Movin on up.....

We had such an exciting day today! Not only did Kai & Aria start their new schools and have a great day, but we also got some good news on baby #4. I did my monthly "check in" with the agency, and we've moved up on the list! We are now #2 on the infant girl 0-12months and #4 overall (yes, there have been 4 referrals these past few weeks)! Not only this, but they told me that they were getting information in on several more children and forsee some more referrals coming shortly. WHAT!!!!??? We've only been on the waiting list for 2 months, so I'm just in a little bit of shock with how fast things are progressing. Maybe God wants to complete our family sooner than we thought/planned? (-: I guess we'll wait and see.

A taste of Ethiopia

Dear Baby Girl,


Friday night we ventured out with your brothers and sister, along with another family that are also adopting a little boy from your country, to an authentic Ethiopian restaurant- GoJo's. And let me tell you, it was quite the experience! We were greeted by the owner and his daughter who made the food, ran the restaurant and waited on us. They were SO friendly and very interested in our adoption stories. We were thankful that the restaurant wasn't busy, because let's just say your brothers and sister were not on their best behavior. I'm sure you will be much better behaved(-: Having some new friends to run around with was way more exciting than sitting at the table. And the chalk walls, they were our saving grace.

Our meal was served "family style" on a large platter with the base being Injera bread-your countries main staple. Injera is also used as your utensils, plates, you name it, until our new friends snagged a few forks and we cheated(-: It included lamb, chicken, lentils, collard greens, and so much more-most of which I could not pronounce nor really confidently could make out. The food was quite spicy, and both Mommy & Daddy really liked it. Not sure how well we'll do eating it for 10 days straight, but I'm sure we'll survive! The Ethiopian iced tea was soooo good. It had a few spices in it such as ginger, but not sweet. Just how we like it. When dinner was served, your brother Kai (in which they made a "special kids chicken dish") snubbed his nose and said "EEEWWW! Why did they put mustard (curry)on that chicken? EEEEWWWWYYY" Your sister, who usually repeats what Kai will say even if she doesn't mean it, said "EEWWW! That looks disfusting!" She neither proceeded to try it. And your little brother Becket, well, he was too interested in the getting out of his seat and running around. I do have to say Kai was quite excited to try Injera as he is a total bread lover, but the sourdough taste and spongy, cold, moist texture turned him off quite fast. Thankfully, the Mommies came to the rescue with our typical American junk food. I'm sure some day you'll love that kid food as much as your siblings. We topped off our dinner with the famous "Ethiopian coffee" which was excellent! They are known for their incredible coffee beans, so we are really hoping to take a bunch home! (a few families recently have had problems getting it out of the country-we'll see.)


It was so fun having dinner with our new friends and such a blessing that we will be able to share each other's journey. They have already seen pictures of their little boy (child #3) and will travel to Africa to meet him in October! I have a feeling he's going to be one of your buds(-:


But best of all, we got a glimpse into your world, and we couldn't be more excited. We can't wait for you to be a part of our family...hopefully our next trip to GoJo's will be with you!


Love,

MOM

The Hole in our Gospel

Yes, this is yet another book that I had been hearing more and more about. Our pastor has mentioned it several times, our bible study started a "book discussion" on it, and friends have talked about it. So what did I do being the avid reader I am? I bought it for Luke to read! Well, he started it and left it on the plane. I guess if you're going to leave something behind, this was a good thing. Then, I bought him another copy and he lost it. So finally, I decided to read it myself. And boy did I read it....the entire thing in one afternoon. Yep, I couldn't put it down. It touched my heart so deep that when I finished all I could think was "Yes, Lord! I want that life!" He talks about many things that have resounded with my soul for many years, so it was refreshing to see it presented in such a profound way. I will admit, this whole surrendering my life to be of God's service is a constant struggle for me. Even in between the breaks of reading the book, I would find myself dreaming of buying a cottage on the lake someday or having a new boat. Pretty sad as I was just made aware how much the rest of the world struggles just for their daily necessities, while we sit there and plan for luxury. It really started to provoke my thinking. What does it really mean to live for the kingdom? What does it mean to not live for the things of this world? What would it be like if all of us came together and embraced the "whole gospel"? Accepting the gift of salvation AND living out that faith by meeting the needs of the poor, orphaned, widows, etc. Do I really live and believe this stuff? What if God intended our extras to be used for others rather than luxury for ourselves? What if God provided JUST ENOUGH for us that and he wanted us to be changed in the process of helping the poor instead of keeping the extra for ourselves? Essentially, God has provided a way for those who suffer to suffer no more, but it requires His people to open their hearts to be used as a vessel to meet their needs. Do you know that collectively the body of Christ could end all of the poverty in this world if everyone just did "something"? For us, the magnitude of suffering has seemed so overwhelming. So much so that we often ask ourselves "how do we even begin to fix this?" So instead we do nothing. But, this book has challenged us to start somewhere, even if it is a babystep. I feel in a way this adoption is our "babystep". And selfishly, we'll be given a daughter to love in return(-: As much as I hate to feel that struggle between what my heart wants to do and what I know is right.. I like it too...it just shows me that God isn't finished with me yet, that I have a long way to go, and if he can use and change me, he can change and use anyone! I wanted to pass along this video I ran across the other day that a friend had posted on her adoption blog. Maybe this is yet another "babystep". I have a feeling it's going to be contagious(-:

Ordinary Hero~ A day in the trash dump in Ethiopia from Kelly Putty on Vimeo.

Why?

I'm sure I'll be asking myself this question many more times along the way. Yesterday we received some sad news from our adoption agency. Ethiopia has decided to ban all meetings with a birthfamily for children coming from the South. I can't even begin to tell you how upset I am about this. The fact that our little girl will be denied the chance to know her roots just breaks my heart. Here these babies are usually given up due to the death of their parents (in this case there is usually family members alive, but too poor to care for them) or extreme poverty. So not only are they forced to give their baby away, they will never meet the family that will care for them. I know this will leave a void in all of our hearts. This was such a huge priority when we chose our agency (some don't encourage these meetings). So you may be asking why? Their reasoning is to eliminate coercion/child trafficking, which is huge right now. We knew this was inevitable and we're happy they are taking precaution. And unfortunately a few adoptive parents have compromised this by entering into a meeting, becoming so overwhelmed emotionally and offering to give that mother money to keep the baby and raise them herself. Obviously, this is against the law. I know this new procedure doesn't hit home to as many adoptive parents as you'd think. Surprisingly, many that I've talked to actually prefer the "closed adoption" route to eliminate the fear of losing that child someday to their birthfamily. I really don't understand that logic and frankly think it's a bit selfish. Yes, that's a bold statement, and maybe I would change my mind someday if faced with that situation. But I could get on a soapbox explaining all of the benefits of having this small bit of information/pictures as they grow up.

The good news is that the door is not completely closed. Children that originate from the orphanages in Addis Ababa are not yet under that new stipulation. So if our baby originates from Addis, we may be given the opportunity to meet the family. I just have to keep reminding myself that while I look at this as a huge setback in all of our lives, God knows the future and what it holds. He has a purpose for every circumstance and we just have to trust that.

Some fun stats....

So today we got word where we fall on the "list" and an approximate timeframe before we see the face of our precious baby girl. Which by the way, Luke thinks she was born on June 30th or July 1st! Don't ask me why, he just had that feeling. Anyways, here's what we were told in a nutshell. There have been SO many referrals lately, and things are moving along very fast. We are overall #10 on the waiting list for everyone adopting from Ethiopia through Adoption Associates. Out of the nine families ahead of us, there are 2 waiting for infant girls 0-12 months, 5 waiting for either gender and 2 waiting for over age 1. If there are a slew of boys, that puts us at #3 on the list! As far as an approx timeframe, they are very careful giving these out. Max wait time is 10-12 months (as originally told), but the director feels it will be closer to 4-8 months. I'm not sure if this is good, fast, etc because we've never done this before, but it brings me to tears thinking that by early next year, we could be meeting this little baby that was made for our family! Please join us in praying for all of these children that are sitting in orphanages waiting for their forever family. May the Lord unite each of them to the families he has planned for them very soon.

Dossier Sent!

I really can't believe that today is the day...a HUGE milestone in our process. Today is the day our dossier is being sent to Ethiopia. On 6/28 I overnighted all the documents to an organization called The Assistant Stork. They are a courier service that hand delivers your documents to the Dept of State and The Ethiopian Embassy and gets them all authenticated. This process typically takes a few weeks. On Monday (a week later) I decided I would pull up the tracking #'s just to see where they were and found out they were delivered to our agency the prior Friday, July 2nd! So in 1.5 days, Assistant Stork got everything authenticated and back to our agency. I was blown away. If you're going through the adoption process and need a courier service, I highly recommend them! So Adoption Associates did what they needed to do on their end to prepare them some more and shipped everything off to ET today! This means we are officially "in waiting" for our baby girl! I really can't believe how quick and smooth this process has gone so far...maybe it's a sign of what is yet to come??(-:
Ps. Check back for a pic of all those documents(-: They involved so much work that I had to take a picture-haha!

Got the Golden Ticket!!!!

On Friday just minutes before we headed off for a weekend of camping with the kiddos, we got our mail and found our "Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition" -In clearer terms, we were approved by US Citizenship & Immigration Services to adopt a baby from Ethiopia! So this means tomorrow a.m. I will anxiously run off to get this approval notarized, head over to the Office of the Great Seal to get ALL of our dossier documents "sealed", stop off at 5/3rd and pick up a money order, write a few checks, head to the Postal Connection to make copies and at last overnight ALL of our dossier paperwork to "The Assistant Stork" which is a courier service that will hand carry our documents to the Dept of State to be authenticated, then onto the Ethiopian Embassy to be authenticated, then back to Adoption Associates, who will then turn around and submit our COMPLETED dossier to Ethiopia. We will then officially be put on the waiting list (10-12months) for our baby girl! Whew! Did I loose you in there? I'm sure I'll have to go back through my list in the morning. Anyways, in short, we're one step closer to meeting baby Nieuwenhuis and we couldn't be more excited!