Day 6 - November 29th (Thursday)

Okay, I know, I know, we've been home now for 6 weeks, and I'm still writing about our trip. I just need to finish for myself, and then I'll move on...I promise. :) (& I promise Tracie, I'll have more of an update of how it's been since we've been home)

Today was our last day in Ethiopia. I couldn't believe it. The first few days, were really hard emotionally, but now I felt better, and i wanted to see more. Half of us wanted to get out a bit and see more of Addis. Almaz arranged a driver for us, and he took us to "lookout mountain". The drive out there was great. I felt like we really got to see more of Addis. Jesse got some great pictures! On our way up there we saw these women carrying these HUGE loads of branches...here's a picture.


It reminded Jesse & I of the tea pickers in Sri Lanka. These tiny women carrying all this weight! I probably couldn't even lift it, let alone carry it down a huge mountain!
The view of course was spectacular!


& of course we had to get a group shot in. (although we were short 2 families) :(


After we caught our breath from being up 10,000 feet, we went to the National Museum.




The main reason we all wanted to come here was so we could all see Lucy. Lucy is said to be about 3 million years old. The museum itself, was interesting, Jesse made the comment that it was like walking around in someone's basement. But very cool that we got to see it.


& of course, since we were all getting ready to leave, we had to start taking more group shots...but unfortunately we never did get one with all of us!





Our flight was that evening along with Steve, Heather, & Ben's. Terribly though Heather got really sick at the airport, so they decided to wait a day to travel. So we were all alone. The flight went really well. Since it was a night flight Abinet slept almost the whole first leg of the flight. We also lucked out, because we asked for the 2 aisle seats in the middle section, and just hoped that no one would book the middle seat...and no one did, so we had a row to ourselves, which really helped so Abinet could lay down.

Our flight was late getting in, and after waiting forever on Homeland security, we finally got through! My family was there as well as our good friend Neil. Rachel came running up. She looked huge! (this is when I started crying too) :) It was just such a great feeling to all be together again.

Well there you have it...our trip. We can't wait to go back!

The Name Game

okay, I'm a little slow, but i just realized that I never talked about our struggle with what to do with Abinet's name.

All through the process we were told that his name was Abnet. I loved the name, it was different, but yet, not impossible to say. My husband on the other hand, liked the name, but still wanted to give him a new first name, and move Abnet to his middle name. I think I've said this in the past, but just to remind you all, I AM TERRIBLE WITH DECISIONS. So I kept putting it off. We had a short list of about 8 names when we left for Ethiopia. We decided to try to narrow it down to 2 or 3 by the time we landed and just spend some time with Abnet to see what name best suited him.

Well we were in for a little bit of a shock...when we got to the orphanage we found out his name is Abinet. And although I know it's close to Abnet, it was really weird to think we've been calling him by the wrong name this whole time. :) We did feel that Abinet could be really mispronounced...it's hard to write it out how it sounds...but it swayed me more to maybe move it to his middle name.

We also were able to find out what Abinet means --"for a reason". I love it! It's just perfect. So then I was torn again, if we should change it or not. See I told you I'm terrible at decisions.

okay, so to quit boring you all... we finally decided that we would call him Isaac Abinet. Rachel at first didn't like that, she said that she would still call him Abinet...i said that was fine. :) In fact, it's been a little weird to start calling him something different. So we kind of call him both right now. I still have regrets sometimes...am I doing something terrible changing his name? I don't know...Maybe I'm making too much of it?! but anyway now you know.

Isaac Abinet:

We're Back!

okay, so we've actually been back since Friday morning, but in my defense, we all got sick! :( Jesse, Rachel, & I all came down with some type of stomach bug...and Abinet has a cold. Jesse & Rachel are feeling better, it's taking a little longer for me, and Abinet is still pretty congested.

I hope to try to update you all on our trip soon, but here's a couple of pictures for you while you wait!

We're Off

We leave for the airport in about 7 hours! It still hasn't completely hit me yet! Rachel is with my sister for Thanksgiving, so I had to say goodbye to her on Wednesday. It was really weird, I just kept thinking how this was the last time it would just be the three of us...it's just weird that the next time we'll see Rachel we'll have her little brother with us! Very exciting!

Here's a schedule to give you a little bit of an idea of what we'll be doing while we are in Ethiopia.

Saturday: we'll arrive Saturday morning, and get to go to Hannah's Hope and meet Abnet!
Sunday: we'll go to church in the morning, and then have some free time in the afternoon.
Monday: Today we'll do all of our paperwork & go to the embassy to apply for Abnet's visa.
Tuesday: We'll have a chance to go the a government run orphanage, and also to a hospital.
Wednesday: Our visa should be ready today.
Thursday: Leave this evening.
Friday: arrive back in D.C. @7:30am

I'm not sure if we will be able to blog while we are in Ethiopia. I've heard rumors that blogger doesn't work while you are there, so we'll have to see.

Thanks for all your prayers! We are so excited and a little nervous, but we just can't wait till we are there!

Metrobaby

I just have to tell you about the sling I just got. I've been talking about getting one for a while, but for one I've been a little overwhelmed with my choices, and two, I'm a procrastinator. :) So even though I'm leave in a few days I hadn't bought one yet. So anyway I'm talking with my friend the other day how I was wanting one, and she tells me how she used to work with a girl who makes them. She forwards me the website. I go on, and am pleasantly surprised. For one they are very cute. There are a lot of different patterns (uh oh, more choices) & they weren't $100 which was what I was finding else where. So I decide to buy one. But as I'm typing in all the details I get nervous that I might not get it in time, so I write an email to the company telling them my situation. I get a call 30 minutes later. The lady tells me that she would be more than willing to meet me at the Target close to my house, and bring me one! So 1 hour later, I'm home with a new beautiful sling, and I even got a free lesson on how to use it! Very cool! Let's just hope Abnet likes it too.

This is the pattern that I got. (it's reversible too!)

7 DAYS!!!!

okay I know it's been a while since I've posted anything...but things are going as you probably figured...CRAZY!!! I can not believe we leave in a week! I'm trying to get our house in order, b/c while we are gone, my parents (who live overseas) are coming into town and will be staying here w/ Rachel. So I also need to have everything written out for them, so they know when & where Rachel needs to be at things that week.

We also have a dog, and being that we are leaving Thanksgiving weekend, but didn't know until a couple of weeks ago, ALL kennels are full. It's crazy...they book up at least 6 weeks before Thanksgiving! But thankfully, we've had a couple of offers from the teenagers we have discipleship with that they would be willing to watch her...let's just hope their parents think it's a good idea too! :) So other than that, this weekend is going to continue to be crazy! We are going to try to get everything packed this weekend, squeezing everything into 4 bags. (hopefully most of the bags will be full of stuff for Hannah's Hope.)

This weekend is also a sad weekend for us, b/c our good friends (who also are our church's youth pastor & wife) are moving. So we are going to a couple of goodbye parties for them, but I just can't seem to get my head around that they are really leaving. It's been hard too, b/c we've been so busy with getting ready for Abnet that I feel like we haven't really been able to be there for them. Please pray for them as they make this transition. (& us too as we will miss them terribly)

Something To Be Thankful For

We have tickets! We are leaving Friday, November 23rd at 9:30am!!!!!!! So we will be nice and stuffed as we get on our long plane ride. We'll get back on Friday the 30th at 7:20am. I can't believe this time has come. & I have so much to do!

For all those of you out there who have already done this...give me advice on what I need to make sure I bring or do! Thanks!

oh yeah, and good job on the 5 of you out there that guessed right!

Big Sis

We got this great shirt in the mail from Jesse's sis. Thank you Melanie!
Rachel is so excited to be a big sister. Yes, her world is going to change more then she realizes, but I think overall she is going to be great. & boy does she need a sibling! She's been an only for a little too long. :)


& speaking of family, we have been truly blessed to have our family support us fully in our journey. Everyone is so excited to meet Abnet & we are so grateful that he will be loved on by everyone. It's heartbreaking to hear others' stories about how they've struggled with families who not only don't understand why they are adopting, but why they would be adopting a child of a different color. So thank you family for loving us (including Rachel & Abnet) in such a wonderful way!

Introducing....

OUR SON, ABNET!


We got a call last night from Julie saying that we went through court on Monday! Abnet is legally our child! Yea! She thinks that we will be able to travel in about 4 to 5 weeks. They need to get his passport, and set up an US embassy appointment before we'll know for sure. We should hear from them next week with dates that we can travel.

And although I am so excited that the process has been really fast for us, I'm also feeling very sad for some others who have been waiting longer than us. Julie told me last night, that there were some families who have not gone through court yet, and they have been waiting longer then us. I can't imagine how hard that would be. Unfortunately the courts don't really look at who should be next in line, so you never know what order it will be in. I am praying hard for you all (you know who you are) that your case will come fast! & I'm sure we will be celebrating with you soon!


Here are some more pictures of Abnet:

This is when Abnet first came to Hannah's Hope (the AGCI's home). --i think he is about 2months here.


This was taken by some other families who were there to bring their children home. --again i think he is about 2 months old.


I think he is about 2 1/2 months here


About 3 months here



I know, I know, he's adorable! :)

June 30th

We got news today that little one's birthday is June 30th! When we got our referral they weren't exactly sure what it was, they figured somewhere between early June and early August. So this is great that we actually know! So that makes him almost 4 months old!

As far as our phone call went the other day...not much is known yet. They are still giving us the 3-5 month estimate for travel. But I really think that this is a conservative estimate. (or at least I really hope so!) But they believe all our paperwork has been submitted to MOWA (which is who approves us as a match for our little one). Once MOWA approves us MOWA will then forward everything on to the court, and it's at that time that a court date will be given. After that...TRAVEL!

Just Waiting....

Sorry about the lack of posting...but there hasn't been much to post about. We are just waiting right now for a court date. I have no idea when that will be. We actually have a call scheduled for tonight with All God's Children, and I am really hoping that they will have a good idea of when it might be.

I've been doing fine with the waiting...well pretty good. But I just saw on another families blog that they just got a court date for this week, and they got their referral the same time we did. (they are with a different organization) Although I'm really happy for them, I'm of course insanely jealous! But at the same time, I think that we are not even close to being ready to bringing the little one home! It's felt really far away at this point that it's been hard for me to really feel motivated to get things all done. But I know once we hear of a court date, we will most likely be traveling I think about 2 weeks later...so we need to be ready! :)

So off to go paint the room! & I'll let you know if I get any more good information from the phone call tonight!

Please Help

We just got this in an email from our agency, All God's Children International-- "...as many of you have heard our Guatemala program is going through a hard time as the current Guatemalan government is making decisions that are impacting orphans and birthmothers who are currently being cared for. Because of this we have had to stop bringing on families to our Guatemala program. Whenever this happens it impacts our orphan care program as a large portion of adoption fees go to helping the children who will remain in Guatemala.

Please also keep this in mind as you are praying for AGCI—we are trying to make a tremendous push in our orphan care efforts and we need the support of families to do this—both in prayer and finances."

So a great way you guys can help would be to help sponsor a child or a home (like the same home that our little one is in right now, only in Guatemala).

If you are interested in this please click here to find out more.


"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." -James 1:27

Guatemala

Please pray for Guatemala and the adoption process. I'm not sure if I understand exactly what's going on, but I know that it will effect A LOT of children & adoptive parents here in the states.

Basically, of what I understand, the president of Guatemala has said that he will sign the Hague into affect on December 31st and as of that date they will only do adoptions with Hague Countries. The U.S. is not officially ratified into the Hague and when they do the US says they will make Guatemala make changes before they allow adoption. At this point the president said nothing about if cases would be grandfathered in. He will stop all cases not completed.

So one of the big issues is that their are 5,000 children that have already been referred, but since the adoptions are not completed, they don't know if they will be able to bring their children home.

Sorry that I don't know much...if you want more information please click here.

I just can't imagine being a parent in this situation, just waiting to hear if you are able to bring your child/children home. Also I know of one family, who was adopting from another country when it shut down, and so they switched to Guatemala, and now if this shuts down, they will have to switch again...if they can, b/c every time they have had to switch countries they've lost a lot of money in the process, & so I don't know if they would be able to again. So please pray with me!

A GREAT DAY!!!!!!!

wow! I can't believe I am writing this! We have a referral! a referral! a referral! (if i say it enough, maybe it will really sink in!) I really wasn't expecting one for at least 3 more weeks. The majority of the families working with AGCI received a referral after waiting 2 months. (we only waited about 6 weeks!)

Last Thursday, I was reading Rachel some books, trying to get her to take a nap. The phone rang, and I decided I wouldn't answer it, but just try to continue to put Rachel down. Then I heard my cell phone ring. I figured it was Jesse just checking in. But when the main phone rang again, I realized it had to be more. I quickly tucked Rachel in, and ran to check caller id. The first number was Jesse's cell, the second one was AGCI! I immediately started to cry & shake. I then tried calling Jesse's cell, but got the answering machine right away. I hung up & check my messages. Listened to the one from Jesse..."Julie just called me, It's a good day! I'm on my way home!" I continued to cry (I don't think i have to specify that these were tears of complete joy & excitement!) I finally got a hold of Jesse, and he said he was on his way home and then we'll call Julie, and she'll give us the information. It takes Jesse about 20 minutes to get home, but I was completely beside myself! I called my sister, and she listened while I cried some more. I just could not believe that OUR DAY was here! I took some time before Jesse got home to pray. I thanked God that we have this opportunity, and I also prayed that this was the right child for us. It's very nerve wracking, to just be waiting and waiting to see who is going to join your family....i think especially since our options were very open. We didn't know if we were going to end up with siblings or not, or if we would have a girl or a boy. We just couldn't wait to find out!

Jesse finally got home, and we called Julie. She told us that there was a 3 month old little boy for us! This came to us a little of a surprise, b/c we kind of expected to be getting a sibling group, or figured that the child would be older (since we were willing to take an older child) But once Julie started telling us about him, peace just came over me. We are going to have a son! a little tiny baby son! Unfortunately I can't post his picture (not until he's legally ours).... but you'll have to take my word on it... he is just precious!

So now we have to send in all the paperwork accepting the referral, and then we wait some more. :) It usually takes about 2 months between referral and travel. But the courts are still closed, and once they reopen we don't know how this will effect us, but I am just so happy to have this little one! God is so good!

Waiting

We are still waiting. & I must admit it's starting to get hard. I know I shouldn't complain, b/c our agency actually has one of the shortest wait times for a referral, but it's getting hard. & we've only been waiting for about a month. Julie, our caseworker has said that a referral can take anywhere from 2-6 months, although most haven't taken that long. So please pray that Jesse & I can be patient, and wait on God's perfect timing.

Habakkuk 2:3 (NLT)
"This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed."

How to Pay for an Adoption

We got it!

We got our I-171H today! We are officially approved by the US government to adopt 1 or 2 children from Ethiopia. We were told that this usually takes anywhere from 3 to 9 weeks, they were right on...it took us 6 1/2.

We can now officially wait for a referral! I'm just so glad to have this step done. I've heard horror stories of things being lost, or not just coming for months & months, so I am very grateful that ours has come with no problems.

Now we continue to pray for who God has for our family, and wait for a referral. Our agency says this will take any where from 2-4 months, but sometimes it has happened even faster. So we'll wait with excitement. :)

Adoption Update....

The latest on the adoption front, is that our dossier is back from the US Department of State and the Embassy. (they check to make sure everything is notarized right & stuff like that) Everything checked out! Which is great, b/c I was sure something would be notarized wrong or something wouldn't work, but hey I'm all for this moving right along! :)

Our dossier now goes on to Ethiopia where it will get translated. We are just waiting on our approval from the government. (Probably another 4 weeks) Once we get that we can officially start waiting for a referall! Yea!

& It's Gone....

Yeah! Our Dossier is in the mail! It should get there tomorrow...pray that it doesn't get lost in the mail! We've heard of horror stories of people who have lost their dossier for a couple of days in the mail. horrible!)

It feels so good to send it in. Now the real waiting begins. :)

For those wondering what goes into a dossier, here's our list:
1. Two power of attorney forms (notarized & state certified)
2. Statement of reason to adopt from us(notarized)
3. Passport photos of Jesse & myself
4. Photos of the family... 2 of all of us, 1 of Jesse, 1 of Amy, 1 of Jesse & Amy
5. Photos of our home
6. The finalized homestudy
7. Jesse's letter of employment (notarized)
8. My stay-at-home letter (notarized)
9. Financial Statement (notarized)
10. Birth Certificate of Jesse
11. Birth Certificate of Amy
12. Certificate of Marriage
13. Medical Letter for Jesse (notarized)
14. Medical Letter for Amy (notarized)
15. Police Clearance for Jesse (notarized)
16. Police Clearance for Amy (notarized)
17. Two letters of Reference (notarized)
18. Obligation of Post Placement Reports (notarized)
19. 3 copies
20. and $ :)

Praise God!

We have our homestudy!!!!

Thank you all so much for your prayers on this! I know it's the only reason we got it before she left on vacation! We received our completed, notarized homestudy in the mail yesterday! Like I said before our social worker is not to good with details...she didn't even write our address right on the envelope. :) But I looked over it & not one mistake! Thank you Lord!

I sent in a copy to the CIS (citizenship & immigration services) today. The CIS is basically the U.S. government approving us to adopt. We have already done our fingerprinting with them, but obviousilly they can't approve us until they can review our homestudy.

I've heard it is taking a while...about 9 weeks. I guess there is one lady who reviews them for the whole state of Virginia and she lives in West Virginia, so only comes in once a week to pick up homestudies and to drop off her recommendations.

We are getting everything together to send in our dossier tomorrow...I am so excited that we are finally moving forward! Thanks for all your prayers! We love you!