Well it has now officially been three months since our paperwork arrived in Ethiopia. Since our last post there has been some great news... two referrals!!! Beth and Rico, who we met at the barbecue Memorial Day weekend, got a referral for a baby boy a couple of days after the barbecue. We are so happy for them as they were in waiting for a long seven months. Then this week a family from North Carolina got a referral of a boy also. We will be thinking of both families and praying for their children and that they get through court quickly before it closes in August. Two families also recently made it through court and will be traveling together to pick up their children.
It brings hope to us to see referrals coming after quite a while without any. Hearing other families' good news makes our own waiting easier. Our wish for everyone who is in waiting with us is that we continue to hear of referrals, successful court dates and travel stories on a regular basis.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
Memorial Day Weekend BBQ
As we near three months in waiting, we had a wonderful weekend. We got a chance to meet six other families in our area that have adopted or are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia and a family that adopted domestically as well. It was amazing to watch the children interact with each other and we also got a lot of great information about the process and traveling. It made us that much more excited about the journey ahead of us. We can't wait to get together again! It is so great to have this group of people so close to us. We hope that each time we get together the group gets bigger with the addition of children and families and that we hear news of lots of referrals soon.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
2 Months
Well we have now been in waiting two months. Since the last post Spring has finally arrived! The warm weather keeps us busy doing yard work which helps to keep our minds off our wait. We keep hoping for a bunch of referrals to come through any day. We can't wait to here some good news from the other families ahead of us.
Last week was a good week. Colleen had a birthday and my sister graduated from U of M in nursing. She will be moving to L.A. We will miss her and hope she will be able to take a vacation from her new job to come back and visit when we finally bring our daughter home. Spring has been good so far but we hope it will get a lot better soon with news of referrals!
Last week was a good week. Colleen had a birthday and my sister graduated from U of M in nursing. She will be moving to L.A. We will miss her and hope she will be able to take a vacation from her new job to come back and visit when we finally bring our daughter home. Spring has been good so far but we hope it will get a lot better soon with news of referrals!
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
African Children's Choir
On Saturday we traveled to East Lansing to see the African Children's Choir. It was an amazing experience. If you ever get a chance to go see them, make sure you do! We also got a chance to meet Cindy and Steve another family who is working with our agency to adopt from Ethiopia. Apparently they had sat behind us at our agency's travel expectations meeting, but we did not really have an opportunity to talk with anyone after that meeting because we were speaking with our caseworker. They had also brought with them Tibebe and his daughter. Tibebe is from Ethiopia, is a professor at Calvin College and recently talked to families who have adopted or are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia at Gojos (Ethiopian Restaurant) in Grand Rapids. We were not able to attend that event so it was great to be able to meet him and his daughter here. All in all, it was a great evening and it was exciting to meet another family who is just ahead of us in the process and to meet Tibebe as well. Hopefully the group will be able to do another get together with him in the future.
It was great to be able to spend a little bit of time around East Lansing too as Colleen went to MSU, but I wish the weather would have been better. It rained all day and while we were at the concert the rain turned to snow. I am so sick of winter. It is supposed to be 70 here tomorrow though. I can't wait!
It was great to be able to spend a little bit of time around East Lansing too as Colleen went to MSU, but I wish the weather would have been better. It rained all day and while we were at the concert the rain turned to snow. I am so sick of winter. It is supposed to be 70 here tomorrow though. I can't wait!
Thursday, April 3, 2008
1 Month........
Today we have officially been "in waiting" for one month. It has yet to be seen how many more will follow before we get to travel to Ehiopia to meet our daughter for the first time. This week there was a referral from our agency, but that was the first one that we have seen in quite a while. At the travel expectations meeting last week, our agency told us that they expected referrals to start coming again. In the mean time, we will just try to keep busy educating ourselves and reading other blogs and finding joy in their good news. Knowing that every other family that is completed, brings us one step closer to completing ours.
We are very excited for the growing network of families that have adopted from Ethiopia who live so close to us. It is comforting that we will be able to raise our daughter knowing other children born in Ethiopia that have similar experiences to hers. As we have moved through the process, one of the things that has impressed us the most, is the amazing sense of community that surrounds adoption. Everyone has been extremely supportive and encouraging. For that, we thank everyone that has read our blog and provided support through comments and sharing their own experiences with group posts and blogs. It will be a tremendous help in getting us through the months to come which I hope will be the quickest months of our life, but which will inevitably end up being the longest of our life.
We wish everyone a quick journey and hope to see a flurry of referrals all followed by quick and successful court dates! We also look forward to meeting more of you that our sharing in this incredible journey to Ethiopia!
We are very excited for the growing network of families that have adopted from Ethiopia who live so close to us. It is comforting that we will be able to raise our daughter knowing other children born in Ethiopia that have similar experiences to hers. As we have moved through the process, one of the things that has impressed us the most, is the amazing sense of community that surrounds adoption. Everyone has been extremely supportive and encouraging. For that, we thank everyone that has read our blog and provided support through comments and sharing their own experiences with group posts and blogs. It will be a tremendous help in getting us through the months to come which I hope will be the quickest months of our life, but which will inevitably end up being the longest of our life.
We wish everyone a quick journey and hope to see a flurry of referrals all followed by quick and successful court dates! We also look forward to meeting more of you that our sharing in this incredible journey to Ethiopia!
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Thanks For Visiting!
I wasn't sure if anyone was going to read our blog, but it is great to see that we have already received a great response.Just wanted to take the time to share a photo of our Huskies. The black one is Niko and the brown is Mishka. They are brother and sister from the same litter. I am sure they will be very excited to have a new addition to the house. They love children and are pretty calm these days as they are turning 10 in a month and a half. We are a little worried that they may be jealous that our daughter will be stealing all of the attention, but I am sure they will adjust well.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
First Post
I have never blogged before, so please be patient. We are setting up this blog to tell the story of our journey to adopt. We have chosen to adopt from Ethiopia and are well into the process which started all the way back in May of 2007. That was the point when we started attending open houses to decide which adoption agency we would use. After attending AAI's open house we were both drawn to their Ethiopia program for reasons that were somewhat unexplainable to us but as we sat in the car, after hearing about all of their available programs in the meeting, we looked at each other and in unison each said "I am thinking Ethiopia."
From there, we went through an international adoption awareness meeting, transracial/transcultural adoption training, and submitted our formal application in August of 2007. This began a very busy period in the process of gathering paperwork for our home study, application for a foreign adoption and dossier. Our home study was completed in October of 2007 and we sent in our application to USCIS. During all of this time, we were still tracking down all of the paperwork for our dossier. After a three and a half month wait we received our I-171H approval on February 14th, 2008. This made for a wonderful Valentine's Day gift and milestone in our process. We finalized all of the notarizations and authentications for our dossier and after bundling at the US State Department and Ethiopian Embassy it was sent to Ethiopia on February 28th, 2008. At this time we officially became a family "in waiting." This was another huge step in the adoption process.
While attending a travel expectations meeting in Grand Rapids, where our agency's headquarters is located, we learned that our dossier had arrived in Ethiopia on March 3rd, 2008. So we have officially been waiting for almost one month now. They tell us to expect a four to six month wait from the arrival of our dossier in Ethiopia for the referral, but of course we have high hopes that it will happen sooner than this.
Up until now, we have been very busy filling out forms, going to meetings and classes, completing online courses, tracking down paperwork and educating ourselves about Ethiopian culture and history. From this point on there is no more paperwork to chase down so we will try to patiently wait while we further educate ourselves on Ethiopian culture and raising our child. Hopefully working on this blog and posting will be therapeutic.
For now, I am overwhelmed by the thought that our daughter is living somewhere in Ethiopia and I hope she is being well cared for. I worry about the events that are unfolding within her birth family that will bring her to our family and am sad for all of their loss. All we can do is hope and pray for the best and for our journey to bring us to our daughter soon.
From there, we went through an international adoption awareness meeting, transracial/transcultural adoption training, and submitted our formal application in August of 2007. This began a very busy period in the process of gathering paperwork for our home study, application for a foreign adoption and dossier. Our home study was completed in October of 2007 and we sent in our application to USCIS. During all of this time, we were still tracking down all of the paperwork for our dossier. After a three and a half month wait we received our I-171H approval on February 14th, 2008. This made for a wonderful Valentine's Day gift and milestone in our process. We finalized all of the notarizations and authentications for our dossier and after bundling at the US State Department and Ethiopian Embassy it was sent to Ethiopia on February 28th, 2008. At this time we officially became a family "in waiting." This was another huge step in the adoption process.
While attending a travel expectations meeting in Grand Rapids, where our agency's headquarters is located, we learned that our dossier had arrived in Ethiopia on March 3rd, 2008. So we have officially been waiting for almost one month now. They tell us to expect a four to six month wait from the arrival of our dossier in Ethiopia for the referral, but of course we have high hopes that it will happen sooner than this.
Up until now, we have been very busy filling out forms, going to meetings and classes, completing online courses, tracking down paperwork and educating ourselves about Ethiopian culture and history. From this point on there is no more paperwork to chase down so we will try to patiently wait while we further educate ourselves on Ethiopian culture and raising our child. Hopefully working on this blog and posting will be therapeutic.
For now, I am overwhelmed by the thought that our daughter is living somewhere in Ethiopia and I hope she is being well cared for. I worry about the events that are unfolding within her birth family that will bring her to our family and am sad for all of their loss. All we can do is hope and pray for the best and for our journey to bring us to our daughter soon.
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