And so it begins...

I cannot believe that it has been a year and an half since we first began our adoption process back in early 2013.  It feels like just yesterday we crossing all the “T”s and dotting all the “I”s…then checking and double checking and triple checking all of our paperwork before we sent out our “official” request to adopt (aka our Dossier).  But the reality is, several seasons have come and gone since we shipped our Dossier to Ethiopia on October 18, 2013.  For those of you who may not know, our Dossier took us around 6 months to complete.   It required a large amount of time, a little frustration, a lot of signatures, notary stamps, social worker visits, more background checks than I even thought existed and much more than I can list in a “brief” summary.  But above all, it required a lot of faith in the one who called us to adopt and to him we give thanks because we could not have done it without his amazing grace.

That all being said, it is hard to believe that we are already to the point where our paperwork is beginning to approach its “expiration” date.  I sit here tonight writing a letter to the Department of Homeland Security, requesting our first update for our fingerprints (which expire in December).  I cannot believe it is already that time.  I cannot believe how slowly we are moving up the waiting list.  It breaks my heart to see our the little progress we have made in the past year.  But we know who is in control..... After our fingerprints, we will need to update our homestudy and our “pre-approval for citizenship” paperwork.  These updates will given us an additional 15 months for our fingerprints and 18 months for our homestudy and citizenship paperwork.  I hope and pray that by time that rolls around, we will not need an update as we will be completing our adoption and bringing our little girl home. 

As much as it hurts, I know that God is good.  He is faithful.  And most importantly for us right now…his timing is perfect.  We pray for Amira everyday, where ever she may be and we know we are not the only ones who do.  Our Heavenly Father hears our prayers and is protecting her and keeping her safe until the time HE decides to bring her home to be with us.  So until then, we will patiently wait and pray. 

 

Thanks for your prayers and support.

Our Story

Gods timing is perfect.... I have heard that statement more in the past year and a half than I have in my entire life. While at times it is hard to accept I know whole heartedly that it is the absolute truth. Whether it be in the waiting stages of adoption or other aspects of our lives, God's timing truly is impeccable. We may not always realize it at first but during the wait God uses the time to allow us an opportunity for spiritual, physically and emotional growth. I know I am not the same person I was in April 2013 when we began this journey. I have grown so much stronger in my faith and love for my heavenly savior than I ever thought possible. I praise The Lord for this journey and for the days to come because I will continue to grow in my faith and continue to share the love of Jesus Christ with others. 

This past Sunday, Nic and I had the opportunity to meet an amazing couple in Texas who recently brought home their son from Ghana Africa. Again God's timing is completely remarkable....only our Heavenly Father can bring together two families, both with the heart of adoption, in the massive state of Texas, in the same terminal on the same flight. Oh did I mention this family lives at most an hour from our home??? I can hardly wrap my mind around how amazing this encounter was and we now have another family we can connect with in our area. Praise The Lord.  As they shared their amazing story the one part that really stuck out to me is when they said every trial, every set back and every day they waited was all a part of what makes their story.  They waited almost 2 years after they were matched with their son before they were able to bring him home. This does not include the time they waited from when they began their adoption journey. That wait, while hard, was a part of their story. It was also a part of their son's story. While they may not  have known why, God had a purpose and reason in mind for that wait.  That really hit home as we are approaching the year mark from when we submitted our paperwork to Africa. Just like our new friends from Chicago, God has a plan for our life and for Amira. We might not understand God's plan now but it is all written out above and this is our story.  Adoption is not about us, it's all about him and all the Glory to God when that day comes when we bring her home. So let me share with you our current chapter of our adoption entitled...,

Chapter 10: Behind the scenes of the wait:

As of now we are up to date with everything. December 2014 our paperwork in which we submitted will begin to slowly expire. In December we will begin the process of updating our fingerprints. As long as we do it within a certain time frame this update will be free for the first renewal. Starting in January 2015 we will begin the lengthy process of updating our home study. This means updated health physicals, financial status, employment, the works. This update will cost between $250-$500, however, it is necessary as our home study expires in March. Also expiring in March is our immigration paperwork. This first update, again if done in the proper time frame is free.  I know the cost of adoption is troubling and hard to understand for a lot of individuals. And that's ok. However, God is faithful and will provide. I know the time frame of waiting 2-4 years is hard for people to understand given the large amount of orphans in Ethiopia alone (around 4.5 million). And that's ok to feel that way. It took me a while and lots of praying to get to the point where I am at peace with this wait.

It's all part of our story.  We will learn, we will grow, we will cry, we will shout for joy and praise The Lord. This is our journey, our story and we are grateful for everything and everyone who is a part of this path. 

Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers and donations. As time continues, we will share with you every chapter as God intended.

God Bless. 

And the wait continues...

Hi everyone!!

I know it's been a lot time since we have written an update but the reason being nothing in our Ethiopian adoption has changed. We are currently in the waiting process of our adoption where we sit back, wait and pray. In a way we are like a pregnant couple anxiously awaiting the arrival of their little one. The only difference between us and pregnancy is that our time frame is unknown and unpredictable.  When we first started our adoption process the wait time was "estimated" to be between 18-24 months once our dossier was sent to Ethiopia. We began our paper chase in April 2013 and submitted our dossier to Ethiopia October 18, 2013. Over the course of the past year, AWAA (our adoption agency) has expanded the wait time from 18 months to now some where between 36-42 months. Yikes a year and a half wait has turned to 3 to 3 1/2 year wait.

I know that time frame seems a bit unusual given the large amount of orphans in Africa and as much as I want to see, meet and bring home our little princess - we know Gods timing is perfect. I truly believe we are finally in a place where We have accepted and are at peace with this reality. We know that we are following the path predestined for us and we will wait patiently, pray unceasingly and hold on to the hope that God will one day make us a family united.

As always we appreciate and are grateful for your support and prayers and will continue to keep you updated as time goes on. 

Have a wonderful day and God bless!!

4 months DTE

Good afternoon!!!

We are happy to share that Ethiopia will not be closing international adoption. Praise The Lord!!! There will be changes in the international adoption process but these are being implemented to protect the children's well being. Basically from what I have gathered, Ethiopia is going to get more strict to ensure that unethical practices, outcomes and/or situations will be eliminated. While I know this will make our process more difficult, I cannot argue with added procedures that will protect the safety of the children in Ethiopia. In my eyes, if extra paperwork protects just one child from an unsafe environment than it is worth the extra work on our end.

So where are we 4 months DTE??? Other than new paperwork in the future not much has changed. 

But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. 

Romans 8:25

This basically sums up everything with our adoption. We pray for her, long for her and think of her daily. We cannot wait for the day until we see her sweet face, but until that day, we will wait patiently knowing that God is in control.  

We want to thank everyone who has supported us along out journey. We know in our hearts Amira is alive today. She is probably around one year old, although she probably did not celebrate her birthday. She may not even know the exact day of her birth because many of those records are not kept where she is living.  How wonderful it will be to shower her with affection and love when she arrives. How wonderful it will be to tell her she is valued and loved; that she is fearfully and wonderfully made!!! But until that day, we will pray she knows the love of her Heavenly Father above and her family in Chesterton Indiana. Until that day...we will wait patiently. 

God bless!!

Patience and prayer...

For those of you following our blog and our Ethiopia adoption, you may have read in our last post that there have been some rumors of Ethiopia closing international adoption.  For those who did not read our latest blog post, there have been rumors that Ethiopia was considering shutting the doors on international adoptions for a few reasons, the main one being that they wanted to keep their children in their own culture. However, with 4.3 million orphan children in Ethiopia alone, we are praying that this rumor doesn't become a reality. Today our agency was suppose to hear back from Ethiopia their decision of the direction of international adoption, unfortunately parliament didn't not make the announcement as planned. Therefore, we will have to wait until next Thursday to hear their decision. 

We are asking for your prayers as we continue to wait for an answer. But more specifically, we ask for your prayers for the orphans of Ethiopia, their safety and well being. Also, we pray that Ethiopia will see the need for continued intervention on behalf of their orphan children; with so many orphans it is clear that the need far exceeds their resources.  Therefore, we are praying that they will continue to allow international adoption to take place and we will someday hold our little Amira in our arms and welcome her as our own. 

We know The Lord almighty is in control and he has a plan.  So until we know the answer we will continue to pray and rest assure knowing he is in control.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. 

Proverbs 3:5-6

God has a plan....

March 19, 2013 was the first written prayer request I have in my prayer journal regarding adoption.  In this letter I bring my excitement, as well as my fears about the potential of adoption to the Lord.  In this prayer request, I ask him for guidance, wisdom, courage and strength as we were preparing to venture into a world completely foreign to us.  We knew that our lives were about to do a complete 360 and we were going to need God’s love, mercy, strength and grace more than ever in the upcoming months to face the trials that were ahead.   Looking back now, it is really amazing to think how much our lives have changed over the course of the past nine months since we began this exciting journey.  We have met so many new and exciting people.  When we first began this process, international adoption was an unfamiliar territory to us.  But once we began to really get involved and move forward with preparing our dossier, we realized there are so many other families in the United States who are walking the same path we are walking who were more than willing to lend a helping hand or ear whenever needed.  But even more amazing then the people we have met or spoken to online or over the phone, is how much our faith has grown over the course of 2013.  We have struggled along the way and at times we have fallen but our Heavenly Father has always been there to pick us back up.  He is our rock, our strength and our shield.

“the Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my shield and the horn of my salvation.  He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior.”

2 Samuel 22:2-3

Today was one of those days and I praise the Lord for perfect timing and a great sermon.  Today we had a guest speaker at church who did a wonderful job talking about the story of David and Goliath.  In this story, God hand selected an individual who was viewed as a “no body” by society and uses him to achieve great things.  Basically the story of David and Goliath is a perfect example of how God uses the weak to be the strong; that if we have faith in the Lord and his will for us we can overcome anything. 

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28

However, just because we are called to do something by God doesn’t mean that life will always be smooth sailing.  Just like with David, sometimes we have to lean solely on faith and run full speed ahead into the battlefield when we are not 110% sure of the outcome.  Sometimes following a calling means stepping out into the unknown and believing that no matter what the outcome, GOD KNOWS BEST.

As many of you may not know there is a lot of debate going on in Ethiopia about international adoption.  Currently there are rumors floating around that they will be closing their doors as far as international adoption is concerned.  Right now these are just rumors – and until we hear word from our agency that Ethiopia is officially closed we will continue to move forward with our adoption process as planned.  I would be lying if I said that the thought of this happening didn’t bring me to tears.  We know we have a little girl half way around the world waiting for us to bring her home.  It hurts to think that it is possible that God’s plan for us has changed.  We do not have any intentions to make any changes in our adoption path – again the information circulating is not coming from a positively reliable source.  However, reliable or not, we are still asking for your prayers as time goes on….prayers that this information is false and Ethiopia has no intention of closing its doors….prayers that if it is in fact God’s will to close adoption in Ethiopia that he will guide us to what we are suppose to do next….prayers for patience as we wait for our agency to respond with a detailed explanation of what is going on….and prayers of peace.  We know that God knows what is best for our family and he HAS A PLAN. 

As always, we are very appreciative of your prayers and support.  If we hear any updates from our agency on the status of international adoption, we will pass that along.  God Bless.

And the wait continues!!! :)

Hello Everyone!

We hope to find everyone well.  It has been a while since we have written a blog update and I thought we were due for a new post to share with everyone what has been going on with our adoption over the past month.....and the answer is....waiting.  As you may have already read in previous posts, we are currently in the waiting process of our adoption - which is by far the longest part of any adoption.  Tomorrow, November 18th, we will officially be DTE (dossier to Ethiopia) for 1 month.  Right now, America World Adoption Association estimates that a family can wait any where from 30-36 months from their DTE date for an infant.  Lucky for us we have requested a little girl between the age of 0-4, so hopefully that will narrow down our wait a little.  But just like everything else in life, this will all happen in God's timing - not ours.  So in the mean time we wait patiently...or as patiently as we possibly can.  But just because we are waiting doesn't mean we can't think and pray for our little Amira every day.  Honestly, there is not a day that goes by where I do not think about her.  I cannot tell you enough how much I long for the day when we can shower another child - our second daughter - with more love than she ever thought possible.  But until that day comes, the only thing (and most important thing) we can do is pray for her. We love you princess pie and cannot wait to see your beautiful face!!

From a financial standpoint we are close to half way there.  Adopting from Ethiopia can range anywhere from $28,000 to $35,000.  As of today, we have raised and submitted over $15,000!!!  Only God could make that possible in such a short time frame, we must give glory where glory is due...thank you Lord!!!!  Currently, the only on-going fundraisers we are working on are selling Advocare products (health and wellness) and selling our Project Ethiopia Tshirts and bracelets.  Next spring, with the help of one amazing woman - Karen Williams, we will be planning a walk-a-thon/chili dinner/face painting extravaganza!!  For those of you who do not know Karen, she also planned and put together our Lasagna Fundraiser in September.  We cannot thank her enough for all of her hard work and continued efforts towards helping us fundraise!!  In addition to our walk-a-thon, we are also planning on having another fundraiser garage sale in the summer of 2014.  This past summer our garage sale/bake sale was a huge success thanks to amazing family and friends who donated items and helped set up and run the event.  Again I can't thank you enough for the amount of time and items that were donated.

I know this really isn't much of an update...but there really is nothing new for us to share.  As the journey ventures forward we will continue to keep you updated. :)  As always, thank you for your continued prayers and support.

God Bless!!