Pray for Micah

Aimee's recent email:

We returned to the Horizon House from the birth family visit this afternoon. Micah has a ruptured ear drum! He has a lot of drainage in his ear. He is pretty mellow. So, I don't think he is in a lot of pain, but I am nervous about him flying home. Please pray that he will be healed so he won't be in pain for the flights!! We have him on drops and anti-biotics now.

Family Visit Update

Here's the latest news:

We are safely in Awassa - hardly! It was a crazy trip - what else is new? We had the birth family visit. Wow! I am exhausted. Everyone cried - so crazy. I will give details when I can complete a thought.
When I went to kiss Awate goodbye this morning he was wearing a lavendar velour sweat suit, hood up - it said "tweet" with littlebirds on it. I cracked UP!!! I took a picture. Funny stuff.


Hopefully we'll get some more details tonight:)
Lauren

Birth Family Visit

Aimee and Dan are on their way to meet Micah Awate's relatives. You can pray that this will be a great experience for both them and the birth family. I can't imagine how hard it would be as adoptive parents to express their gratitude to the birth family who has lost so much. Having to speak through an interpretter makes this difficult situation even harder. So we can pray that the Lord would amazingly bless their interactions with this family and that they'd receive information to pass on to Micah later in his life.

They are leaving Micah at the Horizon House with his nannies while they go on this trip. When they get back they will have Micah with them the rest of the time:) Hopefully all the paperwork stuff goes well and the Neal family will all be reunited on Saturday!

Thanks so much for all your prayers.

New Update

Here's the email I received this morning. They're having a hard time with the accessing the internet. So whatever pictures they upload on dropshots we're lucky to have:)

The days are beyond long here! I am sure they will pickup a little, but we are in the small compound of the orphanage all the time. I took a walk to the Horizon House 2 where some of the older kids are. Every room you walk into the kids yell "Mommy! Mommy!" I had my sunglasses on and they all went crazy trying them on! It was so adorable. I ended up leaving the glasses there for kids to play with(someone brought them back later). The kids are just so loved and cared for and so adorable!

We went out for a bit yesterday and had our first encounter with kids begging. Wow! It broke my heart - obviously.

We are going to the embassy soon - I feel like I've written that 800 times, but it's the only thing planned. We are enjoying having time to bond with our little man and playing with all the other kids. You learn their names and fall in love with them too. Most of them are referred and have parents waiting to come get them.

Introducing Micah Awate

Meeting Micah

They met him!! Here's the email I got this morning. Warning, get the tissues ready:

~Micah is awesome! We walked in the room and he was laying in his bed with his big ole eyes looking around. I picked him up and he was ready with kisses and smiles! He even had a poop waiting for me! We hungout for a few minutes and ate lunch - all the meals are served at the orphange. He fell asleep in my arms. We just gave him a bottle and he did great. He is a super happy, mellow guy so far. He hasn't cried yet since we've met him. He loves to look at his hands. He puts them in front of him and just stares. He has been laughing when Dan tickleshim. He is better than I could have imagined! You guys will LOVE him.

Aimee also mentioned that she's been feeling dizzy since they landed in Dubai. Please pray that she feels better soon.

They are working on uploading pix to www.dropshots.com/micahawate

Guest blogger

I didn't get full permission to write lots of updates, but she did give me the password so I figured I'd share what I know:) I'm Lauren, by the way, Aimee's sister. Here's the email I received from her early this morning (around 2am):

We made it! Our flight was super painless and very relaxing. We had monitors at each seat so we could watch tv shows and movies. The flight was pretty empty so we could also lay out in an entire row to sleep. Also, free drinks!!! There was a crazy guy behind us that literally talked for 12 hours straight. He ended up getting in a fight with the woman who was with him for talking too much! I was going to back her up if needed. We just checked into the hotel.
I feel weird when my arms and feet are showing around here. People will only address Dan - it's crazy. I just got an email that we will meet Awate's family on Tuesday. We will leave Addis at 6am and come back to Addis early Wednesday.
No idea if this is making sense...still very sleep deprived! Love you all and miss you!!!

I can't wait for tomorrow's update! I'm getting teary eyed just thinking about them finally being with Micah.

The comedian awaits....

I have gotten a few emails from a lady who is adopting Awate's cribmate Tadele. It has been great to get some glimpses of his personality before we get there. Here are some tidbits...

~I took another picture of Tadele and Awate together. Awate is a riot. Constantly tugging on Tadele's clothing...as Tadele just sleeps. They are cute.

~Awate and Tadele are crib mates. Tadele is usually sleeping and Awate is Mr. Comedian. He has been awake more than Tadele (I was concerned about how much Tad was sleeping). All the kids have a bit of a stuffy nose/runny nose thing going on...that is the life a baby for you though. Aimee, he is total riot...he is full of smiles and interacts with his nannies and the other people in the room a lot. He was full of giggles the first night we were here. You are going to just eat him up.

Leaving in 36 hours!!

We are on our way!!! Here is what our travels look like:

2/19 6AM Leave Detroit
2/19 8AM Arrive JFK
2/19 10:40AM Leave JFK
2/20 8AM Dubai time - Arrive in Dubai
2/21 8AM Leave Dubai
2/21 11:35AM Arrive Addis Abada - drive straight to Horizon House and meet Mr. Micah Awate Neal

This is how you can be praying for us....

• the trip - health, safety,
• the kids at home - peace, security
• grammy and bubba - sanity!
• Micah - that he won't be scared of the white people taking over his care
• arrival home - adjustment for everyone!
• I am struggling with not wanting to leave my kiddos. Those of you who had the pleasure of being around when I was 11 (or something - I have no memory) and was leaving to go to California with grandma can appreciate my apprehension. I just like to be with my people or have my people with me. I am considering therapy. Let me know your thoughts : )

Thank you!

ONE WEEK!!!

One week from today Dan and I will be on a plane to Dubai for an overnight stay and then on to Ethiopia!! This wait has been so long and I have coped very well with a tactic called DENIAL! It's not serving me so well now that we are leaving in a week!

I am nervous, excited, scared, sad, happy, worried, thrilled, anxious and more nervous. I am worried about leaving my three kids home. But at the same time, excited to get my hands on Micah Awate Neal! I am nervous about our adjustment once we are home.

I know that once I fall in love with those sweet cheeks and baby breath all the rest will fade away! I'm comin' baby....