We're Home

Jared, Malakai Mussie, and I made it home at 11:30pm last night. It was a LONG 40 hour trip start to finish and we are still very tired. We woke up to our little ones this morning and only got about 4-5 hours each. Hopefully we can nap some today. I'll be posting when I can about the trip, but first I need rest and time to finish up my journaling. To hold you over here are some pics from our trip. Thank you all for the wonderful prayers and support! We felt so covered in prayer and God's provision was over and above for the whole time...more on that later.

Introducing Mr. Malakai Mussie Blake Murphy

Packed and on our way!

Our bags are packed and we are headed out tomorrow at 12:50pm!

These are photos of all the donations we were able to collect except for the 10+ outfits which are not pictured! This is such a God thing, and I have to tell the neat story. So, we have been collecting donations since the beginning of January. We had people from our church, our old church, MOPS, family, friends and even some people down in Colorado helping us collect thing for the orphanage. We had a limited amount of space to Carry donations over even by purchasing an extra two checked bags. We got so much stuff that we thought there was no way we would be able to bring it all even with our four tubs and 1 suit case we designated for them. When we were looking at it all I said "okay this is going to have to be God math in order to get this all in the tubs at 50lbs or less each." Well, guess what? God did some amazing math. We got everything in first try and each tub is between 46 & 48 lbs! We were so excited!! Below is a list of all the things we got. We are so blessed to have such generous people around us. Thank you to all how contributed, the kids at Hannah's Hope will be so blessed by these gifts.

Donations List

Formula 35 cans
Diaper cream 13 tubes
Toothbrushes 78
Tooth paste 11 tubes
Diapers 14 packages
Baby Shampoo 7 bottles
Baby wash 9 bottles
Baby Oil 5 bottles
Lotion 11 bottles
Wipes 22 packs
Stuffed animals 3
Vitamins 8 bottles
Flax seed oil 2 bottles
Flax seed 2.4 lbs
Sippy cups 4
Blankets 5
Scrubs 2
Infant Cereal 2
Baby Towel/wash clothes 8
Onesiess 3
Bibs 3
scrubs 2
Baby Cereal 2
thermometer cover 2
Pacifiers 2
Socks 1
Surgical masks 10
spoons 12
Clothes 10+ older girls outfits

#23 and 9 months of "pregnancy"

You may recognize this number from our wait list post. So as I started thinking back over our adoption process I realized that 23 has been our number through out the whole thing. I'll show you:

23rd of October '07 we Received Application for AGCI
23rd of April '08 we got on the wait list
23 was our first number on the boy's wait list
23rd of December '08 we had our 1st and only court date
23rd of January '09 we leave for Ethiopia to bring home our son

I thought that was pretty cool. Then I started counting our time from wait list to travel and it is exactly 9 months! Nine months to the day and then I start my "labor pains" by getting on a VERY long flight.

Travel Games!

Oh, the little prayers that God answers, well and the big ones too (more on that in a minute):) I have been nervous about the flight 24+ hours...not because I'm afraid of flying but because I hate sitting still for more than an hour long movie. Mostly I have been worried about my poor husband who has to deal with my moodiness during the whole thing. Well thanks to a blast from my hubby's past, or rather childhood closet, we have a solution to at least four hours of the flight. That's right folks TRAVEL GAMES. Before I met Jared I was not much of a game person, but now that they have grown on me I welcome the distraction that pocket sized chess, checkers, battle ship, guess who, and word searches will bring. I suppose they will be good for the hotel too. So bring on the 24 four hours of gaming fun accompanied by fantastic air plane food (vegetarian of course...even better right?) Oh boy, I really am sorry honey...

Okay so for the big prayer answered. Some wonderful, wonderful, fantastic, caring, beautiful friends of ours just helped out with about 3/4 of our plane ticket fees!!! We have been SO blessed between people helping with travel fees, donations, and baggage fees I just can't say thank you enough to all these people. For the first time in this whole adoption journey I can say that we have enough to cover ALL of this step in the process...our travel fees! This feels so good. Thank you LORD for this answer to our prayers!

This was the verse of the day on my homepage this morning, I love it:

Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.

Isaiah 1:17

5 Months Old!

Our little Malakai is 5 months old and I'm so happy to be able to say that he will be home before his 6 month birthday!

Nice Shower and Awsome Cake

Our shower was very nice, and we got some nice things. I only had to play one game which was great! The best part was the amazing cake that two of my friends made. Not only did it look good, but it tasted great. Here is a picture of it half eaten, but with the best part still intact. Thanks guys!

Baby Shower

My friend Melissa is having a baby shower for us on Saturday. I'm excited to get boy things this time:) Since we have a lot of baby stuff already from our daughter I'm hoping to get lots of diapers, wipes and formula. Hopefully I can organize and put away all of the gifts while still packing and getting ready to travel. Should be a fun day.

Restless Heart

Dad Here
Now that we have our travel dates and our plane tickets are booked and all of the endless amounts of paperwork and countless hours of conversation we have arrived at our travel date. I have been asked by several people if I am excited. I respond with a typical answer of yes we are so excited or something like that. But today I was looking at some blogs of families that have come home with their children and I realized just how much my heart is connected to Malakai. As I looked at all the pictures of the other children home with their families it hit me that I view Malakai just like I view pictures of my daughter. I think the other kids are cute but there is just that parental infatuation with your own children. It almost took me by surprise that even though I have not met my son, I can still look at his picture and know that I feel the same way about him as I do with my daughter. After this revelation I began to realize how anxious I really am to bring our son home. Up to this point the waiting has never really bothered me but as these three weeks leading up to travel are getting under way I already want them to be over. With all the things that we have to get done I know that the time will pass quickly. I just cannot wait to get on the plane and know that we will finally be on our way!


Also with knowing who we are going travel with I look forward to meeting the other families and talking with the other dads in our group. Well, I was inspired by Mike to share my own thoughts. I certainly enjoyed getting to know a little bit about him before we meet and travel. I look to all the new things that this trip will bring. My personal prayer for this trip comes from Psalm 46:10
"Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."
Among all the busyness of the trip I want to be still and see God exalted!

Formula!

We have already been able to collect 52 lbs of formula to take over to our orphanage, and we still have three weeks left. We are so thankful for the generous people around us.