More Good News

Wednesday we got Miriam's and Hannah's Malian passports. We also were able to schedule an appointment with the US Embassy here in Bamako to work on getting their visas to the US. We were originally told that it would take up to a month to get their visas but now we're being told that we could get them as early as next Tuesday (the 30th). This is amazing news! Please pray for us and with us as we're wrapping up all the things we need to get done to come home for our furlough soon. It's supposed to start March 1st and, along with the visas, we need to buy plane tickets, prepare financial items, pack up many of the belongings in our house, and assorted other 'wrapping up' stuff. There is a lot to do and not a lot of time!

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The Proof (by Thom)

Here's the proof to what Amanda was talking about in her last post. :)

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Food (by Amanda)

As many of you know our babies are growing fast. They just turned six months old and they are a joyful duo. We have enjoyed the steps along the way. Most nights they sleep through and they are getting stronger everyday. I especially enjoy reading to them and singing them to sleep at night. Miriam becomes so relaxed when I start our nightly songs off with “Jesus Loves Me” and Hannah is not too far behind.
The most exciting thing for us right now is the introduction of different baby foods. We started adding green beans the other night and it was love at first bite. Both of them were diving their heads forward for their second bite. Yesterday we introduced carrots and it was more of the same. It is so much fun to give them their food as they love it.
I have also begun doing Miriam’s hair. Daddy loves the little pig tails all over her head and to keep Hannah from getting too jealous I put a little one at the top of her head today. They are just amazing and they are so beautiful. Their little personalities are shining through and they are just wonderfully individual as God intended them to be.

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Miscellaneous Items (by Thom)

A lot has been going on lately so we're going to résumé here and get caught up:

First, all the paperwork regarding the adoption is final and in our hands. We've now applied for Malian passports for the girls and are expecting those to be finished soon. Once we get those we can apply for visas to the US for them. This is a little complicated but we get asked this question a lot so let me try to explain it clearly here:
We have legally adopted Miriam and Hannah but they are not yet American citizens. That is not automatic. We will pursue duel citizenship for them (American and Malian) but we don't have time to make them Americans before we come to the US (more on this in a minute) so we're getting them Malian passports. Malians cannot enter the US without a visa so we are going to get that, too. Hopefully that makes sense. Once we return to Mali in June we'll finish the citizenship issue and get them American passports, too.

We are supposed to be returning to the US March 1st for three months! We have held off on sharing this officially because we wanted to wait until the adoption was final. We're praying and hoping that we can stay to this schedule and to do that we'll need their passport and visa paperwork to go through without any problems. We're really looking forward to coming home and seeing our friends and family. We've 'met' so may new people through this website during the last couple of years without ever talking face-to-face. Thanks for all the support we're received! We will be based in Lima, OH for our furlough but will be making a number of trips to see family and friends. Our schedule can be seen here, but it is subject to change. We've had a few churches request we come and share what the Lord has done in our lives here in Mali and we're excited to be able to do that, but at this point we don't have any more Sundays available. If you have a weekday function in the area and you'd like Amanda or me to share our stories we'll be happy to see if we can work things out.

Speaking of returning to the US, thanks to everyone who emailed me with advice on which photo printer to buy. I got a lot of great leads and ended up settling on a machine that will be perfect for our ministry in Mali. It even does things I wanted that I didn't know existed!

Amanda hasn't been feeling well lately. It's one part stress plus one part flu. Please pray for her health. Both of us are feeling we're at the end of our emotional ropes. Our furlough couldn't come at a better time!

Finally, I'm very, very busy at the mission office right now. I'm trying to work ahead through the end of June as best I can. We only have 6 weeks left here and I'm trying to cram almost 6 months of work into that. Please pray for me that I can get all my tasks done. I'm working on buying tickets for missionaries who will travel this year, preparing salaries for our Malian employees while I'm gone, budgeting for the coming year, and more.

Thank you all so much for holding us up in prayer. We're excited to be coming home soon and sharing two very tangible results of all that prayer! Oh, speaking of Miri and Hannah - there are more new pictures of them on our site! Enjoy.

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Six Months Old! (by Thom)

Today Miriam Ruth and Hannah Marie are six months old. They tried mashed carrots today for the first time and went absolutely nuts! They love their vegetables more than their fruits. I think Amanda's going to mention something about this in a future entry. Enjoy these pictures taken on their birthday. There are several more here.

Hannah McMurray: Future ballerinaMiri loves her duck!

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Seeking Help on a Question (by Thom)

We're scheduled to return to the US for 3 months this coming spring. We've decided to buy a dedicated photo printer while we're home so that when we return to Mali we can print out photos of our girls as well as print visa photos and pictures of friends (in this culture, giving photographs of people can be a great ministry by opening doors. People love getting pictures of themselves, family, and friends!). We've been researching dedicated photo printers on the internet but we'd like to ask for some help here: if anyone who reads this has actually bought a dedicated photo printer or has experience with them would you please email us with advice, cautions, and/or recommendations? Our email address is mcmali@gmail.com. Thanks so much in advance!

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Babies Are Growing (by Thom)

Miriam rolled herself over for the first time today! Hannah started doing this about 2 weeks ago and rolls over a lot, but this was a first for Miri. It's so exciting to see them growing! Miri is cutting her first tooth now and Hannah has starting sleeping through the nights better as well.

Update: I took some pictures of the girls today and finally got our Christmas pictures up. You can see the new pictures here and here. They'll be 6 months old on Wednesday! How can you not love this face?

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It's Official! (by Thom)

It's Official! Today we returned from Segou and our meetings with the judge. A lot happened and it was more complicated than we expected but that was mostly due to language difficulties. Actually, there was a miscommunication between the social worker and the judge and that escalated when the judge tried to tell us certain obligations that were "news" to us. To make a very long story short: we ended up not resolving things on Thursday and were obligated to come back the next day and things were finalized this morning. Wassa and Foune Dembele are now officially and legally Miriam Ruth & Hannah Marie McMurray. Praise be to the Lord for seeing us through this very stressful time! After driving a lot of miles and dealing with all sorts of legal translation from French and unexpectedly staying in a -2 star hotel I'm beyond exhaustion this evening.
Thanks for the prayers throughout this process. Our next steps include getting Malian passports for the girls and getting visas to the US so we can return as scheduled March 1st for three months. Somewhere along the way we need to work on getting them US passports as well. It's important to us to get the girls duel citizenship.
Here's a picture of our (now official) family taken shortly before Christmas:

(Thom is holding Miri and Amanda's with Hannah)

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Prayers For Our Last Court Date (by Amanda)

It has been a long time since I wrote so Thom asked me to write this special blog today. As many of you know we are going to be going to Segou tomorrow January 4^th to see the judge hopefully for the last time. The best outcome for us would be that we receive all the finished paperwork and be able to begin on working towards coming home for our three months home assignment.

We know that all of you have been praying with us throughout the whole process because we see the results each time we look at our little girls. If it were not for the faithful prayer of our friends and family I have no doubts that "little Hannah" would not be "bigger Hannah" today. We have so much to be thankful for. We were not looking for the girls when they came into our lives although we were asking for them. God brought them to us and then confirmed his love by performing miracle after miracle in their lives and in ours.

So here I am asking for your prayers once again because I know that your prayers and ours have been heard by God and many of them answered with a “yes”. I would like you to especially remember us tomorrow in our travels and in our dealings with the Judge. One is that we receive our completed papers and that the adoption is final. Another is that in all we do may it be a testimony to the Judge and all present what God has done and can do.

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2006 In Review - December

Note: This is the final installment of a series looking back on our missionary lives in Mali during 2006. This was our first full year in Mali and brought many, many changes. We hope you enjoyed this look back at our year. Click on the links in each review to read what we wrote back then.

2006 In Review - December

• With Amanda's dad and his friend visiting us we took a brief tour of Mali, visiting Niena and Koutiala.
  
• December 7th we had a court date with the judge handling the adoption case. He declined to issue a ruling (we're scheduled to go back January 7th).
• Hannah & Miriam turned 5 months old.
• We had an update on the language teacher who has been asking us questions about our faith. We've had some great conversations with him and he even came to church with us on Christmas!

An just like that 2006 was over. It was an amazing year that didn't end at all like we expected. We had no idea our family would double in size during the year. We were able to see many wonderful places. We saw the Lord doing great things in Mali. Now we're really excited to see what's going to happen in 2007!

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