Embassy ready!!

Amidst the pictures of friends smiling at us from the side of our refrigerator, we've added two pieces of paper--copies of the birth certificates of two little boys with our last name. Oh the thrill!

They were issued on July 4, 2011.  Thought we'd continue with our style of having adoption milestones occur on national holidays. I'm hoping this funny coincidence ceases here and that Labor Days comes well after we are home with these little guys.

The boys went for their Embassy physicals last Friday, completing the final requirement for us to be "embassy ready." Our paperwork was submitted Tuesday and now we wait for them to review our case and invite us back to make our appearance before them with the boys, get visas and bring them home. For forever.


We are close.

I'll share with you the happy surprise I found in my inbox yesterday afternoon.

See that band on Bereket's wrist? Yep, it says "Unverzagt." Did we tell you that they are our boys?

It's a thrill every time I see their names written with ours. Their new, complete names. And I wonder if our Father in heaven doesn't look down at us and have His heart stretch with love as He beholds the children He has adopted into His family, the children He has renamed with His name. And when I consider that my love for these little boys, who can no longer be called fatherless, doesn't begin to compare to the extravagant love that our eternal Father and Maker has for me, for you, I am overwhelmed.

Can I remind you today that He has written His name on your wristband? Can I remind you that you are precious to Him and that traveling the distance from eternal deity to mortal man was not too far for Him to go to make you His own?

Or can I join with the apostle and "implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Cor. 5)

Being part of His family is a really, really good thing.