We have had a fun day today here in Ethiopia with our new little blessing, Joshua Battle. We loaded Joshua into his Ergo, and went to see some sights today.

We went first to a national museum and saw many items originally owned by one of the emperors of Ethiopia who defended the nation and kept them from being conquered by Italy. We saw their home as well as their royal banquet hall. We saw the crowns of the emperors and also expensive gifts given to them by other dignitaries. This opulent palace sits on top of Mt. Entoto there in Addis Ababa.

Pictures of the palace:

After seeing the palace museum, we went to the Lion Zoo, a small city zoo there in Addis.

It was a day full of family fun. After that we came home and played a while in our room, and then went upstairs to a little playroom on the top floor. Joshua had a ball!

One more day ’til we bring him home to his new home in Texas. 🙂

Blessings to everyone!

After being cleared last week, we picked an interview date of 9-24-12 and booked our tickets for Ethiopia. We arrived here on Sunday morning to Addis after two days worth of flying. We settled our room at the guest house we were staying at, and then the agency told us we could go and get our little Joshua that day and bring him to stay with us from then on at the guest house! YEA!!!! The moment we were waiting for had finally arrived… our Gotcha Day. We picked him up and took our smiling little guy to the guest house. We were concerned he would cry that first night because he missed his familiar nannies, friends, and surroundings, but that night, after Mommy gave him his bottle and we fed him, he laid down and went right to sleep in his crib. Also amazingly, he slept all the way through the night very soundly! Joshua truly is exactly as the doctor at the transition home described him. When we were there in July for our court date, we had an appointment then with the doctor. She called Joshua a perfect little gentleman, and said he would change the world! This dad and mom love that! Amen to that!

The next day at 9:00AM we entered the US Embassy and waited for our name to be called and wondering what the interview would be like and what questions they would ask. Once we were called to one of the numbered windows there, the whole interview was over faster than we expected, and then he told us to have someone from the agency come on Wednesday and pick up our visa and sealed immigration envelope. Hallelujah! Joshua Battle was now ours in the eyes of both Ethiopia and the USA! Hallelujah! Tomorrow we will receive the papers Joshua needs to enter the USA on our trip home and to instantly become a citizen of the USA upon entry,

We look in that crib in our room here in Ethiopia now and we can hardly believe our eyes. That little blessing from heaven laying in that crib is finally here and he is all ours! After such a long journey, it’s almost very hard to believe it’s true! Thank you Lord for blessing us with such a wonderful and amazing gift! It’s going to be such a joy to watch him grow into the man God created him to be and as the doctor here in Ethiopia said: Joshua will someday change the world! God has used him already to change our world, and his little life has already touched and blessed so many as we walked this second journey of adoption. We will leave Ethiopia on Friday night, and arrive in the states around 5:00PM on Saturday night. We so look forward to being home again and letting Joshua meet his big sister face to face and his new grandparents too for the first time! Thanks everyone for all of your prayers and kind notes and gifts! They mean so much to us! Thanks again! We will post again soon!

If you are interested in learning how to adopt internationally, click this link to find out about seminars conducted by the adoption agency we are using to adopt from Ethiopia:

America World Adoption Association

Just click the link and then click your state to find out whether there is a FREE seminar in your area. If you live in Houston, TX or nearby, feel free to REGISTER for the one being conducted by Sarah and I. It will be happening at our church in Humble, TX on Oct 20 from 10 to Noon! Again, it’s FREE and very informative. We don’t pressure to adopt… we just give information, and then let the Lord guide families in the direction He wants them to go. If you are not ready to adopt yourself, but know someone who might be interested, feel free to share this link with them! THANKS for reading this and God bless you!!!

We are so grateful to the Lord and for all of your prayers on our journey! GUESS WHAT? We passed court this morning! We are officially a family of four! Here is a photo of our new son… Joshua Battle! Now we pray for a quick clearance with the US Embassy and then we come back very soon to Ethiopia to bring him home for good! Hallelujah!

 

Tomorrow we will have been waiting over 12 weeks after referral for our court date to be assigned so we can go and meet our son and ask for permission from the judge in Ethiopia to adopt him. This has been the longest and most emotional 12 weeks of our entire adoption journey. I am writing this to solicit your prayers that this wait for a court date will finally end. THANKS FOR READING THIS AND FOR KEEPING US IN YOUR PRAYERS. THANK YOU! BELIEVING FOR A SOON-TO-BE BREAKTHROUGH!  – BRANDON

After a long time, we are finally resurrecting our adoption blog! We are so very close to the day we receive the call from AWAA to go to Ethiopia and meet Joshua, our new little boy! We don’t yet know what he looks like or how old he is, but we are soooo ready to welcome him home! The other day, our social worker Beth Primm visited our home to update all of our homestudy paperwork. She is such a sweet lady and we are so thankful for her! Someone asked us if we had a adoption blog for Joshua yet, and it made us realize that we had dropped the ball! 🙂 So, we are going to try and keep this blog updated as we await the day we have longed for years…. referral day! Our journey began thinking we were returning to China… however it took a while for us to realize that God’s plan was for us to find our son in Africa. We serve such a wonderful Savior! He is so faithful and we are so thankful for His patience with us on this journey! Joshua, we love you son, and we cannot wait to welcome you home!

Just as an update… below is a photo of Becca taken back in April in a Texas Bluebonnet Field! Man how she has grown and how time has flown!

Hello everybody!

Last month, we talked about cultural awareness and ways to celebrate your child’s ethnic heritage! This month, we are going to put this into practice! 🙂 We are going to meet for dinner and fellowship on October 20th at 5:00PM at Moscow 2 Russian Cafe and Store in The Woodlands! This should be a lot of fun! The food looks delicious on their website(especially the dessert! 🙂 ) They also have a store with authentic Russian gifts! Please let us know if you can come and how many will be coming with you(adults and children)! We need to know ASAP  so that we can let the management there know how many seats we need at our table. Below is the address of the cafe and a link to get directions from your neck of the woods!

 202 Sawdust Road
Suite 115
The Woodlands,   TX   77380

link to map and Restaurant info: http://www.woodlandsonline.com/cdps/cditem.cfm?nid=7938

Restaurant website for more info: http://www.moscow2houston.com/

Everyone can go dutch. That way we can all order what we want, and eat as much as we want. 🙂

It was so good to see some new faces last month, and we look forward to meeting many more of you! No matter what stage you are in on the journey of adoption or what country you are adopting from, you are welcome! Even if you are just now deciding whether or not to adopt, you are welcome as well!

 RSVP to us soon by e-mailing us at thebattles@awaa.org or by calling us at 281-798-6014. Looking forward to hearing from you and God bless!

Brandon and Sarah Battle

AWAA TX Associates

You and Your Family Are Invited!

RSVP Today for our Next Adoption Fellowship Meeting – Saturday, Sept. 15th, from 4 to 6 PM – Theme: “Ways to Celebrate Your Child’s Heritage”

Whether you are still waiting to adopt or have adopted internationally already, all are encouraged to bring something from their child’s country of heritage to show to the group. It can be a book about their country, a food item, a toy, a CD of music, etc.. We will enjoy each other’s company and share ideas that God has given to each of us regarding ways to incorporate the celebration of our child’s ethnic culture into our family’s lives. If you cannot bring anything, come anyway. No one should feel pressured at all if they cannot bring an item with them.

As always there will be plenty of food, and we will finish our time together with prayer.

 Regarding the food, we will provide all of the beverages, and ask that each family bring a snack food. Since we are celebrating heritage, feel free to bring a food from your child’s country of origin if you want to, but do not feel pressured if this would be too difficult to do. Anything you bring will be appreciated.

THE GATHERING WILL BE AT OUR CHURCH IN HUMBLE, TX:

THE LORD’S GLORY CHURCH

461 ARTESIAN PLAZA DR.

HUMBLE, TX  77338

CLICK HERE FOR DIRECTIONS OR CALL US AT 281-798-6014 FOR HELP FINDING US!

YOU MAY RSVP BY CALLING US AT 281-798-6014 OR CLICKING HERE TO E-MAIL US! 

PLEASE LET US KNOW THE FOLLOWING WHEN YOU RSVP:

1. HOW MANY ADULTS AND CHILDREN WILL BE COMING WITH YOU. (PLEASE NOTE: NO CHILD CARE WILL BE PROVIDED, BUT PARENTS WILL HAVE ACCESS TO OUR CHURCH’S NURSERY AREA AND THE TOYS AND CHANGING AREA THEREIN. QUIET TOYS WILL BE AVAILABLE IN THE MEETING AREA FOR CHILDREN TO PLAY WITH.)

2. WHAT FOOD ITEM YOU WILL BE BRINGING

3. IF YOU KNOW WHAT HERITAGE ITEM YOU WILL BE SHARING WITH THE GROUP, PLEASE LET US KNOW SO WE CAN PLAN OUR TIME TOGETHER WELL.

 WE WILL UPDATE EVERYONE CLOSER TO THE DATE OF THE GATHERING TO LET ALL KNOW HOW MANY HAVE RSVP’D SO FAR.

God bless everyone and we look forward to seeing you there!

Brandon & Sarah Battle

AWAA Texas Associates

Hi everyone!

We had a great meeting last month at Build-A-Bear and around 30 bears were stuffed for orphans!

Thanks to all for participating!

This month we will be having a very special opportunity at our Adoption Fellowship Group Meeting!

Dr. Heidi Schwarzwald, one of the head medical doctors at the International Adoption Clinic at Texas Children’s

Hospital will be coming to share with us and answer medical questions surrounding international adoption.

Whether you have already adopted, are in the process of adopting internationally or you are in the “thinking about it” stage,

this is a great opportunity to ask an expert any questions you might have regarding:

1. planning medically for your adoption trip both for you and your family, including your new adopted little one.

2. dealing with the medical issues that are common in various regions of the world and in orphanages (example: vaccinations needed for you and for your new little one, common diseases, minor ailments orphans deal with, developmental issues, etc…)

3. understanding special needs adoption and what different diagnoses  require for treatment and the estimated costs involved.

4. learning more about the services that Texas Children’s Hospital has to offer to adoptive families before and after adoption.

Date of meeting: Sat., June 16th, 2007

Time of meeting: 4 to 6 PM

Place: The church main sanctuary located at

461 Artesian Plaza Dr.

Humble, TX  77338

RSVP at 281-798-6014 or by e-mailing thebattles@awaa.org

Please bring your favorite snack food or dessert, and when you RSVP let us know what

you will be bringing.

God bless you and we look forward to seeing you!

www.spirit-of-adoption.org

(KJV) Romans 8:15 For ye have not received

the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have

received the Spirit of Adoption, whereby we

cry, Abba, Father.

, Ethiopia Program, or Kazakhstan Program.

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Well, it’s about time I came out and posted something! We have some exciting news to share with you today! A week ago, we applied with AWAA to adopt again, and we got the news yesterday that our app was approved! We are officially on the journey to child number 2! We are looking to adopt a boy from China. We are going to very soon fill out a special needs adoption application with AWAA as our next step in the process.

 A many of you know, we were praying about pursuing adoption from Vietnam, but God closed that door, and opened our eyes to the possibility of the Special Needs program in China.

 Please pray for us as we take this step of faith, and seek God’s plan, and search for the little one God has for us.

 God is full of sweet surprises, and we believe that this moment in our journey will be no exception to that rule! We believe firmly that God has a plan, and that plan is perfect for us! Before the foundation of the world, He knew we would have two little ones in our lives, and He knew we would adopt them, and He knew where they would be from!

 That to me is both comforting and astoundingly awesome all at the same time! For those out there who are in a time of transition and change right now, know this… you can rest! God has it all figured out!  

 Blessings until the next post!

Brandon Battle