More Waiting

The date the judge gave to the girls' father to come back with a corrected ID card is February 5th. That will push our travel date into March. If there are no more problems, of course...

More Bad News

The family that got delayed with us on Friday passed, and we are very happy for them. However, there was a problem with our case. Apparently there was a problem with our girls' father's ID card. Apparently his name was different on the ID card than on another of the documents, so he has been given another appointment (we won't know when that is...the adoption agency is going to try to get more details tomorrow) to come back with a corrected ID card.

So, you may ask, what is the big difference between the names on the two documents that is delaying us yet again? There is a spelling error on the ID card.

Court Delayed

No decisions in court today. The judge said she couldn't see any of the cases scheduled for today. It looks like we have been reappointed for Monday afternoon.

David Phelps Concert

The picture isn't very good, but we had a great time last night at a David Phelps Christmas concert in Ashland, KY. Amy had a couple of home visits with adopting families in Ashland, so we took advantage of that to go hear one of our favorite singers. The concert was in the beautiful Paramont Theater in dowtown Ashland. It was a late night (we're getting old), but the music was great, and we had a wonderful time.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with David Phelps, here is a sample:

One week from today...

we will know if our adoption petition has been approved by the courts. Please pray with us that we will find favor with the judge and pass without further delay. There have been a few issues that have surfaced the last few weeks with the courts, but we found out that 2 other families who had been delayed, were approved by the courts on Wednesday. We are praising the Lord that 2 orphans have found their forever families. I also got to chat on-line last night with a lady who saw our girls in September. She said they were very scared but very cute. It was very encouraging to "talk" to someone else who has seen them.

Merry Christmas and we'll post an update as soon as we hear something.

Iced In

This morning we had a 6am wake up call letting us know that Matt's work would be closed for the day. When we looked outside, we only had a dusting of snow. What we didn't realize was that there was ice under the snow. I (Amy) was supposed to be driving all over Eastern Kentucky today doing home visits. Once we realized we had ice, we decided that probably wasn't a good idea. Of course when I called my clients, they had only gotten rain. But there was no way I was getting out of our driveway, so we had a quiet morning at home. Matt did go to work at AC's Archives this afternoon, which meant I had to stop playing hookie and get to work myself, working on paperwork for different families. I think everyone is trying to get their paperwork done before Christmas so I have been very busy lately.

View out our glass door-Caesar begged all day to go out and play, but as soon as we did, it started sleeting very hard so we had to come back in.

It doesn't look like much, but believe me, it's slick.

Merry Christmas

We are now coming up on our third Christmas of waiting. Hopefully it will be the last, and we can finally bring our kids home. We didn't write this song, but it sure tells our adoption story pretty well:

Christmas Letter & Adoption News

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE KINNELL HOUSE!

We are very excited to be spending the Christmas season in our very first house! The tree is up in the front window and decorated, and the “Welcome Moose” is hanging from the front door. We bought our house in March and spent the next two months cleaning up and painting every room. We made the big half-mile move on Memorial Day weekend, and it didn’t take long for it to feel like home. This is the first time we lived by ourselves since we’ve been married!

In June, Amy began working as an adoption caseworker for Adoption Assistance, Inc. She does home studies and post-placement reports for adopting families. This became her full-time job when she left her job in the Alumni Office at Asbury College in September.

Due to time constraints, Matt wrapped up his work as Director of Operations with New Hope International Ministries in August. We are still involved with New Hope, and Matt was elected to the ministry’s Board of Directors in November. Matt is working full-time as Office Manager at the Jessamine County Public Library and part-time in the Asbury College Archives. In April Matt was elected Treasurer of our church, where he also still serves as song leader and trustee.

We are very involved in our church. We have embarked on a building program to expand the Sunday School, youth group, and fellowship areas to accommodate our growing congregation.

This time last year we were very excited about the prospect of bringing home two children from Guatemala, but unfortunately that, like our attempt in Uganda before, fell through. We were heartbroken. When it came time to renew all of our adoption paperwork, we decided to try switching to an adoption program that was moving along well. After much prayer and discussion, we applied for the Ethiopia program. In a matter of a couple of weeks, we were matched with twin 3-year-old girls. The girls’ mother died in childbirth, and they have been raised by neighbors to this point. We are so excited to provide these precious little ones with a loving family, and we can’t wait to bring them home.

We trust that this letter finds all of you doing well and enjoying the holiday season. Next to Calvary, the incarnation has to be the most significant event in human history. May the truth of Immanuel—God with us—bring hope and comfort to you as you celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We love you all.

~ Matt & Amy

THE NITTY-GRITTY ADOPTION DETAILS

Our little girls are from the Gumuz region of Ethiopia. We know that their mother died in childbirth, their father has never been in the picture, and they were raised by neighbors. No one knows their birthdate, so we get to choose! (Still working on that.) They are about three years old and healthy. Their father signed the relinquishment paperwork, and the local courts have approved them to be adopted. On December 26th, our case goes before the court in the capital city of Addis Ababa, and if the judge approves the adoption, we will be able to travel to Ethiopia within 4-6 weeks to bring them home. Hopefully we will be able to travel in early February.

We have decided to name them Esther Ruth (right) and Chloe Grace (left). (Ruth was Amy’s Grandma Neild’s name, and Chloe is Matt’s Grandma Hindman’s middle name.) We will be calling them Essie and Chloe.

We still need to raise several thousand dollars to cover the financial expense of the adoption. We have applied for several grants, but with no positive results as of yet.

Vanity Plates

So we realized that we hadn't revealed the girls' names on the ol' blog yet. There is much confusion and doubt as to what the girls' given names are...if they have given names even. So, we are pulling the trigger with the names, and they are...Esther Ruth and Chloe Grace. (Ruth was Amy's Grandma Neild's name, and Chloe is Matt's Grandma Hindman's middle name.) So the twins will be Essie and Chloe, as you can see by the Kentucky name plates above.