Adoption Thoughts/Blog

This Blog contains the journey of bringing our Ethiopian daughter home, as well as our thoughts on adoption. God has blessed us and it is our turn, no, our privilege to share with you. We currently have some glitches on this blog. Please forgive the "look" of this page while we try to resolve these problems.

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Saturday, June 13, 2009

The Process, The Chaos, The Paperwork (had to throw chaos in there, it sounded more interesting)

Ok, again this will be a blog that’s hard to make riveting (cue the dramatic music). The question has been thrown at us repeatedly by our inquisitive friends, “What is our time line like?” “When will you bring the twins home?” However, we probably should shrug our shoulders in total ignorance…..

We really do have no clue when the twins will come home…really. Our last two adoptions took on lives of their own (or I should say,a life of God’s).

Max we called our “miracle baby” in an adoption that was supposed to take twelve months from the signing of the contract, took six. Bekah’s adoption was much of the same. Her adoption was supposed to take eighteen months, took nine. We have these crazy timelines that are put in place and God has other ideas. We know it could easily take much longer (though we pray not), but then God knows much better than us when our little ones will end up in our arms. I LOVE the saying, “We plan, God laughs”.

Do we hope it’s quick? The funds? The wait? Court? Travel? Do we hope that it’s like water, pouring into our lives in a steady flow? YES! God knows so much better than we do though.

After all that, I will share with you the basic time line we’ve been given. Since we know you all have been waiting in intense anticipation (try saying that five times fast…intense anticipation, intense anticipation, intense anticipation, intense anticipation, intense anticipation)….here it is!

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Step One: Application to Placing agency (Adoption Avenues). (Mailed May 6th)

Step Two: Contract signed for Home Study Agency (Hope International-May 6th) and Adoption Avenues (May 17th).

Step Three: Paperwork chase and online classes for Home Study and actual Home Study (June 5th at 2:00)

Step Four-Paper Chase for the Dossier-Dossier gathered-These are the documents that we register in Ethiopia for the adoption. We will hopefully be done with these two weeks from home study.

Step Five-Fingerprints and Pre approval from Immigration (U.S.). Will hopefully send off this week and will receive invite for fingerprints and approval within 4-6 weeks? (It took two! DONE!!!!)

Step Six-Sending Dossier and Immigration paperwork to Secretary of State to get all documents certified from the State they came from. This includes Texas and California for us. We sent off one set of papers on June 11th, but need to wait for immigration approval (step five) to send all of the rest of the documents. We will walk those in ourselves (Woo hoo! Fun trip!). DONE!

Step Seven- Our Dossier goes to Washington DC to be authenticated. Usually this is very quick. (Dossier Sent!)

Step Eight- Our Dossier gets sent to Ethiopia to be translated and registered. We hear it takes about two weeks from the authentication (step 7) to registering our documents.

Step Nine- THE WAIT BEGINS! We now wait for a referral of our twins! Though this can be a very short wait if no one is ahead of us with the same request, it will probably be at least 4 to 6 months. Though this is hard, it also involves an enormous loss for another one of God’s children….our children’s biological family (which becomes our extended family).

Step Ten- We receive the REFERRAL!!!! We’ve seen our twins and accept the referral!

Step Eleven- Ethiopian Court- This usually happens about 3 months after referral (though we are praying it will happen very quickly). We pray to pass the first time!

Step Twelve- U.S Embassy appointment and Travel-Usually about six weeks after court! WOO HOO!

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Again, the question “When?” is all a great guessing game. God is bigger that any time line man can muster. Our twins will come home at the PERFECT time J, there’s no doubt about it!

Yep, no exploding ice cream cones….this time.

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Please Pray…
For these little ones God has chosen to place in our family…for their physical and emotional health in a difficult place.
For their biological family…that God has His hand on them and brings them peace in whatever they must face.
That God has His hand on this adoption, guiding us, bringing peace, and financially providing.
Currently we are in the paperwork stage in which many issues can occur. Please pray that God has His hand on our paperwork and that it gets done and processed quickly and correctly.
Last, though it may seem a bit premature, please specifically pray that once we are referred our little ones, that they come home quickly and pass court the first time (many are starting to have multiple court dates and a LONG wait until travel). The Ethiopian government is being very cautious and caring with their wonderful children though and for that we are so thankful.

7:32 pm

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Exploding Ice Cream Cones

     I was trying to brain storm on how to make a blog about our dossier exciting. I thought about incorporating exploding ice cream cones, but couldn’t quite tie it together (and believe me, I tried).

     We sent out our first paperwork to be certified by the Secretary of State in California today. The rest goes to the Secretary of State in Texas.

     The dossier is my ABSOLUTE favorite part of adoption (so maybe there’s a touch of sarcasm in that sentence). Picture a BAZILLION pieces of paper, all which have to be notarized, given your right arm for (which is very difficult since I only have one, two if you count your spouse), one of your papers which is very stubborn and refuses to be done right (even after having a serious talk with it). They then all are bundled up and sent to the Secretary of State to certify the notaries. The goal is to send the dossier to Ethiopia for the Ethiopian government to approve.

     Doesn’t that sound like fun? It is worth it though and it is understandable as well. Protecting these wonderful children has to be on the top of the priority list. These rebellious pieces of paper are to insure that we are who we say we are, we are healthy, and we can provide for our little ones. Worth it? Yes. Fun? Ummm…

7:20 pm

Loving Bekah - Written on June 9th, 2009

“Mommy”, I hear a sweet little voice, “Max say he tell on me!” It may not sound like the phrase most parents long to hear, but then they don’t look into the huge eyes of our little Ethiopian princess. Yes, we are a little curious what she is telling on herself about (her brother hadn’t said a word), but we feel so amazingly blessed to just be able to hear those words.

We waited for nine long months for her “birth” into our family. On June 9th 2007, after a VERY long plane trip, Bekah, Tom, and I traveled down a well-worn hallway to pass through immigration and into the arms of our family.

Two years ago today she met her daddy, sisters, and brother. Two years ago today she radiated such an amazing joy, like nothing we have ever seen in a child. Bekah, honey, we celebrate this day of your birth into our family. You are beyond what we could have imagined. You have your grandpa’s dimples. Your mommy and daddy’s chipmunk cheeks and (some may say unfortunately) you have the warped Marr/Beckmann sense of humor. We love you beyond our wildest imagination sweetheart.

7:17 pm

The Home Study 06/05/09

I sit here and wonder who brilliantly decided to switch the kids rooms JUST before our home study. Oh wait…that was me. Of course we had to paint over yellow butterflies and the home made stencils of the 50 States (yes, I did make them…before I had more than two kids). We had a teen that wanted a teen room (so picky ) and girls that were trying to smash painted butterflies. They were ALL sick of their rooms.
Of course I made this very wise (hear the sarcasm) decision as my husband announced his week long trip to Malaysia. I assume he planned it that way to avoid my pre-home study madness. Ok, so he really wouldn’t do that…Ericsson just had impeccable timing during one of my more brilliant ideas.
Yes, the rooms got done. We still have some decorating to do, but the rooms are done. What is even better is that the HOME STUDY IS DONE!!!! Yes, there is joy in that. Dawn (our social worker) has been to our house about a million times, but unfortunitly my oddly tuned brain never registers that until my post home study sanity filters back through the madness.
Dawn came over and visited and toured our new rooms for a wonderful two hour visit. She asked some tough questions. Many may not like that, but I think the tougher the questions often the better the agency. They’ve thought this through. They care about the children and the children are the priority. Yes, it feels a little like the uncomfortable physical with the penetrating questions (the rubber gloves and all), but you come out of it knowing that your tests came out positive and knowing the things you need to work on…all in all, good. We are thankful for our “doctor” who takes things with kindness and has a wonderful heart for children.
So, we are done. Now the real paperwork begins…the dossier. A MILLION pieces of paper that need to be notarized, state certified in the State they were issued, sent to be translated, etc. This is where it really relies on other people, which is always a little scary. If you think of it, please pray for our paperwork….that it is timely, correct, and will come together with as much ease as possible. This is often where glitches start.
Please continue to pray for the other prayer requests below as well.

Please Pray…
For these little ones God has chosen to place in our family…for their physical and emotional health in a difficult place.
For their biological family…that God has His hand on them and brings them peace in whatever they must face.
That God has His hand on this adoption, guiding us, bringing peace, and financially providing.
Last, though it may seem a bit premature, please specifically pray that once we are referred our little ones, that they come home quickly and pass court the first time (many are starting to have multiple court dates and a LONG wait until travel). The Ethiopian government is being very cautious and caring with their wonderful children though and for that we are so thankful.

7:15 pm

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“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 (NIV)