Update

I just wanted to update everyone on where we are at in the process. Since we passed court right away, now Loza is legally our daughter! Yeah! Now we wait for her passport and birth certificate to be made and sent to our adoption agency. This typically takes three weeks. Zach and I have finished all the paperwork on our end....so now we wait..again..hehe. When our agency has all the documents they will submit our case to the US embassy in Ethiopia. From there two things can happen. They can accept our case and we can fly down whenever we want to get her, or they can ask for more documents and then it would take longer. We are praying for the end of June, early July! We can't wait to bring Loza home...so excited! Thank you everyone for your love and support!

May 18th, 2011

Well, today is our last day. I am feeling much better today. We went and hung out with Loza for three hours. She is so funny. She eats so fast. Zach couldn't feed her fast enough and she was getting upset. She has the best personality. She is so content and smiles all the time. It was very hard to say goodbye and leave her. The nannies said not to worry they would take good care of her. I know they will, but it is still so hard. Hopefully it will go by fast and then we can come back and get her. We ate at the Zebra today for lunch and it had a great view of the city. We just came back to the hotel and am hanging out until we fly out at 11PM.

May 17th, 2011

Today we had our courtdate at 8:30AM. We waited outside the courthouse until 9:00am and then our Illien representative arrived and took us up to a small room. We waited there until the judge called us in. We did not wait very long. The room was full of all different types of nationalities...Italians, Israelis, German. I was not expecting that. The judge was very pretty. She was dressed very elegantly. We just sat on some chairs and she asked us if we had any children at home? If we met Loza? If we will teach her ethiopian culture? If we are ready to handle racial issues? That was it. We were very lucky because the MOWA letter was there. We passed right away. I got very sick today so after visiting Loza I went home and slept all night. Zach went to Lime Tree for lunch and then an amazing pizza place at night. Loza is so great. She recognizes us right away and smiles all the time. She has such a great personality.

May 16th, 2011

We asked the nannies yesterday where Loza's name came from. They said the name is biblical from Jacob's story in Genesis 28. The story is Jacob had to flee from his brother so he was on his way to live with his uncle and he stopped for the night at a city and made camp. During the night Jacob had an amazing dream from God. When he woke up this is what he said "God is in this place-truly. And I didn't even know it: incredible. Wonderful. Holy. This is God's house. This is the Gate of Heaven" Genesis 28:17 The Message....The place where he had this encounter was Loza....In the English translation it is called Luz...but in the amharic translation(which is their native language) the place is called Loza and that is where she got her name from. It is a very amazing story and one which has stamped my heart forever....the really cool part is that everyone knows we are going to name her Loza Journey Robbins. In Genesis 28:20 it says this "If God stands by me and protects me on this JOURNEY on which I'm setting out, keeps me in food and clothing, and brings me back in one piece to my Father's house, this God will be my God." So...officially her first and middle name are in this whole story from the Bible. Zach and I are just in awe of how amazing God is and how detailed he is. This last verse has been what I have been praying through the past two years through this adoption process....very amazing stuff...

Very busy day today. Had breakfast and then went and visited Loza. She was very active today. She is smiling at both Zach and I a lot. She was talking a lot of babble and Zach got to feed her and change her today. We are so in love with the little kids there. After visitation time we exchanged money and then had lunch at Dembit Dome. We met Tsedey today and she was awesome. She is the women who forsees Illien Adoptions in Addis. She prepped us for the court hearing tomorrow and told us that our MOWA letter was there so we should pass court tomorrow. That is awesome news!! We went "shopping" at the post office today and bought all sorts of authentic Ethiopian treasures. Zach was hilarious...he was bargaining all over the place. AFter that we came home and took a nap. Teddy took us to an authentic ethiopian restaurant tonight called Yod Abyssiania. It was awesome. We all shared a meal and ate with our hands. They had live entertainment and dancing. It was an awesome experience. I am exhausted...headed to bed. Big Day Tomorrow.

May 15th, 2011

We left May 13th and flew from Billings, Montana to Denver. Denver to Frankfurt Germany. From Germany to Addis Ababa Ethiopia. I forgot what it is like to hear all different languages and have no idea what people are saying. The whole travel experience went very well, but very exhausting. The time difference between Addis and Billings is 9 hours. The best part so far is meeting other families that are adopting. We met a very nice lady adopting a little boy and there are other families in Yebsabi( our guest house) that are adopting from Rawanda, we just haven't had the chance to talk with them yet. Today is the day we get to meet Loza...YEAH! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. I'm having a hard time believing that this day has finally arrived.

We had the most amazing breakfast at our guesthouse. The chef is amazing. We had an omelet and Zach loves the coffee. After breakfast Denknish and Teddy( our driver) picked us up and took us to the orphanage. The ride there was very interesting. The streets are crazy. The orphanage is on a hill tucked away. All the kids from the orphanage were outside and followed us in. They sat us down and brought in Loza. She couldn't stop staring at us and touching our face...she is so precious. We spent the rest of the time playing with the orphans and holding Loza. The kids are amazing. After we said goodbye our driver Teddy took us to Amsterdam( a restaurant) for lunch and it was delicious. There are 9 families that are adopting children from Rawanda at our guesthouse. All the kids are so cute. It is fun to have all the families here and share stories. Zach played soccer with some local boys for a little while and then we had dinner at Yebsabi. Can't wait to hang out with Loza again tomorrow.

The Day Has Arrived!

Wow, I can't believe that I have not posted for 2 years...haha..it doesn't seem possible :) I have updated our blog and will be posting now consistently considering we are leaving for Ethiopia in 1 week! Yeah! We leave May 13th and will be in Ethiopia until May 19th! I will try and post as much as possible while I am there. We have a beautiful baby girl named Loza. She is six months old and we are just so excited to meet her! I will post pictures as soon as we legally can! Thank you to everyone that has stuck by us these past two years! There is light at the end of the tunnel :) All our Thanks and Glory to God who has opened every door and every heart through this process! Can't wait to meet you Loza!