US Embassy Appointment Here We come!!!!

After 2 ½ years…countless stacks of paperwork, many 


days/nights of tears & trials, next week Moses Greenup will be




 in our home. His adoption complete, final, irrevocable, by all 


necessary authorities. Our son home with us! I’m Traveling this 


weekend to Ethiopia. Tears flowed freely this morning when 


we got the call that I am clear to travel for our Embassy 




appointment next week!!!






Thank you all who have stood near us, with us, encouraged us, 


supported us, cried with us, prayed with us and for us and 


for Moses! 

Meeting Moses for the 1st time

Here is a quick 1 minute video of 1st day meeting Moses while in Ethiopia. He is a sweet little guy and had a few smiles, lots of yawns, and a little crying. Looking forward to going back in a bit to bring him home for good.

Introducing our son Moses Greenup

We heard from our caseworker today that our court date did in fact go through. Moses is now officially our son. (We now wait for the US embassy to do their thing...so probably 8 to 10 weeks before we get to bring him home).

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These are some of the pictures we received from October through December. 

                                     

This smile so encouraged our hearts during the months of waiting

This picture gets me teary eyed every time I look at it. I just see him reaching out his hand and long to be there, hold him, care for him, serve him, and bring him home.

Meeting Moses...

It all happened so quickly.

We got to Acacia Village and 2 minutes later we were walking up the 2 flights of stairs onto a open outside balcony in the shade. There were 4 other families present and 3 seconds later the nannies handed each of our children to us. I was busy catching video and photos while Heidi held our son for the first time.

We got about 2 hours with Moses and got to nursery, talk to the nannies and talk to the nurse.

Time passed too quickly. It was so good to focus on our son and we will always remember day 1 of our time with our son.

Seeing the other families hold and care for their children was also a wonderful gift. So much time and energy has preceded these moments and it was a joy to share this life-changing experience with them.

We are headed back there this morning for some more time with our son. He is a little guy. He has definitely improved since the first pictures we received of him back on October 1st...so we were thrilled and overjoyed about that.

We were able to give him a bottle while we were there and he drank a full 7 oz. of formula. They don't have him started on any solid foods as of yet...but my guess is that will occur shortly.

Today is Thursday and then tomorrow is our court date.

I slept in longer this morning...4 am instead of 2 am.

My heart and understanding is continually reminded of the great love to which the love of the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God, adopted as his children and heirs of the Living God.

Moses or Hudson...what will we name our son???

For the longest time, we thought we were going to name our son Hudson. This is a special name for Heidi and I, and used this great biography of Hudson Taylor, It Is Not Death to Die, to actually spark our relationship together.

When I first read this book (back in my college days), it was while I was in Venezuela for 3 months serving alongside some missionaries. This book was one of my closest companions during those 3 months.

That next year, Heidi (who I barely knew), was headed to Zambia for a short-term (4 week) trip to serve alongside a long-time missionary nurse from our church. Before she left, I gave her this biography of Hudson Taylor to read and take with her.

We weren't even dating at this point in our relationship. A beautiful story made short, she came back from Zambia and God quickly knit our hearts together and we were dating, engaged and married in less than a year.

Hudson became a very special name for us and thought we'd be naming our next son Hudson...UNTIL we actually got the referral this past October 1st!

When we got the call on October 1st, 2011 about a few month old boy, who was found by police alone in a street without any parents or relatives and brought to the orphanage at a very young age, who the care workers named 'Musse', which in English is Moses, we knew that that name fit him and be a part of his heritage and life.

Our son will be named Moses and we pray that God would use him in miraculous ways to testify of the greatness and power of God. God has already used our little boy to teach us about the love and care of Our Father and are so expectant and looking forward to having him in our arms as our son.

If you have followed this blog since the inception, you'll know that a lot of our earlier posts mentioned Hudson...so I want to clarify that Moses will be his name.