Good Morning Friends and Family!

Psalm 105:1

¹ Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness.
Let the whole world know what he has done. New Living Translation

We have great news! We have been assigned court dates! It is an amazing story!

Please know that we are so grateful for all of your prayers! It is to God's glory that

I can write this email this morning!

Just some background and a little explanation as to what the process will look like!

Sorry it's a long story but you do need the details!!

Our documents/papers went to the court for approval on/about July 29. At that point

we were praying that we would be assigned our court dates before the court shuts down

for recess. The recess starts August 6 and goes until the beginning of October. So you can

see why we were hoping to hear something. We could plan our flights (tentatively) and

take care of some other details.... In my mind it would have been such a sweet piece of

the whole pie! Well needless to say, the 6th of August came and went with no word

for us. I surrendered "my plan" to the Lord and resolved in my heart that this is the

way it has to be! God has a plan and He will be glorified through it! I was really ok with

waiting if that was what the Lord was doing! As I prayed I did have this conviction from

the Lord that was telling me "Just watch what I am going to do" Of course I wanted

so desperately to shout that from the roof tops! "Hey, the courts may be closed, but

God is still going to do something!!!" I think I told a few people of my thoughts but really

just have laid it to rest over the past couple of weeks.

On Monday, Roger and I were talking about him scheduling his last week of vacation. He

has to take it but can reschedule it if need be. So we talked about what the turn around time

might be once court opens again. Could we possibly be told of our court dates and have

only a few weeks to schedule flights and get there? I decided to talk with our agency on Tuesday and find out any info that I could. Basically, yes, it could happen but most likely there would

be a bigger gap in the time span between finding out and actually traveling. We talked about the time table and ended up in a place of "waiting". I am good with waiting for what is best...I just have a hard time sometimes when I think about us being here and Bedilu being there.....just waiting! That said, Roger was going to give up (switch) a week that he already had scheduled. The week of deer hunting. He decided that he probably wouldn't go for the whole week. So that would open that week for someone(a lot of guys want that week, especially one guy he works with) and then he would reschedule both weeks earlier in the fall.

Now, fast forward to Wednesday! As I was working on an email to someone I received one from our case manager from our agency! The subject line read~ Congratulations on receiving court dates! I looked at it and said, out loud, oh my no way.... what ..... oh my....I can't believe it!!! The kids said "what??" I told them "we have court dates!!!" I actually tried to check to see if we received this email by mistake..... how could this be?, we just talked yesterday about it being October before we would know anymore! I didn't realize it at the time but our case manager had also left a voice mail on my cell phone. I wish you all could hear it! She said that she had good news for us. WE had been assigned court dates. She was amazed! She said that the judge had been so busy the last week that the court was open, she never got to the 100 cases sitting on her desk. She decided to go back in and resolve those 100 cases so the work load wouldn't be so much when she came back! Amazing...a miracle! This just isn't supposed to happen!! It shouldn't have happened by our standards!!!!!! God is so faithful! She also said that this was unprecedented....it has never happened before that a judge would go back and work on cases after the court had closed! She was joyful as she left her message!! Oh I cannot express my love for God! I am in awe of how He speaks! That I could hear Him! Oh how awesome is He! A great reminder that He is always at work! Even when we don't see it... He is everywhere all of the time... we are not...we are only in one place at one time...and can only see what is right in front of us... That is why we look to Him and not to our circumstances! He is mighty in power!

Below I have copied the plan and what each court date involves! Also I have a prayer list! Thanks so much for all of your support!

Praise God!! You go God!!!!! I knew it!!!! I just knew He was going to do something!!!!! He did!!!

1 Samuel 3:11 (New International Version)

¹¹ And the LORD said to Samuel: "See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle.

· The first hearing date will be Thursday, October 21, 2010. At this time the Ministry of Women’s Affairs will submit their recommendation concerning your adoption to the court, and the judge will interview the responsible parties for relinquishing the child(ren) for adoption.

· Your second hearing date is scheduled for Monday, November 22, 2010. At this time prospective adoptive parents need to be present in Addis Ababa to give consent to the adoption before the judge. There is some flexibility with this date if it creates a conflict for you, but you must request an alternate date from the court and wait for a response.

Prayer Requests

~Please pray for Bedilu! That God would prepare his little heart to meet us! That our hearts would melt together when we meet! He might be scared...pray for peace for him!

~Please pray that we pass our court date on October 21st! If/when we pass this date we will be able to confirm our flights and prepare for out trip!

~Please pray as we continue to contemplate taking Sam and Jacob with us on the first trip! Lots to consider and think about where they are concerned. Pray for their hearts to be moved by the Lord!

~Please pray for our travel arrangements....that God would just line everything up!

~Please pray for other details to be taken care of..... vaccinations, visas, paperwork, etc.

~Please pray for all of the orphans in the world....we know that God has a plan for each and every one of them!

Love laurie

for the hebbe family!