We had the same KLM flight crew from Amsterdam - Sudan - Addis Ababa as we did on the return flight from Addis Ababa - Sudan - Amsterdam. Not that we had any issues with our Delta flight crew, but the KLM flight crew either liked their job or the Dutch are happier people. They always had a smile on their faces and were willing to engage in conversation.

Most of you know me well enough to know that it doesn't take me much to make friends with a complete stranger. On our first flight, I struck up a conversation with Inge, the flight attendant assigned to our section of the aircraft. She knew why we were traveling to Addis and even asked to see photos of sweet Malia. As we left the aircraft in Addis with extreme anticipation to see Malia the next day, she made sure to wish us farewell and good luck with our adventure.

Fast-forward a few days...As we boarded our return flight home, we were surprised and delighted to see that we had the same flight crew. Upon Inge seeing us on board, she immediately came over to us and took a good five minutes to chat with us as other passengers were boarding. It was obvious that we were in pain as she saw the tears rolling down our faces. Her kind words were comforting to us. A couple times during the flight from Addis Ababa to Sudan, she checked in with us and even shared photos of her children with us.

Our stop in Sudan was expected to be about an hour in length. Due to a computer issue in Sudan, the flight was overbooked by five seats. After a couple of hours, Inge came and whispered in my ear, "Grab your stuff and follow me." This sweet lady took us to Business Class for the duration of our flight to Amsterdam along with the Couch family, who also are adopting and stayed with us at the guest house.

It was such a blessing to be able to get some rest and allow ourselves to decompress a bit was we were a complete mess from leaving Malia behind. The seats in Business Class are twice the size of the Economy Class seats and fully recline. I checked in with our travel agent and found out that you would pay $6,000 to $12,000 to fly Business Class for an international flight. At the end of our flight, Inge returned and showered us with a cute KLM bib with a hand written greeting from the flight crew as well as traditional Dutch bread that she brought along to share with the flight crew, but instead gave to us.

Thank you, Inge, from the bottom of our hearts! We are forever grateful for your kindness and generosity!!

We left for the Hector International Airport on Christmas Eve morning to begin our journey to Ethiopia. Our dear friend Heidi Rohr picked us up and took us to the airport.

We had uneventful flights from Fargo - Minneapolis - Amsterdam - Sudan - Addis Ababa. It was very strange spending Christmas on an airplane. Our Christmas Eve meal was a little different than previous years...

There were a couple other American families on our flight from Amsterdam - Sudan - Addis. They ended up being some of the adoptive families staying at the guest house with us. I cannot say enough about the families we met while we were there. We have definitely made some lifelong friends. Nick is working on a post about the families we shared this journey with.

After we landed in Addis, we had to wait in line to get our visas. I thought this would be a good time for a photo op to take some shots inside the airport. The man in front of me in line kindly (er, unkindly) informed me that wasn't a good idea. Oops!! We had to go through security again to get our luggage and then met up with the head of the guest house. He took us (Tunheims, Couchs, Van Nestes) to the guest house. The parking lot in the airport was interesting. Not much for lights, and people waiting by cars...They grabbed our luggage and put it in our car (whether we wanted them to or not) and then expected us to pay them.

The guest house was maybe a 4 minute drive from the airport. We all basically found our rooms and went to bed, dreaming of meeting our babies the next morning.

I continue to struggle with missing Malia...as I type, tears are rolling down my face. I have been working on photographs that were taken during our trip and in doing so re-opening the wounds within my heart. This is so hard, my heart hurts so much, I have a gut-wrenching feeling in the pit of my stomach that won't go away. I can't help but ask myself, as dad, did I fail her by sending her back to the orphanage? I know I have no choice, but I can't get the thought out of my mind. I never imagined it would be this hard, I never imagined my heart would hurt so bad, I never imagined I would miss her this much. I ask for prayers to help this transition time pass quickly and that God places his healing hands on our hearts and continues to walk with us through the valley and soon leads us to the mountain top.

This weekend we will attempt to post some more about our adventures to Ethiopia.

We are home, safe and sound, but sad and lonely. Traveling to three continents, 16,000 miles and a nine hour time change all within five days has exhausted us. We were fortunate to have great flights, with very little delays and even rode first class part of the way home. Although, we did have a bit of an issue as the Delta computer system was looking for a Visa in-order to get back to Fargo from Minneapolis...Interesting...

We have lots to say and lots of photographs to post about our journey to see sweet Malia. We'll post throughout the several coming days. We're also missing our dear frineds we spent time with while in Ethiopia.

Praying for a good night's rest!!

As we sit here 40,000 feet above Ethiopia on our way home to the United States without our Malia, tears are rolling down our faces as our hearts are so heavy knowing that Malia is lying in a crib and will soon be 8000 miles away from us. She needs her mommy and daddy, and we need her! The love we have for this child is boundless. I've been sitting here for several minutes, I don't know what to say or how to describe our emotions, other than we are heartbroken. I know that we will see her again soon, but soon just isn't soon enough! She needs to be in our arms, feeling our love. She is the most beautiful, precious, happy baby girl with the most gentle disposition.

Before we left her, Ann sang this song to her between sobs...

Oh child, precious one.
Let your life, shine like the sun.
But you say, how long till I can come home, till I can rest in your arms again?
But I say, not long, but don't miss this life, and I'll be waiting until then.

Live with the wonder of a child!
Pray with your arms thrown open wide,
Love with a love that has no end,
Until I see you again.

Oh child, precious one.
With each breath, know you are loved.
But you say, how long till I can come home, till I can rest in your arms again?
And I say, not long, but don't miss this life, and I'll be waiting until then.

Live with the wonder of a child!
Pray with your arms thrown open wide,
Love with a love that has no end,
Until I see you again.

Until we see you again, sweet Malia.

My heart has never hurt this much before. I have a hole in my heart that is so big and so painful and will not heal until she is in my arms again. I can't help but wonder if she feels she has been abandoned again. Malia, you're daddy's little girl and I pray God has reassured you that we will soon travel half way around to world again to bring you home. There truly is no distance we won't go and no roadblocks we won't overcome to ensure that our beautiful chocolate colored baby with the most beautiful, big brown eyes will soon come home.

The sweetest words I head this week came from the judge when she looked and Ann and me and said, "Mebone is yours." Malia, we will see you again, soon and very soon! This daddy loves you to the moon and back.

My heart is completely broken...I just did one of the hardest things in my life...we had to bring daddy's little girl back to the orphanage. She is so precious in EVERY way. I never believed that I could love another child as much as I do Kaleb. My dear friend Coral, assured me that I would. I now believe, I love her with all my heart!! God, please grant us peace and lay your protecting and ever-loving hands over Malia Grace until her mommy and daddy come back to bring her home!

We are at the airport waiting for our first of three flights home. It's currently 10:35 p.m.

Our anxiously awaited for court date arrived this morning. I was about ready to lose it (go figure?)...I slept maybe 4 hours all night...Malia was up twice and then I was listening to her breathe/cough as she has a terrible cold. So, we all piled in the big van and bumped, bumped, bumped to the court house. You have no idea what the traffic/roads are like here. To summarize it briefly, there are no stop lights/stop signs, some roads are paved, some aren't, animals roam freely (dogs, goats, cows, etc), and people walk in the streets with caution thrown to the wind.

When we arrived at the court house, we had to go up several flights of stairs. I will share more details about that later...I was about ready to throw up and pass out waiting for our name to be called. We were waiting in a crowded room with several families waiting to adopt along with any remaining relatives. When we finally went before the judge, she asked us about 7-8 questions. After that she said, Mebone is yours. We were overjoyed and overwhelmed to say the least.

We have made so many amazing friends here in Ethiopia. It is amazing how quickly those bonds form when you are in such an intense situation! Today was probably the most difficult emotional day for me. When court was over, the remaining birth parents/relatives came to our guest house where we are staying to say a final goodbye to their children. There was one 3 year-old girl who was sobbing when her birth mom left. It was so gut-wrenching to watch. The love of these mothers who want a better life for their children is completely overwhelming.

Tomorrow is our last day here. We plan to shop and enjoy our last moments with Malia. Please pray for a peaceful goodbye. Thank you!

Today has been a very emotional day for us.

We left for court around 9:30 a.m. and waited until about 11:00 a.m. to go in front of the judge. We were asked a few simple questions and at the end she said, "Mebone is yours." We both walked out in tears praising our sovereign God.

Malia Grace Mebone Tunheim is officially a member of the Tunheim family!!

We are SO grateful for the amazing families we have met here as well as the amazingly helpful CCI staff here in Ethiopia.

We have our precious Malia - Mebone with us at this very moment. We are completely overwhelmed by this entire situation! We woke up early this morning and waited an hour for our driver to arrive. We went straight to Malia's orphanage. The children - ages about 3-10 - greeted us with hugs and kisses the moment we arrived. They held our hands and clung to us. They had no toys, no games but they were full of smiles. I gave away all my gum, which was all I had on me, and it made their day. We met a particular sibling set of 4 that does not have a family. The two boys would not leave Nick's side. The oldest told Nick he wants to be a pastor and gave him a note to take with him. I had to go and sit in the car after I had Malia so I could just cry.

So, seeing her for the first time!!! We walked in the baby room, and a nanny was holding her right in the entry way. I swept her into my arms. She smiled a huge smile and my heart leapt. She is TINY, beautiful, PRECIOUS, HAPPY, sweet, loves to coo, sucks her left thumb and hasn't left her Mommy's side since we met. I cannot wait until we can post pictures. Everyone tells us how beautiful she is (which of course she is). I'm already dreading leaving her, but I know it will be for a very short time, and God will be with all of us.

Please pray that we pass court tomorrow with flying colors. Once again, we want to thank each and every one of you who helped to make this dream a reality.

With love,

The Tunheims

We have safely arrived in Addis Ababa on time after a very LONG day of flying. We managed to get a couple hour of sleep last night. Our hearts are overflowing with joy as within an hour we will be holding Malia Grace in our arms. Those who are staying at the guesthouse who have seen Malia are all in love with her.

We are just hours away from embarking one of the most incredible journies of our lives, traveling around the world to meet an amazing little girl who God has waiting for us in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

We wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and a safe holiday season. We will be spending Christmas Eve as well as Christmas Day traveling 7958 miles in 23 hours. Again, we thank you for your support throughout this process. Without our wonderful friends and family, this miracle journey would not have become a reality.

Please pray for safe travels, good bonding with Malia and a successful court case. Our hearts are filled with anticipation, joy and hope that this baby girl will soon be a forever part of the Tunheim family.

"Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests." Luke 2:14

We love you!

We had a wonderful time yesterday at Kaleb's daycare Christmas party. Instead of doing a gift exchange for all the kids this year, they each donated items to the orphanage kids. It was very, very sweet. Below are the items from daycare families that will be donated to the orphanage:

They also put on a little show for us. Kaleb was by far the loudest singer of the group...Here is a little sampling:

We packed up the donation totes last night. The grand total of items donated is:

• 317 bottle nipples
• 136 pairs of socks
• 24 cloth diapers
• 1 doll
• 1 lotion
11 jugs of formula
• 16 bottles
• 4 blankets
• 62 pairs of underwear
• 7 jammies
• 7 onesies
• 3 pants

Whenever I have a really big event taking place in my life, I usually end up with a "theme song" for the event...I'm a geek, I know. Anyway, this event is no different...and the song that has been pumping me up is called "Dive" by Steven Curtis Chapman. The words speak what my heart is feeling right now...

Stephen Curtis Chapman - Dive

My heart is racing and my knees are weak as I walk to the edge.
I know there is no turning back once my feet have left the ledge.
And in the rush I hear a voice that's telling me it's time
to take the leap of faith, so here I go!

I'm diving in, I'm going deep, in over my head I want to be!
Caught in the rush, lost in the flow, in over my head I want to go!
The river's deep, the river's wide, the river's water is alive,
So sink or swim I'm diving in!!

We are clinging to our Savior who was born in a manger so many years ago. The one who left His throne to become a man to live a life we cannot live and die a death we cannot die, so that we might be saved! So even though our hearts are racing and our knees are weak, we know He is guiding us. Please keep those prayers coming!

As most of you know, we are in the final days of preparation for our first trip to Ethiopia. Late last evening on my way to bed I noticed I received an e-mail form our most amazing adoption agency director, Sue. The attachments were too large to open on my BlackBerry so I immediately ran to the laptop. Upon opening my e-mail I was elated to see that I had not received one e-mail from Sue, but four e-mails, all with several attachments. Sue had just returned from a trip to Ethiopia and sent us 13 adorable photographs of our beautiful Malia Grace.

Tears filled my eyes as I open each photograph. She is so precious...so beautiful...so amazing! As many of you know, the one thing you don't do, is wake Ann up. I decided to take a chance as I couldn't stand not showing her until morning. We both had a hard time sleeping last night as each photograph of our little Malia kept flashing through our minds.

Technically speaking, Malia is not legally our child yet until we pass court, for which we are making this upcoming trip for. Because she isn't legally ours, we are unable to publically share photographs of her until we pass court. If you recall, back on October 22nd, I teased you with photographs of her hand and foot. This time I'll tease you with this!

We'll attempt to post as much and as often as we are able while we are in Ethiopia. God's blessing to all of you during this wonderful time of year! Remember the most important reason for the season...Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior!

P.S. - For those of you who purchased shirts as a part of our fundraiser, we'd like to let you know that they were mailed this afternoon. We thank you again, from the bottom of our hearts for your support! We are so blessed...

Today started out like this at the breakfast table...

After work we had the Christmas party for Wright Funeral Home which was a total blast. It was a very good stress reliever for me to just sit and visit with friends! On our way out the door, Nick's co-worker Lisa told us she had something for us in her car. Boy did she EVER. We were humbled and brought to tears by Lisa and Mike's kindness and generosity. We're so excited to share it with you!!!

First there is this AMAZING quilt from Lisa's parents, Danella & Wayne Flaten! It has a beautiful saying of "Love Circles The World" and has the shape of Africa as well as a heart embroidered on it.

Then, there was an entire gift bag full of 273 bottle nipples for the orphanage kids! Lisa called her close family and friends to help with a mini-drive for bottle nipples for the orphanage. In just one day, she raised over $150!! She said she is pretty certain that 3 Walmarts are completely sold out of bottle nipples, and she is pretty sure that the cashier at Walmart thinks she is going to be the next octo-mom!

Finally, we received this UNBELIEVABLE card and very creative gift full of sweetness from Lisa and Mike!

The card reads:

Sweet little fingers,
Cute curled-up toes,
Big brown eyes,
And a button-sized nose,
Smooth cocoa skin,
So soft to the touch...
Welcome, dear baby,
You're loved very much!

The creativity of the "Hand Picked with Love" gift basket will forever be cherished. For those of you who do no know, we have used the theme of "Chosen" on the shirts that we sold as part of our fundraiser. We have been discussing how we could get Malia her own "Chosen" shirt to match the shirts that we have. Thanks to Lisa and Mike, we no longer have to worry about that. How precious!!

I also received an amazing package in the mail yesterday from my speechie friend, Krysta. Thank you all so much for caring and supporting us. We feel so very loved. May God rain down blessings on you!!!

I came across this video on someone's blog who is adopting a child from Uganda. Megan's words couldn't be more real when she wrote, "As members of the Body of Christ, we cannot deny that we have a responsibility to love, provide for, and often parent orphaned children. It is not someone else's problem. It is our problem..."

By all means this doesn't mean that everyone needs to open their homes to parenting an orphaned child. There are so many ways to love and provide for orphans. A quick count of the names on our constantly growing Thank You page gives me a count over 100 individuals and families who have helped love and provide for an orphan.

My hope is that this video tugged at your heart as strongly as it did mine!!

The one single thing that I had the most anxiety about during this journey was...adopting an unknown child from another continent from unknown parents? NO! Traveling half way around the world TWICE in-order to bring this child home? NO! Enduring the financial burden of international adoption? NO!

I have three fears in life, vomit, snakes and NEEDLES! The one single thing that I had the most anxiety over was getting the shots necessary to travel to Ethiopia!! Yesterday I started the day off by having some unknown lady tell me why she felt I need to get FIVE needles stuck into my arms before we travel!! Not one of her reasons was convincing enough for me to go through this agony! As I sat in the travel clinic office waiting for her to "draw the shots" I severely fought off the urge to ditch. "I mean, come on, I'm only there for a few days, do I really need this, is it really necessary?!? Secondly, I would save myself $500 if I ditched!"

Just as I had myself totally convinced that I needed to sneak out, there she was with FIVE needles in hand, glowing with anticipation of inflicting pain on this helpless soul who was fearful for his life!

She proceeded to ask me which arm I wanted to be the sorest. Seriously, did you really ask me this I thought! I said, "It doesn't matter, just get this over with, can't you do all FIVE at the same time...seriously, with modern medicine is it really necessary to go through this FIVE times...I mean seriously, can't you combine them into one?" I'm not sure what her response was or even if she responded. All I could focus on was that I had to get not one, not two, not three, but FIVE shots! She asked if I preferred if she had someone else come in and give me the shots simultaneously. Instantly I thought, "Yes, this would be my way out. When she leaves to get someone to assist, I can sneak out and run for the door." For the first time in my life, I had no respect for Alexander Graham Bell as she picked up the telephone in the office looking for another nurse. "Dang, there went my chance of running."

I was in too deep, there was no way out and no one to assist. I had to withstand FIVE shots, one by one! The time between each shot seemed like an eternity. The words "poke" and "sting" will forever be engrained in my brain. After the first shot I thought, "Come on Nick, that wasn't that bad." But then she said, "Ok, next one, poke...sting."

After all was said and done, the shots themselves weren't really that bad. However, the anxiety was terrifying. I consider myself a wounded combat of Jesus' Army. I'm attempting to be the hands and feet of Jesus. As I stated in a blog post in November, I am willing to lay my life down for this child. No matter what it takes, no matter what I have to endure, I will leave no rock unturned to ensure that Maila becomes a forever part of the Tunheim family, shots and all!

We will be ordering t-shirts Thursday evening!! Place your orders now if you want to be included!

With love,

The Tunheims

Ps - We are requesting prayers from all of our prayer warriors...we need specific prayers to ward off anxiety/stress during this exciting, busy and overwhelming time. Thank you!!!!