Adoption Update!

Hi there!! I just wanted to pop in and give an update on our Ethiopian adoption!! YES we are still adopting. We had a scare last month with the possibility of Ethiopia shutting down international adoption, but after much prayer and fasting our God gave us favor and the country is STILL OPEN! YAY! So here we are almost 2 years on the DTE list and still very far from getting our referral. I have no idea when we will get our phone call, but I do know the wait time is continually increasing. If you remember when we started this process back in 2011 (yes, you read that right ELEVEN), the referral  wait time was 10-15 months. We are closing in on waiting 24 months in March. The "official" wait time I heard was increasing to 36-42 months. The last family that received a referral for an infant boy waited for 34 months. SOOOO where does that leave us? Well, we are just buckling in and waiting it out! I don't know what God has in store for our family, but I do know that he blessed me with a beautiful baby girl and I am just enjoying her to the fullest while we wait to see what is next!!!

 

We were #47 on the list in August, then we went the wrong way to 49, now we are back to 47. Whew. This crazy adoption. 

2 Years later

August 2011.

That is when we started this adoption process.

Wow! How things have changed! I would have never imagined we would still be so far away from a referral at this time, but I know God has a plan for our little family and specifically this little adoption. We are still in the waiting phase, and in the waiting comes expired documents. The last few weeks we have been renewing documents like crazzzzzzzy. It was very reminiscent of our first home study. We had to get updated physicals. Jovie up to date on her vaccines. The house in good shape. In home Home Study interview. These were all a little tricker with a 7 1/2 month old baby this time, but we got them accomplished! We are very grateful for our family members that helped us with appointments! Couldn't have done it with out their help.

So what's next?

Well we are currently holding strong at 47 on the wait list. I believe we are good on our paperwork until this time next year. *Hopefully* we will be close to a referral by this time next year!

Fingerprints: The Sequel

This story will keep you on the end of your seat! Our renewal biometrics appointment did not go anything like the first time. Lets start at the beginning.

We got an email from our Family Coordinator that we needed to have our fingerprints renewed. I finally got around to sending in our application (paperwork just is not as fun the second time around), and we got our appointment for a Friday in April. First problem. We already had plans the Friday before that to go see our friends adoption in a different city. Meaning Ryan already took of work, so we couldn't do the original date. No big deal right? Just call for a new appointment?...Nope. You have to mail back in the original form then wait for a new appointment. Awesome. So the wait begins...

A few weeks later I got a letter from USCIS with just *my* appointment. It was in the middle of the week in May in the middle of the day. All I could think was great. How am I going to pull that off with the baby and where the heck is Ryan appointment letter? I started second guessing if I even mailed off his reschedule form! Thankfully a few days later we got Ryan's form and his was the day AFTER my appointment! Uhhh...Two trips to Houston?? Well this is the first God moment. We remembered that Ryan had a work trip in May in Houston...Yes. It was the same week!! What a relief! Ryan doesn't have to miss work, and I don't have to go alone with Adelyn!

We head off to Houston and notice that our hotel is literally 1.5 miles from the biometrics place! Whatttt???? That was sooo God because obviously He knew how much I was dreading driving in Houston with Adelyn. (Ryan had to stay at his conference for my appointment). Here are the thoughts going on in my head...It really could not have been playing out any more perfectly. God must really want us to be doing the adoption! He couldn't possibly been more present in this situation...

Dunnn Dunnn Dunn...

Long story short: We get to the hotel, start to check in a realize we were at the WRONG hotel. OUR hotel is about 40 miles away. Awwwwwwwwwesome...

You would think the story ends there right? We just have to drive about 45 minutes to get to our appointment. Well that would be right, except when I get to my appointment after Adelyn screamed 90% of the way I forgot my ID...Yep.

You can't get your fingerprints without an ID. I cried. The super wonderful nice supervisor was so kind and told me to just come back the next day with Ryan and get them done together.

Very long story all to say that we got the fingerprints done together at Ryan's original appointment and it all worked out okay!

Fifty Seven

 

Adoption Update:
We are currently at number 57 on the unofficial wait list. Slow is the name of this game, but I would be lying if I said I was ready to be at the top! We are still adjusting to life around here with a new baby.

 

We are rounding out the first year of waiting. What a year it turned out to be! In March we will be DTE for a year. That means we have some documents that are starting to expire and we need to update them. First on that list would be our Biometrics (AKA Fingerprints). We have to do lots of awesome paperwork to get a new appointment and get them redone. I have heard before that paperwork is no fun the second time around and now I understand. It was giddy and exciting a year ago, now...not so much. Oh well! It's what has to be done to get us to our Isaiah!

 

 

Adoption Update

 

I've given lots of pregnancy updates lately, but not so many adoption updates. Honestly, this is because there hasn't been much to update. I checked all the referral summaries last night and there has only been FOUR referrals for children UNDER FOUR since August. I had noticed things seemed slow on the referral side through the message board, but I didn't realize it was that slow. My heart hurts for the children that are ready to be part of families, but are stuck behind the legal tape. I am, however, glad that our agency does everything necessary to ensure ethically correct adoptions.  My prayer is that the governments will start moving at a miraculous speed and help bring these babies home! I also hurt for the families that are about to spend another holiday season without haivng or seeing their precious childrens faces. It will be a rough one for them I am sure, but they will hold fast to the promises of God and remember that He is good and has good plans for their families.

Six Months

Today we have been DTE for six months!

 

 

 Movement on the referral side has seemed almost nonexistant lately; however, the court dates and embassy appointments seem to be flooding in! Ethiopia has been hit pretty hard recently with some difficult situations. Their Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi passed away in August. Please pray for the country and for the adoption process!!

 

4x4=16

Yesterday was our four month DTE date! Today, I am 16 weeks pregnant!

Last night as I was going to bed, I was thinking about what having children does to Ryan and I. I was thinking about what a real unbreakable connection we will have for the rest of our lives. I mean I know that marriage gives you that, but I feel like with children it secures the bond. I felt this strong like excitement and peace about the connection. There is (obviously) noone else I would rather take this journey with. Ryan is just the best and I can't believe how lucky I am.

I wish they would do a 25 & Pregnant, or even a Married & Expecting season on MTV to show those girls what life CAN be like if you wait to have kids. I mean there would still be some drama, hormones are all over the place, but the underlying message of the show would be love.

\

We moved A LOT the last month! Praise God!!

This was about 2 weeks ago...Around Week 14

Pregnant and Adopting...

How does the pregnancy affect the adoption?? I have got this question a lot, which I love!! I love that people care to know about our adoption, so feel free to ask anything about it!

When we first started the adoption process we had to sign a waiver with our agency that stated if we got pregnant, we would withdraw from the adoption process. This scared us off and we both decided to focus only on growing our family through adoption. After a couple of months we felt like God would be the ultimate decider in how our family was grown so we left all options open again. A few days before we became DTE we got an update from our agency saying that due to the increased wait time they were allowing concurrent family building plans (CFB plan). This meant that you were allowed to pursue multiple adoptions or grow your family via pregnancy. Lucky for us! At the time, I was excited at the possibility of whatever foster care would bring at us. Little did I know...

After we found out about being pregnant, I waited to tell our agency until we heard the baby's heartbeat. Once we had the ultrasound done, I sent away our updated CFB plan.

Back the original question. How does this affect the adoption? We are placed on "hold" for any referrals until our bio baby is 6 months old. However, we still move up on the wait list like normal. We just cannot receive a referral until he/she is 6 months old.
(A referral is being matched with our Ethiopian baby!)

This doesn't really change anything for us! This bio baby will be 6 months around the time we will have been waiting for 15-16 months. If you remember the current wait time for the adoption is 18-24 months. Looks like perfect timing if you ask me!!

After we receive the referral we will have to go to Ethiopia to meet the baby and appear in court to become his legal parents :) Yah! Then we will return home and wait for him to get his visa to travel legally to the USA! After he receives his updated visa we will return to Ethiopia and bring him home to join our family!!

  If all goes according the the current time lines we could be a family of four around March 2014!

*Eleven weeks!* 

*80 on the wait list!*

Real life Y'all.

Yesterday was a reality check for me. I had two different occasions when I was hit in the face with the real life reasons we are pursuing adoption. My first experience was with a girl we will call "R". R's mother considered given her up for adoption. R is now a young teenager living a life far from happy. She constantly gets moved around to different family members that are in her words "not right". She has no security and is expected to focus at school? R told me she wished we would have been adopted because her life is so bad. Y'all...break my heart! It took everything inside of me change our age range up to 13!! As if R's story wasn't enough. I met another girl last night, we will call her "B". B has been in and out of the foster care system since she was 8. B has a loving foster mother now and from the outside looks like she is thriving. B hasn't had it easy. Im sure she has a lot of hurt inside of her, but she is safe and receiving the love she deserves.

It was just a very real day yesterday. I had been having some confusing thoughts as to why the heck I am adopting a baby, and last night God reminded me why. There are real kids out there that need loving, stable families. I have love ready to pour out and engulf a child. I know that I can provide a secure, stable family for a child that would otherwise get lost in the "system". These kids are real that need families. They are real.

I am not sure I have ever felt more sure of our adoption decision than I do today. Ryan and I are called to do this and I can't imagine passing it up.

If you feel even the slightest tug at your heart while reading this, please look deeper at that tug. That is the pull of God starting something in your life that you don't want to miss! I would love to talk more to you if you need some advice! You can email me at Arin19@aol.com

Delivered!

Our dossier has been delivered to Ethiopia. Yep. Pretty excited! Doesn’t mean anything, just good to know it made the long trip!
We are “unofficially” number 83 on the ever increasing and ever slowing wait list.
We got some bad news the day before we were DTE. Our agency increased the wait time to 18-24, just to get a referral (matched with a baby). This was definitely not expected, but it should have been. Things are just slowing down. We pray )and would love for you to pray) that things would miraculously speed up. It’s all in God’s timing.
What does that look like for our family? Well it looks like it will be a long time before we have our Ethiopian baby here. That’s about all I know. I am okay though, I know God has a plan for our lives and He will give us a baby when we are ready.
On a lighter note, I will be attending the Created 4 Care retreat this weekend! I am soooooo excited. I get to see some bloggers that I have been following for a long time, meet other adoptive mommies, worship with those mommies our Creator, and relax! What could be better??
Here are some pictures from the last few days…


A Pig Roast (yes they had a literally PIG) Luau.

My first time to wakeboard! I was up just long enough for a picture!!

What an excellent day!!
My week has been amazing. Probably one of the best weeks I have had in a long time. I am overflowing with joy from having Jesus in my heart!! I hope you all do to and know the awesomeness I am feeling right now. Have a great weekend!!

DTE!

Today is our day!!! We are officially DTE!

What's next?? Well we are at the waiting stage! We just wait for the sweet baby that God has for us. The wait time is really long right now, but not something we are focusing on. God has a plan for us and His timing is perfect, so we are resting in that! This day is super important because it means we are ready. Any day, any time we could get a referral. Let the wait begin!!!

Oh my soul!

My soul is so blessed this week. I am forced to be grateful and content with the present. I want to say "I can't wait for Friday" because I am anxious of our DTE date! However, if I wish away this week then I will wish away my Spring Break! So here I am. Happy with the present!

We received a pleasant early surprise yesterday in the mail. The White Flags: Passion CD was delivered early! I didn't even know we ordered it, so I was super surprised and excited! Needless to say it has been on repeat since about 3:00 yesterday.

I have started looking a little more seriously at designs for our baby's nursery. I have several themes running around. I just need to pick something and run with it! As I was looking around on Lay Baby Lay, I came across a ministry that makes my heart explode.

Mwana- "At Mwana, our vision is to make a difference for the children of Africa. A visit to the small village of Mgyawi in Malawi, Africa identified a specific need of its children—to receive shelter from the cold night. We are impassioned to help. You can too. For each Mwana blanket purchased, an additional blanket will be personally delivered to a child in need in Africa. Make a difference. Share Warmth."- Mwana Share Warmth.

They have the cutest blankets and when you buy one, you give one! Perfect.

Dossier Received!

Dossier Received! What a much anticipated subject line in my inbox! I literally can't stop smiling! Our dossier made it safe and sound to America World in Virginia. I was told that our anticipated DTE will be next Friday! March 16th,2012. This is the date that we will determine our spot on the ever increasing wait list.
I still have a little anticipation about actually being officially DTE. I am continuing to pray that next Friday is in fact our date. I can't believe we are finished!! It is so weird to be done with the paperchase. It is all out of our hands. Ahhh!!
Here are some pictures to document this emotional/dramatic week in our adoption!!

We didn’t get to go mail it off together, but we had some fun the night before!
 

Before: Compiled Dossier, After: Tracking receipt!  

Woohoo!!

What a wonderful day!!

Adoption Monday!

We had an exciting weekend filled with adoption events!! We started the weekend early on Saturday morning with the Together For Them conference in Katy, TX. If you are adopting or considering adopting you don't want to miss this! The worship was great, the breakout sessions were awesome, and the food was amazing!! It is $10 a FAMILY, yes you read that correct a family! (If you have children, they have child care all day!)  This was a steal. We had breakfast (donuts!), main session, three breakout sessions, lunch (Chic Fil A), and a discussion panel. They had tons of yummy snacks for free, super cheap resources, and children's adoption focused books. It was great!

Ryan and I went to a behavioral, African hair care, and transgender adoption: does my skin color matter?, break outs. They were really fun and personal.

After the conference we met up with my brothers and my cousin for dinner at Cyclone Anayas. It was really yummy and we had a great time catching up with the boys!

Sunday we met up with my oldest little brother and went to Houston's First Baptist Church, then we ate at Chipotle. Next up, we were suppose to go shopping. We made it to Z Gallerie and West Elm, and bought a few things. I was really banking finding some great deals at IKEA.  However, on our way to IKEA we noticed Ryan's face was starting to get blotchy. He was obviously having some sort of minor allergic reaction to something. So we detoured to a pharmacy to get some meds and went back to the hotel and took a nap instead of my IKEA trip. Bummer, but I didn't mind the nap! We finished the night with a date to see Safe House.

Monday was the main reason for the trip (aside from the conference). We had our fingerprint appointment!! Yahh! It took about an hour of waiting and filling out forms, but only about 5 minutes total for the fingerprints.

Then came home and made copies of all our dossier paperwork!! (If your local I would recommend Master Copier on Nederland Ave. They were super friendly!)  Woohoo! Once we get the form back from the fingerprints we are ready to mail off the big DOSSIER!!!

Overall, a fun weekend with a lot accomplished!

Adoption Update!

I resent our I600A on Thursday. We mailed off our Dossier cover letter and Power of Attorney letter to get certified on Friday. We are officially just waiting for papers to be returned! There is nothing else that I know of to do except wait for papers to be returned! Come oooooooooon fingerprints....

Signs of progress...

This weekend was my birthday weekend and it ended with a bang! We got our Home Study Report in on Saturday!!! I was soooooooooo excited! We had been waiting a day shy of 9 weeks. Soo what next??

We were waiting for the report so we could turn in our I600A application. I mailed that off today (guaranteed to be delivered by 10:30 tomorrow!)! Yippeee! Now we wait for the US Deptartment of Security to send us our "Biometrics" appointment. Otherwise known as our fingerprinting appointment. After we have that appointment they will send us another form called an I-171H. Once we get this document we are ready to turn in our dossier!!To say I am excited would be an understatement. I am really excited to almost be waiting. As funny as that sounds!

What's new...

It has been awhile since I have given a paperchase update. We are getting oh so close to having our home study report! It has been approved by us, and the last update I heard was it is getting sent to our social worker. I am not really sure how much more has to be done, but I know we are close! Once we get that I will quickly turn in our 1-600A application. I have been getting lots of back and forth emails about our home study getting passed along, just waiting for that email saying its time to apply!! I doubt I will make my timeline goal of my birthday (next Thursday) to submit our dossier, but I am strangely okay with that. My goal was looking more and more unrealistic as it took so long to get my homestudy papers ready. So my new *wishful thinking* goal is to have a February DTE, but I am realistically (blah) thinking March.