we have been making some good progress in getting the paperwork done. We both got fingerprinted for our FBI clearances yesterday. That was a lot of fun. No in our our fingers, though; they used the updated computer fingerprint scanner to do ours.

We got the Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) paperwork sent off last week and received confirmation that they received it today. We have a few things left to wrap up so we can get our Home study and formal adoption approval taken care of, and then they will send that to CIS and we will be in good shape. They will process the information and schedule us to get our fingerprints done. The CIS process can take up to 3 months to get the formal I-171H approval.

We got a ton of notarizations done this morning for our Foreign Dossier. We are in really good shape there. We are now waiting on all of the approval documentation from Gladney and CIS and then we can send the dossier off to get authenticated. That could take a month or so. Once the formal dossier authentications done, then we just need to finish up raising the money for this thing.

We wanted to send out a special thanks to Suzanne Faske of Here I Am Orphan Ministries (http://www.angelfire.com/or3/hereiam/) and their entire group for the generous donation they made on our behalf (and many other adoption families) to Gladney. They have such a wonderful heart for Gods children, and have made such a positive impact on our lives and the lives of so many others. From the bottom of our hearts, Thank you!

Well, here's a funny little video we took the afternoon of the last day we had with Henok. I realized that I had never shared some of the Aggie pride with him, and here is what happened when I began to teach him... Enjoy!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Take care and we will keep you updated on this Adventure of ours.

All is quiet in the house...

Hello everyone.

Well, our 2 weeks with Henok has ended and there is such a quiet sadness in our home. I cannot describe to you the amount of joy Henok has brought to our lives in just 2 weeks, but our hearts were overflowing with happiness.

Now... the hard part. Henok and the other children from Ethiopia have returned to their "other" home and now the waiting process begins. At this point, only God really knows when we will be able to go get Henok and bring him Home for good. Our only prayer now is that God will keep him safe during this time and that there will be no barriers in our way (logistical or financial) to hinder the process.

Renee and I wanted to thank everyone that had the opportunity to meet Henok for opening your hearts to him. It means so much to us that you would welcome him into our family with open arms. From the bottom of our hearts, Thank You.

Well, no pictures this time... but I will post some more soon. Until then, please continue to keep us and Henok in your prayers asking for a speedy return to America.

Love,

Matthew & Renee

Settling in at home

Hello everyone. Well, we have enjoyed being back home for the last week. The first few days after Henok arrived were spent on the road, and he was very happy to be able to stay home the last week.

We had a very fun time on Sunday out at the Faske's Ranch (Thank's Suzanne for opening your home and your heart to all of us!). All of the families from this area got together and had BBQ, and a whole lot of fun.

We found that Henok loves to go fishing. He also caught a bunch of minnows and wanted to bring them home so we could raise them in a tank! So now we have about 3 minnows left and we just added some tetras and Henok (and Mom) are enjoying that alot!

One thing that we were worried about was how well Henok would like the food. Well, he has done well, and has been very good about trying all the different foods that we throw at him. Some things he likes, and some things... well... he spits out and says with a determined look on his face... "NO!"

The last week has been a very important time for us as a family. Renee and I have bonded with Henok, and we can tell that he has begun bonding with us. He is very affectionate and loves hugs, which is good for our family because we LOVE to hug! Like any normal child his age, he has begun testing the limits and exhibiting some posessive tendencies with "His" toys. Sometimes he just doesn't want to share, which I think is totally understandable. Having to share for the last 10 years with a hundred other children, and now having his own toys can be overwhelming. However, he understands that he needs to be nice and share with his cousins.... ;)

The last few days have been bitter sweet for Renee and I. We both know that this time of joy must come to an end all too soon. I didn't expect to feel the way I do. I feel happy and excited, and yet there is a sense of despare in what must happen. He has to go back. We know that, but we don't like it. We have really only just begun to scratch the surface on this new relationship, and something just seems wrong about having to give that up now. But this was Gods plan from the beginning, and we accept that. We just don't like it. However, it has given us a much greater sense of urgency to get the paperwork done and get the money together and go get our Son and bring him Home for good!

Well, here are a few more pictures that we wanted to share with you. Enjoy and tune in soon for another update!

Henok in America!

Hi everyone...  wow!  What an exciting and crazy couple of days.  We have been on the road driving from Dallas to College Station and then to Groves, TX and now finally back to Houston for some 4th of July action.  All in the last 4 days!

Well, we picked Henok up at Gladney, and he is as beautiful as we we could have ever hoped.  He is smart and funny, very affectionate, and has a great sense of humor.  I definately think I'm going to enjoy this "Parenthood" gig... ;)

Just a few minutes after meeting Henok, he asked "You have Computer?"   I knew he was my Son... hahaha   I told him Yes, we have 3 computers, and his eyes got even bigger (if that's possible...;)

Well, it seems that Henok also loves to take pictures.  We gave him our old camera to use while he is here to take pictures of things he would like to remember, and he has gone through 7 sets of AA batteries and has well over 300 pics so far.  We are going to print many of them out for him to take back to Ethiopia with him so he can have some of his memories there while he waits for us to go back to get him.  I'm going to have to take out a loan to cover the cost of batteries until then...  hahahah....!

Well, we have taken well over 400 pictures over the last 4 days as well and I have a few that I want to share with everyone.  So, for now, here are a few pics.

Love you all, and hope to see you soon!

Matthew and Renee


        Henok Stylin' in his new threads!


                Eating dinner at the Church


           Cousins...  New best Friends!


          Henok LOVES video games!


         Watching Fireworks on July 4th!

About Henok

Henok Kechene

Est. DOB: Jan 2, 1996
Est. Age: 11

Orphanage: Kechene Children’s Home

Henok Kechene arrived at the orphanage on July 2, 1997. His age at that time was estimated to be 18 months. From that information, Gladney has set his birthday, for documentation purposes, on January 2, 1996. With that date, his current age is 11 years old.

Henok’s birth mother passed away when he was only 18 months old, and nothing is known about his birth father. He has no known siblings.

Henok has a basic knowledge of English.
Henok (pronounced Heh-knock) is a biblical name which translates to Enoch in English.
Henok is friendly, affectionate, and outgoing. He is in 4th grade and his favorite subject is science. He would like to be a scientist when he grows up. He enjoys reading in his free time. He also loves playing with babies and is also very good with his hands. He can often be found repairing or making new creations out of broken toys and electronics.

He gets along well with the other kids at the orphanage. He is a very eager student, but is sometimes so eager to answer questions in class that he forgets to listen to instructions. His desire for the special love of a family is strongly evident.

More to come as we learn more of our boy... ;)

Welcome to the Henok Adoption Blog!

Well, tomorrow is the big day. We go to pick up Henok in Dallas!

We are so excited and scared, but we know that this is what we have waited for. God has blessed us so much with this opportunity, and we have met so many wonderful couples that will be sharing this exciting journey with us.

I wanted to be able to share as much information with everyone that I could so I created this blog site so that we could do just that. I don't know how many of you will be able to meet Henok while he is here for the 2-week Bright Futures Camp, I thought this blog could serve as a place you all could come and get the most up to date information and pictures.

I hope you all enjoy the site, and we will keep you informed as this journey continues.

In Christ,

Matthew & Renee