I love a great story!

I never did tell the story about naming this blog ... and it's a great little story with not one, but two little coincidences. (I love when that happens!) So I was trying to come up with a unique, catchy title and a little word trick that writers use within poetry or titles is "alliteration". It's the repeated use of a similar consonant within a sentence that gives it a catchy "tune" or a pleasing sound. An example would be the description "a sizzling summer sun". For my blog, I came up with "Family from afar". It was descriptive, unique (so it was available from blogger) and had a nice flow to it. The dictionary definition of afar - is "from a great distance, from far away." And we are creating a family from a distant land - from far away.

A few days later, I discovered the bible verse Isaiah 43:5-7, Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, "Give them up!" and to the south "Do not hold them back." Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth - everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.

I remember thinking - wow, what a coincidence! The verse said "bring my SONS from afar". Sons not daughters - what a coincidence. Then I noticed the explanation in the footnotes that said "afar is the upper nile region". Now, knowing that the Nile originates in Ethiopia, my curiosity was piqued and I googled the word "afar". Coincidence #2 - In the bible, Afar is a region in ETHIOPIA!!!

A few recent happenings ...

The Kulp family received a referral for a baby boy, the Semlow family received a referral for a sibling group of 3, and the Tennant family received a referral for an 18 month old boy!

We are one week from our court date of October 8 - the count down has begun although I am trying not to focus on it. This much I know - sooner or later, we will have a successful court date and we will bring our sons home.

Our travel group (7 families) is in communication through email and has begun coordinating gifts for the Transition Home and orphanages (it looks like we will be visiting 2 orphanages). Upon a successful court date, we will contact the waiting families with referrals to coordinate bringing care packages to their children.

Our travel plans continue to solidify and it looks like we will likely be travelling on Emirates through Dubai. We may stay with some family friends there for an extended layover before we meet up with our travel group in Ethiopia.