Dear praying friends,
Jaci and I thank you for praying for us.
Yesterday was our court day and after being at the courthouse from 9:30 am we finally were sent off for lunch for 2 hours and came back at 2:00 pm... our case came before the judge about 3:00 pm... our appearance lasted about 6 minutes... and then she declared us officially the parents of Bethlehem! :)
One potential problem came to nothing (the ministry of women's affairs did not like the fact that a mistake had been crossed out and changed on our wedding license from Oregon in 1976). Our attorney prepared us for that situation and said we would need to convince the judge... but she said it was no big deal. We credit that to the prayers of many people both back home and here.
We were at court yesterday with Dave & Kris Adam, also from our church in Washington, so that was a very special treat. We could not have planned that if we had tried. That too was a God thing!
The hardest part of the day was seeing Bethlehem say goodbye to her mother. She broke down in tears and sobbed and sobbed. That happened again a couple of times yesterday. It is getting less frequent and she continues to be very sweet... but we know this is very hard for her. Also for her mother of course.
We had hours with Abaynesh yesterday... standing around waiting for our court time... and then sitting in the waiting room outside the judge's room. Most of that time we could not communicate very much due to the language barrier... but we tried... and occasionally a translator was around to help. We loved the time to get acquainted with Abaynesh! And the video tape YWAM took of our time with her with the help of a translator will be a priceless treasure both for us and for Bethlehem!
Please continue to pray for Bethlehem (and Abaynesh) to adjust and experience God's peace!
I have not been able to access my email accounts on the internet, except for a couple of days I did get on my gmail account. So please forgive us for not emailing more.
Later today I will try to post some photos... now I need to go spell Jaci and spend some more time playing with Bethlehem.
We love our new daughter!
And we love and appreciate you!
Jim for the 3 of us
