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