Keehn Adoption. . .Big News!!. . .

A Letter from the Keehn's  :)

Well Friends & Family........

God has used 2 & 1/2 years of praying and working to move mountains and open blocked doors!! Today we got a phone call from our lawyer in South Africa to tell us that we were officially accepted for the 1st adoption by Americans of a South African child! YES, that is right... we have been "referred" to adopt Mfundo, a 2 & 1/2 yr boy from the Durban area!!

Yes, our heads are spinning! Yes, we still need your prayers as we get ready to travel to South Africa in a few weeks to pick up our new son!!! Yes, we are excited and anxious and overwhelmed! We believe Mfundo was born about the exact same time we began the adoption process... amazing to see God's hand in all of this!

We will tell you all soon the full story of Mfundo, but we wanted to get you a quick praise report and ask you to pray the adoption will be finalized in a smooth and orderly process. We will give you more specific prayer requests soon... but for now - please join us in praising our Amazing Heavenly Father!!

Thanks for all your prayers!

Dave & Debbie Keehn

Newest update on your prayers for the Keehns!! 10/2/09. . .

Hello friends and family…

We wanted to give you an update about the process … we have a couple of “Praise God” to pass along…

First, Praise God we have received our official extension from the US Immigration to allow us to continue this process for another 18 months. While we certainly don’t want the journey to take that long… it is a relief to know that today (which is our original deadline) is not the end of the road when we are so very close to making this a reality!

Second, many of you have been asking about how the meeting in South Africa went… let me pass on the Praise God from our lawyer in South Africa:
I cannot tell you how much I value and appreciate your prayers and those of your intercessors. I thank God for you. Realizing that it was literally walking into the lion’s den, Brad (my husband) joined me for physical protection and spiritual cover... and I don’t know what I would have done without him. Our meeting was extremely fraught and unpleasant, but fruitful, with the way forward looking bright, thanks to the miraculous intervention of our Abba Father.

So, we are still waiting for the official referral to a child – so your prayers are still very much needed to open doors and allow God’s grace to rain down on the officials in South Africa. As I passed on to you last time – since we are the 1st family seeking to adopt … we are “causing waves” in the legal circles of South Africa. Please pray for a calming of the waters and an open spirit to help the orphaned child of South Africa.

Debbie and I really believe God has lead us this far – but going this slowly - for specific reasons… so thank you all for your prayers and as soon as we know something … we will pass it along to you!!!

Love you all,

Dave and Debbie Keehn

28. . .

So, in celebration of my 28th year here on this earth Bryan and I figured that we would go to San Diego for the weekend. Well, really it all started because my friend from high school and jr high, Jace, got married down there so we made a trip of it!! :) My mom belongs to a time share so we used some of her points and went down for 4 days and 3 nights! It was so nice to just relax, have no real schedule and yet feel like we did something with our time away. :) We went down on Saturday and went straight to Jace's reception it was really nice and it was nice to see old friends again. I love my husband because he puts up with my chatty nature and how I like to talk to EVERYONE!! :) (of course this isn't the only reason I love my husband.) On Sunday, we slept in late and then had breakfast and we made our way to Coronado Island. Once on Coronado we went to our FAVORITE restaurant down there Miguel's Cocina! Mmmm Mmmm Good!! We ended our day with a drive down the beach and the movie InkHeart and a walk around downtown. :) On Monday we did the slightly lazy thing again and I made breakfast again and then we met our friends, Chris and Laura, who happened to live a mile from our resort and we walked Seaport Village and then had dinner together. :) Then Tuesday we had to be up and out by 10am so after that we went and hung out with Laura and Megan (her daughter) and then took them to Chris' work on the way to my cousins house. :)

I was sooo excited to go see my cousin and his wife and daughter! My aunt and uncle happened to be there as well which I was just thinking it was cool they were there. But my aunt is the sly sneaky one she is!! :) She had bought me a cake and the whole nine yards! Karla made dinner and Aunt MaryAnne bought the cake! :) And Dalila was cute as ever. So there is my birthday weekend in a nutshell. :)