Moving onto a new set of paperwork

So, we are finally officially DONE with our home study. We can now apply for grants which I started working on today.

We sent our US Citizen Immigration Services paperwork on and that typically take 8 weeks to come back with approval. While we wait on that we start working on the dossier which is a massive stack of papers we have to get signed and most of them need to be notarized and get a state seal. These 8 weeks will pass quickly and I want to have the dossier totally done.

If all goes well the dossier should be off to Ethiopia by March. Then we wait . . .and wait. . .and wait. Only God knows how long. One day we will get a call saying there is a baby waiting for us!

A post from Dave...yeah, really

We have been visiting with a lot of friends and family since we have been here in Seattle and often the subject of our adoption comes up in conversation. I feel like I have told our story so many times. But it's great to have so many people interested in our adoption and ask us questions and genuinely want to know whats going on with this part of our life. It's interesting, because there are some standard questions that everyone asks: What made you decide to adopt, why international, why Ethiopia, how much will it cost, what is the time line. Sometimes people will ask more questions which is great, but those are the basics. What I find interesting is the order that people ask questions, and the ones that make people feel most awkward.

One of the questions that I think about a lot is "Why Ethiopia." Not because I question our decision, but because it just seems so natural to me now, that I can't imagine why it wouldn't be Ethiopia. That's where my baby is! We have known that Ethiopia would be where our baby would come from for so long that I think of them and pray for them as an Ethiopian baby. God has called us to adopt from that nation and so how can we not go and bring our baby home?

I know some people don't fully understand the answers to some of the questions they ask. That's ok. Kami and I are not ignorant to the many many struggles that lay ahead of us in this adoption process and then our life as family born on different continents. It's ok if life is hard sometimes. God doesn't always call us to do the easiest thing. He calls us to do what He needs us to do. God knew it wouldn't be easy for Moses (an interracial adoptee) to go to Pharaoh, and it wasn't easy for Paul to stand before Festus, but they where faithful and obeyed God and did the hard thing. I don't want to just live a safe easy life ignoring God's call. Our life might be hard, we may face struggles we haven't even thought of yet, but thats ok. Sometimes it's the hard times that draw us into the closness with God that we desire.

Why Ethiopia? Because there is a beautiful, wonderful, amazing child there, created by God and that He ordained to be our child from the foundations of the earth. We will be coming to get you soon baby!