pictures

Kayla, Madison and friends Danielle and Delaney in Sackets Harbor. We went to the battle field for a picnic. Beautiful day!

Madison looks soooo cute in her ballet costume for her dance recital

Madison graduates from Teddy Bear corner preschool

Carter wearing daddy's trooper hat

Madison and Kayla

Been a While

Sorry I haven't written in a while. We're so busy with the kids and it's impossible for me to get on the computer when Carter is awake. This month is crazy! We had Madison's moving up day at Teddy Bear Corner preschool and her dance recital, which was absolutely adorable! Kayla had her recorder recital and all the end of the year stuff. We had my god daughter Olivia's 1st birthday party, our anniversary, two weddings, a wedding shower, and a trip up to camp in Old Forge and an Old McDonald's Farm trip planned with the playgroup. I don't think we can fit much more into this month! On top of it all Carter's molar is coming in and he has an ear infection so he's been up all night and miserable. My poor baby:(

Our dossier is in Ethiopia and being translated. We're just waiting for our referral. Our case worker said they have a lot of cases to be seen in court in the next couple months before the courts recess in August and September. Once those children go home to their forever families it will make room in the orphanage for more children. We're praying for a referral soon.

Waiting

Sorry I haven't had a minute to write! We are so busy! Nothing to exciting happening with the adoption right now. My FBI fingerprints were rejected for a second time so I have to get another police clearance from our local police department and sign a sworn statement at the USCIS office. My sweaty hands! AHH! Anyway, our dossier was authenticated in Washington, DC and will arrive at CWA on Monday. Hopefully they will get it sent that day to Ethiopia.
I met Christa and Benji's new son Lucas Digafu. He is so beautiful and sweet! I brought him a little people house and family to play with. Thought it was appropriate. He seemed to like it. I am so happy for them! Seeing them made me even more excited to receive my new son. Hopefully our boys can play together someday.
Tonight I had a knock at my door. It was an African American college student selling children's books. I explained that we can't afford to buy any at this time because we are adopting. He asked where we are adopting from and I told him Ethiopia and he said, "really that's where I'm from, Addis Ababa." He moved to the U.S. with his mom when he was two after his father had died. He said he has a large family there and visited when he was ten. He plans on returning after he finishes college. He told me how much he loves America and the better life he and his mother have found here. WOW! Now that was God sending this boy to my door! Lately I have been up at night and so stressed out about the cost of the adoption. I hate to even think about the money! We feel called to adopt and to give a child a loving family. You can't put a price on that. I know I have to continue praying and trusting that God will provide. Talking with this Ethiopian boy on my doorstep tonight just confirmed to me that what we are doing is right.

Authentication

We went to have our Power of Attorney and Cover Letter notarized and certified at the county clerks office today. I then sent them out overnight by Fed-Ex to the Secretary of State office in Albany for authentication. Hopefully I will get them back by the end of the week. I spoke with Michael Arrowood our case worker at Christian World Adoption today and asked about how long it would take to receive a referral. He said the wait right now for a little boy is about three months from the time your dossier is sent to Ethiopia. That takes us into August. The courts in Ethiopia recess for the months of August and September. It coinsides with there rainy season. So....we probably won't get a court date until October or November. Travel is usually 5-6 weeks after you pass court. Unless a miracle happens and we receive a referral as soon as we go on the waiting list then we would hopefully get a court date before the courts recess. I know that would make this whole adoption quite fast since we just started the process in February! Well, if you know me I'm not very patient when it comes to waiting! I like things done yesterday! A miracle would be great!!

Our Beautiful Children!!

Just wanted to post a picture of our three beautiful children for all to see! Kayla is 8 years old and in third grade. Kayla enjoys drawing, painting, 4H, and soccer. She is sweet, loving, nurturing, and has a great sense of humor. Madison is 3 years old and attends preschool twice a week. Madison loves dance, playing games, story hour at the local library, and reading. She is silly, sweet, energetic, and loving. Carter is 10 months old and is a very active and curious little boy. He is so sweet and loves to cuddle with his mommy. They are excited about getting a new little brother!
Our dossier and final payment is on it's way to CWA for approval! Once we get the "OK" (please God let it be perfect!) it's off to the Secretary of State office in Albany for authentication then onto Washington D.C. for authentication. Then......TO Ethiopia!!

Moving forward

Our home study is complete! YAY! It will now be sent to CIS and CWA for approval. Once approved we will send our completed dossier on to Washington D.C. for authentication. Then on to Ethiopia!!! I am so excited to get it out of my hands! It has taken me countless days to put this dossier together! I will be so relieved once it is on it's way to Ethiopia. At that point it is completely out of my control and we just wait for it to be translated and then to be given our court date!! Most of the time you don't pass court the first time and will be given another court date within a couple weeks. We're still looking forward to the day when we receive a referral of a beautiful little boy waiting to come home to his forever family! I just received an email a couple of days ago from a friend who is also adopting from Ethiopia and they just passed court last Thursday (but didn't find out until Monday) and will be on their way to get their son on Wednesday! WOW! I am overjoyed for them! I couldn't even sleep that night I was just so excited for them and of course fantasizing about the day we get the news that we passed court and the beautiful little boy, whoever he may be is officially ours! It only took them about 8 months. I can only hope and pray that ours goes as quick! Please pray that things move quickly and smoothly and none of our paperwork is wrong or gets lost!
I remember reading on Christa's blog that it's so frustrating waiting on all this paperwork to be sent here and there and thinking "doesn't anyone realize that we have a beautiful little boy just sitting in Ethiopia waiting for all this paperwork to be finished??" That's exactly how I'm feeling! It's amazing to me that there is so much "paperwork" and they make it so expensive and difficult to adopt when the statistics show that there are over 50 million orphan children worldwide. Please pray for all orphaned children and for more people to open their hearts and consider adopting one of Gods children.

Waiting

Not much happening with our adoption right now. We're waiting. I'm told there is a lot of waiting! We had a miner set back. My fingerprints that were sent in for child abuse clearance were sent back because I have this problem with my hands always being sweaty so they couldn't read them. I had to get new ones taken and sent back in which means it will be even longer to get the clearance that our home study provider needs to complete our home study. Steve and I went yesterday to the U.S. immigration office in Syracuse for our FBI fingerprints. They had trouble with my sweaty hands too! Hopefully we'll hear something soon. I'm anxious to get our dossier sent to Ethiopia!

Home Visit Complete/ Why Ethiopia?

We had our home visit on Wednesday. I'm so glad it's over! The lady was very nice and made us feel very comfortable but it's always a little nerve racking when someone comes into your home to "judge "you. Steve took Madison and Carter to story hour at the library that morning so that I could clean the house. It was probably a little too clean! She asked us many personal questions regarding our marriage and parenting style. It was hard to think of good answers on the spot with Madison running around. It took three hours for her to talk with us and go through the house. She thought everything went very well and she hopes to get our home study complete by the end of April. We have everything we need for our dossier once the home study report is in. I have to wait until the last minute to have the cover letter and power of attorney letter authenticated at the secretary of state office. I'm anxious to get our dossier sent to Ethiopia! I can't wait to get a referral! I can't wait to see the little boy that God has chosen to be our son!

Many people keep asking why we have chosen to adopt from Ethiopia and not America. We have heard quite often "there are many children that need good homes right here in our own country". This is true. Their are so many children here in the United States who do need good homes but our country is so fortunate to have foster homes and not orphanages for these children to live in. I know foster care is not the same as having a family and home to call your own but it's better than living in an orphanage in Africa. The children here get three meals a day, medical care for their every need, go to school and have every opportunity they can dream of. They also have toys to play with and books to read. There are approximately 4.3 million orphans in Ethiopia alone. The children are starving, the medical care is so scarce and awful that many children never see a doctor let alone receive immunizations. The doctor to children ratio is 1 to 24,000. One in five children will die before their fifth birthday. Half of the children will never attend school. The orphanages I worked in had no toys and no books. It doesn't matter to me what country you live in. This is God's world and we are all his children. We all deserve to have a loving family, food to nourish our bodies, medical care when it is needed, and an opportunity to fulfill our dreams. There is a much greater need in Africa and I feel that God is calling us to adopt from Africa.

Busy!

We have been so busy doing paperwork for the home study and dossier. Steve and I have both completed our 10 hour training and read the adoption parenting book and passed the exam. We completed our home study paperwork today with our medical exams and PPD tests. Renee, the social worker is coming to do our home visit on Wednesday the 18th. Hopefully everything will go well! I'm of course going crazy trying to make sure the house is spotless and everything is perfect! She will be here for 3 hours. She needs to inspect the house and talk with Steve and I and the girls. I can only imagine what they'll say! Please pray! Anyway, I've been working on our dossier, which is the paperwork that gets sent to Ethiopia. You can't even imagine how much this is! We need a cover letter and power of attorney letter which needs to be notarized and then authenticated at the Secretary of State office in Albany, all of our home study reports, police clearance letter, passport size photos, certified birth certificates and certified marriage licence, medical reports, family photos, employee letter, bank statements, tax returns, parent letter requesting adoption, reference letters, and parent commitment reports. Everything has to be notarized. I have also sent in our I-600A which is an application for advance processing of orphan petition. Once approved they set up an appointment for Steve and I to go to Syracuse for FBI fingerprints. Steve has also applied for his passport and I called public health to set up an apt. to start the series of immunizations we will need to travel to Ethiopia. They said it would take 2-3 months to complete all of the paperwork. Well if you know me, I worked on it every chance I had and finished everything except for the home study reports in less than a week. Steve is probably about ready to kill me! No, really he has been so wonderful running here and there and helping me to get all of this done. We are both so anxious to complete everything and get it sent to Ethiopia. We can't wait to receive a referral (which is a picture and description of a child waiting to be adopted)! We know our child is out there right now! It all seems overwhelming but we know it's more than worth it. We feel like God has blessed us in so many ways and we can pass that blessing on to a child. In the Bible God commands that we care for the orphans and he rejoices in putting the lonely into families. I wish I could take care of them all. When I went to Africa and worked in the orphanages it really touched my heart. When you hold and look into the eyes of these children who have no family, have never had a hug and a kiss, never been read a bed time story, told that they are loved and that they are somebody, it breaks your heart. I remember this little girl probably 4 or 5 years old who was so sick with a cough and high fever. They made her sit by herself in a chair in the corner of the room so she wouldn't get anyone else sick. It was so sad to me. When my children are sick they want their mommy. I hold them and care for their every need. I hate to see them hurting. These children never have that. They don't get any of their emotional needs met because the few women working in the orphanages are so busy trying to keep up with meeting their physical needs such as being fed. Many times they only receive one or two meals a day which they have to sit in high chairs for hours waiting for. Many of the children didn't even cry anymore because they had learned that it didn't do them any good to cry, no one would meet their need. These children often times never get to go to school. They have no opportunity. It's heartbreaking. My heart has never hurt so much as it did when I cared for baby Mariano. I cared for him like I would my own child. I fell in love with him like he was my own child. When he was so sick I wanted to do anything I could to make him better. I begged the nurse and the lady who ran the orphanage to let me take him to the hospital which they eventually allowed me to do but they couldn't help him. We contacted a pediatrician in the U.S. who sent special formula but that didn't seem to help either. They kept telling me he was going to die but I couldn't hear of it. I wanted to bring him home with me more then I have ever wanted anything. I knew he would receive the best medical care and love. He would be ok. But, Mozambique doesn't do international adoptions. There was nothing I could do but hold him in my arms and watch him die. It was horrible! Saying goodbye to him when it was time for me to leave was awful. I've never felt so helpless. He died 2 weeks later. I still think of him often and continue to grieve for him. When I was in Africa I vowed that one day I would open an orphanage and give all the love I could to these children. Obviously I can't do that at this time in my life but I can help one child. I can open our home and hearts to one child. I can give him love and an opportunity that he may otherwise never had. Sometimes it seems so insufficient to help only one child when their are millions who need help. I keep thinking back to what Mother Theresa said "if you can't feed 100 people then just feed one". I wish that everyone had the opportunity to work in an orphanage. I just know that more people would consider adoption and open their hearts to a child.

Home Study Paperwork

We received the paperwork in the mail yesterday for our home study. WOW! There is a lot of paperwork! We have to complete an information for child abuse form, take fingerprint cards to the police station to be fingerprinted, have a physical by our physician, request five personal references, information forms which includes personal info, educational info, financial info, and extended family info. We each have to write an autobiography and answer an adoption questionnaire. Make photo copies of pay stubs, income taxes, financial statement, birth certificates, marriage certificate, and submit photos of our family and home. I stayed up for hours working on it last night and then couldn't sleep thinking about how much I still had left to do. I understand the need for all the paperwork but it just seems crazy to me that I gave birth to three children and no one even asked if I had a place to live! It's just a little overwhelming right now but it will be worth it in the end! Thank you to everyone for all your support!

Home Study

We have chosen Family Connections to do our home study! They are located in Cortland and do HS for the whole state. It was funny when she asked me what adoption agency we chose and I said CWA, she said she just got off the phone with them regarding a family that just adopted 3 children from Ethiopia! How ironic! The next step is to fill out the application for the home study and submit some documents that can take 6-8 weeks to process. After they receive the paperwork the social worker will come to visit. The social worker that will be doing our home study happens to be the same lady I talked to on the phone. I think her name was Renee but I'm not sure because when she called it was chaos at my house! Carter was screaming in his high chair and I was watching Bocker for Lisa and I had just put all the ingredients on the table to make cookies with him and Madison. They were asking me over and over and over "come on, lets make cookies now!" and while I was on the phone with her I had 4 other calls come in which causes the phone to beep and cut out. I had to keep apologizing and asking her to repeat herself. Great first impression! She's probably thinking "yeah like you need one more kid!" I'll be glad when the home study is done! Their report pretty much determines wheather or not you'll be approved to adopt. Lots of prayer please!

Just the Beginning

YAY! After a year and a half of talking and praying about the decision to adopt we have finally decided it was time! After spending a month in Africa caring for orphans I know that's where my heart is. That must be part of Gods purpose for my life. Steve has always been supportive but after hearing my stories, seeing the pictures and video he too felt the need to offer a child with no family, a loving family and an opportunity. We both feel that we have been so blessed and have so much love to offer another child. After researching many different adoption agencies, we chose Christian World Adoption. After submitting our application on Tuesday morning we were accepted by that evening. We have chosen to adopt a boy between the age 1-3 years old from Ethiopia. CWA sent us an email with tons of information. A little overwhelming! We had 17 pages to print, read and have notarized. We got that sent out to them this morning. Steve and I also participated in a webinar this morning. Which is a conference call and you're on the computer at the same time. It was an orientation meeting which was very helpful. It got us both so excited! It's a long process that will take 9 months to a year. This is just the beginning of a long road ahead. We have to complete 10 hrs of training, home study, dossier (paperwork), and then it has to be translated in Ethiopia and go to court. We pray that everything goes smooth and quick! We look forward to the day when we can hold our little boy and welcome him home.