Update, Non-Update

(I'm not sure what's up with the font here ~ I tried to fix it and gave up on try #5.  I'll explore it more when it's not 10:45pm! :))

I've taken a long hiatus from this blog, and while part of the reason is that the kids have been keeping me pretty busy, it's mostly that there really isn't much to say!  Ethiopian adoption has been moving very slowly lately.  The USCIS introducing PAIR (see previous post) along with the general trend of international adoption slowing down has meant few referrals.  We're sitting pretty around 180 on our agency's unofficial wait-list (as in one HUNDRED eighty!).  In January we "celebrated" being 6 months DTE, and in the past 6 months I believe we have moved 3 spots on the list.  

When Michael and I originally discussed adoption and felt the calling from God, it was very, very clear that our path was to pursue international adoption (and Ethiopia specifically).  I can't explain it, exactly, but it was just so clear and things lined up one after another and it became undeniable.  It was also very clear (at that point) that foster care or domestic adoption was *not* the plan.  We have talked on and off since we were dating about maybe someday in the distant future, after our kids are grown, doing foster care, but it wasn't really something we had considered for now.  It wasn't that we didn't see the need, just at that time we didn't feel like it was our calling (and I hold to that ~ we are in the Ethiopia program for a reason, and if we had pursued foster care from the get-go we wouldn't be in Ethiopia).

When we started to understand the timeline for Ethiopia, I spent a couple of months angry and disenchanted about the whole process.  It was hard to understand why God would call us to something like orphan care and then be like, haha j/k I want you to do nothing for the next 5 years.  So we started to explore what we wanted to do.  We prayed and talked and prayed and talked, and it sortof came down to 2 choices ~ update our home study to adopt a MUCH older child (like teenager) or a child with profound special needs, or pursue foster care.  Through our church adoption support group we've heard from lots of foster families (and foster children) and both of our hearts were softened toward the need in our own city.  We both feel like it's something tangible we can do right now to fulfill what we believe is what God is calling us to do.

So, in mid-March, Michael and I will start the required training to get our foster care license.  It will take a few months, and at this point I know better than to try to put a timeline on *anything* related to this adoption journey, so I'll just say we hope to be licensed sometime between the last snow of this winter and the first snow of the next ;)

What does this mean for our adoption process?  Well, nothing!  We are able to concurrently pursue foster care and stay on the wait-list for our agency.  I am so thankful that our agency allows this (not all do ~ another reason I am so thankful we are with America World :)).

Like with adoption, we are not so naive as to believe foster care will be an easy and fun journey, but we are confident that this is the direction in which God is leading, and we are continuing to lean on Him.

As is becoming a trend, here is a song that has been the theme of my thoughts these past couple months.  Listen to it, it's great.  Also, the song is from the movie "Fireproof" which you should see if you have not ;)

On Running, and Waiting, and God

Here's where I out myself as a crazy person...

God speaks to me when I'm running.  No, really, that is where I got the "let's adopt a baby from a country a billion miles away" idea.  When I brought it up to Michael I prefaced it with "I don't want you to say anything yet, but..." and every time we talked about how it didn't make sense and it was too much (financially, emotionally) all I could come back to was that God told me to do it.  Not in an I-read-a-Bible-verse-on-adoption way, either.  I felt God when I was running.  I mean, there were other things that lined up to create the perfect storm of this desire, but it all started when I was running.  I even wrote a message to some of my very dearest friends asking them to pray for me as I felt the Holy Spirit moving in me but I couldn't figure out what He was trying to say.  All I knew was that when I laced up my shoes and strapped on my ipod (full of praise and worship music, which I'm sure is the choice of runners everywhere!), I would be in communion with God.  It's my refuge in this stormy life of picking up legos (which *must* procreate as there is no other explanation) and driving kids to ballet and soccer and the doctor and story time and making dinner every.single.night (for real, could we please take a night off of eating?  and the inevitable cleaning that accompanies making food?).  It's my chance to do something for myself that recharges me physically and spiritually.  And it is where I ask God what he wants from me and where I try my hardest to listen.  As my feet hit the pavement, step after step, I feel closer to God than I ever have.

Running is also where I try to give praise back to God.  I turn off my music and offer my full attention to Him (don't mind the lady who is simultaneously crying and talking to herself...).  I "stand" in awe of His creation, both within me and around me.  After years of struggling with body image and weight, I have come to a place of appreciating the health and strength He has given me.

We are almost to our 1 month DTE-versary, and let me tell you, the waiting is HARD.  I know that it is harder for those who have been in the process longer than us, and especially those who have pictures of their children but just found out that they will not go to court until after the "rainy season" or those who are waiting on just one more clearance so they can finally, after months and months, bring their child home. But, knowing there are others who have been waiting longer or endured more than we have does not make the waiting any easier. Friends and family ask me if there are any updates, and it's all I can do to not break down right then and there because I know that there will be no updates for years.  I am usually an optimist, but I am trying to be realistic and let me tell you, realistic is not a fun thing to be when talking about international adoption. As I try to figure out a way to make the wait go more quickly, God gently reminds me that, for now, this is His plan.  I try to tell Him that I did not sign up for this 4-5 year wait.  I try to explain what *my* plan for our family is.  At times I am at peace with the wait, and other times (like this week) I am wracking my brain and the google for what I can do to speed it up.  And, as happens again and again, God speaks to my heart.  I barely have to be on the treadmill for a full minute before I feel that stirring in me.  Today it came in the form of a song on my Pandora station and a quote that I read on a friend's facebook wall (don't laugh, God uses modern technology ;)).

Ok God.  You're hilarious.  Of course I place value on this child and am willing to wait for this as long as it takes, just like I did with the children we have.  Michael and I are no strangers to waiting for God's timing when it comes to children, as we struggled with a year and a half of infertility before conceiving our 3 perfect children one right after the other.  The problem is that I'm 1 month in to this wait and I am weary.  So then He offers up this song (courtesy of the best movie ever, "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2") and it describes my heart and once again I am reduced to tears while running on a treadmill in the middle of the morning (stop staring at me gym-people!  it's totally normal to cry while you're running!). It was the "how can I love when I'm afraid to fall" and "I have died every day waiting for you" that did it, because that is how I feel.  I have heard too many stories of failed adoptions and country closures and bureaucratic slow-downs to feel secure in this adoption.  I feel broken inside both because I have a child out there whose face I have never seen and that I cannot protect, but that I love with all of my mama-heart, and because I know this child's story will involve, at the very least, the worst kind of tragedy I could have imagined as a child myself.  But as I say in pretty much every post ~ should be the theme of my blog ~ God's plan is bigger than my plan.  God's sovereignty is, well, sovereign.  I need to die to myself daily and cling to God.  Every moment brings me one step closer to His plan for our family, and as my header says, His Plan is My Hope.

Heart beats fastColors and promisesHow to be braveHow can I love when I'm afraid to fallBut watching you stand aloneAll of my doubt suddenly goes away somehowOne step closer

I have died everyday waiting for youDarling don't be afraid I have loved youFor a thousand yearsI'll love you for a thousand more

Time stands stillBeauty in all she isI will be braveI will not let anything take awayWhat's standing in front of meEvery breathEvery hour has come to thisOne step closer

I have died everyday waiting for youDarling don't be afraid I have loved youFor a thousand yearsI'll love you for a thousand more

And all along I believed I would find youTime has brought your heart to meI have loved you for a thousand yearsI'll love you for a thousand more

One step closerOne step closer

I have died everyday waiting for youDarling don't be afraid I have loved youFor a thousand yearsI'll love you for a thousand more

And all along I believed I would find youTime has brought your heart to meI have loved you for a thousand yearsI'll love you for a thousand more

DTE!!! We're DTEEEEEEEEEEEE!

After nearly 6 months of collecting documents, having our health and our home and our parenting and our children scrutinized evaluated, writing letters explaining employment (or "un"employment) and child request and prior medical diagnoses, getting fingerprinted, reading books, doing online and in-person trainings, and waiting patiently for government clearance, we are DONE!  D-O-N-E done!  I received the email from our family coordinator today and did a little happy dance ;)

Technically we are now "DTE" which stands for Dossier To Ethiopia, and our DTE date is 7/12/13.  I am so glad to be done with the first part of this journey and to take my focus at least a bit away from the process so that I can concentrate on things like, oh, my children that I already have living in my house ;)

We're not sure what the next step is yet, except that we know there is waiting involved.  Like, a lot of waiting.  My last post laid out my feelings on that so I won't elaborate :) In the meantime our plan is to take a break, then pray about what we should do with all this time we have that we weren't expecting.

THANK YOU to all who have prayed, donated, shared our story, let me talk about the journey in person...all of it means so much to us.

Sweetly Broken, Wholly Surrendered

On Thursday, Michael and I (and everyone else here in Ethiopian-adoption-land) found out there is a new process (called PAIR) going into effect September 1st.  You can read about it HERE.  On the surface it seems great ~ children will be pre-screened/pre-approved for orphan status before families go to court in Ethiopia, so the process that used to be completed *after* court will now be done before.  When the USCIS first posted this 6 days ago, there was a collective cheer from my fellow adoptive families, agencies, and orphan advocates.  We all (incorrectly, turns out) assumed this would mean Ethiopian adoptions would go back to being a one-trip process, and children would be spending less time in orphanages.  I saw the USCIS link (above) posted on facebook several times over, and our agency even blogged about it.  And then?  Then there was the conference call about the specifics.  Not only does it not reduce travel to one trip, now the time between referral and the first trip will be *significantly* increased.  After court, Ethiopia will still need time to process paperwork so that children will be cleared for Embassy, so adoptive parents will still need to leave for at least several weeks and then come back for a second trip to pick up their children, just like what is currently happening.  The big thing that seems to be changing is that children will now be in orphanages or the transition home for much longer :(  I think that deserves another sad face :(  It also means that, while these children wait for their parents, the transition home will not have room for new children to come in, so the wait for referrals will also (likely) increase.  My optimistic guess of 3 years between the time we submit our dossier and the time we bring our child home is seeming very unrealistic at this point.  We are realistically looking at 5 years.  5 years.  FIVE.YEARS.  All the while there are hundreds of thousands of orphans waiting for families, and thousands of families in the US waiting and hoping and praying for them.

The pathway is broken and the signs are unclear

And I don't know the reasons why you brought me here.
But just because you love me the way that You do
I'm gonna walk through the valley if you want me to.

I'm someone who likes a little bit (ok, a lot) of stability in my life.  I really enjoy Michael's steady job and our reliable cars and our budget that accounts for unexpected expenses.  I like knowing that when Michael says he will be home at 5:15, he will probably actually be home at 5:10, and I like that I have an app on my phone that allows me to check where he is just in case I get worried.  I'm a planner.  I have lists and a calendar (ok, a calendar in my head...I mean, I have a calendar on my phone but Michael would call me out if I pretend that I update it regularly) and our kids get checkups for eyes and teeth and development at the appropriate times.  I do not like uncertainty.

Cause I'm not who I was when I took my first step
And I'm clinging to the promise You’re not through with me yet.
So if all of these trials bring me closer to You
Then I will go through the fire if you want me to.

And yet?  In this time of sadness and uncertainty, I have cried out to God and I have certainty He has heard my prayer.  As much as I weep for how this changes what I expected for our family, I know that the heart of God is broken for how this affects His children.  God's plan was not for these children to remain in orphanages, and I am clinging to that hope.  The hope that God is bigger than this.  The hope that God created the universe and moves mountains and works in ALL things for the good of those who love Him.

And it may not be the way I would've chosen
When you lead me through a world that's not my home
But you never said it would be easy
You only said I'd never go alone.

I do not say the following lightly: I have never in my life felt closer to the heart of God than I have in the past four days.  It is a sick to my stomach, can't stop crying, praying on my knees kind of feeling.  God is working in me, and while I do not yet fully understand what our next step will be, I do know that God is revealing His plan to me one step at a time.  I refuse to believe that God is not in control of this process.  He has put us with the agency we have chosen, the country He led us to, at this time in our lives.  He is doing something big, and as anxious as I am to find out, I know that God has not yet let us down, and I (try to) rest in the assurance that He never will. The only other time I have felt similar to this is when I felt the initial calling into this crazy beautiful process of adoption.

So when the whole world turns against me
And I'm all by myself
And I can't hear you answer my cries for help
I'll remember the suffering that your love put you through
And I will go through the valley if you want me to.

And when I cross over Jordan
I'm gonna sing, and I'm gonna shout
I'm gonna look into Your eyes
And see You never let me down
So lead me on the pathway that leads me home to You
And I will walk through the valley if you want me to.

So for now, I wait.  And I pray.  Would you join me?  Would you pray for our family, for all the adoptive families who are getting caught up in this, and, above all, for the orphaned children who are being affected? The devil does not want these children to be redeemed through adoption, but God was, is, and always will be in control.

"Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them."

-Matthew 18:19-20

Lyrics from "If You Want Me To" by Ginny Owens

Biometrics ~ An Update

Since I know you have all been waiting on pins and needles, I wanted to update that the USCIS field office is amazing and gladly took our fingerprints on Friday!  My stress level showed a bit, though, as they were taking them...the lady kept telling me to relax my hand and let her do it, not to press on the screen, and was getting increasingly frustrated with my apparent inability to follow directions.  Do you know how hard it is to relax your hand (which I thought was dead-fish-like) when you have someone (an official government agent, no less!) yelling at you to relax your hand???  Fortunately she got what she needed.  I was all prepared to laugh about this with Michael but apparently his hand-relaxation skills are far superior to mine and he did not have the same experience.  Our prints are good for 15 months, so I'm gonna be practicing ahead of time for the next go-round ;)

Paper Chasing Part IV ~ The Homestretch

I am both excited and hesitant to write this post.  On Monday of this week, exactly 2 weeks after we sent our homestudy and I-600a off to the USCIS/Department of Homeland Security, we got that blessed piece of paper in the mail that gave us our dates to get our biometrics (fancy word for fingerprints ;)).  Unfortunately (?), the date they picked for us does not work, so I promptly called the 800 number they gave us and asked if we could go early as I'd heard whispers of this potentially exciting fact.  Turns out we *can*!  It's possible that they'll turn us away, but from what the woman at USCIS headquarters could gather from the info she had, we should be able to go THIS FRIDAY!!!  I would call ahead, but, in what is a probably a smart move on their part, the USCIS field offices do not list phone numbers, fax numbers, email addresses...basically we just show up and hope (and pray, obviously!) that they are able to squeeze us in :)  If they can take our biometrics Friday, we can expect to be cleared in 2-3 weeks, woohoo!  Fortunately right smack dab in the middle of that waiting, we will be on vacation and I will hopefully be able to focus on something other than my email box (cause apparently they email you the clearance).

The last piece is the money we need to have raised to submit our dossier.  We have submitted a grant application and should hear back on that around the same time as our USCIS clearance, and to say that I'm anxious is a bit of an understatement.  Between the necklace fundraiser (which blew me away, btw ~ Jamie is such a gift to our family, and each of you that purchased necklaces, I really can't thank you enough!), babysitting, donations, selling random items, our monthly saving, and random (God-provided) extra bits of money, we have been able to raise just over 1/4 of what we need.  The other 3/4 seems so out of reach, but I know that God has this in His control.  He has not let us down yet, and every time I have felt that this was too much for me to handle on my own, He has reminded me that I am *not* alone.  Sam Toler has a book titled "God's Never Late", and every time I try to argue that and get frustrated that things are not DONE DONE DONE at this point, I am reminded of the subtitle: "He's Seldom Early; He's Always Right On Time".  I'm praying that I can remember that in these (hopefully!) final weeks of the paper-chase.  I'm trying to ignore that after this "challenge" of waiting weeks to submit our dossier, we will enter the true period of waiting ;)

Thinking of Africa

"Children born to another woman call me “Mom.” The magnitude of that tragedy and the depth of that privilege are not lost on me." -Jody Landers
(this quote showed up in my Facebook feed right after I had posted this blog; seems that I am not the only one thinking of birth mothers this Mother's Day)

Behind the beauty and joy and redemption and love of adoption, there is a dark, sad, ugly, painful truth.  Adoption is not the original plan for these children.  These children who have lost parents through disease and poverty and violence and every other misfortune you can think of.  It's easy to gloss over the pain and sadness when you think of the healing work that can be done when you bring a child into your home that otherwise would remain orphaned, but today, Mother's Day, I cannot help but think of the mothers on the other side of the world.  Mothers who experienced the joy and wonder of carrying a child in their womb and in their arms, only to have that joy taken away; diseases that could be cured or at least treated if only they lived in a different location, poverty so extreme that we can barely begin to understand, rape, shame, war.  We live in a fallen, sinful world, and this has never been more clear to me than when I began to try to understand how children, millions of children, are left without homes, without mothers.  This was not God's plan.  My heart is aching for our future child's first mother, and while I continuously pray for her, the sadness of what I know will happen is overwhelming.  I do not know her story, and it's possible that I never will, but what I do know is that it ends with a child, a beautiful, precious, amazing, perfectly created child.  A child who was born to her but will call me "Mama".  It is unfair.  I am so blessed, and look to the future with joy and anticipation as I wait for God to work, and yet I feel that I do not deserve such a precious gift.  But our God is a redeeming God, and while I may never understand why He will give this child to us and not her, I will forever be grateful for her sacrifice and will live my life in constant thankfulness for this mother who gave her child the most beautiful gift, life.

On this Mother's Day, while we remember our own mothers and friends who have children and those who long for both, I will also pray for the mother who gives up her child, whether her choice or not.  It is not the original plan, but I am so grateful to be a part of this mystery.

Paper Chasing Part III ~ the Waiting

After waiting very very patiently for the stars to align so that our home study could be completed, we got that beautiful, magnificent package in the mail yesterday morning.  We are DONE with the home study!  Yay!!!!!  Now, hold your horses a minute, we have recently discovered that this does not mean we are done with our part...yet.  I checked the mail at approximately 11:07am, realized we had received our home study, jumped for joy, gathered the remaining documents and forms we needed (easy to do as I've been waiting for this moment so they were in a folder labeled "complete, ready to send"), went to print out our cover page so I could send everything out...and discovered that somebody had used the last of my printer paper.  Now, I'm not naming any names (Maya), but I will say that my frustration was probably a bit more obvious than I would have liked toward said unnamed individual (Maya) ;)  No worries, though!  My practical child informed me that it was ok, and that we could just go to the store and get more paper.  And you know what?  That's exactly what we did.  Target for paper, back home to fight with my printer to print out this one very simple yet very important page, then to the post office to hand over these precious documents.  I could not even begin to fathom the stress of sending this package out into the ether without super-tracking, so it was sent overnight express with guaranteed noon delivery (it made it with 22 minutes to spare, so yay USPS :)).  Now Michael and I wait for the Department of Homeland Security (that's right) to set us up with fingerprint appointments, and once we're cleared by the FBI (right???) we will be able to send our dossier to our agency (provided we can come up with the large fee) and then we will officially go on the wait-list.  We are so close I can taste it!  Ok, I can't really taste it, but I can feel it.  In my bones and skin and stomach, the excitement and anxiousness keep me awake.  I'm looking forward to being done with what we have control over (ha!) and letting God handle the rest.  I'm ready to sleep.

Necklaces!

Michael and I have been blessed with amazing friends.  They have taught us so much, prayed over us, taken care of our kids when we needed them, allowed us to take care of their kids (which is truly a blessing as their kids are pretty awesome).  We have shared dinners and participated in Bible studies together.  They have even attended (and photographed!) the births of Charlotte and Milo.  They have given counsel and shared in the excitement of our adoption, and just when I thought we could not be blessed any more, one of our friends stepped forward and offered to sell her beautiful, handmade necklaces as a fundraiser for our adoption!  I don't know what we did to deserve such blessing.  God is so much bigger and greater than we could ever hope to imagine, and He continues to show us that He will provide if we just come alongside Him.

If you are interested in purchasing one of these BEAUTIFUL and reasonably priced necklaces, you can contact Jamie at jamiellee@juno.com.  She is able to accept payment via PayPal (super easy, right?!) and we'll get the necklace to you ASAP!

100% of the proceeds go to our adoption, so you can get something for yourself (or your mother, wife, sister, daughter...Mother's Day is right around the corner!) and help save a child from an orphanage at the same time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

$5 each

She also has the letters A, B, D, E, K, M, and N available

  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

$5 each

She also has 2 purple, 1 green, and 1 royal blue butterfly available

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

$10 each

  

  

  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

$8 each

She also has a few other colors available (some shades of pink, darker lavender, and white) so check with Jamie if you don't see what you want!

Thank you in advance for even considering supporting our adoption!

Paper Chasing, Part II ~ the Home Study

We met our social worker for the first time last Wednesday.  So far things have gone well...I think.  You know how sometimes you go out with friends and you get extra comfy with them and talk more than you meant to and then you get home and analyze every.little.thing you said all night long?  Well, imagine that, but now imagine that it's not your friends with whom you turned into Chatty Cathy, but rather a social worker who kinda sorta holds your adoption in her hand (or laptop, really).  So I've been stressing just a teensy about every word that came out of my mouth, about my nervous attempts at humor, how my 18 month old (who had just gotten over a stomach virus) wanted to nurse for 37 seconds at a time approximately every 4 minutes for the whole 2 hours she was here.  If you're on Facebook you'll also know that I dreamt we "failed" our home study (not even sure that's a thing?) by not getting enough points in a basketball free-throw competition.  Guys.  You don't even understand how bad I am at basketball.  This could be a major setback ;)

She said she'd call if she started writing the report and needed more information on anything, and so far no call, so I'm hoping no news is good news.  In the meantime all I can do is pray that she saw through my oversharing into my heart, and that what she found there was pleasing :)

This process is proving to be quite the emotional roller coaster for us, and the wait, which we were expecting to be long, is looking to potentially be even longer.  My hope was to have our dossier submitted by the end of this month, but with the wait times at the USCIS it's looking like it might be much longer than that (as in, months longer).  I have been prepared for the 2+ year wait AFTER our dossier submission, but I've been told over and over that this, the paper chase, is the part of the process that we are in complete control over.  I've busted my booty trying to collect documents and write letters and schedule appointments for everyone in the family and rearrange our schedules to meet with our social worker and use vacation days (Michael's) to get things signed.  I have a folder this thick (imagine a very, very thick folder) of all our documents that I have had approved and notarized and organized and now ready to send...and in my attempt to control everything, I am reminded of a quote from the very spiritual and realistic show "Private Practice".

We make plans, and God laughs.

I am not in control of this, folks.  Not even a little bit.  And even though God has proven his sovereignty over this process again and again, I struggle with it not being in my control.  God has this.  I know that.

One little quick "God has this" story and then I'm signing off for the night.

When we were beginning the adoption process, before I even really put together that this is where God was leading our family, Jeremiah 29:11 kept popping up in my head.  "'For I know the plans I have for you' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.'"  Fast forward a couple of months, we've already been through the fairly timely, challenging, prayerful process of choosing an agency, and I'm checking their website (because that's what I do...read through a website that I've already read through approximately 400 times).  I scroll all the way to the bottom, and what do I see, but our verse!  I mean, it's not *our* verse, technically, but it's our verse!  Right there on their website!  Yes, it could be a coincidence, and yes that is a common verse.  But at that moment I could feel God whispering to me (again) that He is in control of this and that we just need to continue to trust in His guidance.

Paper Chasing, Part I ~ Overview

Oh, the paper chase.  Going into this adoption process, Michael and I were prepared for the fact that there would be a literal* ton of paperwork.  You have to collect birth certificates, passports, tax forms, income forms, marriage certificates, statements from your employer(s), references, and more.  You also have to write several letters.  In our case, I had to write a letter explaining to the government of Ethiopia why I am "unemployed" (because apparently nanny and teacher and cook and maid and chauffer only count if you get paid with dolla dolla bills instead of children's artwork and sticky kisses).  We also had to write auto-biographies (hello middle school language arts assignment!) and get physicals and bloodwork and tuberculosis tests and background checks and a fire inspection and go through manymany hours of cultural and parenting training.  Then, after you get all your paperwork together, you have to get everything notarized. Then county certified. Then state certified.

We're probably about 90% through our paper-chase at this point, and now we're waiting to hear from our social worker who will, I am told, learn everything there is to know about our family through a series of interviews.  If I am to believe the hype, I think she will know more about us than *we* know about us by the time this process is complete.

And then?  Well then we get to submit this giant pile of paperwork to the US government, hope to be approved, then get another background check done (all told we will get 3 sets of fingerprints done each, which doesn't make me feel at all like a criminal. #sarcasm).  Then all of that gets translated into Amharic (most widely spoken language in Ethiopia), sent over the ocean, and we wait.  And wait and wait and wait.  In fact, we wait so long that it is not unlikely we will have to repeat the entire process again before we see a referral.  Super fun times.

But, like I said, we were prepared for the overwhelmingness of the paper chase.  When you start talking to other adoptive families, noone says, "oh, ya, super easy!  You'll totally breeze through it!"  Nope.  More like, "hahahahahahaha good luck ha!" (ok, not like that, people are actually amazingly supportive and wonderful <3). I've been doing most of the chasing, but Michael, always thinking like an engineer, has been keeping us organized.  More on that in another post.

So, there you have an overview of what our last 2 months has looked like.  Over the next couple of posts, I'll talk more about a few of the steps in more detail.  Then we'll talk fundraising, or as I like to call it, FUNdraising.  j/k

In case my sarcasm comes across as frustration or discouragement or any other negative emotion, know that it is not.  I'm just sarcastic by nature.  God made me that way and I'm pretty sure He likes me so I'mma stick with it ;)



*ok, not a *literal* ton...I just did that because Michael hates it when people misuse the word literal...love ya babe! :)

Hello World!

Welcome to my new blog!  I am so, so excited to announce that Michael and I are embarking on the journey of international adoption.  God has called our family to adopt a baby/toddler from Ethiopia, and I am feeling so many emotions about the process; overwhelmed, excited, joyous, terrified, and just in awe.  I truly believe that adoption is a calling from God, and cannot wait to see how His plan unfolds.  Click on the tabs above to learn more about our family, about why we've chosen to adopt, and how you can help.

Though we are only just now revealing this to the blogosphere, Michael and I have been thinking, praying, and talking about adoption for the past several months.  God has already taught me so much and grown my faith and opened my eyes and heart to people I have never even met.  I'm hoping to use this blog to both share our journey with others, and to have a record of the way God is working in our family.