How You Can Help

We've had a few people ask us how they can help as we near the time of accepting our referral and submitting our final payment.

First of all, we could use prayers. We are still a bit shy of what we need financially. We know God will provide.

Secondly, we've had a few people ask about helping financially. Please do not feel pressured to donate. But, if you do feel led, we've added a Paypal button on the left side of the blog. This will go directly to our adoption account. (You do not have to have a Paypal account to donate)

The Lifebook fees (all the information they have about her life and the region where she grew up) went up at the end of last year, and I was unaware that the post-placement fees were due at referral. So we're looking to be about 3500 short. We're hoping our checks next week will be big enough to reduce some of that, but we'll be a little shy.

Again, please do not feel obligated or pressured to help out financially. We need prayer just as much as anything - prayer that everything goes smoothly from here on out.

And thank you all SO MUCH for your prayers and help these last few years. I'm sure I sound like a broken record, but you have been the best village in helping bring Bertie home.  <3

KC and I cannot thank you all enough for EVERYTHING you guys have done. We owe so much to you for helping us bring this beautiful gift home.  <3

The greatest birthday gift

My cheeks hurt from smiling so much. We. Got. Our. Referral. It's still so surreal to say that! 

Our daughter. She has a name. A face. A smile friends have already said look like mine. It's the chipmunk cheeks and squinty eyes from smiling so big. 

Her hair is short, but from the pictures it looks super curly. She glows. In every picture, she exudes joy. She is full of something - every picture she looked so happy and full of life. 

She's ours. 

She's been Effie for so long. But one look at her and we knew it didn't fit. We were given her long name and KC immediately looked at me and said "We should call her Bertie for short". She's 4, so we didn't want to completely change her name. The boys agreed that Bertie was better. And oh so fitting as it means "bright promise" - and that's exactly what she is. 

We have 2 weeks to officially accept our referral. We know she's ours. 

But we also have to have the remaining funds. And after talking to our Coordinator yesterday, I realized we saved too little. They upped some final fees last fall and one big fee I though we paid when we came back is due now as well. So we'll be using this time to scrimp and save. We're not worried. God has brought us this far and I know He won't let us down. 

So, in advance, forgive me for posting/selling whatever we can. Lol. 

Many of you have asked what is up next. Well, I'll number the steps to make it easier to see. 

1. Once we accept the referral, we have to wait for our PAIR letter. A letter from USCIS to allow her to "immigrate" to the USA. This is a new process just implemented last September. 

http://www.uscis.gov/news/alerts/ethiopia-will-implement-pre-adoption-immigration-review-pair-requirement

2. Once we get our PAIR letter, we wait for our court date in Ethiopia. This is our first trip to ET. We're hoping to hit this point in about 8-10 weeks. 

3. Once we get approval from the Ethiopian courts to bring her home, we come home without her so the US Embassy can conduct their reviews. 

4. We head back to Ethiopia for our final trip (after US approval) and to finally bring our little girl home. This could be anywhere from 4-10 weeks after the first trip. 

5. Everyone who wants can meet us at the airport to finally see dear Bertie. 

6. We hole up in our house for anywhere from 3-5 months to cocoon/bond with her. It's important that she know that KC and I are her providers, her comforters, the ones who show her love and affection. 

Don't worry, the cocooning stage won't last forever. Lol. We just want to make sure she bonds with us. 

Anyway, that's where we are in a nutshell. I'll post more as we get further along, but I'll leave you with a few announcement pictures we took this morning, thanks to my best friend Desiree. ❤️ 

Thank you ALL for your prayers and support throughout this journey. We cannot wait to have her in our arms!

In the 1st line...

I posted a link to an article entitled “10 Things Not to Say to an Adoptive Parent”. I laughed at number 4:

 

4. “Can’t you just go and pick him up?”

- Umm… no. Because that would be kidnapping.

 

And then yesterday as the boys and I were waiting in the car for Daddy to show up at the restaurant, Caedmon out of the blue asks “Can’t we just fly to Africa to get Effie already?” Oliver agreed with a loud “Yeah!”

 

I then proceeded to say, for what feels like the millionth time, “No buddy, we can’t just go and get her yet”. This was followed by whining and a “But whyyyy? It’s been like forever!”

 

My mind raced trying to figure out how I could explain to them the waiting process in a way they would understand. Thank the Lord I came up with something quick.

 

Me: Guys, right now, we’re waiting in line. You know how sometimes you wait in line for something that you really want and sometimes the line goes super slow?

 

Oliver: Yeah! Like at Chick-fil-A! (always thinking of food that one)

 

Me: Yep! Exactly! Right now, we’re waiting in line to see a picture of Effie.

 

(I’m jumping in here to explain that our agency doesn’t give us wait list numbers. Some agencies will do that to give you an idea of “where in line” you are. Our agency doesn’t quite do that as they’re matching the family to the child, not necessarily the next person “in line”. Each agency does things differently and has different views on it – not that one is better than the other.)

 

Caedmon: But what if another family takes her on accident?

 

Me: That won’t happen buddy. There are a lot of kiddos there waiting to meet their families. Once we get a picture of Effie, she’ll be ours okay?

 

Caedmon: Okay. If you’re sure.

 

Me *thinking brilliantly ahead. Hehe*: Now, once we are finally at the front of the line and get a picture of Effie, we have to get in another line. In this line, we’re waiting to go to court and see the judge so he can say we’re Effie’s family.

 

Caedmon: COURT!! What if the judge takes you to jail!

 

Me: No, it’s okay. It’s a judge that wants Effie to have a home. We won’t go to jail in Africa.

 

Oliver: Phew! That was close.

 

Me: Okay. And once we’re done at court, we’ll come back home and then we’ll be in the last line. The last line we wait in is to FINALLY bring Effie home.

 

Caedmon: Well, that doesn’t seem too hard.

 

Me: Nope. It’s just a lot of waiting patiently. Now, how many lines are there.

 

Oliver: Three!!!

 

Me: And what line are we in?

 

Boys: One!!

 

Caedmon: But it is kinda hard to wait.

 

Me: I know. But, what we can do in the meantime is pray that God helps us stay patient while we’re waiting our turn. And we can keep praying for Effie.

 

Caedmon: Yeah, that she doesn’t get hurt or nuthin’.

 

Oliver: I’m worried about going to Africa! I’ve never been there before.

 

Me: ………. Well……. You guys probably aren’t going to go to Africa with us. It’ll just be me and Daddy.

 

Boys: WHAT?!?! Why!

 

Me: Because, it’ll cost a lot more money and there are a lot of other reasons. BUT you get to stay here and chill out with some of our family! Woot woot!

 

Boys: Woot woot!

 

Oliver: Mom.

 

Me: Yes Ollie.

 

Oliver: So…. Can we stay home all by ourselves while you and Daddy are in Africa?

 

Me: Uh. No. I don’t think so.

 

Ollie: Oh poop. Fine then.

 

And then they proceeded to poke and mess with each other in the backseat of the car. Once Dad pulled up, they explained the process to him.

 

It was pretty exciting to hear them explaining it and actually understanding it. The longer we wait, the more antsy the boys get. They know it’s been a while since we first started talking about Effie.

 

So here we are. Waiting patiently after getting good news from our agency yesterday that Ethiopia has no intentions of closing the doors to international adoption. We’re continually trusting in God.

 

We’d LOVE to be able to finally be matched and bring her home this year. But we know it’s all in God’s hands.

 

We’re back in the paper chase a little bit – we’re working on updating some of our forms (home study and USCIS application) again. But at least it gives us something to do while we’re waiting. Since we bought a house, our social worker has to come over and inspect it and update our home study to send to USCIS for our I600A. So KC and I are trying to finish unpacking and getting Effie’s room set back up.

 

We were given a twin bed from a friend at work, so I’m going to paint it. We’ll still need to get a mattress and foundation, but her room is slowly coming together again.

 

No matter what this year brings, we are still holding to His promise; hoping that this is the year we finally get to see our little girls face.  ❤️

  

  

 

35 + 32

Tomorrow marks 35 months that we've been in the adoption process. On my 27th birthday next month, it will be a full 3 years since we mailed off our first piece of paper.

Yesterday, I posted a picture of our Dossier checklist. Since our Dossier will expire in May of this year, we were told last year that we would need to start gathering everything again in about February or March. 

Today I contacted our International Coordinator (IC) to make sure we still had the green light to get started. The response wasn't exactly what I was expecting. 

Since things have been moving so slowly in regards to referrals, our agency has decided not to require families to begin on their second dossier until closer to the time of an expected referral. 

KC and I thought that was great. Less paperwork to do multiple times as things begin to expire. 

What I wasn't expecting was the timeline. 

We were under the impression from our IC last year, that since we were open to certain special needs and to an older child, our wait time could be much shorter. (That didn't factor in to any of our decisions, it just turned out to be exciting news to us after we made our decisions)

Then, I sucked it up and asked the scary question: 

What does the timeline look like for us?

Our new Dossier Coordinator 'Mrs. C' replied that she spoke with our IC 'Mrs. K' about our specific case, and that our timeline, based on when our Dossier was sent, is looking to be 32 months. 

Yeah - I know. I felt like someone just knocked me in the gut. 

Thirty. Two. Months. Almost another. three. years. 

Guys.

I'm not gonna lie and say that I shrugged it off like no big deal. That I took it like a man and walked it off. Because I didn't. I cried after the initial shock wore off.

I know they're just numbers. And I know that my God is bigger than those two numbers put together and He can do anything. I know that He is good and He is going to fulfill His promise. I know that through Him, we could get a referral next month! I know that. Deep down, down to the smallest thing I am made of, I know that He's got this.

But I'm tired. I'm worn out from this back and forth ride that KC and I seem to be stuck on. 

Today, I feel like the underdog in the boxing ring. The one no one thinks is going to make it. 

When the underdog is fighting his hardest and gets hit with a tough blow. He falls face down on the boxing ring floor. And he's laying there wondering:

What just happened?

How did I get here? 

Crap, I hurt all over.

This floor is so nice, maybe I'll just stay down.

Yeah - I'm exhausted 

.....and I don't think I've got anything left. 

Cinderella Man

Yeah. I felt like that today. 

I honestly wish I could Vulcan mind-meld with you guys. I sometimes feel like writing this all out isn't adequately conveying all the crazy emotions running rampant inside me.

As KC and I stood here in the kitchen talking about it, I did shed a few tears as I told him that I'm drained. That doesn't mean I won't keep fighting for her. But today, I'm just - exhausted, worn out, weary, fatigued, dog-tired... take your pick.

KC walked over and took my hands, and we prayed. 

And just like those underdogs, something comes to our mind and re-energizes us; something the audience may see as a flashback. 

For me, it was a verse. A verse I gave to KC earlier today for a completely unrelated situation. Funny how God works like that. 

And that flashback is enough to give them the strength to fight another 1, 3, or 6 rounds. And more often than not, that underdog comes out victorious. 

Effie will be here; and whether 2014 is the year or not, we'll keep swinging.   <3