As we plug along in this stage of the adoption process we have a few specific things we would love prayer for!
1. For the remaining paperwork. That we would be able to gather everything smoothly, without any delays. That we would be able to find focus and time for these tasks during this extremely busy season in our families' life.
2. For our final home study visit and all that we must accomplish before that meeting. We are meeting on July 3rd at 10:30 am with our social worker for this visit. Between now and then we must gather the remaining paperwork, we must complete our education requirements, and come up with the remaining funds for the home study.
3. We are seeking the Lord concerning the specific things we are looking for or open to in the child our agency will refer to us. In adoption you must fill out paper work to list what you are looking for in a child. (ie. age, gender, and medical conditions) Our agency has a birth order policy that says our newly adopted child must come into our family as the youngest child in the family by 9 months. That would mean the next youngest child must be 9 months younger than Levi. Since our current children are so young this narrows the age window for us. We are trying to be as open as possible within that window. We are having to consider all kinds of medical conditions and spell out to our agency what we are open to and what we are not. We have said from the beginning we would be open to either gender. (though Sophie desperately wants a sister!) We know that we are open to any age from 0-3 (or whatever 9 months younger than Levi is at that time) We also said from the beginning that we are open to siblings. We have recently been feeling led to consider bringing home two children. So our specifications would say "siblings or 2 unrelated" children. Would you pray for us in this? We are seeking God specifically concerning "how many" and concerning the medical/emotional conditions and family history. We must know these things by our final home study visit, which is July 3rd.
4. For all things financial in this process. Adoption is expensive. We are continually working to cut expenses in our life, sell things, or take on extra jobs. We will do a few fundraisers as soon as our home study is over. (I am working on a great one where we will sell handmade bracelets from women in Haiti!) And most importantly we are trusting in our God to provide. We believe he has led us to this and that he will lead us through it. We knew from beginning this whole process would be one of faith and trust and funding it is one of the more obvious areas we must do that. We believe that God is faithful to all he has promised. We have already seen his miraculous hand at work since we stepped forward in faith and we honestly anticipate seeing him provide all of the way through. We believe adoption and orphan care is for the whole church and that God desires for his body to work together with their different gifts and calling to reach out and care for the fatherless. So we pray that God would send some and use others to help send. Would you join us is praying? Pray that God would increase our faith and trust in him and his promises. Pray that God would continue to reveal more of himself as he provides every step of the way.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Ethiopian Restaurants and Our Garage Sale!
For mother's day this year we celebrated by driving to the Twin Cities for lunch at an Ethiopian restaurant. This was our first experience with Ethiopian food. What better way to spend mother's day than by remembering and preparing for our sweet Ethiopian children to come! We ordered a large sampler platter for us all to share. They do not use silverware but instead use a large flat bread called injera for scooping food. I was really proud of Caleb and Sophie for trying most of what was on the platter. We all found things we liked and were able to distinguish what we didn't. We feel a bit more prepared for our next meal of Ethiopian food. Thankfully, they had chicken fingers on the menu so Levi didn't starve! Throughout the meal Levi would say (very sincerely) "These chicken fingers are sooo good! These are the best fries I've ever had!"
We also had a garage sale as our first adoption fundraiser. It was fairly successful. We simultaneously listed things on craigslist as well. Caleb, Sophie, and Levi sold cupcakes and lemonade to help bring their little brother/sister home! Dan ran most of the sale while I watched our little ones!
We also had a garage sale as our first adoption fundraiser. It was fairly successful. We simultaneously listed things on craigslist as well. Caleb, Sophie, and Levi sold cupcakes and lemonade to help bring their little brother/sister home! Dan ran most of the sale while I watched our little ones!
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Home Study Education
For our home study we are required to both complete 10 hours of education/training in the area of adoption. Some agencies have specific training tools that they use for everyone. Our home study agency is much more personalized in their approach. They have a number of recommended resources that they share with couples. Each social worker looks at each family situation and then works with the couple to decide the areas of adoption that would be most beneficial for them to learn more about. For us our social worker recommended that we cover attachment and bonding after adoption and the unique challenges that come with being a multiracial family. She then left the remaining required hours up to us to choose as we saw fit. (with the agency's approval)
We had already read the book "Adopted for Life" by Russell Moore. (see our recommended resource page on blog). This book will count toward our required hours. If you are considering adoption yourself or are close to a family who is adopting, we cannot recommend this book enough. It is a truly fantastic book and gives great depth of insight into the relationship between our spiritual adoption in Christ and the physical act of bringing orphans into families on earth.
We are reading a book called "The Connected Child" by Karyn B. Pruvis. You can find it here.
This book talks in depth about what it means to attach and bond with your adopted child when they come home.
We are also listening to a variety workshops from recent adoption conferences.
So far we have listened to a few on becoming a multi racial family and some on adoption in general.
You can listen to a number of free sermons and workshops here and here.
These two sites are found at the Together For Adoption ministry page. If you are looking for some great sermons and resources for yourself as you explore adoption or as you come alongside of someone close to you who is adopting.
We had already read the book "Adopted for Life" by Russell Moore. (see our recommended resource page on blog). This book will count toward our required hours. If you are considering adoption yourself or are close to a family who is adopting, we cannot recommend this book enough. It is a truly fantastic book and gives great depth of insight into the relationship between our spiritual adoption in Christ and the physical act of bringing orphans into families on earth.
We are reading a book called "The Connected Child" by Karyn B. Pruvis. You can find it here.
This book talks in depth about what it means to attach and bond with your adopted child when they come home.
We are also listening to a variety workshops from recent adoption conferences.
So far we have listened to a few on becoming a multi racial family and some on adoption in general.
You can listen to a number of free sermons and workshops here and here.
These two sites are found at the Together For Adoption ministry page. If you are looking for some great sermons and resources for yourself as you explore adoption or as you come alongside of someone close to you who is adopting.
What we have been up to
Hi friends! So sorry for the long delay in posting. Our days and weeks are flying by in a whirlwind of adoption paperwork, VBS planning, homeschooling, 3 busy little ones, and traveling! We are in what is referred to as the "paper chase" portion of the adoption process. This feels most days like I am swimming in papers to fill, forms to notarize, phone calls to make and documents to gather. I thought I would take a minute to break down this phase and give you a glimpse of what we are doing these days toward the end goal of bringing home our children!
The paper chase is broken down into essentially three areas. We are working to compile/accomplish these things:
1. Ethiopian Dossier
2. USCIS
3. Home Study
Those three things look so small and simple sitting there in a neat little numbered group on this screen. That little list is terribly deceptive I am sorry to say! :-)
Ethiopian Dossier
This is the largest and most detailed task before us. It overlaps with the other two as well. This is a packet of compiled documents that will be translated and sent to the Ethiopian government. This is a packet the things that are required by the Ethiopian government for intercountry adoption. The list of things that must be included in this packet is LONG and PARTICULAR. We are gathering certified birth certificates, health exams, criminal clearances, and many many more of the like. Most of these things have to be worded in a very specific way and most of them notarized and on particular official paper.
USCIS
This is another packet of documents. These documents are what the United States government requires of us to adopt from Ethiopia. It is not quite as long as our list for our dossier. It has specific timing for completing some of the tasks and, like most of this process, involves financial cost and tedious work.
Home Study
This is a process we go through with a local, licensed adoption agency here in Minnesota. This portion involves gathering documents and completing tasks in order to meet federal, state, and Ethiopian country requirements. We work one on one with a social worker. We will have 3 face to face interviews with her. She will look over our home and meet with our children. We also have a list of paperwork (some overlapping with other paperwork from dossier and USCIS) and education requirements that we must complete and compile before our 3rd and final visit with our social worker. She will then take all of the paper work and what she has gathered from our interviews and write up our "Home Study". This is 15-20 paper document detailing her assessment of us as a family and her recommendations for us concerning adoption. This document will be a part of our Dossier and our USCIS packet.
So where are we in the process?
We have been working daily to gather these documents and complete these tasks. We have already had our first 2 home study visits and have scheduled our final visit. We probably have 70% of our documents gathered for the home study and dossier. We still have to get our paperwork notarized and we are still waiting on some documents to come in the mail. We are working to complete our home study required education/training. We are reading a few books and listening to a few online workshops relating to adoption more specifically attachment/bonding after adoption and becoming a multiracial family. (I will post in more detail about what we are learning about attachment, adoption in general, and multiracial parenting in another post.)
I am also directing our Vacation Bible School. I have been directing VBS for almost all of the past 10 summers in multiple places around the country. I have directing VBS while having other very big life challenges going on simultaneously and this year our adoption work is bringing with it a new level of challenge for me while attempting to direct this large outreach of our church.
I have directed VBS while:
- planning my wedding (that was taking place in another state)
-VERY PREGNANT two times (with both Levi and Caleb)
-after loss
-with very young children in tow (3 under 6/7 yrs old 2 times)
-while simultaneously homeschooling (those same little ones both years)
-after recent moves cross country
This year has been a new kind of challenge. My mind and time is torn is two very different directions with very long lists of tasks in both of those directions. I have had to rely on the Lord for grace to "let go" where I must and for the energy and focus to complete what is front of me daily. I am seeing in new ways God's strength being made perfect in my weakness and his daily carrying of my burdens. I don't feel as "in control" as I normally would (my mind is in so many places now and normally I am living and breathing VBS for the weeks prior) walking into VBS week but I am at peace knowing God's purpose will stand and that he is capable far beyond anything I can contribute to this!
We are slowing seeing a light at the end of this tunnel and slowing seeing the crazy jumble of tasks and paperwork start to become sorted and organized before us. We have hope that we just might be nearing the top of this paperwork mountain.
We truly desire and need your prayers. Please pray for the details of the paper work and tasks. That they would be done correctly the first time and that we would not see any major delays in getting those things submitted. Please pray that God would supply all of our needs, both financial and otherwise. Pray that we have His perspective in each and every step of the way. Pray that this time would not be in vain but that even the checklists and trials of paperwork would serve to show us more of him, to make us more like him, and to prepare our hearts and lives for the adoption of our little ones to come.
I do not plan to let this much time go by in updating the blog again! I hope to update weekly. Please feel free to hold me to this! :-)
The paper chase is broken down into essentially three areas. We are working to compile/accomplish these things:
1. Ethiopian Dossier
2. USCIS
3. Home Study
Those three things look so small and simple sitting there in a neat little numbered group on this screen. That little list is terribly deceptive I am sorry to say! :-)
Ethiopian Dossier
This is the largest and most detailed task before us. It overlaps with the other two as well. This is a packet of compiled documents that will be translated and sent to the Ethiopian government. This is a packet the things that are required by the Ethiopian government for intercountry adoption. The list of things that must be included in this packet is LONG and PARTICULAR. We are gathering certified birth certificates, health exams, criminal clearances, and many many more of the like. Most of these things have to be worded in a very specific way and most of them notarized and on particular official paper.
USCIS
This is another packet of documents. These documents are what the United States government requires of us to adopt from Ethiopia. It is not quite as long as our list for our dossier. It has specific timing for completing some of the tasks and, like most of this process, involves financial cost and tedious work.
Home Study
This is a process we go through with a local, licensed adoption agency here in Minnesota. This portion involves gathering documents and completing tasks in order to meet federal, state, and Ethiopian country requirements. We work one on one with a social worker. We will have 3 face to face interviews with her. She will look over our home and meet with our children. We also have a list of paperwork (some overlapping with other paperwork from dossier and USCIS) and education requirements that we must complete and compile before our 3rd and final visit with our social worker. She will then take all of the paper work and what she has gathered from our interviews and write up our "Home Study". This is 15-20 paper document detailing her assessment of us as a family and her recommendations for us concerning adoption. This document will be a part of our Dossier and our USCIS packet.
So where are we in the process?
We have been working daily to gather these documents and complete these tasks. We have already had our first 2 home study visits and have scheduled our final visit. We probably have 70% of our documents gathered for the home study and dossier. We still have to get our paperwork notarized and we are still waiting on some documents to come in the mail. We are working to complete our home study required education/training. We are reading a few books and listening to a few online workshops relating to adoption more specifically attachment/bonding after adoption and becoming a multiracial family. (I will post in more detail about what we are learning about attachment, adoption in general, and multiracial parenting in another post.)
I am also directing our Vacation Bible School. I have been directing VBS for almost all of the past 10 summers in multiple places around the country. I have directing VBS while having other very big life challenges going on simultaneously and this year our adoption work is bringing with it a new level of challenge for me while attempting to direct this large outreach of our church.
I have directed VBS while:
- planning my wedding (that was taking place in another state)
-VERY PREGNANT two times (with both Levi and Caleb)
-after loss
-with very young children in tow (3 under 6/7 yrs old 2 times)
-while simultaneously homeschooling (those same little ones both years)
-after recent moves cross country
This year has been a new kind of challenge. My mind and time is torn is two very different directions with very long lists of tasks in both of those directions. I have had to rely on the Lord for grace to "let go" where I must and for the energy and focus to complete what is front of me daily. I am seeing in new ways God's strength being made perfect in my weakness and his daily carrying of my burdens. I don't feel as "in control" as I normally would (my mind is in so many places now and normally I am living and breathing VBS for the weeks prior) walking into VBS week but I am at peace knowing God's purpose will stand and that he is capable far beyond anything I can contribute to this!
We are slowing seeing a light at the end of this tunnel and slowing seeing the crazy jumble of tasks and paperwork start to become sorted and organized before us. We have hope that we just might be nearing the top of this paperwork mountain.
We truly desire and need your prayers. Please pray for the details of the paper work and tasks. That they would be done correctly the first time and that we would not see any major delays in getting those things submitted. Please pray that God would supply all of our needs, both financial and otherwise. Pray that we have His perspective in each and every step of the way. Pray that this time would not be in vain but that even the checklists and trials of paperwork would serve to show us more of him, to make us more like him, and to prepare our hearts and lives for the adoption of our little ones to come.
I do not plan to let this much time go by in updating the blog again! I hope to update weekly. Please feel free to hold me to this! :-)
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