Home at last!

We arrived home in Seattle Saturday night after about 30 hours of travel. We are doing great… adjusting well. Thank you for all your prayers and support and encouragement! Please keep praying for strong bonding and good adjustments… especially for Tarike to feel comfortable and love being in our family… and to have a strong spiritual desire and become a fully devoted follower of Christ! We love you! Jim & Jaci and family

Thank you for your prayers!

We just got off the plane in DC after about 16 hours of flying from Ethiopia.
Feels good to be in a familiar setting. 
We have really felt your prayers, and thank you so much!
Tarike has done so well… and we know God is helping us all.
I tried to upload a photo but had trouble on the limited airport internet.
Will wait now till we get home.
Thank you again for your prayers and encouragement on this journey.
Our love, 
Jim for us all 

Together at Last!

Dear friends,
We had a wonderful day today picking up Tarike at the Thomas Center in Addis Ababe, Ethiopia. She was definitely teary eyed saying goodbye to her friends and nannies. But she has done will the rest of the day. We arrived in Addis around 6:15 am this morning (Wednesday), made our way to the hotel, took  a nap, picked up Tarike at 2:00 pm and we've been together at the hotel since then. We enjoyed walking around the pool, playing on the playground, having an ice cream cone, and then watching video, TV, games, dinner in our room. Trying to keep it pretty simple and busy. Please keep praying. We are enjoying Tarike so much. We are also missing Bethlehem and the rest of the family back in the USA. We love you!
Jim & Jaci & Bethlehem

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EMBASSY DATE CONFIRMED!

We have a confirmed Embassy hearing on Thursday, Oct. 31st! So we booked our tickets… we are leaving on Monday for Addis, and return on Saturday night! A very quick trip this time! One reason is so we can come home on the same flights as another adopted child who Tarike has been with at the orphanage for some time. We hope that makes it easier for both of them. Please pray for health and safety and for Tarike to do well with all the change! Also for Bethlehem back home while we are gone. Thank you so much!                        We love you! Jim & Jaci 

ADDIS - Here we come!

We received the email we have been waiting for from the Embassy in Ethiopia this morning… we are cleared to set up our Embassy date! Yay! We will hopefully have a confirmed date and travel plans by tomorrow!              Blessings! Jim & Jaci

Embassy News!


Dear Friends and Family,
We heard from the US Embassy on Oct. 16 that they are now working on our file. Then on Friday, Oct. 18, we heard they are waiting for a missing paper for our file which should be arriving from the orphanage later this week. The good news is they are finally working on our file. However, we hear it can take anywhere from a few days to a couple of months for them to complete this step. We have also heard that at least one family that was in Ethiopia while we were has received clearance from the Embassy to come pick up their child. So our prayer is that our clearance to come pick up Tarike will be soon too! Thanks for your prayers! 
We love you, Jim & Jaci

Still No News - I keep waiting for something "substantial" to share. But I am thinking my definition of substantial and God's definition may be different. So... two more weeks have passed. It's now been something like 3 and 1/2 weeks since our file was accepted by the US Embassy in Addis. We understand the Embassy is behind and that we shouldn't expect to hear soon... but we were hoping by now we would have heard something. We are asking God for the grace to focus on what he is teaching and doing in our lives rather than get impatient and cranky. We trust the Lord is also accomplishing his perfect plans in Tarike so far away. Thank you for your prayers both for us and for Tarike. We love you! Jim & Jaci 

PS - Here is a photo of our family (minus Leah who took this photo - thanks Leah!) We celebrated Jeff & Jenae's birthday last weekend. We hope to celebrate Tarike's arrival to our family in America soon! :)

Friday, September 27, 2013

Thank you family and friends for all your love and support for our family!  We see your faces as we write this almost final update on our journey to bring our daughter home.  You have been a part of this incredible process.  Thank you so much! God is good!

Our adoption case was submitted to the US Embassy in Ethiopia just over a week ago.  We’ve been told that they are backed up at the Embassy.  So, we patiently wait for the email that says we can come and pick up our daughter.  We are hoping to get that email in the next week or so.  Please pray our file is approved with no additional requests (delays).

A couple family and friends have asked if we still need financial assistance.  The simple answer is yes.  If you would like to contribute towards our adoption, it is not too late.  We would ask that you send the funds to Lifesong for Orphans. Their address is PO Box 40, Gridley, Illinois, 61744. Use this phrase in the memo line of the check: Kennington #3753 adoption. This means your donation is tax deductible for you.

The estimated cost of this adoption is $35,000. We have personally contributed about 50% of the funds and the other half has come from generous donations from family and friends! Thank you so much for your investment in Tarike’s life!  

We plan to make a puzzle with all the friends and family who financially contributed and will send a picture of that out in a letter.  Also, we will try to post a final photo of bringing Tarike home.  We know that God has a life-time of learning for our family.

God bless you all for your love, interest, prayers, and finances.

We love you!
Jim & Jaci

Dear Friends,

We received this photo today. It is the most recent photo we have of Tarike Kennington. This is taken at the Thomas Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia... notice the traditional Ethiopian clothing! We are awaiting word from the US Embassy that our papers are complete and we can come pick her up! We expect that email might come in the next week or so... and that we may be traveling to Ethiopia to get Tarike in 2-5 weeks. Hopefully sooner than later! :) Would you please pray for God's perfect timing and for Tarike to be at peace and prepared for this big transition? Thank you so much! We love you!

Jim & Jaci 

Jaci & Tarike at the Thomas Center...

One bonus of staying in Addis the extra 5 days is we were able to see Tarike again on Monday before flying home. She was moved to the Thomas Center along with the other CHI children at the orphanage in Adama... so we saw her "home" until we come back for her. That was so nice!

Also - we were praying for the last few months for a miracle of being able to get into the adoption court before they closed for "rainy season." Well, we found out that we appeared on the very last day of court, and then they closed. This is great because it means we will likely be able to go get Tarike and bring her home 2-4 months earlier than if we had not gotten in before the courts closed. Praise God.

Thank you for your prayers and support!

We love you!
Jim & Jaci

Meet Tarike!

Here we are within an hour of meeting at the orphanage on Tuesday afternoon. We had such a sweet four hours together. Thanks for your prayers and support for our adoption! We love you! Jim & Jaci

IT'S OFFICIAL!


Dear Family and Friends!  

Greetings in the Name of Jesus Christ our Savior!!  If it wasn't for Him, we wouldn't be here right now!

We are so excited . . . yes, she is officially our daughter, Tarike Kennington!  She is a real jewel! We met her Monday at the orphanage and thoroughly enjoyed 4 hours with her there! Then today we passed court and it is official!

Thank you all for your love and support.  We love you all and know that God has blessed us through each of you!

Love, Jim and Jaci

PS - As soon as we figure out how to upload a photo we will do that! LOL!

Tomorrow we meet her!

Hi everyone,                                                                                                                                          We are in Ethiopia to meet our daughter on the 13th! It happened so fast that we didn't have time to say much. We have been here for a week now... visiting friends from Lake City and helping on a mission project. Now we get down to the matter of meeting our daughter tomorrow. We can't wait! After we pass court on Wednesday we can reveal her name and show photos!                     Thank you for praying! 

We love you, Jim & Jaci

COURT DATE! YAY!                                                                                                         Hi everyone, we received a phone call this morning with the news we have been waiting for. We are going to Ethiopia SOON! Possibly leaving Monday! Our court date is Aug. 14th and we will be meeting our daughter on August 13th. The best part of this is we get to go BEFORE court closes for rainy season. Thanks for praying! We are still working on the flight arrangements so we don't have those firmed up yet. Please pray for those to come together in such a way that it works well for visiting friends in Ethiopia, a YWAM project in Ethiopia, and getting back for our church's family camp. We are on wait list to get back in time for family camp, and won't likely know about that until Monday. Thank you again for your prayers! We love you! Jim & Jaci

Hi everyone,                                                                                                                                     I apologize that we haven't had more news to share lately. Sometimes the most difficult part of adoption is the waiting! We did hear today that the final paper has been submitted to court in Ethiopia and that we could get a court date as soon as tomorrow. One family did get a court date today of August 12. That is good news... it means that court isn't closing on August 6 as we had heard earlier. So we are praying we can still get a court date before the court closes for rainy season. We appreciate your prayers for this, and for Tarike too! We love you!
Jim & Jaci

ENJOYING THE TWINS
We are still waiting for news as to when we are going to Ethiopia for our court date. We did hear that the hold up is MOWA (Ministry of Women's Affairs in Ethiopia) has stopped doing their usually work to conduct an investigation of the Addis Ababa police department in some way. We hope they get back to work on adoption paperwork soon. CHI has 13 families (including us) who are waiting letters or other paperwork to be completed so they can receive their court dates!
In the meantime we are enjoying Jeff & Leah's twin boys, Jack & Wesley. They were born on the 4th of July, and they all went home (from hospital to Dupont) on July 8. They are so precious!
Thank you for your prayers for us and Tarike!
We love you,
Jim & Jaci

MAYBE THIS WEEK!                                                                                                                                We hope to hear this week when we go to court in Ethiopia and meet our daughter. At least that is what we heard. In the meantime we received some good news from Lifesong for Orphans... they approved us for a $2500 matching grant to help fund our adoption. We have roughly $12,000 to go ... mainly for the two trips to Ethiopia. This is our 2nd adoption, so we sort of expect to pay most of this ourselves over the coming months... but if the Lord does lead you to make a contribution, now is a great time. Plus it would mean you will be included in the puzzle we are going to make showing those who helped bring our daughter to America. If you want to make a contribution you send it to Lifesong for Orphans, PO Box 40, Gridley, Illinois 61744. Use this phrase in the memo line of the check: Kennington #3753 adoption. At this point we are very appreciative of any help! But most of all we appreciate your prayers for miss "T" and for us.                                                                                                               We love you! Jim & Jaci Kennington      

The Uncle Made It!

We heard that miss "T's" uncle did make it to his court appearance a week ago last Friday... that is great news! We also heard that the court in Ethiopia is behind on paperwork so it could be a while before we get our date to appear in court... hopefully we will hear something this week. Thank you for praying for us and for miss "T." Blessings, Jim & Jaci

Sunday from Lakewood!

Dear friends,
We are home for Israel... we haven't heard anything about how the uncle's court appearance went on Friday. CHI representative Kathy assures us that is good news... as she hears right away if there is a problem. We expect to hear more in the next few days and will update you as soon as we do. Thanks for you faithful prayers for us and our daughter. As soon as we pass court on the first visit we will be able to give you a name and photo of our newest member of the family.
We love you!
Jim & Jaci

Thursday from Jerusalem!

Friends, we are in Jerusalem on the last day of the Holy Land Tour we have been leading. We just heard from our adoption agency that miss T's relative is appearing in court in Addis Ababa June 14 (tomorrow). We have been told it isn't possible to go from Jerusalem to Addis in terms of getting a court date that soon so we aren't expecting that. But please pray with us for this court appearance to go successfully... He shows up and passes his interview. Pray too that if God does want to spare us flying home to the USA only to turn around and fly back to Ethiopia that CHI will allow this to work out. Of course, it is more than likely that our court date will be set for a couple weeks from now. And please continue to pray for miss "T" to be safe and prepared to meet us soon. We can't wait! We love you, Jim & Jaci

Great News!
We awakened today to this subject line on an email from Children's House International. The news is this: "I am pleased to tell you that your case was accepted at court today. I will let you know as soon as I hear more.  Likely we will know the first court date in a few weeks."

We are thrilled to hear this... it means all the paperwork required to submit our case was completed last week and the court in Ethiopia now has our file. I believe they will arrange for the grandmother to travel to Addis and interview her before they set a date for our court appearance. Although I am not completely sure how it all works. It has changed some since the last time we went through this. At any rate... it is a sign that things are progressing and that we will get a court date in the near future hopefully.

Our beautiful daughter turned 8 years old (on May 24) since we last updated our blog... our hope was to meet her before her 8th birthday... so it was a little sad to realize that we missed another birthday in her life. We have to rest in God's sovereignty for all of this!

We continue to pray for our case to speed along so we can make this trip before the courts close for rainy season (later in the summer). We invite you to join us in that prayer, and for God's protection over "T" and for her heart to be at peace and prepared for all the adjustments ahead of her. Thank you so much!

We love you! Jim & Jaci

Shoe Size Ethiopia Style!
Ten days have passed and we don't have much new to report. We did receive a letter in the mail from Joy, YWAM Adoption Ministry Director, with the tracings around miss "T's" feet so we know what size of shoes to buy for her and take with us for her when we meet her. That was the fun highlight last week! She turns 8 this month, and is about 6 inches shorter than Bethlehem. We can't wait to meet her! We are still praying for a miracle in terms of timing... we'd love to go meet her right after our Holy Land tour June 3-14. But we trust God's perfect timing also. Thanks for praying for our daughter and for us. We love you! Jim, Jaci, & Bethlehem

Good News
YWAM Adoption Director, Joy Casey, just returned from Ethiopia last weekend, where she had a couple of great visits with our miss "T." We are encouraged by how well those visits went. "T" turns 8 years old this month, and she is looking forward to meeting her new family and especially to playing with her older sister Bethlehem. :) We just applied for a grant from Lifesong for Orphans to help with some of the remaining funding. Please pray for "T" to be prepared for her upcoming move to join our family, and for her protection between now and then. At this point we are just waiting for the paperwork to move through the pipeline in Ethiopia and to hear that we have a "court date." Then we will go meet our daughter and go before the judge for approval of our adoption. Thank you for praying!!! Also, now that we have received the referral for "T" we are in the final funding portion of our adoption. We are able to recieve financial help through the donate button at the Kennington Adoption page on Facebook. If you send in a $30 gift you will be part of the Kennington Adoption puzzle that we are doing (explained on an earlier blog)... Thanks especially for your prayers! We believe that is the most important thing right now! We love you! Jim & Jaci Kennington

Good News!

Well, finally some good news. We received the referral for miss "T" last Thursday and signed it and sent it in along with $9500 on Sunday/Monday. We are official! Of course, we have a minor detail... we need to go pass court in Ethiopia... that won't happen for about 3 months apparently. We pray it's sooner than later. Our miracle we are praying for is to go straight from Israel (we finish leading a Holy Land Tour on June 14th) - so that really would be a miracle. We like that idea since it would save us so many hours of flying... plus significant bucks on airfare! Main thing to pray for is God's perfect timing and protection over miss "T" and for additional grant money to help us with the costs. Thanks for praying with us! We love you, Jim & Jaci  

One month later

Well, it's been a month since we last updated our blog. A lot of water under the bridge this past month. We have been processing a lot of information and different emotions.  At times it has been a bit confusing. Most of the time we didn't know what to say other than please pray... which we said to many of our friends and family. Here's the latest... the roadblock in Ethiopia to our adoption seems to be getting cleared aside... which in itself seems like a miracle. The orphanage is in the process right now of being re-licensed. We don't know for certain, but it appears that in about a month or so we will be given a referral to adopt our girl. By then she will be about eight years old, as her birthday is in May. We have had some wrestling in our own hearts during this past month... first, was the question of why God would lead us to adopt again and then close the doors. We had asked him to open or close the doors as He willed, so was this a closed door. And if so, why did we still feel called to adopt? Then we found out some news from our extended family that hit us like a punch in the stomach and made us wonder if we should proceed with the adoption. Or would it be wiser to save our energy and resources to support our family? So we have been in prayer and waiting upon the Lord for the past month. We need to give the adoption agency our final decision in the next couple of weeks, but we certainly sense that we are supposed to move forward in faith. We know we aren't the best parents in the world but we believe that God can use us in spite of our weaknesses. So once again we ask you to pray for God to protect this precious little girl in Ethiopia and the other 7 children in her orphanage... that they will be able to be adopted soon. And pray that God will confirm His plans and His will in our hearts. Thanks so much! We love you! Jim & Jaci 

PLEASE PRAY

Thank you for your prayers and interest in our second adoption.  We met with our agency director last week.  She is now back in Ethiopia so we don’t expect any news for awhile.  Things don’t look good for us to adopt the little girl that we are hoping to bring into our family.  But, we also know that God is in control and He can work it all out.  So, this may be a delay or simply a redirection.  We are just trying to trust Him day by day in this situation.  God knows what is best for all involved.  Blessings on you and your families!

News from the "Front"

Thank you for your interest in our adoption.  We just got a call this morning from that things aren't going well at the orphanage.  We can't really talk about it at this time.  There are 3 other families as well who are trying to adopt from this orphanage.  There are 8 children altogether there waiting.  They are looking at an unprecedented challenge so may have to get legal counsel to explore what options are available. Our agency director is on the way home and will be back in the office on Tuesday of next week.  She may have further insight into this matter.  

We know that God's hand is not short and He is powerful to intervene on the behalf of these children.  So, it saddens our hearts, and yes, I (Jaci) shed a few tears .. . but ultimately I totally trust God that He is in control!  We really want His will!  It will be great to see how He works all things together for them who love God, for them who are called according to His purposes!  Amen!

We love you all! Jim & Jaci

CHI Hosts Ethiopian Delegation

Our adoption agency, Adoption Ministry of YWAM Ethiopia, is under the umbrella agency of Children's House International.  We were able to attend a dinner in Bellingham last Monday to honor a group of four delegates from Ethiopia who work with adoptions.  The man in this photo is Pastor Abdissa who is the head of Children's House International in Ethiopia.  Jim was able to preach at his church when we were in Ethiopia in 2010.  

It was a fun round-trip of about 6 hours of driving.  Thanks to Dave Pritchard who drove!  It was fun to go with their family.  They are the sweetest family!  The Pritchard's added three Ethiopian children to their eight.  Dave is on staff with Jim at church.

CHI Dinner in Ferndale Tomorrow!

We prayed for Brian Rodenbeck at church today as he leaves this week to pick up 4 year old Mark in Ethiopia. Somehow that makes us feel like we are a step closer to our own adoption of miss "T."

No news this week o nour own adoption. We are looking forward to going to Ferndale tomorrow for an Ethiopian Dinner with CHI ... Pastor Abdissa and delegates from Ethiopia are going to be there to see what adoption looks like in America. It will be a long day but we are excited to take part in it!

Thank you for your prayers during this waiting season! Please pray for things to move along in Ethiopia and for God's protection of "T" and her heart to be prepared by the Lord for all that is ahead for her.

Thank you so much! Jim & Jaci

NEXT STEP IN THE PROCESS!

On Saturday we received our Homeland Security clearance for adoption. This is what we have been waiting for! Some people wait up to 6 weeks for this... ours came in just 12 days. So we are thankful. Thank you especially for praying! We took Bethlehem to Seattle Sunday night to an Ethiopian restaurant to celebreate and had quite a time of it! She is so fun to watch when she gets to go have Ethiopian food! :)

Receiving the I-171H papers from Homeland Security is the last step on our side in order to receive a referral for miss "T." Thank you for your continued prayers for the referral and for God's perfect timing in all of this!

We love you,
Jim, Jaci & Bethlehem 

Homeland Security Done!
So this morning we headed up to Tukwila for our 8:00 am biometrics appointment at Homeland Security. Traffic was great... the appointment went smoothly... and we are thankful to be done with yet one more little "hoop." This is basically a finger printing appointment. From the adoption blogs it appears we will get a response anywhere from one week to six weeks from now. At that point we expect to get the official referral for little miss "T." We are in a big waiting period right now... but there is lots to do as we work at the church and at home so we are ready for our first trip to Ethiopia... perhaps in March or April. Please pray for us to use this time well, and for God's protection and preparation of miss "T." Thank you! We love you! Jim & Jaci  

Finally a date we can look forward to!
For the past month or so we have been on hold... or should I say waiting to hear something we can share. We finally have a new date to look forward to... we have our biometrics appointment up at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (Department of Homeland Security) in Tukwila. On Jan. 15 we are to go there and have our fingerprints and photos taken. It's the final step (that we know about anyway) before we are able to recieve our "referral" from Children's House International for our daughter. We hope that about a week or so after Jan. 15 to have the referral... then we should receive a date to travel to Ethiopia and meet "T." Thank you for keeping us in your prayers even during these long slow periods of waiting. And please pray for our daughter's protection from all evil in Ethiopia. Please pray God is preparing her heart to come be in our family. Thank you! Jim & Jaci