This means our Dossier is officially in Ethiopia!!!!!! I checked our tracking number with FedEx the other night and it showed that our dossier had finally been delivered to our agency in Ethiopia. We are so excited, and it means our wait can officially begin. It's hard explaining this process to people (especially Caleb). He thinks that as soon as our dossier is in Ethiopia we can go and get sister. We have had to explain to him over and over that now we just wait and it could be a long time before we can go get sister.
This brings me to my first major prayer request! There was a new process put into place by the US embassy regarding Ethiopian adoptions that came into effect in September (right during the Ethiopian court closure period). Since court closure our agency has not had a single child referred to a family! I have heard that this is all just from a backlog of new paperwork on existing children and that the courts are working on all of the new paperwork and eventually referrals will come though. However, from our end, this is very frustrating. We get a number each month now that we are a waiting family (so we should get our first number January 1st. Back in August the wait list was about 115-120 people, which is long, but with 5-10 referrals a month (which seems to be the average) it seemed do-able. However with no referrals being given at all since July, the wait list has grown to almost 170 people! This again would be do-able if referrals were given and there was some movement on the list. But since there has been no movement, I am in a place of frustration and it seems really lame to start my wait already frustrated. So please please pray for major movement in the next few weeks! Also please pray that God will grant me a patient heart that I can endure cheerfully whatever comes my way.
Another prayer request is for our "adoption finances". We have depleted our adoption savings with getting our home study and dossier to Ethiopia. Now we are in the process of saving and fundraising to replenish our adoption account. We won't owe anything again until we get a referral (which as mentioned above, may be a long time) but we still want to be ready when that time comes. We currently have two "fundraisers" underway.
We have been making steady money the past 3 months with our Amazon link, found on this page to the right. It is quite an awesome and easy way to fund raise. You can click on our link (to the right) and then do your browsing and purchasing on Amazon as usual. Then we get a percentage (around 6%) of the proceeds from whatever you bought. It doesn't cost the users anything! And we all know that this time of year people are constantly buying things on Amazon. November was a good month for us and we made about $180! That's pretty great, and thanks to everyone who has used the link. This month we are up past $150, and hope to surpass last month! We will continue to have this link available until we have completed our adoption, so feel free to continue using it for all of your Amazon needs! Feel free to share it with your friends and family that you know use Amazon a lot!
Our second fundraiser is that we have set up an adoption account through AdoptTogether. This is a non-profit organization where you can make tax deductible donations to help deffer some of the costs of our adoption. This link is also to the right if you are interested in looking into that option of support!
As the year progress we hope to have a few more fund raisers. I think we are going to do a garage sale again at the Tapps Island garage sale as that was very successful last summer. So if you have goods that you want to donate to us, let us know! I will keep you posted if we plan anything else!
As always, thank you so much for your prayers and for all of your wonderful support! We really appreciate you and feel so loved by you all!
Friday, December 13, 2013
Friday, November 1, 2013
Dossier Complete...waiting starts
We are so incredibly excited to announce that our dossier is completed and has been officially mailed off! We received our I-171H on Monday this week. It was so fast and surprising (less than 6 weeks from when we first mailed off our I-600A and less than two weeks from when we had our finger printing appointments) that we hadn't even quite finished all of our paperwork yet. So this week we got a bunch of things notarized (special thanks to our friend Cheryl!) and finished up the few things we had left to do. We got our last document in the mail yesterday and scanned our entire dossier for our records. Then we took a family trip to Fed-Ex to mail it off last night before our Halloween bash. It feels so good to be done with it. It has felt like the last few months we were back in school and we always felt like there was something that we needed to do for it. For now, there is nothing left for us to do but wait.
First our dossier will travel to Lifeline (our adoption agency) to get reviewed and checked over. If everything looks good it will be mailed to West Sands headquarters in Utah (they are our in-country agency), then it needs to go to the state of Utah, back to West Sands, then to Washington DC, then back to West Sands, and then finally it will make it's way to Ethiopia! I have been told it takes about 1 month from when you mail it out until it reaches Ethiopia! As usual we are praying that the time frame will be on the shorter end and everything will happen without a hitch!
 |
| Howell Family at Fed-Ex sending out our completed dossier |
Sadly it sounds like the wait time right now will be about 18 months to 2 years. Again, we are praying that it is shorter than that! But we also know that this waiting period can be used for such good. We can keep reading about adoption and learning more about what to expect and how to parent an adopted child. We can keep strengthening our marriage and our parenting abilities. We can also shower our boys with tons of love and attention. We can also continue to fund raise and save money for our referral fee and our trips to Ethiopia! As hard as it is to have to wait, I know that so many good things can come from waiting. And that God often calls us to wait patiently for Him.
I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." Lamentations 3:24
"Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord". Psalm 27:14
"For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed" Romans 8:19
"But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently" Romans 8:25
These are a few verses I found on waiting. I am not the most patient person in the world and waiting is not easy for me. I know that in a few months I will need to remind myself of these verses and of the positive feeling I have about waiting right now...I don't foresee it lasting! If you have any other verses or quotes about waiting, feel free to share it! I will probably need it.
Friday, October 18, 2013
Stepping Out
The other day as the boys and I were driving around and listening to the awesome music of Group 1 Crew (because that is how we roll in our Swagger Wagon) the song "Stepping Out" came on. I have heard this song many times and every time I listen to it, I think about my daughter and the leap of faith that adoption is.
It took us about 2 years of thinking and praying about adoption before we felt ready to commit to it. It took a lot of wrestling with God and asking questions before we felt that we were able to just give it to Him and trust Him. We felt that He was leading us down the path of adoption, and had for some time, but not completely consciously. However, we realized that it was a hard road! We knew the wait would be long, it would be expensive, and all adoptive children will come with a hard history and a past. That road seemed scary to me! It was a really hard thing to "Step out" as the song says. It was hard to let God use us however he was going to use us and to stop "shutting out his voice" when he called us to hard life choices.
I love that the song talks about just trusting Him, just follow Him! If he is leading you...do it! "If you fall...it's in his hands". I want to be His to use. That is how I want to live my life, no matter how scary it is. I also love the refrain. It speaks so much truth to me. "I believe in the grace You've shown me. I believe in the words You say. I believe there's an untold story, that You're telling through me". And I truly believe that this chapter in our lives is an untold story. I am so excited to find out how it's all going to play out and what the middle and end of this story could be!
I have included the words of the song below and I hope that it can be an encouragement to others as well!
I'm alive, I want to live...
And I am not content to keep holding
Back all that I am, the way that I have been.
I am Yours to use.
And when I am afraid, You come close to say, "1 step it all it takes... ".
I'm stepping out to take a chance.
And if I fly or if I fall it's in Your hands.
You're the maker of my dreams (maker of my dreams)
and You'll make a way with me.
So I'm stepping out, I'm stepping out...
I believe in the grace You've shown me.
I believe in the words You say.
I believe there's an untold story,
That You're telling through me.
I believe in the grace You've shown me.
I believe in the words You say.
I believe there's an untold story,
That You're telling through me.
I'm stepping out to take a chance.
And if I fly or if I fall it's in Your hands.
You're the maker of my dreams,
And You'll make a way with me.
So I'm stepping out, I'm stepping out...
To take a chance
To take a chance
I'm stepping out, I'm stepping out... Lord.
I'm stepping out, I'm stepping out...
It took us about 2 years of thinking and praying about adoption before we felt ready to commit to it. It took a lot of wrestling with God and asking questions before we felt that we were able to just give it to Him and trust Him. We felt that He was leading us down the path of adoption, and had for some time, but not completely consciously. However, we realized that it was a hard road! We knew the wait would be long, it would be expensive, and all adoptive children will come with a hard history and a past. That road seemed scary to me! It was a really hard thing to "Step out" as the song says. It was hard to let God use us however he was going to use us and to stop "shutting out his voice" when he called us to hard life choices.
I love that the song talks about just trusting Him, just follow Him! If he is leading you...do it! "If you fall...it's in his hands". I want to be His to use. That is how I want to live my life, no matter how scary it is. I also love the refrain. It speaks so much truth to me. "I believe in the grace You've shown me. I believe in the words You say. I believe there's an untold story, that You're telling through me". And I truly believe that this chapter in our lives is an untold story. I am so excited to find out how it's all going to play out and what the middle and end of this story could be!
I have included the words of the song below and I hope that it can be an encouragement to others as well!
"Stepping Out"
by Group 1 Crew
by Group 1 Crew
I feel called to something more,
Beyond what I have known.
I keep shutting out that voice
That cries deep within my soul.
I have more to give, but I have been afraid.
And then I hear You say, "It's still not too late..."
I'm stepping out to take a chance.
And if I fly or if I fall it's in Your hands.
You're the maker of my dreams,
And You'll make a way with me.
So I'm stepping out, I'm stepping out...
To take a chance
To take a chance
Beyond what I have known.
I keep shutting out that voice
That cries deep within my soul.
I have more to give, but I have been afraid.
And then I hear You say, "It's still not too late..."
I'm stepping out to take a chance.
And if I fly or if I fall it's in Your hands.
You're the maker of my dreams,
And You'll make a way with me.
So I'm stepping out, I'm stepping out...
To take a chance
To take a chance
I'm alive, I want to live...
And I am not content to keep holding
Back all that I am, the way that I have been.
I am Yours to use.
And when I am afraid, You come close to say, "1 step it all it takes... ".
I'm stepping out to take a chance.
And if I fly or if I fall it's in Your hands.
You're the maker of my dreams (maker of my dreams)
and You'll make a way with me.
So I'm stepping out, I'm stepping out...
I believe in the grace You've shown me.
I believe in the words You say.
I believe there's an untold story,
That You're telling through me.
I believe in the grace You've shown me.
I believe in the words You say.
I believe there's an untold story,
That You're telling through me.
I'm stepping out to take a chance.
And if I fly or if I fall it's in Your hands.
You're the maker of my dreams,
And You'll make a way with me.
So I'm stepping out, I'm stepping out...
To take a chance
To take a chance
I'm stepping out, I'm stepping out... Lord.
I'm stepping out, I'm stepping out...
Friday, September 20, 2013
Moving on to our Dossier
It's been awhile since I last updated (I am not the worlds greatest blogger!!). But we actually have some news to share so I thought now was a good time to share it. Well, we are FINALLY officially finished with our home study! We got the final draft in the mail on Wednesday. The last month of it was a lot of loose ends coming together and reviewing it to make sure everything was OK. That part took longer than we had hoped for. However, as soon as we got it in the mail I was able to compile all of the needed documents to file our I-600A, which is a form needed for immigration approval. Which will allow us to bring our daughter into the country when the time comes. This takes about 90 days to process and while it is processing we have the fun task of compiling our dossier.
The dossier is a very large compilation of documents, which includes our home study and other forms that the Ethiopian government will use, once we have been referred a child, to verify that we are an OK family to be adopting a child from Ethiopia. Many things need to be notarized and the completion of a lot of the items is very particular! My goal is to have everything gathered and ready to go in less than the 90 days so that we can be ready to submit everything to Ethiopia as soon as we get our immigration approval back.
Please be praying for us during this time! We have lots of prayer requests.
The dossier is a very large compilation of documents, which includes our home study and other forms that the Ethiopian government will use, once we have been referred a child, to verify that we are an OK family to be adopting a child from Ethiopia. Many things need to be notarized and the completion of a lot of the items is very particular! My goal is to have everything gathered and ready to go in less than the 90 days so that we can be ready to submit everything to Ethiopia as soon as we get our immigration approval back.
Please be praying for us during this time! We have lots of prayer requests.
- That our I-600A gets to USCIS quickly and without a hitch.
- That our documents will be processed very quickly (before the 90 day time window)
- That Ryan and I will be able to quickly and easily compile all of the needed documents for our dossier before we receive our immigration approval back.
- Please pray for our daughter! Even though we don't know who she is yet, we need to remember to keep her in our prayers that God will be preparing her heart to join our family! Please also pray for her protection and safety in Ethiopia.
- Please pray for the financial aspect of the adoption! We have had some larger payments due with the completion of our home study and another large one at the completion of our dossier that is always a bit nerve racking.
- That more waiting children will become "paperwork ready" making them legal to adopt so that they can come home to be with their forever families! We had a great couple of months in June and July for referrals, but it has slowed down significantly since the Ethiopian courts closed in August. So prayer that things pick up again soon would be great!
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Home Study
The title of this post pretty much sums up the last month of our lives! HOME STUDY HOME STUDY HOME STUDY! We have been diligently working away at it. And man oh man is it a lot of work. We have read books, websites, articles. We have written about 30 pages each (15 of which was an autobiography) about ourselves answering various questions about ourselves, our views on adoption, parenting, parenting cross racially. I have not written this much since grad school! We have also gathered and sent documents off to our social worker. It has been tough going but we are taking it a little bit at a time! I think that's the only way to do it and still keep your sanity (granted I think Ryan would beg to differ, since I don't think he thinks I have any sanity left)! However, through it all we see a light at the end of the tunnel. Ryan just needs to complete his autobiography and we both need to finish 2 ten hour required trainings. One is required by our adoption agency called Crossings. We have started that one and it has been very interesting and informative. I really do appreciate what I have learned so far. The other is the Hague Training that is required for all international adoptions, I am not sure what that one will be like but am interested to find out.
After we finish the paper work for the home study we can schedule our home visits with our social worker. I am hoping that we can be done with all of this and have our home study submitted to our agency by the end of August. I don't know if that is an unrealistic timeline or not, but I am praying that God provides us with tons of extra time to get all of it done! You can join me in that prayer as well if you would like.
After our home study is completed we file for immigration (and have to send our completed home study along with that paper work). While that is being processed, it takes about 3 months, Ryan and I can start compiling all of the documents needed for our dossier. When we get our immigration approval back then the goal is to be able to submit that in our dossier to Ethiopia.
Please be praying for us during this paperwork process. It has been hard work and hard to find time to get it all done. We know that it is a long process, but we also just want to be able to be on the wait list. We don't get to be on the wait list until our dossier reaches Ethiopia. Then the waiting period starts. This is why we are doing a big push to get everything done! We know we have a long wait ahead of us after our legal documents are completed and we don't really want to make the process even slower!
Some good news about our adoption agency is that the past few months has shown a record number of referrals (Children being matched with families). The Ethiopian courts close for the rainy season from the beginning of August through September. I know that this big push to get court dates scheduled and children referred is due to the upcoming court closure, but it is still so exciting to see children getting matched with their forever families! And to see the joy of these families who have worked so hard and waited so long for these little ones!! Our adoption agency is also really trying to match a lot of the older waiting children with families right now. There is a big need for families to adopt older children and so the Ethiopia team is working hard to get their paperwork ready so they can come home when they get matched with families. This is also super exciting to us to see!! Prayers for these families who are open to older, waiting children, that they will also be able to join their families soon!
After we finish the paper work for the home study we can schedule our home visits with our social worker. I am hoping that we can be done with all of this and have our home study submitted to our agency by the end of August. I don't know if that is an unrealistic timeline or not, but I am praying that God provides us with tons of extra time to get all of it done! You can join me in that prayer as well if you would like.
After our home study is completed we file for immigration (and have to send our completed home study along with that paper work). While that is being processed, it takes about 3 months, Ryan and I can start compiling all of the documents needed for our dossier. When we get our immigration approval back then the goal is to be able to submit that in our dossier to Ethiopia.
Please be praying for us during this paperwork process. It has been hard work and hard to find time to get it all done. We know that it is a long process, but we also just want to be able to be on the wait list. We don't get to be on the wait list until our dossier reaches Ethiopia. Then the waiting period starts. This is why we are doing a big push to get everything done! We know we have a long wait ahead of us after our legal documents are completed and we don't really want to make the process even slower!
Some good news about our adoption agency is that the past few months has shown a record number of referrals (Children being matched with families). The Ethiopian courts close for the rainy season from the beginning of August through September. I know that this big push to get court dates scheduled and children referred is due to the upcoming court closure, but it is still so exciting to see children getting matched with their forever families! And to see the joy of these families who have worked so hard and waited so long for these little ones!! Our adoption agency is also really trying to match a lot of the older waiting children with families right now. There is a big need for families to adopt older children and so the Ethiopia team is working hard to get their paperwork ready so they can come home when they get matched with families. This is also super exciting to us to see!! Prayers for these families who are open to older, waiting children, that they will also be able to join their families soon!
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Garage Sale Update
Hi everyone, I know it's been a few weeks since our HUGE garage sale! I just wanted to give you all an update. The garage sale was an amazing success and such a blessing. Thank you everyone who donated things and for all of the prayers that were coming our way!
We had so much stuff at to sell at the garage sale that it was a little bit overwhelming! My parents 3 car garage was completely filled with stuff, plus their living room and dining room were full of boxes and piles of things! Thursday night we brought another full truck and van load down, which didn't even get unloaded until we were setting up the next morning because there was no place to put it all! What generosity from everyone (friends, family, Expedia people and the Cedar Park Northshore youth group)! Friday morning we started bright and early just trying to organize all of the stuff. We had tarps on the lawn for clothes and lots of borrowed folding tables for other things. It took us until 5:00 that evening before we felt that we had most of the stuff out and organized. The nice thing about that too, is that there was a steady string of people all day long shopping so we sold quite a bit of stuff that first day, without even trying! Then we drug everything back into the house and garage as they were so Saturday morning we could just drag them back out and it made set up a breeze the next day! We were so busy all day Saturday and sold a huge portion of our stuff! I was the "cash lady" and there was a line of people waiting to buy things! The weather was nice and it was BUSY BUSY BUSY!!! What a blessing all around. Then Sunday we pulled the stuff out again and started deciding what we wanted to donate or keep (somethings were not donate worthy so we will try selling them via other avenues). We also had a steady stream of people buying stuff all day and by the end of it a majority of the stuff was gone! There was just a small pile left to be donated by the end of the day!
By the end of the garage sale on Sunday we had made over $2000!!! That is amazing! We were hoping for half that amount of money, so felt so blessed to be able to double our goal! We also didn't sell few of the things (all of the collectors porcelain dolls and coach purses we had donated) at the garage sale so we have been putting them on Craig's List and eBay the past two weeks and have made almost $300 so far doing that!! Another huge blessing. We still have more dolls to sell so if anyone is or knows any doll collectors, send them our way! Ryan also spent the month leading up to the garage sale making wooden signs out of re-purposed wood (from our fence in the back yard that is falling down). These were not popular items at the garage sale, but we are hoping there might be another market to sell those in as well. We are still looking into that though. So all in all, we can probably make a little bit more from the "garage sale"!
The money we raised from the garage sale and after went directly to our first agency fee that we had to submit before starting the home study. This sale covered about 2/3 of the amount which was such a huge huge blessing. It was nice to not have our adoption savings have to be eaten up so quickly! And we have enough in there right now to cover the next agency fee which is due when we have completed our home study.
Speaking of home study, we are just plugging away at it. We try to work on it every night (or every other night, depending on how tired we are). It is A LOT of writing. Mostly we write about our lives and our upbringings. But there are also questions about what we think we would do in certain situations. It's not hard writing, just time consuming and makes you think. We are really excited to be making progress everyday! We just submitted our first batch of paperwork/writings to our social worker this week which felt so good to get it out for her to be going over. I am hoping to be able to get another batch off to her at the end of this week!
Keep praying for perseverance for us to get this completed quickly. It's a daunting task, but we need to just keep plugging away at it! Thank you everyone for all of your support and prayers!
We had so much stuff at to sell at the garage sale that it was a little bit overwhelming! My parents 3 car garage was completely filled with stuff, plus their living room and dining room were full of boxes and piles of things! Thursday night we brought another full truck and van load down, which didn't even get unloaded until we were setting up the next morning because there was no place to put it all! What generosity from everyone (friends, family, Expedia people and the Cedar Park Northshore youth group)! Friday morning we started bright and early just trying to organize all of the stuff. We had tarps on the lawn for clothes and lots of borrowed folding tables for other things. It took us until 5:00 that evening before we felt that we had most of the stuff out and organized. The nice thing about that too, is that there was a steady string of people all day long shopping so we sold quite a bit of stuff that first day, without even trying! Then we drug everything back into the house and garage as they were so Saturday morning we could just drag them back out and it made set up a breeze the next day! We were so busy all day Saturday and sold a huge portion of our stuff! I was the "cash lady" and there was a line of people waiting to buy things! The weather was nice and it was BUSY BUSY BUSY!!! What a blessing all around. Then Sunday we pulled the stuff out again and started deciding what we wanted to donate or keep (somethings were not donate worthy so we will try selling them via other avenues). We also had a steady stream of people buying stuff all day and by the end of it a majority of the stuff was gone! There was just a small pile left to be donated by the end of the day!
By the end of the garage sale on Sunday we had made over $2000!!! That is amazing! We were hoping for half that amount of money, so felt so blessed to be able to double our goal! We also didn't sell few of the things (all of the collectors porcelain dolls and coach purses we had donated) at the garage sale so we have been putting them on Craig's List and eBay the past two weeks and have made almost $300 so far doing that!! Another huge blessing. We still have more dolls to sell so if anyone is or knows any doll collectors, send them our way! Ryan also spent the month leading up to the garage sale making wooden signs out of re-purposed wood (from our fence in the back yard that is falling down). These were not popular items at the garage sale, but we are hoping there might be another market to sell those in as well. We are still looking into that though. So all in all, we can probably make a little bit more from the "garage sale"!
The money we raised from the garage sale and after went directly to our first agency fee that we had to submit before starting the home study. This sale covered about 2/3 of the amount which was such a huge huge blessing. It was nice to not have our adoption savings have to be eaten up so quickly! And we have enough in there right now to cover the next agency fee which is due when we have completed our home study.
Speaking of home study, we are just plugging away at it. We try to work on it every night (or every other night, depending on how tired we are). It is A LOT of writing. Mostly we write about our lives and our upbringings. But there are also questions about what we think we would do in certain situations. It's not hard writing, just time consuming and makes you think. We are really excited to be making progress everyday! We just submitted our first batch of paperwork/writings to our social worker this week which felt so good to get it out for her to be going over. I am hoping to be able to get another batch off to her at the end of this week!
Keep praying for perseverance for us to get this completed quickly. It's a daunting task, but we need to just keep plugging away at it! Thank you everyone for all of your support and prayers!
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Making progress
I just wanted to post a quick update to our journey. Well, we have finally found an agency to work with! I spent a lot of time talking to different agencies and other people about our options. After a lot of research and prayer we felt we were supposed to switch our agency to Lifeline Children's Service. They are a Christian organization which I really appreciated and I have heard only good things about them. We applied about a week ago, and were accepted. The past few days we have spent reading and signing a million different papers and will send those in, probably tomorrow. We will then have an orientation interview with our case manager at Lifeline.
We have already been contacted by the social worker who will be doing our home study and have actually filled out a few of the home study forms! It is a ton of paper work! So I thought if we did a few forms a night, we will hopefully be making some good progress on it, without feeling completely overwhelmed. I am so excited to be making some progress. The research phase, while important, was really hard since we weren't making any progress and it was quite discouraging and frustrating to me. But we are moving forward again and are happy to report it to you guys.
We have also been collecting donations for our garage sale coming up in just a week and a half! Thank you to all who have contributed. We really appreciate it. And we have a VERY full garage to transport down to my parent's house this coming weekend and next week. We are still accepting donations and any little bit helps, so if you have anything that you would like to donate, let Ryan or I know! We would love to come take it off your hands.
Thanks to everyone who is praying for us as well. We are excited to be moving forward, and relish all of the prayers we can get. We have a long road ahead! Please pray specifically right now that we won't get overwhelmed and bogged down by all of the paperwork. Sometimes we look at the huge pile of papers and would just rather put it off. But we want to get it done quickly, so we need for motivation and endurance to work on it.
We have already been contacted by the social worker who will be doing our home study and have actually filled out a few of the home study forms! It is a ton of paper work! So I thought if we did a few forms a night, we will hopefully be making some good progress on it, without feeling completely overwhelmed. I am so excited to be making some progress. The research phase, while important, was really hard since we weren't making any progress and it was quite discouraging and frustrating to me. But we are moving forward again and are happy to report it to you guys.
We have also been collecting donations for our garage sale coming up in just a week and a half! Thank you to all who have contributed. We really appreciate it. And we have a VERY full garage to transport down to my parent's house this coming weekend and next week. We are still accepting donations and any little bit helps, so if you have anything that you would like to donate, let Ryan or I know! We would love to come take it off your hands.
Thanks to everyone who is praying for us as well. We are excited to be moving forward, and relish all of the prayers we can get. We have a long road ahead! Please pray specifically right now that we won't get overwhelmed and bogged down by all of the paperwork. Sometimes we look at the huge pile of papers and would just rather put it off. But we want to get it done quickly, so we need for motivation and endurance to work on it.
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Spring Cleaning
Hey everyone! I just wanted to put it out there that we are doing a garage sale to help fund our adoption. We are going through our house and "spring cleaning", and will put everything into our garage sale that we don't need anymore. If any of you are also in the process of spring cleaning and purging your house, we would gladly take your stuff off your hands. If you weren't planning on doing a garage sale yourself and just wanted a place to donate your stuff, bring it to our house! Our garage sale is the first weekend of June at my parents house. They live on a small island (the size of a neighborhood) and the community puts on a garage sale every year that is HUGE!!! We thought this was a good place to start trying to earn some extra money to pay the fees of the adoption agency, our home study and applying for immigration for our daughter. All of which are things that we will need to fund in the next few months.
So, if you would like to donate your things to us, we will gladly accept it! If you are interested, you can contact either Ryan or myself through Facebook, e-mail, text or calling us. Then we can arrange a "transfer of goods"! Thanks in advance, I figure every little bit helps!
So, if you would like to donate your things to us, we will gladly accept it! If you are interested, you can contact either Ryan or myself through Facebook, e-mail, text or calling us. Then we can arrange a "transfer of goods"! Thanks in advance, I figure every little bit helps!
Thursday, April 18, 2013
The Beginning of Our Adventure
Here we are again starting another blog for one of our children...our newest one! As many of you know we created a blog when Caleb was in the NICU to inform family and friends of his status and to ask for prayers. Then we created another one when Eli was in the NICU and at Children's for the same reason.
Well, this is a bit of a different type of blog! We haven't actually gotten our child yet. We have, however, decided to start the adoption process to adopt a little girl! We have felt God calling us to adopt a daughter from Ethiopia! We are super excited and scared and nervous at the same time. But we know we are supposed to keep our eyes on Jesus and he will lead us where we need to go.
There has been a lot of corruption and then attempted reform in the past few years in the Ethiopian adoption process. This, sadly for us, has slowed down the process and the wait time for referrals to 2-4 years, depending on the agency that quotes it. This is quite frustrating for us. I have been researching agencies the past two weeks and it's been really hard finding one I feel comfortable using. I have more agencies to research and contact, but seem to have narrowed it down to a couple we really like. It's just a long hard process. I understand that this slow down is supposed to help ensure that the children who are being adopted are actually truly orphans and don't have any family members who can take care of them. I want the system to work and be ethical, but selfishly, I just wish the process could go quickly and easily for us! But we are also leaning on God and know that I must have patience (not a virtue of mine) and we must keep following His lead.
We are so excited to be able to share this news with our friends and family! We would love and need your prayers! We need prayer for patience, strength, safe keeping of our daughter and finances through this expensive process! We hope to update the blog as much as possible as we walk through the process to keep people who are interested informed! If you have any questions or want to "talk adoption" feel free to contact us!
Well, this is a bit of a different type of blog! We haven't actually gotten our child yet. We have, however, decided to start the adoption process to adopt a little girl! We have felt God calling us to adopt a daughter from Ethiopia! We are super excited and scared and nervous at the same time. But we know we are supposed to keep our eyes on Jesus and he will lead us where we need to go.
There has been a lot of corruption and then attempted reform in the past few years in the Ethiopian adoption process. This, sadly for us, has slowed down the process and the wait time for referrals to 2-4 years, depending on the agency that quotes it. This is quite frustrating for us. I have been researching agencies the past two weeks and it's been really hard finding one I feel comfortable using. I have more agencies to research and contact, but seem to have narrowed it down to a couple we really like. It's just a long hard process. I understand that this slow down is supposed to help ensure that the children who are being adopted are actually truly orphans and don't have any family members who can take care of them. I want the system to work and be ethical, but selfishly, I just wish the process could go quickly and easily for us! But we are also leaning on God and know that I must have patience (not a virtue of mine) and we must keep following His lead.
We are so excited to be able to share this news with our friends and family! We would love and need your prayers! We need prayer for patience, strength, safe keeping of our daughter and finances through this expensive process! We hope to update the blog as much as possible as we walk through the process to keep people who are interested informed! If you have any questions or want to "talk adoption" feel free to contact us!
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