I600A sent in

We sent in our I600A application on Thursday. For those of you that don't know, this is an application to get pre-approval for a visa for our children. After they receive our application, they will schedule fingerprints with the FBI. Then after we get all the results back, we can send in our dossier documents and get on the waiting list!!!! Yesterday we also went the local police station and got our background clearance letters. This week we also got some shots and a couple tests done for our physical. We will finish our physical next week.
Last night Brad grabbed my hand and said "I can't wait until our children get here!" It melted me!! We both are so excited and anxious to meet our children and be the family that God has created for us!
Thank you so much to all the people that have been and will continue to pray for us. It really means alot to us that we aren't doing this alone. God is good!!!

Being Faithful

This process has already begun to show us how God will provide for our needs. There have been many new opportunities arise that will allow us to make a little extra money. We are so thankful that we have God looking out for us and meeting our needs. Last week we found out that we need to have a pretty detailed physical done with a lot of blood work. Since we both work in the school district we have the same insurance that doesn't cover any wellness or checkups, so it's going to be over $1200 each. This was not something we were expecting. But then last night Brad and a friend got the opportunity to start to help fix up a house for a little extra money. When we left our friends house, I told Brad, "isn't it amazing how God is opening all these doors for us?" He told me, "I have no problem trusting in God to provide for us. I know He will open all kinds of doors." I am so thankful to be married to such a faithful man and have such a faithful Lord!!
We have another meeting with the social worker tonight. We need to complete some more of the training. Hopefully she can make sure our I-600A looks good and we can send that off tomorrow. Then we can just wait to get that back and get all the papers ready for our dossier and send it to Ethiopia. We are hoping to have that all done by the beginning of May. We will see!! Yesterday we got an email from AWAA and the wait times have moved up a little, so there is a small chance that we could have our child or children by next winter!!! We are getting more and more excited with everything that is completed and can't wait to meet our children!!

Hurry and Wait

I feel like this whole process is about hurrying up and waiting. We had another meeting with our social worker tonight and we were able to complete all the paperwork she needed, except turn in our physical. We can't get into our doctor until mid-Feb. But other things are being processed in the mean time. She also told us that it will take up to 8 weeks to get our foster care license back. So she is almost done with all her part of the homestudy, but we have to wait for the foster license to complete the process. Tonight we were able to give the tour of the house. We have heard horror stories about these, and it was no big deal at all. So we had to hurry up and fill out all the paperwork, collect documents, and get fingerprinted and now have to wait 8 weeks. Yuck. Also we have to wait to get our passports to be able to turn in the I-600 documents, so it could be up to 3 months to get our passports, and then up to 3 months to get the I-600 approval. Ugh.
Brad said this process is really going to test our patiences. For those of you that know us, you know that neither of us are really that patient. We like to get things done, not wait for them. God will really be working on us throughout this process. Please pray for patience for us!!

Shirts for Shoes

I found this link yesterday, and I thought I'd share it with you too! Here's a link to a Valentine's Day initiative called "Shirts for Shoes". Each shirt sold will provide a pair of shoes and a shirt for an orphan in Ethiopia.

Kari Gibson's "Simply Love" and HopeChest have gone in on this project together to share love in Ethiopia. These children simply need love and we can help by giving them a new pair of shoes and a new shirt.

Here's the link:
http://mycrazyadoption.org/hopechest-valentines-day-project-ethiopia-shirts-for-shoes

Let's make a difference together for the orphans in Ethiopia!!

Busy Week

I feel like we've had a busy, productive, and exciting week. This week we had our first meeting with our social worker to start the homestudy process, we got fingered printed for DCFS, listened in on a conference call from Ethiopia, got assigned a family coordinator at AWAA, filled out lots and lots of paperwork for the homestudy, and got all the paperwork to start on the dossier process. Tomorrow we are getting all the pets their shots to prove they are up-to-date.
It's so interesting to hear everyone's reaction to find out that we are adopting. Some people are so excited and treat it just as if we said we were pregnant and going to have a biological child, and others wonder why we are doing it. We've been asked many times why we haven't gone to a fertility clinic and then they say it's nice of us to adopt. It's so not about us. We truly feel God is wanting to start our family through the gift of adoption. Some people talk about adoption as their paper pregnancy. I can see what they mean, because this is an exciting time and there is always something to look forward to. Everyday we get to do something that gets us closer to our child. Some days we get to fill out papers, take a class, meet with someone, and somedays we get to pray for our child and pray for guidance and wisdom during this whole process and just get to dream about the future with our children. I feel that Brad and I are definitely growing closer to eachother and learning how to rely on eachother and God in a whole new way. This is an exciting journey that God is letting us take and leading us on and He is teaching us to trust in Him to provide for us through this. It's easy to have hundreds of reasons not to adopt- we don't have the money, it's going to be hard, it's going to take a long time. But there are better reasons for us to adopt-God has called us to and He will provide for all of our needs.

1st Meeting

We had our first meeting with our social worker tonight. She gave us the largest pile of papers to sign and fill out. We know what we will be doing for the next week. We are being optimistic and planned our next meeting for next Tuesday, so we have to get it all done by then! The first thing that has to be done is filling out papers to become licensed foster parents. This is a requirement to adopt. There are so many questions to fill out, but it's interesting to see what we will learn about ourselves and eachother during this process. Next we have to get copies made of all these different forms; birth certificates, marriage license, etc. We also have to make plans to go get fingerprinted soon. It's exciting to know we have something to work on and that we can accomplish something, even if its one paper at a time.
Thank you for all the continued prayers, there are a lot of things that need to fall into place during this process, and it won't be done without God's hand in it all!!!

Ethiopian Facts

We have both been trying to read as much as we can about Ethiopia. Some of the facts we are reading, just break our hearts. We so want to be able to help these children, and we are starting by adopting one and making them a part of our forever family. I hope we can find other ways to try and help all the other children over there too. God calls us to help all those that are in need, and we hope that we can let God's love shine in all areas of our lives. With both of us being in the school system, we try every to love all the students the same way God loves us- unconditionally! We are so excited to have our own children to share God's love with too!! Thanks for all the kind words and prayers we have been receiving. We couldn't do it without all the love and support.

Some facts from Ethiopia
*Ethiopia is about twice the size of Texas, and there are over 4.3 million orphans.
*Between 60-150 million children live on the streets.
*1 in 6 children die before their 5th birthday.
*1 in 10 children die before their 1st birthday.
*1 out of 3 people are HIV+, the average life expectancy is 37.
*Half the children will never attend school, 88% won't attend high school.
*82% of the population survives on less than $1 a day.
*24% of the population has access to safe drinking water.
*There is one doctor for every 24,000 children.
*Children and family are very important and are highly honored.
*Half of the population have Christian beliefs.

Please continue to pray for our future child(ren) and his/her birth mother and all of these other children in Ethiopia!

Snow Day

We got a lot accomplished on our snow day today! We got about 8 inches of snow and decided to take advantage of our day off of work. It always feels so good to check things off the list. After spending most of the day on the phone and computer, we picked a social worker to do our homestudy (thanks Melanie). We will meet with her on Tuesday, to get that process started. We also applied for our passports today. Brad has been working hard all night to design a magnet to give out to friends and family that are supporting us. His grandparents make buttons and button magnets, so they are helping us too! God is good and knows we can't do this all on our own! It's amazing the people He puts in your life to help you with whatever you need.

Accepted

Today I received a call from America World Adoption Agency and they told us we that had been accepted into their program and that we may continue with the next step. So we need to file a few more papers and send in our first payment and we will get assigned a Family Coordinator that will help us for the rest of the process. Then our next step is trying to figure out how we are going to fundraise. We are trusting that God will help open some doors.

Just Starting

We are so excited about starting the adoption process. We are in the beginning stages of the process. We have turned in our application to American World Adoption Agency and are awaiting the approval to move forward. We really appreciate all the prayers from our family and friends. We can't wait to bring a child (or two!) into our family.
For as long as I can remember Brad and I have talked about adopting. We didn't know when or from where, but it has been something that has been on our hearts for a long time. At the end of summer we decided we would start the process soon. We got a slow start during tennis and volleyball season, but after our seasons were over, we started looking into our adoption options (and there are too many). We also have talked to some friends that have gone through the adoption process and received some valuable advice.
When Brad started doing some research this past fall he kept telling me that he was drawn to Ethiopia. After doing some of my own research, and lots of praying, we have decided to adopt from Ethiopia. God has truly blessed our lives and we are excited to share our lives and God's love with a child. We plan to update this blog with our progress and news as we go on this journey. We rest assured that God will be with us each step of the way!