Changed our Preference form

We officially changed our preference form today.

Let me explain...

About a month ago, we received news from our agency that we would have to redo our entire dossier after the oldest thing in it was two years old. This is apparently a mandate from MOWA in Ethiopia and is not a new phenomenon. Adoptions from Ethiopia have typically not taken 2+ years to complete, so it's just "new" now because adoptions these days apparently are taking that long to complete. We were originally given a 12+ month wait for siblings age 4 and younger. A week after we were told that we would likely be re-doing our dossier, we were told our wait time for siblings had increased to 18-24+ months for a referral.

I know what you're thinking if you have not adopted. Many of you have expressed this same frustration to me. It goes something like this: "How can it possibly take that long? Aren't there 5 million orphans in Ethiopia? Don't they care that these children are all alone without moms and dads?"

My answer, "YES! THEY CARE!!! A LOT!!! But, they want to make sure that their process is ethical and there is absolutely no child trafficking involved what-so-ever, and I WANT THAT, TOO!"

We have spent weeks in prayer over this, and have decided to change our preference form (which is the form our agency uses when they decide which child to refer to which family~ultimately knowing GOD SETS THE LONELY IN FAMILIES) We are now requesting EITHER a single child age 0-3, OR siblings ages 0-4 years.

Because of the wait time for siblings among other things, we are expecting to adopt one boy, likely a toddler. We estimate that we could very well have a referral by early summer, and could possibly bring our child home by the end of this year. We know full-well that God is the giver of life, and that HE ALONE will decide the path our family will take. We trust Him.

Please pray with us for our child/children, and for our peace of heart as we wait.

DTE!

Our Dossier is officially IN ETHIOPIA!!!
AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!

Still Waiting...DTE? Bueller? Bueller?

We are still waiting for our "Dossier To Ethiopia" date (DTE).
Our agency sent it out mid September and told us it could take up to a month to get our DTE date. It is in the process of being translated into Amharic and then registered in Ethiopia. After that, we'll get our DTE date and officially be waiting.

We are getting a lot of questions about when we're bringing them home.
HAHA!
Answer? I don't know.
We were given a 12-18+ month wait for a referral at the beginning of the summer.
Our updated Service Contract with our agency says a 12 month wait for a referral.
However, we have also been told that it could be much sooner and that wait estimate is just that...an estimate. Our agency has no idea when newly orphaned sibling groups in our age range will be made available for adoption. Only God knows.

What comes AFTER the referral? We will THEN wait for our court date in Ethiopia (note: the courts in Ethiopia shut down for around two months during the rainy season, which is September and October). We will have to travel to Ethiopia for our court date where we will meet our children! Then, we will leave them there and return home until our Embassy date, which could be two months or so. At this point, Dallas and I will both fly BACK to Ethiopia, pick up our newest family members, their passports, Birth Certificates etc and bring them HOME! They will officially be American citizens when they step foot on American soil!

So, we have a lot more waiting and praying to do, and we're thankful for those of you who are praying with us for:
Our children's hearts to be prepared for their new family.
Their little hearts as they have already lost so much.
That God would protect them, provide for them, and that they would feel His love in the absence of any parental love.
That they would attach and bond quickly with us when they come home!
Their health!
Their family members (if any of them are living) who are grieving their loss.
That God would give them their daily bread today.

OFF to ETHIOPIA!

Our DOSSIER is on its way to ETHIOPIA!!!
We are US Dept of State and Ethiopian Embassy approved!
It was mailed to Ethiopia on FRIDAY!!!
Highest Praises!!!

Small Setback

Hi Friends!

We had a minor setback to our adoption process this week. Our Immigration paperwork was all sent back to us because of the letter "A." It took me 20 minutes on the phone with our adoption agency before we figured out that I mistakenly printed out the first page of the I-600 and the 2nd and 3rd pages of the I-600A. Sounds like a minor mistake, AND, for the record, the first two pages are almost identical (except for the letter "A," of course). But to our detail oriented government, and thankfully so, there are no "almost okays"...only perfection! Glad that THEY know what they're doing, because I obviously DO NOT!

SO! I retyped our cover letter explaining my mistake (A very humbling thing to do. Normally, you can call someone, or tell them to their face, but when you have to type out a letter telling someone that you are a dummy, that's a whole 'nother thing!). Then, I had to make copies of the "official notices" of the plethera of mistakes I made in this application. Then, I had to remove all the pages in the document that said, "MISSING PAGE!" and our previous application. Finally, I had to re-print and re-fill out the I-600A. After all that was said and done, then I called USCIS to make sure I was doing everything correctly this time. After I was reassured that I did everything right, I went to the post office and forked out the $18 more dollars to RE-overnight this packet to Immigration.

The good news? We were given this "GREEN PAGE" to put on top of the document. This green page is a notice to process all the dummies with special care and attention! Actually, I think it expedites it slightly, although I don't know WHY they would do that. It was totally my fault, so why would they put mine in front of someone who actually did it right the first time?!

How far did this set us back? Time will tell, but from the time that I overnighted our first attempt to the time I received the packet back from USCIS was 7 days, so I'm hoping the green page will work it's "magic!"

The Call

Ever wondered how to know for sure if God is calling you to something? It could be something small...could be something big. But then again, who are we to judge whether something is big or small in God's eyes? I mean, Paul says in Colossians, "...but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thangsgiving, present your requests to God." So, we should pray and pray and pray until we hear some answer, right? Um, not so sure about that one. I'm sort of a huge fan of Francis Chan. In one sermon I heard, he says (me paraphrazing here), "Is it biblical? Yes. Is it at the very heart of God?! Yes. Is it hurting anyone?! NO?!!! THEN...DO...IT!!!" Really? Just...like...do it? Um, YES! So, onto the background. Several years ago, adoption came up as a topic of discussion. We (Dallas) weren't ready yet. Dallas still had this mindset that if we could have our own biological children, why on earth would we adopt? And, from Russia? We don't have 4 weeks worth of vacation and babysitters! Time lapsed, and it came up again. We (I) began looking into adoption agencies. Russia was then ruled out. Guatemala? (closed shortly thereafter) China? (Too young...TOO LONG!!!) And then there was Africa, and that's where I, if we're going to be completely honest here, got cold feet. What about racial differences? Was I really ready to be the mother in a trans-racial family? Now you're asking, "You already mentioned Guatemala! AND CHINA!" Yes. I did. And, I will be the absolute FIRST to tell you that I was raised in a colorblind family, if such a family exists, but for one reason or another, I was scared. What was I afraid of? Was it really race? Was it AIDS? Was it adoption in general? Enter DARBY. We were blessed with our third child. Well, Darby turned one last fall, and God presented adoption to us...AGAIN! ALRIGHT ALREADY, ALMIGHTY! WE GET IT! WE HEAR YOU! WE HAVE SAID "NO" ENOUGH TIMES ALREADY! Yes. You heard me. God called. He called, and called and called. We chalked it up to "prayer." When He knew it was merely FEAR that prevented us from saying, "YES, Lord. We will be used by you." We said, "No" to the Almighty. This time, Dallas brought it up, and he did NOT back down. God had gotten ahold of his heart...and shortly thereafter, mine. Right after Christmas (2010-since I have quite a bit of catching up to do with this blog), we applied to adopt from Ethiopia. I'm not holding back. We're all in! He is the Author of life! He is the author of our story. So, we can say, "Let me pray about that..." for a long, LONG time, which might end up being forever, or 'til the urgency of the call fades, or until we are once again desensitized to the crisis, in which case, our answer to God is, "No." Take a look at this video by Francis Chan.