Homestudy is complete!

Today is the last doctors appointment..."Z" goes for his medical. Then we send it off in the mail and the only other thing to wait for is the FBI fingerprints and they take 2-3 months and we did that a month ago so we are going to pray that it is 2 months for us! We are also finishing up the dossier paperwork and agency on line training and should be done with all of that in the next couple of weeks. Then it all goes to the agency, then to Washington, D.C. and then to Ethiopia and the real wait begins for a match for what we are looking for! Thanks for praying for us! Please keep praying for things to sell that will help pay for this whole process!

Deep into the Dossier

A new term to learn...what is a dossier? It is all of the international paperwork that goes into this process. Once we finish this it all goes to the agency and then it all heads out to Ethiopia...unbelievable. We are really getting close to the official waiting process, where we wait for Ethiopia to submit to us the child/children whom they think will fit our "criteria", which is really the Lord's criteria. And I mean wait! I turned the radio on today, in the 2 minutes it takes to pick up the kids, and heard on the radio a lady talking about adoption. The next thing she says is how amazing it is, (she works for an agency), to be a witness to how God can bring a child to their waiting family, in what seems to be such a random experience and journey all across the world. It is far from random. Then I read a verse today that is now posted permanently on the blog on the upper right in bright red "I feel hopeless and I cry out to you from a faraway land". Psalm 61:2. I know God is leading us in this direction and although not everyone will share our passion or understand what God is doing in our lives, it is exciting that God chose us to be parents to a child who needs desperately to be rescued. ( 2 Samuel 22:20 He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.)

I didn't sub today, so I cleaned, ran errands, visited a friend on her birthday :) and then spent a bunch of time this afternoon really looking hard at what is required as I dug into the Dossier paperwork. Lots of notorizing, but "T" helped me out today so so much, by talking to a friend who is a notary, and will graciously do it all for no charge if we go to her. That is so awesome! So I will keep plugging away at it. It is a lot of paperwork, but nothing to complain about in the grand scheme of things. Sometimes people ask me why we should have to do all of this, pay all of this money, go to all of this work, to which I say, you know what? I don't mind. I know the humanitarian work this agency does with some of the money. I completely support that. They are the most affordable agency around actually. And of course we want the children being adopted to go to good stable families. We did it for "J" and we'll go do it for this child/children. No questions asked.

"M" and I were talking today about what it might be like for her to have a sister and I said, maybe you can help us choose a name. She said, you mean we can do that? I said, sure. We might change their Ethiopian name to sound more American, but some of their names are just beautiful so we might not, we'll have to wait and see. She said, well, if we do, we need to see them first because they might not look like the name we think is right at first. I said, you are exactly right! We'll wait until we see them! I can't wait for that day.

Final Homestudy Appointment

Well, "M" enjoyed riding his motorcycle to "R" to try to make his appointment more fun! He walked in there with his helmet and motorcycle jacket...I'm sure some judgments were formed quickly! However, his appointment went well and now with a few loose ends of paperwork to tie up for them, we're almost finished with everything that they need and now we wait for the two months for the fingerprinting to be analyzed. Now we will begin with our international paperwork and hopefully we'll be finished in a month or two with all the things we can do and then it all goes off to Ethiopia. Then the real wait of many months begins. That will be the much harder part than all this paperwork I'm sure!

2nd to last homestudy appointment

Four down, one to go! I'm done actually! Got the TB test done yesterday, biometric fingerprinting done today as well as my life's social history! And I delivered MUCH paperwork to the caseworker in "R", and still forgot a couple things, several actually, but "M" can deliver them when he goes friday for his final appointment. Then we wait for over two months for the fingerprinting analysis and then it's officially completed. Now we work on our Dossier, which is all the international paperwork that is to be done. LOTS of notorizing! But it's getting there and we're a fair chunk (not a great word) of the way into the process, with a fair chunk of money out too. Please keep praying for the sale of various motorcycles and vehicles to pay for this process. We know God will provide and have already seen His leading through this!

Interview with the kids...

Yesterday our caseworker came to interview the kids about this whole process. Honestly I was pretty nervous. I didn't know what she would ask, nor did I know what they would say! But each of the kids' interviews took just minutes and the questions were very simple and basic. She wanted to know basic information like birthdays, school age, interests..and then just what they thought of this whole process and how they might help children adjust to our family. We've actually talked about doing a project together on Ethiopia to learn more about their culture, food and other things like that. They seem interested in that so that might be a good summer activity. Thanks for prayers again! Now please pray for things "M" is working on, like vehicles and motorcycles, to sell, to pay for all of this! Thank you!

Training Day

Today we had a training day with our homestudy caseworker. She came to our home with her laptop and we watched a powerpoint presentation, did a few exercises with her and discussed various things that will come up through this process, or things that may or may not come up. It was actually very interesting. She said she'd be here from 9 to 3 and she was done by noon. We'll take it! I know I don't post much but I can only do that when there are things to write about. She comes back thursday to talk to the kids about what they think about all of this! Good thing they've had six months to think about it, almost anyway! They'll do great. Thanks for praying with us!

First Home Study Appointment

Oh hurry up and wait right? We had our first appointment today. The social worker for our case came to us which saved us so much time, instead of having to go to "R"! She says she'll come here every time if we want her too! It was a pretty easy appointment really. Just getting basic information from us and checking out to see if the house was suitable, which she says is! We just have to turn down our water heater a bit. If only this whole process was that simple! Now the MAJOR mountain of paperwork begins. I mean MOUNTAIN! The agency is apparently sending us the dossier packet today which is the international paperwork. Just as much if not more I'm sure! We have to get fingerprinted, and that's not easy to even find a place close that does it. "F" has one location but they only do it once a month. The fingerprints apparently take 2-3 months to process for the FBI and that is what will keep the whole homestudy from being completed. So we hurry up and wait as I said. We can pray that things will move along quickly though, and we will do that. Then we have to all get medicals and "M" and I have to get TB tests. Oh the fun!! But we are quite excited that we are finally actually doing something!