Hello again -

Where do I even begin to try to catch everyone up on where our lives are now... I think I can sum up in one word how things are for KC and me now that we have Zoe home - exhausting! Let’s see if I can do a quick recap of the last three and a half months in a few paragraphs. We got home. Zoe started to grow like a weed. She came home with no teeth and couldn’t pull up on her own, and now is cutting tooth number 9 and any day she will be letting go of the edge of the couch and not just taking three or four steps, but running around like Olivia. It has been a ton of stuff going on. The girls have started going to Mothers Morning Out and church three days a week. We have been traveling all over the state. We had the fall festival at our church. We most recently had Zoe’s first birthday (Nov. 14th). She actually got christened the day before at church and we had her party that afternoon. And we moved to a house with a little more room. With all of that quickly thrown out there, and probably not that well put together, we are letting everyone know that we will no longer be posting on this blog…. because we have a new one. I am going to see if my friend Raleigh Price (@ http://theuncontainabletruth.com/ ) can help me swap all of our old posts onto our new blog, because that is above my level of understanding. So… here is the new one - http://thegodwingang.blogspot.com/ We hope that each of you will make your way over there and check out what is going on in our high speed, sometimes crazy life. Thank you for following us on our journey to bring home our Zoe Grace. We hope you will continue to follow us as we see what God has in store for us. - JW, KC, Olivia and Zoe

Wow. What a morning…

I am leaving the gym this morning at 6:50 when I look at my phone and I see two things that would make anyone’s stomach that is adopting, drop and turn.
It was a missed called from our case worker and a text from her saying “You better call me RIGHT NOW!”

So of course I did. She proceeded to tell us that we somehow WERE submitted to the embassy last week and that we were 100% cleared to travel!!!

Everything is there and we are good to go!!!

They requested the 15th, 16th, or 17th of this month for us to travel!!
WOW!!! We don’t know what to say, other than God is SO good!

Thanks again to everyone who has been praying for us!

We should have our little girl home in about three weeks!!!

Prayer Request -

We know that it has been a while since we have updated our blog and we are sorry for that. Everyone keeps asking us to update them on how Zoe Grace is and when we are going to get to bring her home. We have been so busy that we haven’t been able to sit down and focus on writing anything… but everything is going great, for us.

We are posting this to ask for your prayers on a different subject. The couple here in town, Rachel and Brad Goode, who helped us take the initial step towards adopting, are being faced with a child’s worse fear. Rachel’s father, Sam Rainer, went into surgery for his heart a few days ago, and after the surgery he had a stroke. Apparently it was very severe, but the doctor’s hands are tied because he cannot do any stroke treatments to him post open heart surgery.

I text Rachel and asked how he was doing today, her response sent a chill up my back.
“Dad bad. High fever. Pls pray. If you can get together with groups to pray pls do. The suffering keeps increasing and we need a miracle.”
I don’t know about you, but I could not think of a worse situation to be in than to watch your parent or child suffering and there is nothing that you can do.
Jessica sent this email out a few minutes ago:
“Hey everyone,
I just got an update from Rachel. Her dad has a fever and they are all worried. The doctors say his brain will start swelling about 9 tonight and last for 48 hours. We have to pray, all our hands are tied but this we know we can do. We have to pray diligently and constantly. TONIGHT while we know not everyone can be together everyone can pray. At 8 o'clock tonight we are all going to set the time away to pray for Rachel's Dad. Pray that the SWELLING DOESN'T START. MAN says this, GOD DOES NOT! We believe in a bigger God than that and we believe and we CLAIM that when we come together in HIS NAME that he hears us. While we may not all be in the same room tonight we are all together as family under God praying for our friend and her dad in this time of need. Pray that God puts Rachel on the front row to one of his HEALING MIRACLES! Pray that not only does the swelling not occur but the fever DISAPPEARS, that no more damage is done and they can get him into rehab to have TOTAL recovery. We know how big of a God we serve so this is the time that we hold on to that and we claim that and we believe that. Jeremiah 30:17 says "I will restore you to health and heal your wounds" Yall, join me in CLAIMING this over Rachel's Dad and believing that God means his word and his word is TRUE and his word is SOLID. Just got another text and Rachel says they just found out his heart is out of rhythm again and that is what caused his first stroke so being praying that that is turned around and there are no more strokes!! In addition please pray for Rachel and her family that she is not overcome with a spirit of fear and she has his OVERWHELMING peace wash over her as well as her brothers, sister, mom and additional family. Pray for Brad as he takes care of the girls. If I get any updates I'll pass them along.
Remember- pray 8:00 tonight!!! 8:00 tomorrow night and anyone who can meet in the prayer room between the 9:30 and 11:00 services!! Get this out to anybody who will diligently pray for her Dad and yall she is begging us to pray constantly for him!!!”

God tells us in Matthew 18:19, “Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.”

So if you have time, right now and tonight, please hit your knees and pray that God will place his hand on this amazing family and that Rachel’s father, Sam Rainer, will be healed. God is the creator of all, and I know that if we have faith and pray, that God will see and hear us. He will know that we have faith larger than a mustard seed and miracles will be performed.

Thank you friends.
Until later.
JW

Have you ever thought about adopting?

If you have ever been interested in Adoption, Lifeline Children's Services will be coming to Saint James United Methodist Church (on the corner of Vaughn and Ryan Road) tonight from 6-8 pm in the church cafe. This would be an awesome time to come out and hear about how you can adopt/foster or how you can help support others who are either considering adopting or are in the process already. We will cover everything you need to know about the entire process domestic or international. Please join us! It will be a great time!!!

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Ethiopia here we come!!

Okay, I don’t have too much time to type a long post right now. I am swamped at work and KC has her hands full with Olivia and trying to make the world stop spinning long enough for us to try to figure out what is going to happen within the next month. We were called today by Lesley who told us that we have a court date for the first week of June!!! We are SO excited and cannot believe that it is finally here! We are SO close to meeting Zoe Grace and we can’t believe it! So more will come later when we have time to post it. Thank you everyone who has been praying with us for this moment!! We aren’t done yet, but we are one step closer to having her home forever!

Happy Easter to Everyone!

We hope that everyone has had as great of a day as we have. The weekend has actually been a great time! So this will probably be a long post, a lot has gone on over the past few days.

It all started being great Thursday afternoon actually. KC was out of town with Olivia to the beach for a little rest and relaxation, which was long over due. I have just finished up finals, so she has been an amazing wife/mother during these last three weeks really stepping up to the plate to allow me all the time I needed to study, so she needed a little break.

(Which paid off – I had four classes and have gotten one A and two B’s so far, and am waiting on the fourth.) Back to the weekend – Thursday night at church we had a Sader Meal. This guy came to the church to give us a lecture/play by play of what historians have been able to find out about the last supper. It was pretty amazing! I was one of the disciples up on stage, I was actually Simon Peter and it was even more amazing sitting up there while he was talking about it. Raleigh (of theuncontainabletruth.com was one as well.)

Then came Friday. KC made it home with Olivia and we went to the Good Friday service at church. I haven’t ever been to one, and it was a new experience. I think that they always do a great job with every service that they do at our church so of course this one was as well.

Then there was Saturday. When I woke up Saturday morning and didn’t have to go to class, because it is my summer break, which no one can ever complain about that, it turned into a busy morning.

(Olivia is the third one from the left in the purple.)

We met up with some members of our small group to eat breakfast at Chappy’s before we headed to church for the Easter Egg Hunt. We then all met up at church around 10:00 to watch the moment of excitement unfold. Luckily they had sectioned off by age group where the kids could find the eggs. Olivia, Laney and Mary Harris had as awesome time! They were very funny to watch.

Then we have today! EASTER SUNDAY! What an awesome day to be able to experience with people you love at church! The sermon, surprisingly, was mainly about Adoption! Who knew that, that would be the topic on Easter Sunday? I wasn’t expecting it, and I normally know those kinds of things. It was very fitting, about how God took each of us in as his child. How he adopted us into HIS family and how HE LOVES each and every one of us. Rachel and Brad Goode, who actually inspired us to start our paperwork, also spoke. As soon as the webcast is up I am going to attach it on here so you can hear what they, mainly Rachel, said. It was so moving and there were so many people in the crowd crying, I got chills all over while she was talking. It was an awesome day!

(I have attached some pictures of this weekend, I hope you enjoy them!!!)

Who knew $8.17 would mean so much -

What is $8.17 to you?

“Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” – Hebrews 13:16

I could not find the verse or the words that could honestly convey how I feel about the story that I am going to share with you. You always heard of these kinds of stories, you read them in devotionals, your Sunday school teachers tell you about them, but they never really happen to you. Well friends, today it happened to us – and it has made my day!

Around 9:30 this morning, I was leaving a doctor’s appointment (allergies in Alabama are the WORST) when Lesley, our caseworker at Arise, called me. I missed her call at first, so my stomach dropped, and I started thinking, okay she is calling either about our court date, or it is some kind bad news. So I called her right back. She answered with her chipper voice as always, and said she had some news to tell me, but it wasn’t major big news, it was just something that she thought I might want to know. So my mind went right to, “Oh well. What could she tell me that would be better than, we have a court date for you?” She then proceeded to tell me about Miss Ella C., who is a six or seven year old little girl there in Louisville, Kentucky.

Little Ella has been saving her money for quite a while. She is very smart, she has been saving it in four different categories: 1. Savings, 2. Tithing, 3. Spending, and 4. Donations. Well, Ella came into Arise for Children today to make a donation. She wanted to give all of the money she had saved in her “donations account” to a family, to help them bring their baby home.

So Lesley brought Ella to the “Wall of Families” and let her pick out which family she wanted to donate to, and she CHOSE US! How awesome is that?

Lesley then brought her back to her desk, sat down with her, and counted out all of the money that she brought in. Lesley then told me she was so eager and wanted to help bring the baby home that she donated all of her donating money and spending money to us! She gave it ALL to help us bring Zoe Grace home. Lesley then brought her to the files and showed her the picture of Zoe Grace and told her that, that was the face of the little girl she was helping bring home to her forever mommy and daddy.

So as you can imagine, I had chill bumps all over my body as Lesley was telling me this story and I was thinking – Wow, what a selfless act, made by such a young, innocent person, but with such pure intentions.

KC and I have been having a lot of “money” discussions lately. As many of you know, she’s a full time stay at home mom, I work full time as a paralegal/runner at a law firm, I am half way through law school and we have the same debt that any other young couple our ages would (school loans, house payments, cars, etc.). So I have been at work all day thinking, we live a very tight lifestyle, but honestly do we “give enough”? Yes we tithe the 10% we are ‘suppose’ to give to the church, but how often do we give an offering on top of that? The tithe is what you are pretty much required to give, but an offering is what you can give on top of that. Yes we spend time at community projects and help out, but how often do we put things in our lives second to help others in need?

There is this super sweet lady in Greenville, where I am from, and one of the most memorable acts that I remember as a young child and even now as an adult, is that every Sunday my papa walks a plate of food up to her house and gives it to her for lunch. He doesn’t do this because he has to, he doesn’t do it because he thinks someone is watching him, he does it because we all love Ms. Pauleen, and even though she can afford her own food and she doesn’t ask for it, he does it because she looks forward to his visit and the fact that someone cares.

All of us memorized one of the most famous Bible verses ever as small children, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16

God gave his child to die for us! As a parent I can tell you right now that I do not know one person in this entire world that I could give Olivia or Zoe Grace’s life for to save, not even mine or KC’s. But God did – he sent his son down here to live like us, to be treated like a human, to suffer like a human and to die like one, all because he loves us that much. Who could do that?? Honestly, I don’t know. Just like God, Ella, unmotivated and selflessly, walked into Arise this morning and gave. She had been saving up to perform the act and she followed through with it, but not just to the level that she thought she was going to, she gave that extra. She gave her donation and her spending money…. So I ask again, “Who could do that??” I would be lying if I said that it is something that I would do without some serious thought and preparation for.

So as we go through this week, take a look around and ask yourself – “What can you do?” “What can you give?” “How can you help?”

Maybe it’s cutting a neighbors grass, or babysitting for a couple so they can have a date night that is long over due, or maybe it’s donating $8.17 to a family that is adopting a baby. Whatever it is, know from someone who was just blessed with such a kind act, it means a lot and the amount is not what is important, the act in itself is.

(Update on Zoe Grace: We have been filled in court and we are currently waiting for the date that we have to show up. Please continue to pray that we hear that soon. Also please pray for the Yentsch and Hennessey families who are right there with us waiting on their dates!)

Some bad news.... and some GREAT news!

Well today we got a phone call and it was one of those that started off with "I have some bad news.... but I have some good news too!" 

So the bad news is that our agency got some confusing information and Zoe Grace is NOT being moved from the orphanage she is in now to Addis Ababa. So that stinks. We were really excited about it, because we were hoping that we could get more pictures of her more often and so we could spend more time with her when we are in country. 

But the good news is  - WE GOT FILED IN COURT TODAY!!!! 

So we are very excited about that!!! I think I also heard from an adoption friend that another family who we have become friends with also got filed! So thank you to everyone who has been praying so hard, on behalf of us and them! 

We now sit back and wait for them to tell us when to show up! They say it can be somewhere between four to six weeks before we even get a date, but I know that God is bigger than any challenge, delay or wait that we have in front of us and he can make amazing things happen! So we will be praying that we get our court date very quickly!!! Please join us in praying for that! 

Until later - 

jw godwin  

She's on the move . . .

This may not seem like much of an update to everyone else, but to KC and I this is BIG news!!! We were called this morning and told that Zoe Grace was being moved from the orphanage in the small town that she is currently in, where she was born, which is several hours away from Ethiopia’s capital, to the capital city Addis Ababa into a new orphanage!!

That is HUGE news because of the following reasons:

1.) One of the reasons that we haven’t been able to get many updates and pictures of her over these past few months is because she has been so far away from where our agency’s office is located in Addis Ababa, it was difficult, as expected, for someone to just jump in their car and drive several hours away to take pictures of her and then to drive back. As much as we begged for them to do that, we understood that logistically it wasn’t possible. But now, it will be easier for them to go just a few blocks over and check on her for us!

2.) When we get to Ethiopia we (probably) won’t have to take a trip back to her village. If she were still there, then we would have to spend a large majority of the time that we could have spent with her in the car driving back and forth. So that in it self is a huge blessing! We will get more one on one time with her!!! (Which we can’t wait for!!)

3.) When other families go over, maybe some of them would be willing to stop by her orphanage as well to take pictures and video of her!! Mainly video, since in Ethiopia they are still on dial-up and I am sure it is difficult to send video over that. I even learned today that the town/government cuts off all the power randomly some days to conserve it. I think KC and I both would die without that.

So while it isn’t the news that we have been waiting for, like we have been filed in court or we have a court date, it IS still something that is awesome – and these days we get excited over ANYTHING!

Please continue to pray for our sweet Zoe Grace, as well as Olivia. Also, there are two other very special families that KC and I have become very close with, and they are in the same situation/place we are in. Both families also have a beautiful baby girl waiting on them in Ethiopia and they continue to keep the faith and know that something amazing will happen soon. We all know that it will!

Until later –

jw godwin

Just an update -

I know that it isn’t much, but these days getting any kind of update on Zoe is a HUGE deal to us. Well we were told two things today – one good and one not so good, but not bad.

First, we were told that our agency has been told that Zoe is doing fine. She is healthy and is developing like any other little four-month-old baby would. That alone is a big relief for us. We haven’t heard any news about her since we received our referral, so we have been waiting anxiously.

The second bit of news is that somehow some of her paperwork has been mistranslated and it has to be redone before it can be submitted to the court. We didn’t share the news with anyone, but we were supposed to have been submitted back around the first week of March. I am glad that someone caught it before it was submitted though. I would have hated to have had it kicked out for errors like that and have to start that process over.

That’s all we have for now. Praying hard that everything moves on along…

Until later -
j.w. godwin

How do I say it....?

I am going to stand by what I said in my previous post & I will not comment on everything that is going on in Ethiopia.... but I will comment on how KC & I are dealing with it.

It's tough. I'm not gonna lie. It's really tough and it's extremely annoying. It bothers me that there is something going on that I either can't fix or that I don't know someone who might know someone who can't fix it either - - - - I don't like this feeling at all. 

I've been struggling lately with what to say. How to put across in words these emotions that I am having. For you who are adopting or have adopted, you get it - for those who aren't and haven't, I don't think you understand fully. 

KC & I were talking to some good friends of ours, Christen and Raleigh, on the car ride home from a Hillsong concert last week and it was explained pretty clearly then. They have the most adorable twins. They were born premature and had to stay in the NICU for quite a while. Thank God everything is going wonderful now, but at that moment, no one could feel what they were feeling, or could even relate, unless you had been through it yourself. It made me realize how lucky we were that Olivia was born full term and healthy. But as we talked about all of this, they admitted how they can't fully relate to how we are feeling, just like we couldn't relate fully to them.

The reason I told you that is to say it's difficult to explain exactly how someone feels in this situation. I called my mom to talk to her about it and the emotional roller coaster seems to kick into high gear - just like with almost everyone else. I get the answer "everything happens in God's time." Which I understand, but being human, is it bad that I think, "I am tired of that! I don't want to hear that anymore!!! I want things to change and I want to be able to go get Zoe Grace right now!" Then when I do think that, I feel very convicted, because who am I to push God? What do I think I can do about God's time line? Then the sadness sets in. That feeling of hopelessness, that it is all out of your hands. I know that you are to give it ALL over to God - but it is so hard not to worry and stress over it. Then the frustration sets in, because you sometimes just feel like you are beating your head into a wall. It seems like you are making the same movements over and over and over again, waiting for a different result. Actually, I think Albert Einstein defined that as insanity. I'm sure some of you might finish reading this and tell me that I need to see a therapist because of my emotional instability, but it's just SO frustrating. And I know that there are others out there who feel the same way, and I want to say how grateful I am to all of the other parents who I have become friends with. 

Well tonight I was doing a little studying and a song that I've heard a million times came on Pandora and it really hit me. So I thought I would share it with everyone. I'm sure many of you have heard it and know the words, like me, but tonight I really listened to the words instead of just singing along. 


Mercy Me - Word of God Speak

I'm finding myself at a loss for words
And the funny thing is it's okay
The last thing I need is to be heard
But to hear what You would say

[CHORUS]
Word of God speak
Would You pour down like rain
Washing my eyes to see
Your majesty
To be still and know
That You're in this place
Please let me stay and rest
In Your holiness 
Word of God speak

I'm finding myself in the midst of You
Beyond the music, beyond the noise
All that I need is to be with You
And in the quiet hear Your voice

[REPEAT CHORUS 2x]

I'm finding myself at a loss for words
And the funny thing is it's okay.





Some may say that it is just a coincidence, I on the other hand believe that moments like that are reminders from God. Maybe it's the part of me that holds on to the fact that God will not forsaken us, that he wants to see us happy and praising him.... 

So please continue to believe and pray that everything will happen as it is suppose to on God's time line, but that it is somewhere towards the top of the list. 

Until the next time. 

j.w. godwin

Okay. Okay. We will blog about it -

There have been a TON of people e-mailing, calling and texting us about these current ‘issues’ that are taking place in Ethiopia. Yes we have heard the rumors and no we have no interest in commenting on them beyond what I am going to post here.

It says in Ephesians 4:29 “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” I don’t think any of us right now ‘passing on’ information that we may have heard from someone or that we may have read from some blog or some email that we may have seen from some agency that doesn’t have anything to do with you or your agency is helpful. I do however believe that all of this has everyone’s emotions on high alert, including mine and KC’s, and I think that the smallest thing, especially in the adoption world/BLOG world could start a fire of emotions and endless forwards and messages to each other. On that note, KC & I are forever grateful to everyone who has emailed and gotten in touch with us and we know that everyone is just trying to help everyone else stay informed, and that is not what I am talking about. What I am saying here is that those who are passing information along just to be passing something on, or those who don’t have any factual information that something is indeed happening or taking place should not attempt to ‘inform’ others until they know for certain – which means their agency told them directly – and then it is normally only applicable to those of you in the same agency. So while I am not meaning to come across harsh in this post, or ungrateful for all of the concern, but for those out there who haven’t been through this process or who are going through it but maybe aren’t as far into it as some of us other people, please try to refrain from ‘passing on’ info. I do know from some friends that there are still plenty of wonderful things going on in Ethiopia right now. There were some people who were given their court dates just yesterday. Not us unfortunately, but we know that it WILL happen, we are just continuing to pray and keep the faith that God’s will be done in the time table that he wants it done.

Again, whoever is reading this blog, PLEASE know that it is not a lashing out post, it is merely a post to remind everyone that I am just a dad waiting every day, praying faithfully, to receive a phone call, or an e-mail, or a carrier pigeon, or a message in a bottle, I really don’t care, just something from our caseworker telling us that our paperwork has been completed and what our court date is. Every time I am told that something else might or might not be happening it gives me a hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach because all I can think of is the second most precious face in the world who’s picture is on my desk right beside her big sisters and it almost makes me physically sick because I can not do anything about it – except pray.

So before you decide to post something or pass something along, think for a second how this will affect others in the process. Would you want to know what you are about to share…

I am from a BIG family, I have three sisters and five brothers, and I remember several times growing up when my mom would tell us that if we just sit down and stop talking over each other we would be able to understand the instructions and what is going on a lot better. Maybe we should all heed that advice right now, but instead of sitting down to be quiet we should hit our knees and pray for guidance and a resolution to anything that may or may not be taking place – and if for nothing else at least pray for strength and comfort for KC, myself, and the other parents out there who are literally one or two steps away from being able to go meet our babies.

Until later -

j.w. godwin

It can be a little uncomfortable to accept –

I know we have talked about this before, so I do apologize if our blog is being redundant, but it is something that I am just going to have to get off my chest – just in case there are others out there in the same situation.

KC and I finally got up enough nerves this week and the realization that we could travel anytime to Ethiopia (after we receive our court date, which could also be any day), and we don’t have enough money on hand to pay for our plane tickets there and back. I am not sure if any of you others in the adoption world have been faced with situations like that, but it isn’t necessarily a good feeling. So we have thought, prayed, thought, and prayed about what we should do about this ‘minor’ situation and it became very clear. For several weeks we have had some close friends, coworkers, wonderful case workers who are connected with our adoption and others who are or have adopted encourage us to send out letters to people we know asking them for donations. Right away I was thinking, “Now way. Are you serious? Do you know what people will say about us if we do that? Asking for money? Really? We don’t do that. We can’t do that. This is something that we have decided to do and we will figure out a way for us to handle it.” Man was I wrong.

Well, after I finally got the macho ego out of the way, my wonderful wife, who through the entire ego trip never told me I was wrong, instead just prayed, sat down beside me the other night on the couch and told me that it didn’t make me any less of a father or husband if I couldn’t afford to do this all by myself. It was a real eye opener that I have finally been faced with something like this in my life and I can’t ‘fix’ it. All I could think was, “this really stinks.” For those of you who haven’t picked up on it yet, I am a 26 year old, very determined (my wife calls it hard headed) prideful person. It isn’t the best trait to have, but it is a difficult one to overcome as well. We actually talked about this in our small group (aka Sunday school class) last night. About the different traits that spouses have, and I said that I was a problem solver – that’s what I do, but I can’t fix this one.

A few days ago a very good friend of mine who has been really just a sounding board for me to lash out at or discuss issues with or just ask to pray for me during this process emailed me this – “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. —1 Peter 5:5-7“ That’s all that was in the email. It wasn’t a – Hey man I’m think about you, or I saw this and thought you might find it helpful – instead it was just the verse, nothing more. I opened it up and a peace just came over me about the entire situation. Then I felt really stupid. Would I really be so prideful that I would not ask for help from people who care about us to bring Zoe home? It isn’t like I am asking them to pay off my house or car, instead I am asking for assistance to travel to go meet and to go bring home my daughter.

So yesterday a couple dozen letters went out in the mail to some people that KC and I have been blessed enough to encounter in our lives asking them to help us raise enough money to bring Zoe home. I did it. It’s done. I have put myself out there. I have stepped outside of that “comfort zone” that we all have heard of so many times in Sunday school and on youth trips growing up. I have shown my underbelly and I am now vulnerable to comments about it or to ridicule from people who may hear about us doing that and not agree with it, but I am okay with that. Tuesday afternoon before we put the letters with my bag so I could carry them to the post office the next morning when I left for work, KC and I called Trey and Abbey who have been such amazing friends, just like the rest of our small group, through this journey, and we asked Trey to pray over the letters for us. They are currently in California because Trey is in school again and he is out there for some classes, but they didn’t hesitate to say yes and do it. So we put KC’s phone on speaker phone, sat it on top of the letters, KC and I held hands and Trey prayed one of the most awesome prayers I have ever heard him say. So we know that something good will come out of this. We have opened ourselves up to God completely. We have let go of everything that we have been holding back and we are putting, not just 95% faith in him and letting us handle the rest, we are putting it all – 100 % - into him and we know he will make things happen.

So if you are out there and this is something that you are dealing with or wondering if it is the right thing to do, trust me, from someone who is a control freak who can’t help but micromanage everything, just let it go and give it ALL to God – you wont regret it.

Update on ZG: We are still patiently waiting for the news of when we will go to court, but we will definitely let everyone know when we finally get it!

Until later – keep the faith.

-j.w. godwin

CONGRATULATIONS!

Congratulations to two of the most amazing people God has ever blessed KC & I to come in contact with – Brad and Rachel Goode who OFFICIALLY passed court today!!! Amelia is FINALLY coming home to her forever family here in Montgomery! We are SO happy for you guys and can’t wait until you are back home and she is here!

Read their story about their news today:
http://rachelgoode.blogspot.com/2011_02_01_archive.html#89088


And please continue to pray for Betsy & Chad as they are in Ethiopia right now on their SECOND trip to go pick up their baby girl - Addison! (http://betsyandtheboys.blogspot.com)

God has been very busy here in our adoption community in Montgomery, we are all so blessed. We still haven't heard anything about our court date/travel date, but we know it will happen when the timing is perfect. We just keep praying it will be sooner than later.

Until next time.

j.w. godwin

OUCH !

First let me start this with the disclaimer that I HATE getting shots. I hate needles more than anything else in the world.

KC & I just finished our first round of shots at the Public Health Department. They were great there. They were asking questions about Zoe, about when we thought we were going to leave, they were asking about Olivia – then the mood changed, very quickly. The sweet nurse turned and walked out of the room telling us that she would be right back. I got extremely nervous, I started to sweat like crazy, I was pretty much freaking out a little bit. We were there to get our first Hep. A & B shot, our Polio shot and our Yellow Fever shot. So I have been doing research on what could happen when you get these shots, and I am always worried that I am going to be that one person out of the 7.3 million that have a reaction to the shots. (1 in 7.3 million is not an accurate statistic; instead it is just a joke.)

Well, as the nurse left the room, I became a little light headed from stressing out, so I had to lay down in KC’s lap before I passed out. Looking back, yeah it was a little funny, but at the moment I was stressing!




Well, the nurse came back in, she asked who wanted to go first, and my wife being the kind hearted, loving woman she is, she volunteered me.








That kind nurse that left the room, came back a vicious medical torturer! She pulled the sleeves up on my shirt, and gave me

one…

two…

three shots, and don’t let the expression on my face fool you – they hurt!


But then everything got better, because it was no longer my turn and it was then KC’s turn. She also started to stress out a little, but I don’t know if it was from the actual shots or from my screaming that she just heard.



She rolled her sleeves up, as I took pictures, and one….

two….

three….

she was done!



Hers hurt a little more afterwards than mine did.


So round one is done, round two will be in a month. So we will update you on that when it happens. We hope you enjoy our pictures, we always enjoy documenting everything, no matter how ridiculous we look.


Until later
-j.w. godwin

Time for the shots!

For those who might be traveling soon….

KC & I posted a blog entry earlier in our process about “shots” and what we needed to get. Well, we have finally gotten around to having enough money to pay for them. (They are expensive!)

I learned some very valuable news yesterday while calling to schedule our appointment(s) for today. When traveling to Ethiopia one of the shots recommended by the CDC (which you can find all of this online on their website, it is very simple) is a Hepatitis A & B shot. Luckily they come in a ‘combo’ shot so you can get them at the same time, but it is three separate shots. So you have to go three different times. The nurse asked me yesterday when we were leaving for our trip, because according to the CDC you have to have a month between the first shot and the second. You can’t have them any closer together. They also told me that they suggest you get two shots before you leave, you obviously aren’t required to get any shots, but recommended. I mean who wants to bring Meningitis or Polio home with them? Not me. But they said as long as you get two rounds of the shots into you, you should be okay, but they obviously suggest going ahead and getting the third during the process, just to make sure.

So I thought I would pass along that information. We were planning on waiting as long as we could before we got the shots, but I am so glad we called and checked. Not that we have any information on when we are traveling, but I would have been pretty upset with myself if we were told we were traveling in two or three weeks, then if we went to get shots and we found this out. So here is some unsolicited advice, I would recommend calling your local travel clinic or doctor to see what their recommendations are and really, when you should start getting them. So you don’t run into any ‘timing’ issues. Just a thought.

Also, I guess it’s a good thing that the Hep. A & B shots are a set of three that way we can spread out the other shots that we are recommended to get and we wont get them all together at once. I am 6’ 3” and weigh, on a good day, about 205, so getting some of these aren’t that big of a deal, but KC on the other hand who is 5’ 4” and weighs about 115 probably couldn’t handle as many shots as I could in one sitting. Some of them are live viruses! So we plan on spreading them out, getting three today, two later, etc.

Well, we go today to get the shots and I will update you all later after it is done. I’ll take pictures too. Really, what the post will probably consist of is how I screamed during every shot and how KC just sat there and made fun of me. She laughs at me every time I have to get a shot and says, “you would have never survived as a women, childbirth is way harder than this.”

(For those of you in Alabama who need shots, we have found that the cheapest place in our area to get them are at the Alabama Department of Public Health as well as the AUM Nursing Clinic in Montgomery – Google them their numbers are on-line.)

Until later –

J.W. Godwin

What an amazing couple of weeks.

I don't know what to say other than God is busy at work...

Last week we finally receive our referral for Zoe Grace and we got to see her picture for the first time and now this week our friends, Brad & Rachel, finally received their court date!!! F I N A L L Y ! ! !

For those of you who have been following our blog for a while you have heard the names Brad & Rachel. They were the original couple that we talked to about adopting and they are the ones who finally gave us the “push” of confidence out of the nest to pursue those feelings. They have been such great friends and an even better resource right here in Montgomery. After their LONG almost two year process they are getting to leave VERY soon to go meet their baby girl. (Due to security reasons I am not going to post any ‘details’ about their trip or when they leave. Those of us adopting understand that we can't share anything until it's all over.)

If you have a moment this week say a special prayer for them as they get ready to go into this next chapter of their lives. I know I am being very vague about this, but I don’t want to say too much. So pray for them this week, next week, the following week and on forward…. and say a very special prayer for Little Caroline who is will be one of the best big sisters ever!

Until next time.

-j.w. godwin

It happened!!!

This post won't be long because we are running around like chicken with our heads cut off & calling everyone we know . . . Because we were given our referral tonight! We finally got to see Zoe Grace's precious face! She is two months and three days old. She is absolutely perfect!!! Thank you everyone who has prayed for us and supported us through this process! We are so blessed!

More to come later...

-J.W. Godwin