Okay, a little change is happening. I have been thinking about this the last couple of days and finally got a chance to run it past Amos and he was okay with it. We are officially changing our request to be matched with a child 9-16 months old to a child that is 0-16 months old. I think our age bracket before was too narrow, possibly making children that may be available not eligible to be matched with us. As it stood before if a child became available that was 6 months old, they would not call us because we asked for a child at least 3 months older than that.
I was thinking about our old age bracket and thought about the 2 trip rule. Due to the 2 trip rule, our child will be about 4-5 months older when we bring them home than we originally thought with the 1 trip rule. I think this wider, age window MAY help us get matched more quickly and help our child be closer to our target age spectrum when they arrive home in the US.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Three plus months in line
Hi Readers,
We are 3 1/2 months into our wait for a referral. While I'm anxious, it feels really exciting knowing that we could get a call any day! For those of you just tuning in now, the average wait time for a referral is 4-6 months. I HOPE we are somewhere in that margin and not beyond it!
We had our agency phone meeting about our referral and travel. The list of things I have to do before, during and after travel is so daunting. Amos read over it with WIDE eyes. I am a bit worried too but at this point I feel like I would walk through fire if it lead to us bringing our baby home. It looks like my sister will be traveling with me for the second trip. I am so thankful for this as I know I'll be exhausted and required to do many important things at the Ethiopian court and US embassy. I need her brain to help me through my list WHILE adjusting to being a mommy in a 3rd world country.
Another hurdle we will need to overcome is the finances. When we say yes to our referral, we will need to send $5,300 with our answer to get things going in Ethiopia. After that we need to by the plane ticket ($1000-1400) and book a room at the guest house ($1000). This is more than we have in our savings account now but I know God will be faithful and he will help us be creative with our finances to make this next step.
We received a little booklet of Amharic words to practice before the trip! I love this. I plan to make some flash cards to learn some words for the meeting of our little one on the first trip! An Ethiopian mom at my school is very excited to help me with this:)
Lets hope and pray for finances to fall into place and a referral call soon!
For now,
Dehna hunu (good-bye)
We are 3 1/2 months into our wait for a referral. While I'm anxious, it feels really exciting knowing that we could get a call any day! For those of you just tuning in now, the average wait time for a referral is 4-6 months. I HOPE we are somewhere in that margin and not beyond it!
We had our agency phone meeting about our referral and travel. The list of things I have to do before, during and after travel is so daunting. Amos read over it with WIDE eyes. I am a bit worried too but at this point I feel like I would walk through fire if it lead to us bringing our baby home. It looks like my sister will be traveling with me for the second trip. I am so thankful for this as I know I'll be exhausted and required to do many important things at the Ethiopian court and US embassy. I need her brain to help me through my list WHILE adjusting to being a mommy in a 3rd world country.
Another hurdle we will need to overcome is the finances. When we say yes to our referral, we will need to send $5,300 with our answer to get things going in Ethiopia. After that we need to by the plane ticket ($1000-1400) and book a room at the guest house ($1000). This is more than we have in our savings account now but I know God will be faithful and he will help us be creative with our finances to make this next step.
We received a little booklet of Amharic words to practice before the trip! I love this. I plan to make some flash cards to learn some words for the meeting of our little one on the first trip! An Ethiopian mom at my school is very excited to help me with this:)
Lets hope and pray for finances to fall into place and a referral call soon!
For now,
Dehna hunu (good-bye)
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Creeping Closer!
Hi Everyone!
Our dossier has been in Ethiopia for 2 months now! That means we are 2 months into our 4-6 month wait! This feels good.
I started school today. I was thinking about how good this year is going to be on my drive into work. God has blessed my school. I have a wonderful class and wonderful teacher team that I can leave when I need to hop a plane to Africa. It's all been arranged and set up for me to be a mommy! It's fun to think that sometime this year, we will get a phone call saying that they have a baby for us. We've never gotten this far! The anticipation and excitement of it all is great.
This fall brings school, Cross Training (with my 9-11 year olds), Safe Families, Kid's Church and regular coffee breaks with my friend. Winter is on it's way which means the holidays are right around the corner. This year is going to fly by and somewhere in the middle of it we get a baby!!! I haven't posted any pics in a while so I added this one of Amo and I at Ruby Beach:)
A couple things I'm learning to value: delegation, trust and surrender.
Our dossier has been in Ethiopia for 2 months now! That means we are 2 months into our 4-6 month wait! This feels good.
I started school today. I was thinking about how good this year is going to be on my drive into work. God has blessed my school. I have a wonderful class and wonderful teacher team that I can leave when I need to hop a plane to Africa. It's all been arranged and set up for me to be a mommy! It's fun to think that sometime this year, we will get a phone call saying that they have a baby for us. We've never gotten this far! The anticipation and excitement of it all is great.
This fall brings school, Cross Training (with my 9-11 year olds), Safe Families, Kid's Church and regular coffee breaks with my friend. Winter is on it's way which means the holidays are right around the corner. This year is going to fly by and somewhere in the middle of it we get a baby!!! I haven't posted any pics in a while so I added this one of Amo and I at Ruby Beach:)
A couple things I'm learning to value: delegation, trust and surrender.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Doing okay...
Hello faithful friends who check this blog! You have no idea how much it means to me that you haven't given up an interest in our adoption!
So our dossier has been in Ethiopia for a little over 5 weeks now. We don't expect to hear that we have a referral for another few months but one can hope that something goes faster than expected right? ...especially since EVERYTHING has gone much slower than expected and thought possible up to this point.
Today was a bit happy and a bit sad. My friend boarded a plane today for Ethiopia to pick up her little boy. I am very happy for her but super...I guess 'jealous' is the word. I don't want to hear any encouragement such as "everything happens when it's supposed to" or "God's timing is perfect". I just might strangle the next person to say that. I know it's true. And it will happen when it happens but I don't want to hear it anymore. This friend of mine started the adoption process a year and a half after us. One thing is for sure: nothing in the adoption world is fair. There is not a single file line and it isn't a turn taking deal. Another friend of mine has been waiting over 3 years. I guess it's a lot like life. Some people completely sail through and others have to claw their way along while getting hit with baseball bats.
Another thing that is killing me: the 212 lady friends of mine that are pregnant. People have had babies already that were nowhere near pregnant when we started our process! This is nuts! It should be harder and take longer to grow a human being than get one that is in need.
Anywho... I probably should say that I am very happy for all my adoptive parent friends and mommies to be. Congrats to everyone! I just needed to rant a little:)
So our dossier has been in Ethiopia for a little over 5 weeks now. We don't expect to hear that we have a referral for another few months but one can hope that something goes faster than expected right? ...especially since EVERYTHING has gone much slower than expected and thought possible up to this point.
Today was a bit happy and a bit sad. My friend boarded a plane today for Ethiopia to pick up her little boy. I am very happy for her but super...I guess 'jealous' is the word. I don't want to hear any encouragement such as "everything happens when it's supposed to" or "God's timing is perfect". I just might strangle the next person to say that. I know it's true. And it will happen when it happens but I don't want to hear it anymore. This friend of mine started the adoption process a year and a half after us. One thing is for sure: nothing in the adoption world is fair. There is not a single file line and it isn't a turn taking deal. Another friend of mine has been waiting over 3 years. I guess it's a lot like life. Some people completely sail through and others have to claw their way along while getting hit with baseball bats.
Another thing that is killing me: the 212 lady friends of mine that are pregnant. People have had babies already that were nowhere near pregnant when we started our process! This is nuts! It should be harder and take longer to grow a human being than get one that is in need.
Anywho... I probably should say that I am very happy for all my adoptive parent friends and mommies to be. Congrats to everyone! I just needed to rant a little:)
Sunday, July 11, 2010
More Good News!
Hi Everyone!
I have to go back in time a week or so to bring you up to speed:) After our dossier arrived at our agency in Oregon we were notified that we were missing our rental lease. I looked at that paperwork for 2 years and didn't see that we needed to include 3 notarized, certified copies of our lease. I saw that you needed to include a copy of the deed to your house but we don't own so I skipped that part. Ooops. I guess one little thing like that isn't too bad considering everything else looked great! To make a long story shorter, we got our stuff off and heard this week that our dossier was shipped via DHL to Ethiopia. I got a tracking number and tracked it from Oregon to Ohio to Germany to Belgium and (drum roll...) finally it arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia yesterday!!!
So now we wait for the orphanage board to match us with our baby!!! Can you feel my excitement?!
I have to go back in time a week or so to bring you up to speed:) After our dossier arrived at our agency in Oregon we were notified that we were missing our rental lease. I looked at that paperwork for 2 years and didn't see that we needed to include 3 notarized, certified copies of our lease. I saw that you needed to include a copy of the deed to your house but we don't own so I skipped that part. Ooops. I guess one little thing like that isn't too bad considering everything else looked great! To make a long story shorter, we got our stuff off and heard this week that our dossier was shipped via DHL to Ethiopia. I got a tracking number and tracked it from Oregon to Ohio to Germany to Belgium and (drum roll...) finally it arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia yesterday!!!
So now we wait for the orphanage board to match us with our baby!!! Can you feel my excitement?!
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Finally Waiting In a Line!
Hello Friends,
Are you ready for some good news?! I am on cloud 9!
We mailed off our dossier to our agency yesterday! I should arrive in Oregon on Monday and from there go to the orphanage in Ethiopia!!! Then it will fall into the hands of a board member of the SOS EE orphanage who will read over everything about us and match us with a child!
Some of you are thinking you missed an announcement of us getting an answer to our letter to the Ethiopian govt asking if Amos can be excused from court. We have not received an answer yet but I found out some info this week that lead to our decision to send off the dossier without hearing back from our letter.
First of all, our letter went to one of the 3 judges in Ethiopia. He looked over our letter and gave us the thumbs up. However, he wanted to make sure he was correct in his thinking so he sent it to the top judge and there it sits (has been sitting for 6 weeks now). Ethiopia adoption courts are extremely backed up hearing cases and will continue to be until they close down hearings for August and September. Our agency was surprised that our letter didn't get an answer faster but they think it is because the courts are in 5th gear with all the changes happening.
Secondly, we boiled it down to this. If our letter gets a thumbs up, we will send off our dossier and I will travel alone. If our letter gets a thumbs down, we will pay more and wait longer to have our child escorted to the US. Either way, we need to send off our dossier and be matched with a child so I asked (again) if we can just send off our dossier to get that 4-6 month wait going while we wait to hear back from our letter (which we think will get the thumbs up). Makes sense right? I tried doing this 2 months ago (Sending dossier and letter at the same time) but I got a 'no' from the agency). I think they wanted to keep things in a sequential order and we didn't want to loose $6500 if the letter got a thumbs down. However, escorting is still available so we will get a baby either way!!! And the agency really didn't think an answer would take this long.
Lastly, I heard from an adoption friend today that Ethiopia is showing more grace on the 2 parent travel rule than previously feared. So we have that going for us!
So that's the skinny! Good news! I am seriously so happy to be waiting for both at the same time. The thought of waiting for an answer for an unknown amount of time just so you can wait for 4-6 months on top of that to be matched is awful.
So hopefully we hear back officially about our letter soon and then we'll know whether to just wait on our referral (child they match us with) or get paperwork together to have our child escorted when we get matched. Either way, our paperwork will soon be on the desk of someone who will match us with our baby! ...Our baby that we have waited 2 years and 9 months for!
Those of you who pray for us can pray that our dossier arrives safely in Oregon and then Ethiopia and that it falls into the right person's hands there.
Thanks everyone:)
Are you ready for some good news?! I am on cloud 9!
We mailed off our dossier to our agency yesterday! I should arrive in Oregon on Monday and from there go to the orphanage in Ethiopia!!! Then it will fall into the hands of a board member of the SOS EE orphanage who will read over everything about us and match us with a child!
Some of you are thinking you missed an announcement of us getting an answer to our letter to the Ethiopian govt asking if Amos can be excused from court. We have not received an answer yet but I found out some info this week that lead to our decision to send off the dossier without hearing back from our letter.
First of all, our letter went to one of the 3 judges in Ethiopia. He looked over our letter and gave us the thumbs up. However, he wanted to make sure he was correct in his thinking so he sent it to the top judge and there it sits (has been sitting for 6 weeks now). Ethiopia adoption courts are extremely backed up hearing cases and will continue to be until they close down hearings for August and September. Our agency was surprised that our letter didn't get an answer faster but they think it is because the courts are in 5th gear with all the changes happening.
Secondly, we boiled it down to this. If our letter gets a thumbs up, we will send off our dossier and I will travel alone. If our letter gets a thumbs down, we will pay more and wait longer to have our child escorted to the US. Either way, we need to send off our dossier and be matched with a child so I asked (again) if we can just send off our dossier to get that 4-6 month wait going while we wait to hear back from our letter (which we think will get the thumbs up). Makes sense right? I tried doing this 2 months ago (Sending dossier and letter at the same time) but I got a 'no' from the agency). I think they wanted to keep things in a sequential order and we didn't want to loose $6500 if the letter got a thumbs down. However, escorting is still available so we will get a baby either way!!! And the agency really didn't think an answer would take this long.
Lastly, I heard from an adoption friend today that Ethiopia is showing more grace on the 2 parent travel rule than previously feared. So we have that going for us!
So that's the skinny! Good news! I am seriously so happy to be waiting for both at the same time. The thought of waiting for an answer for an unknown amount of time just so you can wait for 4-6 months on top of that to be matched is awful.
So hopefully we hear back officially about our letter soon and then we'll know whether to just wait on our referral (child they match us with) or get paperwork together to have our child escorted when we get matched. Either way, our paperwork will soon be on the desk of someone who will match us with our baby! ...Our baby that we have waited 2 years and 9 months for!
Those of you who pray for us can pray that our dossier arrives safely in Oregon and then Ethiopia and that it falls into the right person's hands there.
Thanks everyone:)
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Moving Along...slowly....
After waiting in limbo for about 2 months (seems MUCH longer) we heard last Friday what we need to do to progress despite Ethiopia's new 2 parent travel rule. We need 4 letters from Amos' doctor explaining his condition and asking permission for a power of attorney to represent him in court because of the dangers of him traveling. We will send one letter ahead and wait for the Minister of Women's Affairs to decide if his excuse is good enough for him to be absent from court. Hopefully they find his medical excuse a good one and allow me to travel alone. If they allow this, we will send off our dossier immediately along with the other letters from Amos' doctor and wait to be matched with a child!
I read somewhere that the wait times for children 0-2 is decreasing. This is good news for us! I hope it's true. Even if it's not true, it gives me hope.
One step at a time. That's all I can do. If I look too far ahead I get discouraged.
For now, the goal is to get Amos' doctors letters off to our agency so they can forward them onto Ethiopia. We have no idea how long it will take them to get back to us. I'm hoping its weeks rather than months but one can never know...
I read somewhere that the wait times for children 0-2 is decreasing. This is good news for us! I hope it's true. Even if it's not true, it gives me hope.
One step at a time. That's all I can do. If I look too far ahead I get discouraged.
For now, the goal is to get Amos' doctors letters off to our agency so they can forward them onto Ethiopia. We have no idea how long it will take them to get back to us. I'm hoping its weeks rather than months but one can never know...
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