The Story of Enku's Introduction to Our Lives

Wow... The tale of our SON! :)

On Tuesday, November 2nd, we got an email of a picture of our new son. I had gotten a call from Sue, the lady from the agency we’re using, and we had a conversation about the little guy that she had available. She said she would send us pictures later that evening and we could let her know if we still were interested (as if a picture would change our minds!). Later that evening, Tony and I checked my email together and there it was! A beautiful picture of our little man! An official referral! He had his little hand over his face and was sleeping, but he was beautiful! He has long fingers and pretty brown skin and little chunky rolls on his legs! And of course we said we wanted the little guy! How could we not want him!!! Tony and I have always thought that we would accept the very first referral we were given. I mean, we’re not doing this so we can pick out a kid. We want God to do the picking out for us! And he did!!! Enku Akililu is our little man’s Ethiopian name. Precious boy. He is going to be our son and Eliah’s little brother!

In light of this referral, we were in need of the funds to accept this referral. We were a bit short of what we needed. On Sunday, Nov 7th, our Sunday School class prayed that we would not have to finance any of the money, and that the Lord would provide for us.

On Wednesday, Nov 10th, we got the medical report for little Enku! Everything looks WONDERFUL. He is 10.5 lbs, 23 inches long. He also has umbilical hernia, which Eliah had when she was born. (Runs in the family!) I cried tears of JOY that our little one across the ocean was healthy!!!!

On Thursday, Nov 11th, after we had gotten back from doing x-rays on Eliah’s arm and when I had gotten Eliah and Nathaniel (the kiddo I babysit) down for their afternoon naps, I went to check my email. And MORE TEARS when I opened up an email from our agency with BEAUTIFUL pictures of our little man!!! These pictures (I think) were taken when he had his medical check-up. He was much bigger in these than in the first pictures we received. Also, you could really see his face this time. And those big brown eyes. And the cutest little chin ever. He has a little bit of hair and in one of the pictures he is almost smiling--which is joy to this mommy's heart! What a blessing to see that precious face after a stressful morning! He looked so healthy and happy! It made me thankful that God is protecting him across the ocean just as he protected Eliah from getting hurt badly in her fall. (We can’t post pictures of our little man until we pass court in Ethiopia. I promise I will post pictures then.)

By Sunday, Nov 14th, God had provided a significant chunk of the funds needed for the acceptance of the referral. And on Thursday, Nov 18th, we sent in a check for the entire amount!!! And on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving we got our approval from the USCIS, which means the paper work we were worried about was taken care of!!!!! Praise the Lord for providing in so many ways. Praise the Lord for sustaining us through an emotional week. Praise the Lord for his goodness to us! Praise the Lord for a healthy son in Ethiopia and a healthy daughter in Kentucky! Happy Thanksgiving! We are so blessed! :)

Somewhere in all of this excitement, Tony and I finally settled on a name for our little guy. We are so thankful that God is giving us another child that we get the privilage of naming and having as a part of our family! We are going to call him Joel Michael Sutton. Joel means Jehovah is God. We want our son to know the true God and glorify Him with his life!