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04
Apr 11
Finally, after months and months of waiting this week I will be starting as the Campus Pastor of Element Church, Adrian. We are so excited and we wait expecting God to build His church as we respond in obedience to His call. We have spent many months seeking God for what he has for us here in Adrian and we have been waiting dependent on him to move. One thing I have learned in this season of waiting, is you can never go wrong waiting on a God who is good, faithful and right on time. Today, I was reading a quote that said, “Waiting intensifies pain because it forces us to see that we are dependent creatures.” As we move forward with the task a head of us, we know that it will not be easy, but we do not know what is going to take to move this church forward. All we know is we get to invite people to wait expectantly on God and to pray for discernment to see with His eyes, what it is that our community needs. We get to invite people to live a life completely dependent on our Father.
The journey up to this point has been painful, but the pain has moved us closer to God. The path that He has chosen for us to journey on, has taken us to different parts of our story that we could have never dealt with anywhere else. I can say that through the pain, I have experienced a supernatural freedom and tender heart that could only come from the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.
So, here we go as friends and family would you begin to pray for us. Pray that we would live everyday with expectancy. Pray that God through His love and grace would give us discernment to see. And pray that He would give us wisdom and obedient hearts to act on all that he reveals. And last pray that people would Love God with everything they have, so that they can truly love others out of the overflow of that love.
Thank You so much for your love and support.
CJ and Katie
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25
Aug 10
Sorry we haven’t posted anything lately. The past few weeks have been a blur of emotional highs and lows. We have been in Adrian for about 1 month and are still homeless. We have been staying with Dan and Kayla who have become great friends of ours, but we are really needing to get in our own place and get settled. Please be praying for our house to sell (there is a showing today), and that God provides a job for me!
On a more positive note, we had a leaders meeting this past weekend with the core who will be helping start this church. God is definitely on the move and we are so excited to be a part of it! We just found out that we can meet at a local college for free. Yes I said FREE! This means we can save to get a more permanent location and hopefully some income. We can see God’s hand moving things into place.
We’ll be in touch soon!
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19
Jul 10
In just 4 short days we will be leaving our friends and church family to embark on a new adventure of pure faith…..planting a church in CJ’s hometown of Adrian, Michigan! What a whirlwind of emotions we’ve got going on right now. The thing about faith is we all want more of it, but we don’t want to walk down the paths that allow our faith to grow. It’s uncomfortable and unfamiliar territory which isn’t all that much fun when the world tells you to pursue security. Security is actually the opposite of faith. When we are “secure” in life, we don’t have to live by faith.
A few weeks ago, I felt like God told me He’s not going to answer us in advance, but He’s going to answer right on time. So we’re holding on to His promise….He is, and always will be, faithful!
For those of you who would like to join with us in prayer, here’s a few things you can pray for:
-Our good friends, Sheila and Jesse Cote, who are moving with us – that their house would sell.
-Our house would sell.
-Unity among the launch team.
-Clarity and direction for the future.
Much love,
Katie & CJ
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11
Jul 10
We have been home for almost 3 weeks now and are getting settled into life with 3 children! It’s been so much fun! Here’s a few pictures we had taken last week…
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18
Jun 10
This is our last full day in Ethiopia. We fly out tomorrow night at 10pm. It’s been an amazing trip! We now know what it feels like to fly to another country and adopt a child…..words can’t explain.
Today we were able to meet Kalkidan’s birth mother. After our meeting it was pouring rain out so we offered to give her a ride home. What a gift from God that turned out to be. When we arrived, we happened to ask if we could come inside to see her home, and she felt honored to show us. When we walked into the 10×10 room that was her home, there were pictures framed on a cabinet. They were of Kalkidan as a little girl! We were able to look at tons of pictures of her growing up! It was a very emotional visit to say the least. We are so thankful for the opportunity to learn about our daughters life…..it was a GREAT day!
Here are some pictures Kalkidan said we could share.
This is our last full day in Ethiopia. We fly out tomorrow night at 10pm. It’s been an amazing trip! We now know what it feels like to fly to another country and adopt a child…..words can’t explain.
Today we were able to meet Kalkidan’s birth mother. After our meeting it was pouring rain out so we offered to give her a ride home. What a gift from God that turned out to be. When we arrived, we happened to ask if we could come inside to see her home, and she felt honored to show us. When we walked into the 10×10 room that was her home, there were pictures framed on a cabinet. They were of Kalkidan as a little girl! We were able to look at tons of pictures of her growing up! It was a very emotional visit to say the least. We are so thankful for the opportunity to learn about our daughters life…..it was a GREAT day!
Here are some pictures Kalkidan said we could share.
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22
May 10
Most of you have heard by now that we have a tentative embassy date of June 17th! We have to be in country by the Sunday before which means we’ll be leaving around June 11th and returning around June 20th. We are so excited! It’s so encouraging to see it all coming together….it feels like we’ve been waiting for this forever! It’s really cool that it was last year in June when I met Kalkidan for the first time and 1 year later she is now our daughter and we’re bringing her home.
Romans 8:28 (The Message)
26-28Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
Living confident on this promise!
CJ & Katie
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04
May 10
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Finally the phone call we’ve been waiting for. We have passed court and Kalkidan is officially our daughter!!! PRAISE GOD! We were told this was the third time our case went to court. The first time MOWA (Ministry of Women’s Affairs) didn’t show up and the second time the power went out. Both of these are common reasons for a court date to be cancelled. We are so thankful we were not told any of this until now because it saved us from what would have been an even more excruciating long wait!
In about a week we should have a tentative date of when we will be going to Ethiopia to bring our daughter home! It should be between 6-10 weeks from now.
Zeke and Selah are so ecstatic! I woke Selah up this morning and told her we passed court and that Kalkidan is a part of our family now! She said, “Is she here right now?” 
They can’t wait to meet their big sister!!!!
Thank you for all your prayers and encouragement! It’s been a long road, but so worth the journey. God ALWAYS makes it worth the journey!
Lovingly,
Katie & CJ
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10
Apr 10
Hi everyone! We have some great news! We have found out that we will not need to travel to Ethiopia for our court date. Because our case had been filed previous to this new law, we are exempt from it! Also, we have just been told that we will NOT be notified of our court date. They will contact us once we have already passed court. This is very exciting news for us! Once we get the call that we passed court, we will travel to Ethiopia 8-10 weeks later to pick up our daughter!
Hoping for more news any day!
Katie
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27
Mar 10
As we wait for the call that we have a court date and as we prepare to bring a beautiful girl into our home, we cannot begin to tell you how faithful God continues to be. He has continued to provide in ways we would have never imagined, and for any one who has felt God asking you to do something, know that He will be faithful till the end. We cannot wait to see all that He will do in the months and days leading up to bringing our girl home.
We are hoping to get rid of the rest of our shirts and bags, so while supplies last we have marked our remaining shirts down to $15. Feel free to check out the store and get your shirt or bag today!
Click Here to visit the store.
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13
Mar 10
We received some crazy news this week. Ethiopia made a new law that went into effect a few days ago that all adoptive parents must be in person for your court date and your embassy date. This means we must go to Ethiopia twice! As you can imagine, this is big news because of the cost of flying to Ethiopia isn’t cheap and the extra time away from Zeke and Selah. We don’t know many details, but we do know that both parents are required to be present for the court date….not sure about the embassy date. Previously only 1 parent had to be there for the embassy date and bring your child home. CJ and I both were planning on doing that, but this change most likely won’t allow us both to go each time.
So right now we are processing this all and what it means for us, and waiting to find out more specific details!
Hope to know more soon!
Katie
