More images of Joshua...

Here are a few more images we received of Joshua. We hate that he is crying in the one picture, but we know he was woken up from a nap and really preferred to be sleeping. We don't know anything more as of yet, but will keep you all updated as we hear more.

A wonderful gift...

Last Friday I received a wonderful Mother's Day gift - we received some new pictures of Josue at his temporary home. The president of EduCongo (an organization that builds schools in the Congo) happened to be near Josue's orphanage and agreed to make a stop to meet him. He woke Josue up from a nap and reported he wasn't very happy with him. Overall, he said he is doing great. He walks well and is beginning to communicate more with the orphanage staff. This is great to hear. It is hard for us to look at his picture at times knowing that it could be a while before he comes home, but this picture really gave us a glimpse of his environment and it was wonderful to see people caring for him so well. One thing that stuck out to us is that Josue is wearing red Mickey Mouse sandals in the picture! If you may not already know, Tim and I met at Disney World, travel there often and are Vacation Club Members. Everything Disney happens to be a big part of our children's lives. This may simply be a coincidence, but to us it was much more than just irony. What are the chances that a child in Africa would have Mickey Mouse shoes? God surely drops us signs everywhere if we just take the time to see them. Although we know this process could take up to 5 more months, we continue to pray that the DRC will move our paperwork along quickly and he will be home in 3 months(August).

From what we understand the orphanage gave him his name - Josue. We love it and have thought we would keep it, however we are afraid it may be very unfamiliar to many Americans. In an effort to not drastically change his name, we think we are going to call him Joshua Daniel. Our hope is that the difference between Josue and Joshua to a 2 year old will be slight enough that he may not even notice.

Thank you to all of you who continue to hold us in your prayers. We are looking forward to a wonderful end of the summer with a new addition to our family.

Waiting

It has been almost 2 weeks since we received any news about Josue. It has been really hard to wait, but we talk about him a lot and look at his pictures often. This seems to help the wait be a little more bearable. We have also enjoyed using this time to learn more about the DRC and familiarize ourselves with the country and culture. Here is map of the DRC. Josue's orphanage is in Lumbumbashi which is in the south eastern part of the country. It is the second largest city next to the capital of Kinshasa.

Please continue to pray with us that Josue remains healthy and is well cared for. Please also pray for a speedy paperwork process and that we receive more information and pictures SOON! We have so much we would like to share with him now, but are faithful that God will bring him home in His time.