Dawit with his care package

Here are some of the pictures of Dawit getting his care package from us. Thanks Janet and Amy for taking it to him and loving on him for us! I love the video too! We can't wait to get our hands on him!!!!!!! 2 more days until we leave! One week from today until we meet them. I can't even put into words how I am feeling right now!!!!!!

Returning the Blessings!!!

Ok, there is so much to fill everyone in on right now. I can't though right now. :) We are just very busy doing lots of fun stuff for our trip.

We leave July 14th and will be back July 28th! We are packing, painting rooms and bunk beds, booking flights and rooms, more paperwork (can you believe that!), organizing more clothes in closets (fun!), shopping for the trip and trying to keep up with daily life! Oh yea, can't forget getting lots of shots!!!

Well, it's our turn to bless others and return the favor. If you want us to bring a care package to your child(ren) when we go to ET we would LOVE to! We have had so much fun sending care packages with others and getting new pictures and updates on the kids. So, we want to return the blessing to you! So, just leave me a message and I will get back to you.

Thank you to all who have hugged on my kiddos and gave them care packages and took pictures! It has been such a blessing and has helped us keep focused on their sweet faces during all this craziness! (not that I need much help thinking of them right now :))

Here is the latest picture we got from Amy when she was there last week picking up her sweet little girl.

Naomi Genet is "kissing" Sophia and Silas! How cute! And look at all that hair!

We also got an update on Dawitt from Janet who is there now in ET. Here is what she said about him...

"BTW your boy was so happy and smiley when I visited him. He's CUTE! He loved his package- put the rubberbands (Zaney Bands) on his wrists, stickers on him and he insisted on carrying the card all around with him. The one that sings. He LOVED it! "
Thanks Janet for the updates!
That's all for now!

Introducing Dawitt and Naomi

We passed court today! It is official!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

WE PASSED COURT TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, they are ours officially today! Praise the Lord!!!!!!!!!!

Tomorrow is hopefully the day! Court!

Well, we wait now until tomorrow and see if we will pass court (3rd try). God has been really teaching me about trusting him with His timing and not my own. Proverbs 3:5-6 is my life verse and it applies now as I have to lean on His understanding and not my own. We will let you know as soon as we know something. Thanks for all your prayers!

Happy 4th Birthday "Little Man D"

Today is our little boy's birthday in Ethiopia. We thought for a short time that we were going to maybe be with him on his birthday. But, our court date was changed again and now it is June 23rd. God knows the plans he has for us and they are way better than the plans I have for myself.

I can't imagine what his birth mother is thinking today. She must be an amazing women to give her son a better life by placing him for adoption. That is the biggest sacrifice ever! I am looking forward to meeting her when we are in Ethiopia. But, scared too. What do I even say to her? How will she be feeling? What will she think of us? Will we just cry the whole time? So many questions and feeling run through me when I think about that day we meet. So, today is the day that she had this sweet little boy 4 years ago and now we are so blessed to be able to raise him in our family. He is a gift from God to us. We can't wait to meet him and his sister.

Happy Birthday Little Man D!!! We love you so much!

Court Date Change AGAIN!

Yes, Natalie called today with the news that our court date got changed AGAIN! It was May 24th the first time. Then got moved to June 16th because MOWA did not form their opinion. Now they had to move it again because June 16th is a holiday in Ethiopia and the courts are closed. So our new court date is June 23rd!

This has been the hardest part of the journey for me. I just cried when I got off the phone with Natalie. I just want to pass court at this point so it is final. Then I can just focus on traveling. I have been more emotional this past month then ever in the process. Our whole adoption process has gone so smoothly. And this is just a little set back. Some of you might just say, "it's only one week difference", but one week seems like a long time when you are waiting to see if these two beautiful babies will be Kingsburys!

Keep praying for us to pass court! We will keep you posted! It's all in HIS timing!!!

Getting Ready!

So, we are in "Get Ready" mode right now. We are getting ready for our babies to come home. We have our big yard sale this coming weekend. Our garage is packed full and we have more coming before the weekend. And, we are re-doing 4 rooms in the house (yes 4!). The boys are getting their room done in a sports theme. We have to paint beds and move dressers. Sophia has her own room now (but Silas has been still sleeping with her). We are getting her room together with new colors. She has our old queen bed so we had to get her new bedding. Her bed will also be our quest bed when we need it. And then there is the nursery to be put together. We still can't believe we are getting a baby again. It's so exciting! We have the crib all set up now. Lastly, we have the "school room" to figure out. We are moving the school room to our front office with my computer. We have lots of work to do in our house. Then there is the packing for a trip soon too. We ordered some of our humanitarian aid today that we have to bring to Addis Ababa when we travel. We got all our luggage ready to be packed. My mind is going all the time with all that has to be done before we leave. But we can't plan our trip until we pass court on June 16th and get our travel dates. We are doing everything we can before the court date to get ready for them to come home.

I can't wait to post pictures after we pass court too! They are so beautiful trust me!!! We can at least call them "little man D" and "Baby N" for now! That is all I can say for now!

Court Date Change!

Well, today was our court date in Ethiopia. And as they often do, they changed it. It is now June 16th (or sooner they said). We were afraid this would happen. The MOWA did not issue an opinion for our case. So, they could not continue in court today.

The Adoption Team in the Children and Youth Affairs Office (CYAO) operating under the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MOWA) is the primary adoption authority in Ethiopia. MOWA has responsibility for all activities regarding children in Ethiopia, including welfare, foster care, domestic adoption, international adoption and investigation of neglect and abuse. When an orphaned or abandoned child comes into the custody of the Ethiopian government, the police and MOWA create the child's dossier. So, they have to state their opinion the day before or the day of court. They just didn't give their opinion on our case yet.

So, we are all disappointed and a little frustrated today. But, we also are reminding ourselves that God in in control of every step in this journey and HIS plan is the best one! Not ours! So, we will continue to decorate rooms, get ready for our yard sale, raise money and do all the projects before they come home. I have said during this whole process that these beautiful kids will not be in our arms a day sooner or later than God has planned!

Thanks everyone for all your prayers!!! Keep it up!!! Love you all so much!!!

We got our COURT DATE!!!!!!!!!!

We got a call from Natalie exactly one month from the referral call that our court date is May 24th! AND, we made the cut-off so we only have to travel once now to Ethiopia!! We were in complete shock that we got our court date this early. We were praying we would get it before the rainy season in Ethiopia in August. So, this call came as a complete surprise to us on Monday May 5th! We are in rush mode now to get everything ready! But, happy to be rushed! Praise the Lord for HIS timing!

We are blessed!

We have been blown away at how many blessing have come our way in the past month. Of course, the first being our referral phone call and seeing the faces of those two children that God is allowing us to raise. Then the blessings just poured in after that. I just feel like sharing them and giving God all the glory. And I want us all to be reminded how BIG our God is! So, thank you everyone for being such a big blessing to our family and two kids in Ethiopia who have no idea yet what is in store for them.



Now that we know the ages of our children we can start planning better and getting ready for them to come home. I got rid of all Sophia's baby things and kept some of Silas's things. But, we didn't have any "baby" things left. The day after our referral my girlfriend says we can have her really nice crib that turns into a toddler bed and some other baby things and clothes. Then, my other friend is letting us use her high chair. We have been getting lots of yard sale donations for our fundraiser in June. My garage is packed full already. My preschoolers at work are handing me Penny Jars and their parents are handing me $20 bills to put in the jars. Those kids are so excited to put pennies in the jars. We had a friend at church say we can use some of their frequent flier miles for our trip to Ethiopia. Another friend at church gave us their washer and dryer because our washer was so loud and moved so much that it sounded like a helicopter was landing on our roof. We are going to sell our old dryer in our yard sale. We had another friend at church hand us $1000 check and tell us to go buy a new bed for us because we were hurting so bad from our other bed we had. We got a great bed for half off and feel better already. And this may sound small but, we were planning on putting a privacy fence up soon in our yard for the kids to play. One day I came home from work and our neighbors put up a privacy fence in their yard that backs up to ours. Then my other neighbor next to us came over to ask if we wanted to split the cost of the last part we would have to put up. That cut our cost by one third. Then I got the call that we got a matching grant for $4000 and a $5000 interest free loan from LifeSong for Orphans. And as of today we have already reached that goal and so now it's over $8000.00 So, that is just the big blessings that we have had in the past month or so. We are so humbled and amazed once again at God's faithfulness. We have raised over $15, 000 and have another $5000 in interest free loans from Life Song. We are really close to reaching our goal of $25,000. After looking at flights, etc, our goal my have to go up a little. But, if so, we will reach it!!! Don't forget about our BIG yard sale/bake sale on June 12th!!!



It's so fun and exciting for me to sit back and watch God's hand at work all around. He is always at work, we just have to look and see where and go and be a part of that work. And, He is at work in Ethiopia and here in Tulsa and with so many families that are a part of adoption in some small way. All of you who have donated time and/or "pennies" and prayed for us have been a part of God's work in our adoption. Thank you so much! We love you all very much!

We got THE CALL!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, we got our referral yesterday!!!!!! We got to see pictures of our kids for the first time. We have a new handsome 3 1/2 year old boy and a sweet beautiful little 5 month old baby girl! Yes, one of each! Perfect! This is exactly what Sophia and Silas have been praying for. He wanted another playmate and Sophia wanted a baby sister. God is so GOOD and FAITHFUL! It's so great when God shows our kids how faithful He is in answering their prayers.

Here is the story of how it happened yesterday... First let me start by saying that our whole family and church did a 10 day Daniel fast last week and it ended on Friday. A year and a half ago we did that same fast and that is when God confirmed in us to start the adoption process and so we did. So, this time doing the fast I was praying that we would get our phone call while we were fasting and praying. So when Friday came around I was a little sad, but still knew God had the perfect time. And He sure did. It's just like God to wait until Monday to bless us with the call. He is so faithful.

So, I was at work and was finishing up for the day. It was 2pm. I saw Scott walk in the door to my classroom and I asked him what he was doing there. He never comes to my work at that time of day. He paused and then said, "Are you ready to meet our kids?" I just fell apart and cried! I was shaking so bad and crying so hard that everyone at work was wondering what was going on. Most of them knew right away. I think everyone in the gym heard me! Mrs. P (my boss) was there and in the the middle of my excitement and tears I asked her if I could go. So, Scott and I went to the church right away to call Natalie back. She said she was going to send the email with the pictures. Lots of our friends were in there with us during this time taking pictures and video. Natalie asked if we wanted to know the ages or just see the pictures. And about that time the email came through and we saw their beautiful faces for the first time! I fell apart again and couldn't believe we had one of each and that I had a baby! We accepted the referral right away! These were our kids!

Then we went right home because Sophia and Silas were just getting home from school. We couldn't wait to tell them. This is exactly what they have prayed for. So we sat them on the couch and pulled the pictures up on the computer. We said that we got the call and Silas jumped up and down and Sophia sat in shock and couldn't believe it. They saw the pictures of their new brother and sister and just fell in love. They are so proud to have them and can't wait to go to Ethiopia!

What an amazing experience that was. I am still on cloud nine today and can't stop looking at their pictures. They are perfect. Now we wait for the court date.

PJP Yard SALE!!!

Penny Jar Yard Sale... Yes, we are doing another fundraiser, but this time it is here at our house on June 11th and 12th to raise money for our adoption. We are getting soooooo close and need to raise the rest of the funds soon. If you are spring cleaning, please set aside some things to drop off at our house for the yard sale. We will take large or small donated items. Our kids and their friends will be selling baked goods and snow cones also. It will be a fun day and we hope to raise lots of money to get our babies home soon!!!!!! Let us know if you can help in any way! Email me at tonikingsbury@cox.net . Thanks so much for all our faithful Jar Heads!

And now our UPDATE for the month of March is up to $2700! Thanks so much everyone. Our babies already have so many friends and family that love them so much and we are so thankful for all of you! We love all our Jar Heads!!! :)

Penny Jar Update...

Just wanted to praise our Heavenly Father and thank all our family and friends for our donations coming in. Just in the month of March already we have raised $1157.30 in Jars! Wow! Thank you everyone for all your donations! We are so excited to see God at work in orphan care. We can't wait to tell our kids all about how you helped them come home to their Forever Family!

James 1:27 You are helping to look after orphans. Thank you and may God bless you all!

Big Changes

Well, we are over six months in our wait now for our referral. Today we got notice that the Ethiopian Embassy has changed their policy in the court date for the adoptions. Read what our agency said (the short version):

"Our in-country staff were notified today by the Federal courts in Ethiopia that a new policy has been implemented, effective today, requiring all adoptive parents to travel to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for their court dates before their adoption can be finalized in court. This policy will now require families to travel to Ethiopia twice during their adoption process (once for adoptive parent to appear in court and once for them to pick their children and bring them to the US)."

So, that means we need to raise even more money so we can travel twice. We were hoping to bring Sophia and Silas with us on the trip. We hope to still do that, but we don't know which trip they would go on. Probably the second one. And that is if we can raise all that money. If anyone has international sky miles they want to donate, that would be a great blessing. The Penny Jar Project will have to collect a lot more pennies!!!

Other than that, our wait has gone smooth. Last week I thought I got "the call"! I have the Gladney number saved on my phone as "the call from Natalie". My phone rang and that came up. My heart sank! I had a quick moment of "THIS IS IT!" And then quickly realized it was our caseworker returning one of my phone calls from earlier. Then my heart sank again in a disappointed way. Oh well, God knows the perfect time!