Introducing Kendra Tarike Baartman

First of all we would like to thank you all for your prayers and support while we were in Ethiopia!! We had a wonderful trip but are so glad to be home with Kendra!! We are adjusting and seem to be doing well with the sleeping thing and also the eating!! It is amazing to watch her reveal a bit of her personality each day!! We are so blessed! Here are some pictures of our little princess!!

We are on our way

The bags are packed the boys are (hopefully) set and the time is finally here!!! There are sure ALOT of emotions going thru us right now......excited, anxious, nervous and many others!!! Will she attach, will the boys love their sister, how will the family meeting go, will she like her daddy and mommy and the list goes on!! We so appreciate all your prayers as we leave for Ethiopia today to bring our little Kendra home!! We are blessed beyond measure!!!



Here is a little peak of our precious little Kendra!!

Prayer requests for our trip!

We just thought it would be easier to let you all know what our schedule will be while we are in Ethiopia so you can pray specifically for us!!

Wednesday March 16 ~ We will be flying out of Omaha at 1:30ish for our first flight!! We will be arriving in Ethiopia at approx. our time on Thursday at 1:30 in the afternoon!! So please pray for great flights with NO delays and also for endurance as these flights are quite long!!

Friday ~ We will have orientation in the morning and the whole afternoon we will be able to spend with Kendra at the Care Center playing and talking to her nannies to learn her schedule!!

Saturday ~ We will be leaving Addis and going to Durame where Kendra's family is from! We will be able to see the country, where she was brought into care also have the privilege of meeting her birth family!! This is going to be a very emotional trip! So please pray that the visit will be able to happen. That we will have the strength, courage to go thru this!! This is a wonderful blessing to have the opportunity to meet her birth family!!

Sunday ~ We will be heading back to Addis (this is about a 5 hr trip)!! We will be going back to the Care Center for a farewell ceremony! This is going to once again be an emotional time as the nannies and children that Kendra has lived with for approx 6 months will have to say their good byes. At this time we will have custody of Kendra for the rest of our stay in Ethiopia! So please pray that the attachment will go well. That she will also attach to her daddy!!! (as they have said that she doesn't really care for men!!)

Monday ~ This is the day for our Visa Interview with the Embassy! Pray that this all goes smoothly and that we will get her Visa that is needed for her to leave the country! From this time until Thursday evening we will be spending our time at the Care Center as we are not able to take Kendra out and go site seeing! So please pray once again that the attachment is going well and that she will adjust to us being her Mom and Dad!

Thursday ~ At midnight Ethiopian time (3:00 Iowa time) we will be heading out on our journey to return home! Please pray once again that the flights will go smoothly and that Kendra will do well on the flights back!

Once again we would like to thank you all for praying for us on this amazing journey that God has set us on!! We are so glad we stepped out in Faith and listened to Him! We are excited to be home as a family of 6!!!

It won't be long!!!!

The tickets are purchased, her suitcase is almost all packed!!! On Friday we received our confirmed date for our Visa interview!! It is for Monday the 21st of March! This means that we will be leaving Omaha on the 16th at 1:30!! We are beyond excited!! There are also alot of other emotions that we are also feeling!! So please continue to pray for us as we prepare physically and emotionally to bring our little Kendra home!!

CLEARANCE!!!!!

I know that this is a little late but on Monday we got a e-mail late in the day saying that received clearance from the Embassy!! What this means is that they have checked out our papers and have okayed us for a VISA interview!!! They are submitting us for the week of March 22 and hope to know later this week when we have a confirmed date!! If we have the beginning of that week we could likely be leave to go and get our precious little Kendra on the 16th or 17th of March!! Needless to say we are beyond thrilled!!! So please pray for us as we start to get things ready for travel!!! We are so blessed to have so many people praying and supporting us through this journey!!

Submission to Embassy

Today we received notice that we were submitted to the U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia! We are thrilled and it also means that we are one step closer to bringing our precious little Kendra home! The last 3 weeks have been the hardest part of the whole journey I think. It has been very close to 12 weeks since we have been in Ethiopia. We pray that we receive clearance soon so we will then be able to travel!

The Bedroom is done!!

Here is a few pictures of our precious little Kendra's room!