Good news!

Our dossier was mailed to Ethiopia yesterday! This is it! woohoo!

6 weeks

We sent our dossier off to the Bethany Iowa branch 6 weeks ago. A couple days ago they informed us that it was sent to WA DC for authentication. There was a couple things that had to be re-done due to things changing on the agency's end but most of this time we've spent waiting and wondering what the status of our dossier is. So, after all this time it's still not in Ethiopia. There's nothing we can do but patience is wearing thin.

The last we heard 55 couples working with BCS were waiting for children from Ethiopia. Today we received an email that was good to hear.

What a month June has been! 13 (16 children) families will have or already had court dates. We're thankful for a smooth court process this month for so many families. Three families are already home, and five more are due to travel. With successful court dates, additional travel dates should be coming.

Families waiting the longest had their dossiers sent in July 2008, with these families having a preference for younger, female children.

Easter in Ethiopia

If you're interested, here's some info on Easter in Ethiopia.

http://www.ethiopianreview.com/news/2009/04/celebrating-easter-week-in-ethiopia/

Info from Bethany Christian Services blog

This past week two cases have come out of court approved, four families have returned home with five children, and six children were matched with five families!

Bethany has about 55 families with dossiers in Ethiopia. Families with dossiers sent in late July 2008 are waiting the longest. About one fourth of these families are open to or only wanting a sibling group, about one fourth of the families have a preference for a female children as young as possible. Other families who are waiting are open to either gender in various age ranges.

We are thankful for all of the families who are preparing their heart and home for their children for Ethiopia.

I have to admit that reading this kind of made me a little sad. There are families waiting since last July! With a fourth of the families wanting a girl it makes me feel fairly confident we will have a boy. :-) I am SOO ok with that.

Dossier is on the move!

We set our dossier off to the Bethany office in Iowa. Bonnie reviewed it and we did it correctly, Praise the Lord!
This is an email we received from her today

Hi Dave and Kami
Awesome job on the dossier! It was mailed 2nd Day UPS to National yesterday.
Your dossier will be reviewed by Jane at Bethany National, then sent to Washington DC for authentication at the Ethiopian Consulate, then back to Bethany National - and then off to Ethiopia. Then you wait for your referral. I will also continue to send you information on children who are waiting for a family because they are older or have special needs. If you have interest in adopting any of these children, just let me know.

I guess I thought after Bonnie reveiwed it it would just be sent to Ethiopia but apparently there are a few more steps. But that's ok. I am thrilled we did it all right and that we don't have to fix anything. So, our dossier is out of our hands and is on the move which is so exciting.

I will let you know once we hear that it's headed to Ethiopia.

We got our USCIS approval!

Life has been a little crazy so this post is very late. We got the letter on the 4th of April which was 8 weeks after mailing in the application. We were thrilled. The thing is, we didn't think we wouldn't get approval cause it's pretty for sure but it was just having to wait for 8 weeks that was tough.

Now what? - you might ask

We mailed our dossier to the Secretary of States office in Denver. They are putting a state seal on everything and will be mailing it back. They say it's about a 72 hour turn over so we're expecting it in the mail any day.

Once we get it back we'll make 4 copies of everything then we'll mail it onto our agency. They will add our home study report and mail if off to Ethiopia. This is the most exciting thing thus far! Then we wait.

So, very soon we'll be done with all we can do. Praise the Lord.

A thought provoking quote

"Sometimes I'd like to ask God why He allows poverty, famine, and injustice in the world when He could do something about it...but I'm afraid God might ask me the same questions". ~Anonymous

Small update

We are still waiting on the approval from USCIS. Bonnie mailed in our application a lot later then we thought she would so we're right at 4 weeks. They say it's typically 6 to 8 weeks so we continue to wait.

We have almost everything done for our dossier. I am trying to get a letter from our family doctor stating that Dave and I are healthy but they're dragging their feet. I'm also working on taking pictures of our house and "family life." Once we get it all together we have to go get everything noterized and state sealed.

We're so close. I am getting so excited to think that we will be in the next and last stage of all this. One day we'll get the call, "We have a baby for you!" YEA!

Traveling to Ethiopia

No, we're not planning the trip yet. Bummer, huh? We've been thinking and talking a lot about when it's time to go. We always just planned on leaving the boys here with someone and just Dave and I would go. But we've come to realize that it could be very tough on the boys, especially Liam who's old enough to get it, to be away from us for 2 weeks.

When we went to Seattle for 2.5 weeks Liam said numerous times that he wanted to go home and that he missed his home and his dog. I just wonder how much he'll miss us?

For a time we discussed Dave staying with the boys and me going to Ethiopia with a friend. This makes my heart sink. I can't imagine the moments I wouldn't get to share with my husband! AHH! This might end up being a reality though so I have to prepare my heart.

However, we talked today about how even though there may be days when Liam cries himself to sleep at night cause he misses us, he most likely won't remember this, he WILL be safe and with people he loves and who love him. It might just be something he has to go through. On the other hand, this too breaks my heart. To think of my babies being without mommy and daddy for so long and REALLY missing us and not understanding time and when we'll be back. THEN, when we do come back, we bring with us a new baby.

We talk to Liam A LOT about Ethiopia and how some day his mom and dad will have go there to get his baby. He gets excited and wants to meet his new sibling. He loves talking about it and praying for the baby. We pray that all the talk will start to make sense for him and that when it's time for us to leave he is happy about it and excited that we're bringing our baby home to him.

We have some people to talk to about keeping the boys while we're gone. We won't make any for sure decisions about any of this until we hear some responses. Taking 2 kids for 2 weeks is a big under taking and a lot to ask of anyone.

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!

Shopping in Seattle

Seattle is very diverse and we've found a few stores that sell a lot of stuff from all over, Peru, Nepal, Kenya etc. One shop only had a couple items from Ethiopia and they were quite expensive but beautiful. Here's a couple pictures I found that look similar to what we saw today.

Processional crosses, so named because they ware held above the heads of the crowds in church processions.


Hand cross- Every ethiopian priest holds a hand Cross that he's constantly carrying with him. He is putting the Cross on the forehead of the believers and they are kissing the Cross.


The two crosses we found were $150 and $225. One was a hand cross and the other was a processional cross. They were quite amazing. We found a few places online to buy these sorts of Ethiopian crosses that are not quite as expensive as this store was. We are excited to start getting some Ethiopian art and clothing.