an Amazing story- but isn't that just like our God?

When we adopted Gavin last year, we knew we were growing our family. What we didn't know, though, was that he would have 4 very dear friends from the same village who would also join families here in the U.S, families that we love like our own. Last March, the Bancroft Family welcomed all of us to Indianapolis to bring these children back together. We all had a common goal, to reunite our children with their friends and find out as much as we could about our own child's backgrounds. While we were there, Eric Bancroft said he felt like he would go to Ethiopia by the end of the year, to try and find some answers for our children and to share the love of Jesus with our children's families.

He didn't have much to go on, just pictures of our children, stories from each and a lot of prayer. Last week, Eric made the trek to Ethiopia, and traveled to the area our kids were from. From what he has said, there are over 3,500 hundred villages in the region. He spent days hiking up and down and driving from area to area. Finally, he got a lead that led him driving down a village road, to one of the most remote villages in the area, a village that only speaks Bench (the language our children came home speaking).

He and his guides saw two old men walking down the road. As he pulled over and started conversing with them, it was apparent that one of the men was the uncle of one of the boys (thank you, Lord). When Eric showed him the photo albums of all of the children, the uncle named each one of the children and talked about their families in Ethiopia. He then arranged for Eric to come back the next day to meet with each one of the families.

I can't put into words the excitement and relief we felt when we got the text, "I found it!" He was able to spend several hours with Gavin's family, get his entire life story on video and take pictures of all of the things we've seen in Gavin's hand drawn pictures and stories. We will know what the river looks like, what his house looks like, what his friends and relatives look like. More importantly, his family there was able to hear Eric tell them stories about Gavin (he could tell them, "He's eaten at my table") so they know he is doing well and is well loved here. They loved pictures of Gavin in his glasses.
I can just picture Eric, who is a pastor, sharing over and over how God also loves them and wants to adopt them as well. As he posted in his blog, the region gave him a great gift, the gift of his son and to say thank you, he will share the greatest gift he knows, the love of our Jesus.

Please pray for our friend, Eric and his family, as they transition back into having him home and he weeds through the hours of footage of video and pictures that he has. We are forever grateful to him, for the gift he has given our son and to those other children that we have come to love as well.