New Pictures!!

We have been looking forward to our "final update" for a while now.  It has been 5 months since we got a picture of our little girl and 7 months since we have gotten an update on her size.  Seven months ago we were told she only weighed 26 pounds....tiny!!!  We got our email last night with new pictures and measurements!!  According to the report, our little girl now weighs 35lbs!  She is almost exactly the same size as Sunshine.  Now I can do a little shopping!!!  Fortunately, I will be able to take some of Sunshine's clothes too (which right now she is so excited about sharing her clothes just like her big sisters do...really hoping that excitement continues. LOL).  But travel is getting closer and we are so excited, nervous, excited...did I say nervous?!?!

Even though our "journey" began over a year ago when A's picture appeared in my inbox, our real journey begins when A is home.  We are so excited to finally get her home, to hold her and love her, to protect her and take care of her....JOY!  But there is another side of adoption that is hard.  We are taking our little girl away from all that she has ever known...for 6 years...sights, sounds, smells, people, food, etc.  Nothing will be the same for her and for her, that will be so hard.  As hard as I try to imagine how that must feel, there is no way I can know.  I don't know how she will react, but I do know she will grieve and I do know that there will be some time needed for her to learn that we are her mommy and daddy and we love her.  It will take awhile for her to trust us and this is why we must be the only ones who meet her needs for several months....the only ones who hug her, hold her, rock her, feed her, put her to bed, and so much more.  I will explain all that another time.  Right now, I want to rejoice in the fact that we are another week closer to bringing her home!  Our Article 5 should have been picked up today, and we hope to hear something about travel in the next 2 weeks.

Thank you all for your prayers and donations.  Your support is such a blessing to us!  Will you please continue to pray for us and our little girl?

And now to share some of our new pictures.....

Another Step Closer!!!

If you are here, more than likely you received our very late Christmas card in the mail or you saw my FB post...as not many people know this blog exists. I have to admit that I am not very good about blogging, but I am committed to at least share where we are in our adoption process so that those who are praying for us and/or have decided to donate in helping us bring our little girl home, can follow our journey.  Thank you so much for taking the time to look us up.  We are so excited about bringing home another little girl and hope that you will share in that excitement.

So here's our new news...Monday was MLK Day....no school, banks closed, no mail.  I was sad there would be no mail because we were waiting for our cable letter.  We need this to complete the next step towards bringing our little girl home.  Checked our email and...........we got an email from the NVC with a pdf of our cable letter....We could move to the next step!  So as is common routine with adoption...we hurried up and sent the letter to our agency so we could wait some more.  AHHHHH!   

Our next step is the Article 5 process, which allows our daughter to get a visa.  This step should take exactly 2 weeks from the time our documents are dropped off.  Drop-offs usually occur on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.  I'm really hoping and praying our documents were dropped off yesterday, but our agency only gets notifications on Fridays,  and our social worker is out of the office for the rest of the week...so we will wait a few more days to find out.  

On August 24th our little girl celebrated her 6th birthday.  We were able to arrange to have a birthday cake sent to her and were blessed with some great pictures.  Thought I'd share some with you!

Isn't she the sweetest?!?!  This has been the longest wait and we are so ready to get her home.

We could really use your prayers on this last leg of our wait.  Would you please pray...

1. that we would get to travel at the beginning of March, as this would work the best for the care of our children at home while we are away.

2.  that our finances would all fall into place as we get closer to our last big payment.

3.  for our little girl's heart as she is faced with so many changes in her little life when we enter it. 

 

4. for our young one's at home...that they will be able to share mom and dad and know that this little one is not replacing them (a real fear for one of ours).

Finally, if you would like to help in bringing our little girl home, I have placed a "donate" button on the right side of our blog that links directly to our matching grant from Lifesong for Orphans. 

And last, but not least...today is our oldest daughter's 20th birthday!  How did that happen??   We love this girl to pieces and are so blessed by her!  We love you, Belle! You are beautiful on the inside AND the outside!

Getting Closer!

It's getting more and more real...we are getting closer to bringing our little girl home!  Today was our travel call with our agency.  It was scheduled for 1pm to 4pm.  I thought that surely it would not be that long.  What could they possibly talk about for three hours?!?!  BUT...it was and we received so much valuable information.   Not only did they walk us through the steps of what our trip would look like, but also what it might look like when we return home and the things we need to do when coming home.  I love being prepared and I feel more than prepared.  But I also know, from experience, that adoption can bring along all kinds of things that no one can ever prepare you for.

We received our I800 last Saturday and are now waiting for our cable letter....hoping it will come next week.  We are on the final stretch!  We also got word this week of our matching grant through Lifesong for Orphans.  Our church has partnered with Lifesong to provide an Adoption Matching Grant of $2000 to help bring our little girl home!

Christmas was so fun this year...having the big girls home from school for a month and our oldest home for a few days before he had to head back to prepare for his Bowl game....and then a trip to Miami for the Orange Bowl!   T-mac was playing in the Orange Bowl, and we were not going to miss it!  It took us 23 hours to drive down but was so worth it!  What an incredible experience to end the year on and they won!  So the year ended with fireworks...literally!  And the weather was incredible!  The little girls keep asking when we will get to go back...swimming in the ocean and a pool in the middle of winter will do that to you!

Fun times over the last month...

Saying "YES"

It has been two and a half years since I've written in my blog....too long.  Last I wrote, we had just received our court date for our first trip to Ethiopia to meet LindyLou.  She came home in May and we completed one of the fastest adoptions in history...not really, but it felt like it. Belle graduated from high school two days after we got home and then we worked at settling into a new normal.

We decided to home school L the first year and she caught on to English much more quickly than we had anticipated.  The tricky part is that conversation English has come quickly, but learning the vocabulary and terms used in school and everything else that goes with it is hard and slow.  It's amazing how much vocabulary children pick up as they grow.

Chesswava graduated from high school this year, and now, we have three kiddos in college...crazy!  Way back when we had 4 kids under 5, I dreamed of all the fun we would have.  And we did!  Being so close in age, they were so close and always had someone to play with and got along amazingly well.   I never knew how easy I had it when it came to siblings getting along until now...which is another story.  Anyway, the problem with having our first 4 so close together (and I didn't think of this back then), is that they all "leave the nest" close together.  One day they were all here and the next thing I know, I'm wondering when we'll all be together again.  I know that's just part of growing up and I'm so proud of them all, but I sure do miss those evenings of dancing around the family room together to "Jock Jams".

Fall is a crazy season for our family.  T-mac is still playing football for his school and we'll watch him on TV tomorrow.  It's been a hard year of injuries this year but we love seeing him play and thankful he has not had any injuries that have completely kept him out of the game.  Belle continues to play the flute in marching band.  With a new band director have come several changes and she looks forward to possibly being able to travel to London next year.  Chesswava started her first year in college, is playing soccer and loving it.  She is at the same school as Belle, and they both are having a wonderful time there.  Nice to have both of them not too far away and at the same school.  B-man is playing football for his high school again this year.  So needless to say, there are many games to attend between the four of them.  We decided to home school LindyLou again this year to move more at her pace and make sure she is grasping what she needs to grasp.

And that brings us to our new news of saying "YES".  I was on a mailing list through Lifeline Children's Services called Wonderful Waiting Kids.  I would get emails every so often and sometimes I would open them and pray over the kiddos that are waiting for a mommy and daddy and sometimes I wouldn't (I was blown away and very saddened with the number of children that are in need of a family and are just waiting...and waiting).  In December, I happened to open one of those emails and there in front of me was this sweet, sweet face staring back at me.  Our youngest was with me and asked about her.  She prayed for this little girl and I just had to inquire.  B and I had not even discussed another adoption, but I just had to know more.  I received an email back that same day saying that another family had her file on hold.  Prayed a prayer of thanksgiving that this sweet child already had a family pursuing her.  So we continued on with life as usual and on February 11, received an email which would turn our world upside down.  An email asking if we were still interested in looking at A's file.  I hadn't even said anything to B about it because I figured I had gotten God's answer with that email in December.  B and I started doing a lot of praying and lots of research.  This was a different country, different needs, and our plate was already full and overflowing.  We still are looking for that "new normal" and maybe ours hasn't come because we are still experiencing so many changes with kiddos going to college.  It didn't make sense.  Why another adoption?  Why another child?  We already have six.  And that's just it...it doesn't matter the number.  B and I love children.  Every child is precious and deserves a family.  Deserves to know the God who created them and loves them.  God called us to this and we are answering that call.  We said, "YES!!"

Court Date

Oh, how I wish I had time to write more on my blog.....sigh....  On March 1st we got our court date.  It will be on April 10th.  We are so excited that things are moving along smoothly so far.  So needless to say, I have been trying to get ready for our trip.

We have booked our flights and B-man is going with us this first trip.  I am so excited for him to see the beautiful country where his two little sisters are from.  He is beyond excited.  So now it's on to getting his shots done.  B and I are still good from our last trip, so all we needed to get were malaria meds.  Right now I am trying to shop for donations...which it seems that the older kiddos at our agency's TH need clothes and shoes.  I've also been gathering things to send to our daughter until we can bring her home.  We have had 2 families send us pictures of her already and it is such a blessing.  I love her beautiful smile and can't wait to be able to hold her!

The other part of traveling is getting everything ready to run smoothly here at home while we are gone.  That is the part that overwhelms me.  I know our big girls will do fine, but this will be the first time B and I will both be gone at the same time and I worry about our youngest.  I know the grandparents are excited about this time with their grandkids though.

Our newest exciting news is that we have a positive recommendation letter already!!!  Although it's not a guarantee that we will pass court, it's a necessary piece that was missing when we went to court for our first adoption.  We waited 7 LONG weeks for that letter to arrive so we could pass court.

I stand in awe with how smoothly everything has gone so far.  We still have a long ways to go and we still could hit some major bumps in our journey but God is doing great things and hopefully we will be able to bring our daughter home soon!

REFERRAL!!!!

February 8, 2012 at 2pm I got a phone call from our family coordinator from AWAA.  I had just talked to her the day before so I thought that maybe she had another question for me.  I was so wrong about that!  She was calling to talk to me about a beautiful 7 year old little girl.  I was in total shock.  After praying about possibly changing agencies or doing a concurrent adoption and having those doors closed, I had prepared myself for the long wait of over a year for a referral.  I had just prayed the day before, asking God to please help me with this wait because I am NOT good with waiting.  God had it under control the whole time!  Why was I surprised???  12 days!!!  When I thought that it would be so easy the second time around to get all the paperwork finished, it took 5 months!   I was so discouraged during that time when we had to wait for each review of our home study and then dossier.  It was taking forever in my mind and yet, it was all in God's plan.   He knew our "LindyLou" and He was creating the way for our paths to cross at the perfect time.  God has taught me so much through both of our adoption journeys and I am still learning to put my trust in Him.    When we got the call, B was out of town in meetings and I didn't get to talk to him for 4 hours!  So I had this awesome news and didn't have anyone to share it with.  How sweet it was when we finally connected and got to celebrate together.  We decided not to tell our other children until the next night when he would be home.

The next evening when everyone was home, we gathered them around the computer.  We opened up the document with LindyLou's picture and they were beyond excited and kept saying, "really??  for real???  are you serious???"  They were definitely surprised.

And now the wait continues, but at a different level.  Now we have seen the beautiful face of our little girl.  We have heard her story, and we pray for her little heart.  Oh, how my heart aches for the losses this little one has had to go through.  No child should have to go through so much pain.  In the months that we wait to bring her home, we ask God to prepare our hearts to meet hers right where she needs us.  We pray that God will prepare her little heart to meet her forever family.

We expect it to take at least 6 months to bring her home.  At this point we are waiting for a court date.  Our agency estimates that we will get a court date 12 - 16 weeks from referral.   So we could be traveling for our first trip to meet our little girl and go to court sometime in May or June.  Did I mention that I'd like it to be sooner??? :)  We also have to hope and pray that all the documents needed for our case arrive in the courts on time so we can pass court the first time.  Otherwise, we could get rescheduled another court date 1 -4 weeks later.  After we pass court, our agency will then gather all the necessary paperwork to submit our case to the embassy.  Unfortunately, this is where things have really slowed down in ET adoptions.  If there is a living relative, the embassy will request an interview with them.  This could be 3 - 6 weeks after all our paperwork was submitted.  If they are satisfied with all the paperwork and the interview, we will travel for our second trip, to bring LindyLou home.  If they are not satisfied, our case will be sent to Nairobi which is another 2 - 4 weeks before we would get clearance.  I am praying that the time between our first and second trip is not long.  Our little girl is old enough to understand when we come and go but how can she trust that we will come back...and the longer she waits, I can't imagine how her heart would feel.

We feel so blessed that God would choose us to be LindyLou's forever family.  To Him be all glory.

DTE

Dossier mailed to Ethiopia (DTE)!!!!  Having to do our second adoption with a different agency means learning new adoption lingo.  DTE was one of the first I've had to learn.  In our first adoption, when our dossier was approved, we were put on the wait list.  With our new agency, we are put on the "wait list" when our dossier is mailed to Ethiopia.  It's been approved since last Friday so having to wait another week to be put on the "wait list" is a little frustrating.  There have been so many more unexpected waits this time through...sick leaves, vacations, holidays, etc.  Even in the end when we held on to our finished dossier and big payment for a few weeks, prayerfully seeking God's guidance on what direction we should go.  Should we look at other agency WCL or change countries?  In the end we have decided that God called us back to Ethiopia a year ago on our first trip to Ethiopia to meet our daughter.  He already knows the children He has for our family and we are choosing to trust Him.  It's so hard to see the faces of children who are waiting for a family.  I just want to bring them all  home.  And My husband is no help because he just says OK.  UGH!

So now we wait.  Our parameters are much different this time.  We are requesting a child either gender 0 - 7 years or siblings 0 - 7 years.   We have no idea how long we will wait.  There are just no guesses at time frames when your parameters are so broad.  There are many families ahead of us.  Our fingerprints expire March of 2013 so my guess is we will need to get that done before our child comes home.

So many changes.  We took Belle for a college visit today.  She visited the school that Bill and I both graduated from...just a few miles away from where we live.  She has cut her choices in schools down from 5 to only 3; so we are getting there.  We are praying that God leads her to where He wants her to go.  I can't believe she is graduating from high school this year!!  Time has flown....  Turning 17 this month really hit me.  I think it's going to be hard for her to go away to school because she loves her family and she is especially fond of her little sister.  Love to see them together...they have so much fun!