Introducing....Hope Mahlet and Zak Sitota Galbreath

With just a few words, a stranger in a foreign land at the US Embassy sealed the deal..."Your adoption is now complete..." and with that short but powerful statement we officially a family 7, and just counting the hours until we can introduce you all to Hope Mahlet and Zak Sitota in person.  I want to share a few pictures first, because I have internet connection, and I will finish telling about our day in the next post (someone please email me and let me know if the pictures show up on the blog)

Gotcha Day

I type this as I sit in our hotel room at 1am and momma can't sleep -  gotta love jet lag!  And the other three members of my family are sound asleep in the bed all intertwined together.  It is a sight that warms my heart.

We arrived in Ethiopia around 8am.  Spent a few unfortunate hours in the airport trying to get our medical supplies through that we brought for the orphanage.  Around 11:30 we finally headed to the hotel, settled in and showered.  For those that missed out on another great memory of this trip so far, I got violently ill on the first leg of our journey. We were flying through the horrible thunder storms on a very tiny plane and well, I more than tossed my cookies.  I have spent the last 2 days trying to recover from that and arriving here I was still very dehydrated. Thanks to those traveling with us who did not get stopped in customs at the airport, I spent our first hour here hooked up to an IV trying to get ahead so I would feel decent picking up the kiddos.  MANY THANKS to Ben for hooking me up!!  

Finally headed to HH around 2ish.  It was a wonderful first meeting again. Mahlet came running around the corner jumping into Jay's arms, then reaching for me.  She was very excited to see us.  Sitota was sleeping, so they woke him from a nap so his meeting was a little groggy eyed.  He warmed up quickly and had so much fun wearing his shades and even dancing for us.

They both waved bye when it was time to go with Sitota saying "beep, beep."  They honk their horns a lot hear, so that's what he calls the car.  At the hotel we had fun playing with both children.  Mahlet is still a bit reserved, but really doing well.  She loved her bath.  She just giggled and splashed and even loved washing her hair.  We colored, played with dolls and put a puzzle together.  I know there will be many firsts for her in the next few days, but today was her first elevator ride and I wish I had a video camera of her face.  She hung on tight and was very intrigued being somewhere different when the doors opened to our floor. She went to bed so smoothly and was asleep in minutes.

Sitota has had the hard time.  He immediately started crying and screaming once we were alone in the room.  Please pray for my sweet boy.  It is a cry you quickly recognized as being terrified.  He has been through so much and the next weeks hold a lot of change for him, this is only the beginning.  Pray he attaches to us and trusts quickly. It breaks our heart and we are doing all we can.  He would get distracted and play with us some.  He did great at dinner, then just terrified at bedtime.  We did see moments of the very fun and sweet boy that he is.  

I ask that you remember all of us, pray for both children to have a peace.  Pray for comfort for them.  Pray for wisdom for Jay and I to know how to handle situations as they arise.  We were prepared for this, but it does not make it easy.  As a mother, you just want to take all the hurt and pain away.  Thank you so much for all your love and support.  We have our embassy appointment tomorrow - tonight while you sleep, then they will be all ours and American and you can see their pictures!!  YAY!! 

Love to you all!

Candi

Not exactly how we planned it!

We started our day planning to catch a soccer tournament game before we headed to the airport for our 1:20 flight to DC...well the tournament was cancelled after 24 hours of rain, and we should have thought is through but where do you think that storm system is going next? If you guessed DC then you would be correct, and thus we begin a very long day...

Our united express plane started off on a bumpy stretch with the wind blowing us around pretty hard. We get close to DC and are informed that we will have to circle the city waiting for some storms to clear. About 2 hours later, and an hour after we were supposed to land we begin our descent. To describe the flight as rough would be an understatement. It was the worst turbulence either of us had ever experienced. Unfortunately for Candi, she became extremely nauseous and ended up leaving her lunch and most of breakfast on the plane. If you knew us during any of our other 3 pregnancies you may think that God was getting some sick pleasure out of this, as Candi has said often that she couldn't endure another pregnancy because of how horrible she felt and that this adoption process, while long and tedious, was her easiest pregnancy ever! Well, after tonight she may have learned not to speak so fast.

We end up landing in Baltimore almost 2 hours late, and then we sit on the runway...and we sit...and we sit. We wait as no planes are coming or going and they won't let us pull up to a gate that isn't owned by United Airlines. In the meantime the toilet is overflowed and the natives are getting restless...and still not feeling very well. It takes us nearly 2 hours to get off the plane, and they give everyone their bags and offered an hour bus ride to Dulles...I've been married to my wife long enough to know that she was NOT getting on a bus with 60 people after tossing her cookies halfway to Baltimore...so we made use of our travel insurance (best decision ever - thanks Lynn Torti) and they book us a rental car while we are still waiting on the Tarmac. Of course the rental cars are 10 minutes off site and my phone is dead, so I leave candi to get the bags and it takes me forever...but at 8:30 we finally head out in our Chevy Malibu packed full with all of our bags.

Thank God for GPS, because we were able to easily navigate to our hotel near Dulles, and we make it just in time to eat dinner here at the hotel restaurant. A long day, almost over. We ended up right where we needed to be, but the journey was one that we won't soon forget.

Here's to clear skies for the next leg of our flight to Addis...I'm not sure we can handle much more, but We will faithfully continue our journey and just 24 hours from landing in Addis and being reunited with our children forever.

Sent from my iPad

Galbreath Family Homecoming

Hi friends.  We leave today to go to Ethiopia to bring home our two precious additions to our family.  Hope Mahlet and Zak Sitota will be home with us on Friday.  As many of you know, the adoption process is long, but the transition for our family is just beginning when we get home.  You all have been wonderful support for us for the past year, and I know everyone wants us to be able to show off Hope and Zak, but in the weeks and months to come we will be spending most of our time with close family.  We want to introduce new experiences and new people into their lives slowly and cautiously, as they have already experienced so much trauma in their short lives.  

When you do meet them, please don't feel offended if we ask that you not hold them.  We are trying to build the bond to us as parents and our family and teach them a healthy respect for boundaries and trust. We will be teaching them to give high fives and fist bumps to our friends so that is completely appropriate.

It's tradition in the adoption world if you want to see them, feel free (but not obligated) to join us at the airport when we arrive...We will be arriving on a Delta flight from Atlanta
on Good Friday April 22nd at 3:22.  There will be plenty of people, and it is overstimulating for all of us, but if you want to come support us and welcome Hope and Zak home, you are more than welcome to come - we will love to see you all.

Thank you for the prayers and support.  We will ne updating you on FB and our blog  while we are gone galbreathjourney.blogspot.com. we will be able to post pictures after we get them on Monday, so we can't wait to share them with all of you.

Jay and Candi















Sent from my HTC on the Now Network from Sprint!

Travel Dates!!!

Quick update!

We got the best call of all today! We are leaving Saturday to go pick up our children!!! On cloud 9!

We will be arriving in Ethiopia on Monday morning. Our Embassy appointment is Tuesday. We will be leaving Ethiopia on Thursday and arriving home on Friday afternoon - Good Friday!!! What a way to celebrate Easter! Celebrating a new life for so many!

Thank you all for your prayers. Can't wait to share my new children with you! It is so close!!

Candi

Just a couple of details about the call that will make it memorable for me. First of all, the timing of it all, even down to the threat of shutting down the government, all lands our Gotcha day on my birthday!

Second, I am sitting in a barber's chair for the first time in probably 4 years (my lack of hair doesn't really lend itself toward paying a barber). The wonderful thing about this is that I received a gift card for a haircut and shave at the Ordinary Hero benefit dinner just last Thursday night that they gave to all the soon-to-be adoptive fathers in the audience...and there were probably close to 20 of them in the room which is just amazing. Thank you to the Tanksleys, as Kirk is my brothers best friend and donated the freebies to Uncles Classic Barbershop, and he didn't even find out about our adoption until last night when he was visiting my brother in Atlanta.

And my favorite, before I get in the chair I tell my barber Jeffery M that I am expecting a call, and that I wouldn't normally except it...and shared the whole story. Well, about 25 minutes later, I'm right in the middle of my spa treatment...I mean shave that felt like a spa treatment, and the phone rings. It's our case worker, and she tells me that she has good news - for all you case workers out there, it's always good to get straight to the point - no need to beat around the bush when we all know why you're calling. She says that our application has been accepted by the US Embassy, and we are clear to travel for our Embassy date on Tuesday the 19th. I finish the call, and am beaming from ear to ear - can kick myself for not getting a picture, but I have a face full of shaving cream - and it's all over my phone after my call. So I finish my very relaxing straight razor shave, complete with hot towel wrap and enjoy my last few minutes of relaxation for the day.

The next 5 hours are a whirlwind. Candi is working and unavailable most of the day. I even had to leave her a message and text, but I was under strict orders to only call if I had news about our travel dates, and I dare not disobey an order. We find out quickly that several of our AGCI friends are traveling with us, Yay for the Marcordes family, and so excited to be able to travel with the Voss family, who are bringing home a girl and boy who are almost the exact ages of our M and S. In our rejoicing, we pray for the Huss and Williams families that they will get good news in the morning and they could travel with the rest of us and hurry up and bring their kiddos home.

One of my more memorable days for sure...with more to come just one week from today!

God is Good.

Jay

Like manna from heaven...

Our blog web address - galbreathjourney - we chose it as we were just beginning our journey and all the "good" names are taken, so I went through a rather long series of trying all the clever phrases I could come up with and finally I "settled" on galbreathjourney. Little did I realize at the time what a journy it would be. I guess we all knew that it was indeed the journey of a lifetime, we were after all committing to a year or so of application and waiting with the expectation that we would find siblings and change their lives forever...

Well, what I have come to realize is that God is a bit of a multi-tasker, and he has quite the knack for teaching us lessons in the middle of long journeys, and each lesson is hand-crafted and unique for each of us. All he requires is that we take a little time to sit back and enjoy his handywork.

For me, and I guess for most of us, God likes to teach us lessons by challenging those things that we try to keep hidden from Him. That one sacred piece of our lives that we think we can handle better than He can. If we only can muster up enough courage to listen, each of these lessons has the potential to bring us closer to Him by breaking down the walls that we have put up between our heart and God's will.

Our adoption journey started about 7 years ago. When your OBGyn Dr. tells your pregnant wife during her 3rd high-risk pregnancy that "if you would like to be around to raise the 3 children you have, I would suggest that you not have any more," well even us stubborn, bull-headed husbands can take a hint. Truth be told, and Candi reminds me often, that we both wanted a large family, and I have wanted 6 children since we were getting married and had our first conversations about kids. The fact that we have waited this long to start our journey is due in large part that we put up walls between our hearts and God's will. My wall was mostly financial. Always wanting to be in a better place financially before we could even think of starting the adoption process. Always under the illusion that our finances were the one thing that me as the CPA and Financial Planner could control.

So God placed adoption on Candi's heart this time last year, and although it took me a couple of weeks to warm up the idea, somehow I set aside the need to control everything and blindly follow His will. What this journey has taught me so far is the power of God's faithfulness if I can just have the courage to listen, the faith to trust that God will provide, and the patience to see his will lived out in my life.

I'm not sure how much you know about the cost of adoptions. Well, as an CPA would do, before I could sign the application, I had to understand exactly what the costs were and how and where we could afford it. When I added up the costs and what we had on paper to pay for it, the bottom line just as many other adoptive families have learned before us...in order for this thing to work, we had to hand it over to God, completely, and trust in his provision.

Over the past 12 months, I have been shown time and time again the power of God's provision, as He has time and time again provided Exactly what we have needed in His perfect timing. Just a couple of examples of God's provision, like manna from heaven...

-- On the night we signed the agency application, scared to death that we just got in over our heads, we were blessed with a phone call and a gift that enabled us to make our first large deposit

-- We have been fortunate for friends and family, and their participation in several fundraisers we have had...from 30 families donating items to our garage sale...to selling t-shirts that we designed and printed...to a highly successful movie night in our backyard...and a Chick Fil A night with over 400 people. Every t-shirt, gift, and donation have been blessed by God. Thanks to all who have been a part of our journey so far.

-- In mid-December, out of the blue, I received a check from an estate of a great aunt of my mother. It was a small check, less than $1000, but it provided exactly the amount that we needed to make up the difference when we had to make a payment to accept the referral for our 2 children

-- The process for adoption in Ethiopia changed significantly in May 2010. We found out just 2 months after we started this process that we were now going to have to make 2 trips to Ethiopia instead of 1. at just under $2,000 for a flight, plus travel expenses, that added about $5,000 to the cost, and we didn't have the money to cover it. As we were paying our agency fee in January, we found out that the fees for siblings were almost $5,000 more than I had originally estimated. That puts us at $10,000 more than our original estimates. On the Tuesday leading up to our first trip for which we leave on Saturday, I get a call out of the blue with a substantial unexpected gift. On Thursday, I get a separate amount of money fall into my lap. The combination of the two gifts, just 2 days before we leave to go see our children for the first time, was within $500 of making up the entire difference in unexpected costs compared to our initial estimate.

Now one of these examples of God's provision, I tend to write of as good luck. Two times, and it's a coincidence. But by the time we are flying out to truly begin our journey to meet M and S for the first time, we do so with peace in our hearts that we are completely in submission to His will.

Milestones

How many times in your life does one moment literally change your life forever? For me there have been only a few milestones that mark my life by which I can without a doubt say my life has never been the same. Yes, it's obvious and easy to pick out our wedding day and the birth of our children as milestones, and yes those definitely changed our life - for the better - never to be the same. For me, I can really look back on 3 milestones that have forever changed my life.

The first is the night that I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior...the culmination of a patient girlfriend and my future wife who didn't give up on me and an even more patient God, who walked with me through the valleys of my Freshman year at UT to show me that His love was bigger than all of the sin I could muster. It was on this day that I surrendered my life to serve my God, and while I ask forgiveness daily for falling short of His Glory, I continue to this day to walk daily with Him and ask for his guidance as I lead my family and raise my children in the way and teaching of the Lord.

The second milestone. I am working for Arthur Andersen and in a hotel room in Wilmington, North Carolina. It's in the middle of winter, and I am out of town for what seems to be weeks at a time. At home is Candi, pregnant with our first child, working nights at Vanderbilt and sick as a dog...anyone who calls this morning sickness has 1) never been pregnant or 2) never had a wife that is nauseated 24 hours a day for easily the first 4 months of her pregnancy. I remember that Candi had to go to her OB Dr. and she took her mom with her because she didn't want to go by herself...and she had to get an ultrasound because the Dr. couldn't hear the heartbeat. Everything was okay, and I can remember thinking that this was the end of my days working as an auditor with AA, and I promptly found a way out of public accounting. Now that's not my milestone as I digress...As I'm sitting in North Carolina, I get a call from Candi, almost in tears and terrified to talk to me over the phone..."it's your mom," she says. "I just talked to her and she has ALS." As a nurse Candi knew the gravity of the news that she just shared with me, and she also could tell by my reaction that I had no idea how our lives just changed. The next 2 years are a blur, but I can remember several moments during this time like they were yesterday. I can remember a Sunday at Brentwood Baptist, I was sitting alone in church - the old sanctuary on Franklin Road - not sure why Candi wasn't there - but I can remember going up to the altar for prayer time in tears, asking God for help as I watched my mom struggle with this awful disease and as I struggled to be the son that I needed to be and find a balance as I also needed to be a strong husband to my wife of under 2 years and father to my precious new baby girl. Those first 4 years of marriage, Candi and I went through just about every major life event one could imagine...We bought a house a year into our marriage, we had a baby within the next year, mom gets diagnosed with ALS and after taking care of her before and after work for over 6 months we decide to sell our houses and buy a house together so we can take care of her full-time. While we are living together we become pregnant with our 2nd child, so I have a pregnant wife, a 1 year old baby girl, and a mom who is going downhill all too quickly. We bring in help for mom and ultimately move her to the Alive Hospice Residence, where she spent the last month of her life. Within a week of mom's death, we were blessed with the birth of our 2nd daughter. Just writing this down makes me exhausted, but the lessons I learned and the growth that Candi and I experienced during this time - it strengthened our marriage and our dependence on daily help from our Heavenly Father, as we truly could not have endured that time in our lives without is sustenance.

This past week, I have had the 3rd milestone in my life. I have a picture in my mind that will be forever embedded in my heart of my new daughter running out of the orphanage door with arms open wide and a smile bigger than life...saying "mommy" and running into the arms of a stranger she had never met...with the faith that only a child can manage, she reaches her mother who picks up her new daughter and they embrace as if the prodigal child was finally home. I can't wait until I can share pictures and video of this and the other moments that we experienced this past week as we met our son and daughter for the first time. It was a trip that changed me forever. I am thankful that Sarah Beth and Haley were able to join us for the trip for many reasons - they were able to see the level of poverty that the people in Ethiopia live - they were able to see first hand the joy of the people, many of whom had virtually nothing but they seemed more content than most Americans. The children in the orphanage were also content and happy, but we witnessed one sibling set of boys - ages probably 5 and 3 - the day they were brought to the orphanage. I can still see the looks on their faces. Their eyes are dead and their little bodies look broken as they have just lost everything they have ever known. This is where our children were 5 months ago, today. I can tell by the looks on their faces in those first pictures, and the only thing that keeps me going is knowing that those two little boys will get a family one day very soon and I know their faces will light up when they get to run into the arms of their new mommy and daddy, too.

It's been less than a week since last Friday when the judge said those magic words that we have been waiting over a year to hear: "They are Yours," she said. And with those words we are now a family of 7. Albeit, for the next couple of weeks, we are here and they are still at HH in Ethiopia, but we left with them part of our hearts, and I long for the day (and it can't come too soon) that that door will open and our son and daughter will look into our eyes, run with open arms and say - mommy! daddy! - embrace with the love that only a mother or father can give. The thought of that moment consumes me.

I am already changed. I love a son and a daughter that I have seen in pictures for a little over two months and I have met in person for only 4 days, and yet I know they are mine. That moment when I first held them in my arms - I will truly never be the same. I am changed forever.