Light at the End of the Paperwork Tunnel

James 1:27 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress..."

Hello Readers! I am a bit more upbeat today because we are getting so very close to having all of our dossier paperwork gathered! Amos got his passport photos today and I uploaded our family photos for the dossier to Costco! They are mailing them to me! We are just waiting on a couple things to come in the mail and for our social worker to finish revising our home study! I don't think this should take too long because the bulk of it is done. Let me make this as clear as my guesses can be:

1) Gather and notarize remaining paperwork (a week or so)

2)Get home study (2-3weeks)

3)Apply (again) to CIS (2-4weeks)

4)Get dossier approved and authenticated by Hilary Clinton(2-3weeks)

5)Ship it to Ethiopia! (January?)

6)Hear back about a specific child (2-6 months)

Those are my best guesses based on the agencies paperwork but STUFF always happens.

I feel like the Mrs. Slowsky the Turtle

Hello Readers,
I had to shop in the baby section today for my soon coming baby niece. This is VERY hard to do. I try to avoid that section because it makes me feel sad. One day, I will get to go in the section with our little one and hold up clothes to them to see what colors look good on them and all that but it just seems so far away.
I have a new song that I have been playing in the car. I think it's just called 'Waiting'. The lyrics say "While I'm waiting, I will move ahead bold and confident" and "I will serve you while I'm waiting" and "I will trust you while I 'm waiting...". It's been my anthem lately.
I met with our social worker this week. She needed to come see our new place and ask a couple questions so she can start revising our home study. I'm excited about this but a little disappointed that we'll have to redo most, if not all, of our paperwork because it is over a year old now.
We are supposed to have another phone conference with the agency this week to discuss the dossier... I hope that happens. Our lady is out sick again and I didn't get to confirm our appointment.
That's all for tonight folks:)

Moving Ahead

Hello Readers!
Amos and I had a successful conference call and are now OFFICIALLY working with DOVE International Adoption Agency. We have signed our contract and sent in our first chunk of money.
We meet with our social worker who is going to revise our home study for Ethiopia tomorrow afternoon! I am so thrilled to have her start revising this because it is a HUGE chunk of the dossier. Once we have our home study redone, we just have to get a few other official papers together and reapply for another I-600. The agency says that there is a chance that we may be able to switch our approved I-800 to a I-600...but they aren't sure. I'm expecting that that won't be the case so I don't get disappointed.
We will have another conference call with the agency the week of November 16Th. They will discuss details of compiling our dossier. This will be a great time to ask about some of our paperwork that has already been done.
We are REALLY enjoying working with DOVE. They have been so kind, informative and helpful so far. We feel so taken care of. What a switch!

Fall

It's Fall already. We are moving ahead. What else can we do? If we could hurry it we would. Baby Kallen, we are so ready for you. We're hurrying.
Hugs

Phone Tag

Okay...it's been a bit frustrating...but what's new with adoption eh?
We were supposed to have our phone conference last week with our new agency. Amos rearranged his work schedule, worked an 11 hr day and came home early for the call. I got a call from the agency that morning saying that they had to cancel because the lady signed up for our call was out with the swine flu. We did everything we could to try to get someone else to do the call so we could check that box and move on. It didn't happen. However, we were able to reschedule for this Wednesday so that isn't too bad. I think they tried to get us in early because this application process has been ridiculously slow so far between letters getting lost in the mail, just not arriving, miscommunication and sickness.
I've been thinking lately about the delays...I'm not sure if it's a God thing or darker powers at work. It could be God holding things back to keep us in His timing. Or it could be Satan doing everything in his power to hold us back and frustrate us into giving up. God, if it's you, I put this in your hands. Satan, if it's you, screw you. We aren't giving up.

Plugging Along

Hello Readers,
We have filled out our application for a new adoption agency. With our application we had to give names and addresses of 5 references. All 5 have to be returned before we can move forward. It has been about 3 weeks and they only have 3 of our 5 references. I got tired of trying to track down the missing people so I just called on two friends to write ones FAST and mail them in. I'm hoping the agency received those last two this week and we will get a call for a phone interview this week. I'm also hoping that things start to move along.
I said I wouldn't peak at the Burundi program, but I have. The first family (that has their little guy's photos and such) still has not left to pick him up. Supposedly their paperwork is still in the court system! It looks as though even if we chose a child from Burundi tomorrow, we could be in the same spot 6 months from now because of how SLOW things are moving.
I bought a cute little giraffe at Value Village this week for our little one....It's so hard to wait and wait.
As frustrating as it has been, I have a sense of peace about this switch. I think Amos does too. I really feel as though God has rearranged our adoption and lives so I will be able to take this missions trip to Haiti in February. I think he has something up his sleeve with this trip.
It will be a whirlwind year for us. The Holidays are coming up and then I leave for Haiti in February and then, hopefully, this spring I will travel to Ethiopia to pick up our baby! I'm hoping it goes by quickly!
Keep us and our little one in your prayers please.

Changing Directions

We have big, new news. We are changing gears. Amos and I are so frustrated with our agency and their lack of communication and the way they have been treating us. Something about this Burundi program isn't sitting well with us all. We find it odd that in more than a year they have only found ONE child in need of a family...
Anyway, to fill you in....We are switching to another agency and getting in line for Ethiopia. It's a bit ironic that we were going to adopt from Ethiopia in the first place and then found the Burundi program. I truly believe that things happen for a reason so we aren't looking back. We should receive our new agency application in the mail tomorrow and we will sign with them and hopefully get in a moving line!
Amos and I are feeling at peace with this new decision for a couple reasons:
1)There is a time line. People are bringing home babies from Ethiopia every day.
2)This new agency seems more trust worthy. I know people that have adopted through them and was very timely.
3)Traveling to Ethiopia will be A LOT safer, more economical and easier to plan for.
4)Our child will come from an established orphanage of about 300 children. No shady business.

The process will be a bit more expensive and we do have to switch some things over. It will take a few months to get this all situated but we know there will be a Baby Kallen at the end of the road.
Please join us in prayer!