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Showing posts from February, 2009

investing in a child

Many people have asked us about the financial costs of adoption. So I have added a list on here of our costs to date. Honestly this is the one area of adoption that is at times hard to swallow. The reality is that there are many fees for both our government and theirs and they begin to really add up. It is truly a walk of faith. We know that God has called us to grow our family through adoption and we know that He will provide for all that is needed, even when at times we can't see exactly how this is all going to work out. It definitly helps to look at our two boys and know that we would pay any amount to have them as our children. It just takes faith to do this process in reverse. As always, I would love to answer any questions you may have about adoption! We are praying that many will chose to grow their families through adoption and give the gift of a forever family to a child.

Mapping it out

In our kitchen we have a laminated map of the world hanging on the wall. My oldest was looking at it for awhile and then asked me to show him again where our baby was. I pointed it out - "Ethiopia, is right here...the purple country" He proceeded to draw a picture of "our baby" on the map. "Tyler," he said,"this is where our baby is." "Now if you lived here (as he pointed to surrounding countries) you could just take a car to go there. But we live all the way over here, so we have to go on a plane." His mapping needed a little help directionally because he was plotting our home somewhere in Brazil, but he is definitly getting the big idea. He continued," So, this is how we will go there and this is how we will come back home." I love that now our map has our plane route mapped over the ocean from Virginia to Ethiopia. And I love even more how excited he is about finding our baby.

Let the Wait Begin

This afternoon I opened up my email and saw the name of our adoption specialist in the from column. These type of emails always make my heart skip a beat. As I began to read the words, my heart was now racing and then I couldn't stop smiling. This is what it said: Dear Kevin and Sonya, I received your remaining dossier documents and Ethiopia Country Program fee of $8,700. I've reviewed your dossier, and everything appears to be in order. CHSFS will send your dossier for authentications at the US Dept of State and Ethiopian Embassy and, from there, it will go on to Ethiopia where it will wait for you to receive and accept a referral. Our records show that as of Tuesday, February 18, 2009, you are officially waiting for the referral of one infant girl aged 0-12 months, and that you plan to travel to Ethiopia when the time comes to receive your child(ren). As with all international adoption, the estimated referral wait reflects our best understanding and projection at the tim

Choices

Today I found myself on a trip down memory lane. The boys and I went to visit my dad for the afternoon. He volunteered to watch the boys while I went out running by myself. It was gorgeous weather today for a run and as I started out down that familiar path my mind began to flood with days gone by. As my feet hit the pavement over and over, the streets rolled by and with them specific moments that touched my life. Earlier that day during the car trip out to Grandad's, my oldest started recallng stories I had told him about when I was a child. For some reason he was reminded about the presents I use to get on St. Nickolaus Tag when I was a child. "You got sticks with candy on them, right, mommy?". "Yes, honey." (Kody thinking...) "You got sticks and candy because sometimes you were good and sometimes you were bad...sometimes you made good choices and sometimes you made bad choices." "That's right, babe, sometimes mommy made good choices and som

Longing Arms

Okay, so I have been over and over the documents and it appears that we are ready to send them off. Waahoo!! Tomorrow morning the heavy stack of papers describing every single part of our lives will go to CHSFS. They will review our documents (hopefully everything is perfect), add in a few of their own, get more state/U.S. certifications and then it will make it's journey to the Ethiopian Embassy. From that point it takes the long trip over the ocean to Ethiopia where it will be translated and put in line to go before the courts there. Having all the documents together and picturing the packet making its way to Ethiopia is awesome....makes it seem like it is really going to happen. Boy, do I long to hold my precious little girl in my arms. Tonight as I sat here alone on the couch going over and over everything, each document detailing our lives and why they should allow us to parent our baby....it made my mind go to the day when she will be ours and we will no longer have to

the faith of a child

It is beyond windy here today. There have actually been moments when I thought our house was going to fly away. And although here all our power lines are under ground, they must at some point emerge from there hide out because our power keeps flickering on and off. This phenomenon, of course, led my oldest into 1001 and questions about what was going on. I explained to him that we didn't need to worry about it because we could just open up all the windows and light our home with sunlight today. He immediately turned to his little brother and told him, "We don't need to be frightened because God is with us" Amazing and convicting. In all my talking not once did I mention this fact, not once did I bring up anything about how God played into this scenerio. And then I could see that he was looking for me to say that, he wanted me to reassure him that, yes God was with us and it was going to be okay. I love watching him grow in the Lord and teaching that to his little brot

the balloon popped

And so we just realized that one of our documents needs further certification....which means about 2 more weeks of waiting....and i know in the long run it is not a big deal, but I was so excited about being done .

Dancing at the Mailbox

Wahoo! The last document we were waiting on arrived today. I was so excited when I saw the envelope. I gave a big cheer and danced all around the mailbox. Tonight we will head off to the notary for some final signings and copies, some prayers and then off in the mailbox. We are all excited to have this phase completed and to begin our wait. We all miss our baby and are looking forward to the day when we get to bring her home. Yesterday my oldest told us, "I just really want our baby to come home." We tried to explain again that it will be over a year until that happens. He just got a sad look on his face and said, "I just really miss her." I felt the tears well in my own eyes as his precious little words echoed my own heart's cry. What a wonderful little boy God has blessed us with...I marvel at his tenderness and his love for others.