WE HAVE OUR COURT DATE!!!

Hi Donna,

We have the good news that court has been scheduled for your family. Your court date is July 26^th.

This is the most beautiful e-mail we received at 2:30pm, July 14, 2011!

Our flights are booked, we leave July 22nd out of Boston and arrive in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia July 23rd at 8:50pm...so that means we will have Abraham in our arms on Sunday, July 24th!

Still waiting....and shots today!

Well here we are, still waiting...haven't heard a word.

The only thing I have heard was that courts will stay open until Aug 8th, then they close for a month and a half. So if we don't get our court date before they close, then we are looking at not meeting our son until late Sept, or Oct, then waiting for embassy etc etc...won't be until Dec or even 2012 before Abraham can come home.

Waiting is so hard.....

Jeff and I both got our Hep A shot today..we opted out of all the other options.....Jeff has a phobia of needles and he had to lay down as he turned white and started breaking out in a sweat! I always thought his fear of needles was exaggerated...guess not!

They are a few families that have letters to give to Abraham..so at least he knows we are thinking of him.

I am hoping the next post here is entitled, WE HAVE OUR COURT DATE!!!

Until next time.........

And even more waiting....

It's been 2 months now since we accepted our referral for our son.  On June 10th we FINALLY received the picture of our boy opening up his gift package from us. We also found out that our case has been submitted to court as of May 31st.  So we are in the system there and now we just wait for the official court date for Jeff and I to appear in court and legally adopt our son.

He now officially knows about us, has seen our faces and knows he's being adopted and coming to live in a place called Maine.

Can you imagine what is going through his mind as he lays down at night to sleep?  "Will I like my new family? Are they nice? Will they like me?"

Someone did share with me that they knew of an adopted child who told them that they used to lay awake at night pondering those very questions, and they were 6 yrs old at the time. 

Big changes for this little guy.  We know we are gonna love him to pieces and that our family is one crazy, fun and laughter filled home, but he doesn't know that right now.  All he knows from the pictures is that he is gaining 7 siblings, a dog named Patience, 3 cats and his new house is brown and there are lots of trees.  Snow..what's that?

We have been blessed by so many families that are going down for the court dates, they have been gracious to snap pictures of our handsome son. And oh is he handsome!  His smile is contagious! And each family that has met with him has said the same thing..."yu have the most wonderful son, he is a super sweetie! He's so cute! He's not shy, quiet, but not shy, he will hold hands and he participates in everything....."

And the best info we received from 1 lady was that "Abraham is the top in his class, he is so smart and always is ready to give the answers in class."  I pray that someday that flows into always being ready to give an answer to the hope that lies within you..the hope of the Gospel of Christ..oh may our son be a godly man!

So maybe the A Beka Kindergarten curriculum will be way too easy for him?  Oh well, it will be great to start with that so he can learn English anyway..we'll breeze through the easy stuff.

These families have also been so kind to deliver letters to Abraham. Kiara and Kayla have been busy drawing pictures for him and I have printed out other pictures of our house, pictures of his picture on our fridge so he can see how excited we are to have him.  So far he has received 2 letters from us, a 3rd letter just went out yesterday in the mail to a dear Christian family who will be leaving soon for Ethiopia to pick up their 11 yr old son. She said she would try really hard to not only take pictures of Abraham, but also video! I told her we haven't heard his voice yet and she said she will get him talking for us..I am going to bawl!!

I can't wait till it's our turn to bless these families and take their letters to their children for them and take pictures of their children for them.  We are waiting on pins and needles everyday, hoping that "You Got Mail" noise is from AAI saying, we have your court date..buy your plane tickets...

I love you son..my dear sweet Abraham. Mommy is praying to hold you soon.  Until the next update.....

Teach Me Lord to Wait.....

Many have asked how's it all going, has Abraham received his packet yet, does he know about us yet? Do you have a court date yet...

Well.....I don't know is something I have been saying alot lately.

This waiting time is truly the hardest...more so than all the paperwork and homestudies...knowing that we have this sweet 6 yr old son in Ethiopia that will be in our home and yet we can't even say hello to him right now, this is so hard.

Most people say that this is the time that you read up on all you can about Ethiopia, older child adoption etc..

So here's something I have found out, not sure how much of it is true but it caught my attention because we live in Maine, and in Maine you hibernate for almost 4 months in a year...what I mean by hibernate is that we don't step foot outside (at least I don't) and you stay inside cuddled by a heater...or as I call it...My Precious....:)

Anyway, I read an article that spoke about Ethiopian children and vitamin D. These children, while in Ethiopia, spend a lot of time outside..playing etc.  And they absorb a lot of natural sunlight. It gives them great health usually, lots of good natural vitamin D.

However there were some folks who, like us, live in cold climates where we don't venture out as much, and they found that their adopted Ethiopian children were getting sickly, almost had autistic type symptoms which they linked to lack of Vit D..interesting....

So Abraham, mommy will be stalking up on Vit D for you when you come home!

A few weeks ago for my birthday we went to the MassHope Convention in MA.  I was so excited as I purchased the entire A Beka Kindergaten curriculum, same one I used for Kayla and Kiara, for Abraham. I know some of it will be easy for him, but I can't think of a better curriculum to start him out with his English.  I stare at it everyday, anticipating the day we tear it apart and open the books to Day 1 and hearing him say A is for Apple, A says A..A...A.....

Waiting is hard but I am trusting in the Lord's timing and praying that Abraham is safe and healthy and I hope I get news soon that he knows about us.  If he does know, then I hope that sweet smile of his is even bigger now.

I love you my son...keep smiling knowing we are coming soon.

We got a referral!

It happened! It finally happened! And much sooner than we ever dreamt!
On April 14th, early afternoon the phone rang and Elizabeth shouts, "MOM! It's AAI!"

My heart jumped as I thought, "Surely there must be a problem as we wouldn't get a referral so quickly. Our dossier was only sent on Feb 17th! And here it is April 14th!"

Hesitantly I answered the phone and was greeted by Merrily, president of AAI.

She asked how we were doing and how was Maine. My heart is thumping.....

Then she says it, "We have a boy here we would like you to consider, he's 6 yrs old, medical looks good, health is good, school looks greeat, just needs help in general science, he's in KG2....and oh yes, his name is Abraham...."

Abraham!!! Why it was only a few weeks back that I was having a very casual conversation with the Lord, just telling Him the desires of my heart and I said, "Lord, it would be really neat if our child/ren already had a biblical name...." (Psalm 37:4  "Delight yourself in the LORD,and he will  give you the desires of your heart.")

Oh Abraham....a man in the Bible known as the Father of many nations, one who was called out from his own country to a country he did not know. Oh Lord, thank You!

Merrily asked if we would be interested in seeing his picture and his file and I didn't hesitate to say YES YES YES!

Then for the next 30 minutes I must have hit that send and receive button in my e-mail 1000 times!

Then it came.....subject line with his full name...

My eyes were huge at this point as well as my children behind me, we must have looked like panting puppies!

I clicked open the picture and my heart jumped, I burts into tears...."Oh Father, this is our son You brought to us, there's no question Lord that this is the one...."

I have heard from many folks that you will KNOW when it is your 'forever' child.

I was smitten, his eyes, his smile, his teeth...I must have studied every detail of that sweet face.

Jeff came in and sat down, he looked at his picture and a huge smile lit up his face. And being the jokester that he is Jeff said,"awww...he gots wittle elf ears..." We all laughed and cried.

The next morning (April 15th) as soon as the doors to our pediatricians office was open I brought Abraham's file in. By that afternoon I receieved the call..."Besides being a tad anemic everything looks great.....and oh....he's a cutie.....a keeper for sure"

We called AAI and left a message for them to call back.

About an hour later we had officially accepted the referral for Abraham Hebert!

The next week we received the child packet acceptance forms and signed away! We felt like celebrities!

Now we are anxiously awaiting our court date from Ethiopia when we can go and meet our new son and legally adopt him. We will keep you all posted!

Our Journey Begins plus updates on the journey...

Well, here we are at the very beginning and Lord willing this blog will be filled with news of each step we have to take.
For many of our friends and family this is coming as a shock and surprise. We know we will have opposition as well as rejoicing, however we hope that eventually there will be much rejoicing as we welcome a precious child/ren and raise them to know our Lord and Savior.

Jam 1:27
Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their misfortune and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

This was not a decision that came easy to us. God laid this desire on my heart first over 2 years ago (2008) after I read an article in my Above Rubies magazine while still living in Old Orchard Beach.  I thought, “Surely I am just being emotional,” as I never thought I could adopt.  I didn’t have any desire to adopt and felt that was something only special people could do.  God gently nudged me and I began to pray about this.  I kept silent as I was not ready to let anyone know, I wanted to wrestle this out with just me and God. My biggest concern was Jeff. He was content with our size family and I knew he was looking forward to having all older children and no more little ones.  But I knew if this desire was of God, then He would change my husband’s heart. He did! Little did I realize but adoption was always a dream for Jeff!

After looking at the guidelines for every country, we found we were eligible for Ethiopia and Bulgaria, Korea and Taiwan. We both felt that Ethiopia was the place to go for our new child.  We read many websites and just fell in love with the children there.

So, after much researching various adoption agencies and being rejected by a known Christian agency because we didn’t meet their financial requirements, we have settled on an agency that came highly recommended by several folks, Adoption Advocates International in Washington.  We filled out the application and received our official contract and we are thrilled to belong to such a wonderul agency that has placed thousands of children to their forever familes.


Currently we are in the homestudy process with St. Andre Home in Biddeford, Maine. They partner with AAI for the homestudies.

We have a long way to go and much financial difficulties but we know that God has laid this desire on our hearts and He will see us through this.  We will be planning on doing fundraising events and hopefully apply for grants etc after the homestudy is completed.  We do have a donate button below. Here’s the steps we have to take and we covet your prayers as we go through each one.

We are currently in the saving money stage and waiting stage..everything we had to complete for dossier etc is finished, we have our I71H form, approved for 2 orphans 0-7 yrs of age.



Mail checks to:
Jeff and Donna Hebert
50 Sanford Rd
Waterboro, Maine 04087

So with all this being said, we covet your prayers and we need your support.  Again this was not a decision made lightly and it certainly isn’t going to be an easy road for our family, but we are excited and are ready to step out in faith and welcome 1 or more precious children in the name of our Lord.  Please join us on this journey!