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