USCIS Appointment

We got home tonight from Colorado to find a lovely letter waiting in our mailbox. Over the weekend we got our letter from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office with our appointment to be fingerprinted, yet again! Our appointment is listed as any Wednesday between 8:15 to 3:00 pm in the next 84 days. It is great to live in Kansas where somethings are a little more laid back, and can be planned for. We thought we would get an appointment for a specific day and time. This was so much nicer!!!

Answering Questions

Ok, so now I am going to take the time to answer the questions that people have been asking me about the adoption process. To do so, I am just going to explain the adooption process and how it has proceeded for us...

Step 1: Pick agency and apply. Dan and I chose to use All God's Children International for our adoption. We had researched numerous agencies, and felt at peace with this decision. We were already leaning toward adopting from Ethiopia, and the information from them solidified the decision. So, then we sent in the pre-application online. We got a call from a wonderfully nice lady at AGCI asking for some more supporting documentation before we submit our official application to see if Dan's cancer history was going to be an issue. So, we immediately contact CHOA (the cancer docs) and request a letter. We also had to write a couple letters ourselves and got those done the same day and turned in. Well, approx. 6 weeks later, we finally get the CHOA letter. Our first test in patience. Once they get the letters, they contact their people in Ethiopia, and talk to them about it, finding out that the cancer stuff shouldn't be a problem, so now we send in our formal application. We fill that out and send it in immediately. Patience tester #2... They request more financial information. After sending in tons of info, they request that we save up and get approx. $10,000 in the bank prior to officially being accepted. This was on a Wednesday at noon. So, Dan and I are in a mix of panic and prayer at this point. That night at church dinner, we get a phone call (answer from God) from a close friend, who is just checking in to see where the adoption is at and what all is going on, so, we explain the needing $10,000 and they automatically say "It will be in the mail tomorrow." What an amazing thing. They also wanted to let us know this was a gift to us, we did not need to stress repaying. What an awesome God we serve. So, we turn around and immediately leave a voicemail for the lady at AGCI and send her an email as well. She calls us the next day, excited for us, saying that she was telling others in her office the awesome story of God's provision and that we are officially accepted and our contracts would be in the mail. So yeah!!! We are officially in the process of adopting. To put this into perspective, we sent in the initial app. Dec 19, 2008 and did not get officiallly accepted until March 2, 2009. So, in essence, it took us 2 1/2 months to be able to start the adoption. We are sure of God's direction in this adoption, and even through the trials, it's fun to see His hand in it all.

Step 2: Contracts. We received contracts in the mail a couple days later. There was an orientation call, going over the contracts, answering any questions we may have had and what not. We quickly signed and notarized all the contracts and overnighted them as of March 12.

Somewhere in this process (usually early application time or even before officially applying), you need to start your homestudy. This is something we had to wait on until we were offically accepted by AGCI, not knowing if we would be able to adopt or not we didn't want to put out all the money for it and then not get accepted. SO, the HOMESTUDY! Scary thing for many. We really weren't all that worried about it. We had previously applied for domestic adoption with a small crisis pregnancy center inthe state of Kansas, but everything that came up, fell through. God's hand was not in that process, we stepped out, without seeking God on that one - but needless to say, we had gone through a homestudy before, so it didn't stress us out this time. For our homestudy we had to use a local adoption agency (local being KC, 6 1/2 hours away). We went to their office for a day of training as well as our orientation. We received a binder with all the information we would need to get together before the home visit could take place. We initially contacted the hoemstudy agency on March 5th. We went to orientation/training on April 4th. Our paperwork was done and sent in April 14th. Our home visit wasn't until April 25th (slightly frustrating), we were told within a week we'd have a rough draft to go over, so low and behold, we received the rough draft May 13th (2 1/2 weeks later - definitely frustrated at this point). We also were told on May 14th, that they made a mistake and needed me to send in for 2 more background checks - which I did the same day. So, long story short, we didn't get our homestudy officially until June 24th. (almost 4 months from inital application, 3 months from inital orientation). So, we were highly irritated, but still trusting God's hand in the process and getting excited about the children He is having us wait for.

Step 3: Dossier (paperchasing) - The hoemstudy is actually one piece of this big paper puzzle. It's just a huge center piece. After we sent in our contracts, we received a big binder with instructions on what we need to do to collect the paperwork for our dossier. It wasn't so bad, just a lot of papers to get and notarize. We received our binder on March 16th and had all the paperwork collected and was just waiting on the homestudy April 6th. So, 2 1/2 months of waiting... but it's something good to learn in this process.

Step 4: Waitlist! - So, now the dossier gets sent in and we get put on the waitlsit. How this works is that once the dossier gets looked over and approved that everything is ok, you are officially put of the waitlist. There is basically 3 lists: boys, girls, and sibling. You can request one or all three (it's part of the paperwork you've already done). We set our parameters at 0-12 months for an individual boy or girl. We put 0-36 months for siblings (so that is either siblings or twins). We received our inital numbers June 26th - boys - 15, girls - 41, siblings - 15. So, now we wait and get monthly updates on new official numbers. Referrals (I'll explain next) go out when children are available and is given to the first people on the list with the correct parameters. It is estimated that we should get a referral within 3-4 months. So, we wait!

Step 5: Referral!!!! - This is when there is a child or children in Ethiopia that has been set for you. You get a phone call from the agency with the exciting news. They email you pictures and give you any and all information that they have on the child/ren. Totally exciting. Once you get this call, you have to speak with an international pediatrician and do some more paperwork and officially accept or reject the referral. Once you accept your referral of 'your children', it is now time to wait for court.

Step 6: Court - In Ethiopia, we have signed a power of attorney for the director, Almaz, of the orphanage that our agency has in Ethiopia, to go to court for us. There is always a strong likelihood that you won't pass court the first time through, due to paperwork not being ready, family members not being able to show up, what not. So, Almaz goes to court for us, and we wait and find out afterwards if we pass or not. When we pass, the child is offically and legally ours. We are then given our appointment for the US Embassy office, and this is what we have to be in Ethiopia for. So we travel!!!

Step 7: Travel - We travel to Ethiopia for approximately 1 week. There is a lot that goes on when traveling, but first and foremost, Gotcha Day. The wonderful day when you are united for life with your beautiful child/ren. There is time to visit the orphangae, the US Embassy appt, shopping, and then coming home! Many are welcomed home to many famly and friends at the airport and/or a party/gathering at home. We hope to max out our little airport in GC. So, when the time comes, the info will go out and you will all be more than welcome to meet us and our little one/s at the airport!

I know this is long, but I do hope it makes since and that it answers questions you may have on the process. At this point, we are praying to be home with our baby or babies within the next 6 months, but once again, we wait on the Lord. We are excited to see what He has in store for our family. If you have any questions, please leave me a note and I will do my best to explain what I can. So, 7 months into this, that is where we are at on this journey!! Your prayers would be greatly appreciated. We have been doing fundraising all along, and are still working on it. We are getting closer to being fully funded, but not quite there yet. We are applying for a couple of grants and just praying for the Lord to guide those who would like to help to do so. God is so good and has seen us through this whole process, we have faith that He is going to provide for all we need. AMEN!

Anticipation...

Ok, so now that your anticipation is built up (or, you probably just totally forgot). Ok, so one totally cool thing that has happened with this adoption. So the story goes: We wrote a cookbook as a fundraiser for our adoption. It has sold well here locally as well as in Colorado Springs, CO. We sold it at church a number of times and one lady there bought a couple of cookbooks. She is a friend and her husband is a deacon with Dan. Well, she bought one cookbook to give her daughter in law. Just a bit ago, I got an email with the subject being: do you remember me? Low and behold this daughter in law just so happens to be the girl who was my best friend when we lived here in Garden City when I was 8 or so. We only lived here for 2 1/2 years or so, but she was my bestest friend and lived just down the block. So, through this cookbook and adoption, I have been reconnected with an old friend whom I haven't seen in who knows how many years. I haven't had the chance to upload an old picture, but will do so hopefully within the next couple of weeks. Isn't that cool!

Gluttons for Punishment

Yes...I am a glutton for punishment and I drag my husband in with me... :) Well, we have decided to do another garage sale, actually I decided and he reluctancly agreed. They're tiring and exhausting and tons of work. We did the first at the begining of garage sale season here in town and we figured it went so well that we would do another one near to the end of the season. So, on August 7 & 8 we are going to be holding another. For those of you nearby, donations are always welcome. We have tons of stuff already, but will gladly take more. the more you have, the more people stop! I am praying we raise $3,500 with this garage sale - wouldn't that be awesome!

It's exciting to think about how God has provided for this adoption. We are now raising money for travel expenses and other such incidentals. We have the referral money, so that is one less stresser. We are excited to see the way the Lord is moving in our lives and the lives of those around us. So many times He has shown us that this is what we are supposed to be doing. I have an awesome 'reconnection' story coming from the adoption, but that will have to wait for another day, or later tonight. I want to find a good picture to scan in and post with the story. Anticipation - it's what keeps you coming back for more...T

Last two weeks...another long one, but what did you expect

Ok, the last two weeks... how crazy, only getting us ready for the next couple... It started off with 2 weekends ago going to play paintball with a couple of the guys from our Bible Bowl team. We borrowed supplies from one of the ones who wasn't able to play due to harvest. (thanks Paul, the gun was great)

Then that Thursday, we headed off to Indianapolis for the national Bible Bowl tournament. We had lots of fun and got to see numerous things around Indianapolis. First of all the Speedway...

We stayed downtown Indianapolis at the Embassy Suites. We were about 2 blocks from the War Memorail. It was pretty amazing. Here is a far away shot.

Then Dan, myself, and another sponsor Susannah decided to pull a prank on the lead sponsor and got these hair clips to make her think we dyed our hair... it took about 5 days for her to figure out they were fake.

Here is Dan and I the first day of competition.

One night, we took the whole crew (35 of us minus 1) to a WNBA game. Everyone had a great time!

Dan, Susannah and me...

At halftime they had a 1 armed juggler, it was pretty amazing...

One night, we took all the kids out to the old spaghetti factory. It was fun and most had never been to one. (which I just somehow deleted the picture, so you just have to imagine it...)

Then on the way home, we (Dan, Susannah, and I) decided to play another prank on the sponsor. It was histarical. We go the other two female sponsors in on it and had a great laugh. The kids were dying to know what was going on. It was fun.

On the last day, a couple of us were walking to where we had the vans parked, and I saw these smokestacks. I thought they were cool, especially with the stairs wrapped around them.

We got back from Indianapolis on Wednesday night. Went to work for the rest of the week. Then on Saturday, Dan worked and I went to the nephews Trevor and Brendan's swim meet. It was a lot of fun, but extremely hot. It was like 103 degrees at 10:45 a.m. It was hot!!! They took a break and let everyone get into the pool if they wanted to, clothed and all. So, in went our niece Macy, nephew Grant, and myself. It felt good, sopping wet, fully clothed.

The boys were having their names put across their back, and Grant was feeling left out and kept grabbing the marker and trying to write on himself. So, I did it for him, and let me tell you, he thouht he was big stuff!

Here is Trever getting ready to race and also him doing the butterfly. They have district meet next week, which Trevor qualified for in every stroke he races and Brendan (who is in an older age group) qualified in 2 or 3 of his strokes. Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures of Brendan because I timed races the whole time he raced. Sorry...

We're back and have new numbers

We'll, we got back on Wednesday late, we are still exhausted. I will post more on the trip later, but we got new numbers - so here you go:

Girls:

Siblings:

Boys:

On the Road Again...

We are off at 5 a.m. to Indianapolis, IN!!! We are going with the Bible Bowl team to the National Competition. It will be a great time and you will get some great posts when we get back.. Have a wonderful Independence Day!!! T