A rut then a bump

Just a quick post to vent some major frustration before heading off to Peoria for running group.  After going through a long period of lacking motivation and getting discouraged through the paperwork process, I was starting to get back on track by sending some more documents in and collaborating with our social worker again.  However, my physical exam was not approved due to the fact that my physician used a notary who's commission expires in less than 2 months.  So now the whole form needs to be redone and I have to inform my doctor that the notary has to have a commission valid for at least 1-2 more years.  After having a little crying spell and feeling sorry for myself, I'm trying to remember that life could be so much worse.  Yes, it is a pain in the rear to redo this again, but I just have to move forward.  I could take it as a bad sign, but I choose to look at it as just another bump in the road of this really long journey.  God's grace and mercy will get me through this, but I have to remember to trust Him.  I often forget that.  Until you actually try to adopt someone, you will never really understand how much time and paperwork goes into the process.  I'm not going to lie, it's a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.  Praying that I can get over this bump and move on.  Thankful for the sunny day....going to get out there and enjoy it!

Papers, Papers, Papers

Can't believe it has been over a month since I made an entry.  Not much new to report other than we are in the middle of all the paperwork STILL!  Our social worker Jill has made 3 home visits so far, we have been fingerprinted, had our physicals, TB tests, and most legal documents scanned and sent for review.  Everything has to be notarized, scanned and emailed to have our family coordinator review/approve.  Just when I think I am getting closer to having most of the paperwork done, I remember something else on the checklist or am just waiting for something sent off to come back. This has been a really frustrating and time consuming period.  It seems like the past month has been extra busy for us, so trying to get paperwork done on top of it has been stressful.  There have been times I've just wanted to throw in the towel.  God somehow reminds me each time what an incredible opportunity he has presented us with.  I follow our agency's Facebook page and blog and am reminded with other families' stories of why we are doing this.  I truly believe we need a child as much as she needs us.  I just keep praying for God to help us keep the end result in sight.  I just get discouraged wondering when I will ever officially be done paper chasing and then knowing I will have a long waiting period for an actual referral to follow.  I am so thankful for where we are at in this journey, but it is not easy.  I am guilty of expecting everything to go fast and perfect, but I know God is teaching me more patience in this process.  Hopefully, by the time I blog again, I will have a better idea of where I am at in the paper chasing.  I really have had to step away for about a week, pray, spend less time stressing over it, and prioritize other things happening in our schedule in order to keep myself sane.  My goal is to start refreshed again tomorrow and conquer that checklist again.  Prayers are greatly appreciated.

Snowed in reflections

I'm looking out the window thankful that we do not have to be anywhere today.  This morning the snow was falling vertically and was beautiful.  A very rare occurrence when you live among windmills.  Now the wind has picked up and the snow is blowing horizontal.  The boys are napping and I am catching up on AWAA paperwork and decided to take some time and blog again.

A few things have happened in the past week.  Abby at AWAA received our agreement and first payment.  We then were assigned to our official family coordinator Lauren Barnett.  We were excited to get her because our friends the Grahams also have her as a family coordinator and they are about a year ahead of us in the process.  What a great resource to have!  Thankful for Rachel and all her insight and recommendations.

Lauren has contacted us over the phone and by email.  She sent us a whole new set of paperwork and let's just say I am a little overwhelmed since I will be doing most of the paper chase for Brian and I.  They are requiring approximately 30 documents from us that we do not only have to have filled out, but also notarized.  They are not documents we can just fill out on our own either, but doctors, social worker, our accountant, friends, etc will have to be filling papers out too.  To give you an idea of how big of a task this will be, our family coordinator sent us 28 pages of instructions just on how to fill out all the paperwork properly.  Please do not think I am trying to complain, because it will all be worth it in the end!  More or less just venting that I feel like I'm taking on a part-time job, lol!

Yesterday, I contacted Jill at Lutheran Social Services and she will be conducting our required home study.  She is coming up to our home on Tuesday to go over the application and paperwork for the home study.  Today has been a good day to stay in and go over more paperwork.  Made doctor appointments for Brian and I to have the required physicals and working on getting the copies of our birth certificates, marriage certificate, and passports scanned into our laptop to email to our family coordinator.  Rachel and our coordinator gave me some good tips of which documents to start with right away and just to take on a little at a time each day.  I need to get another small filing cabinet just to keep all the papers organized and together!

I've started to follow the official AWAA blog and their Ethiopia Facebook page and it is full of helpful information and stories.  I see families and pictures of their new additions and it is so hard to believe that will be us someday!  Just trying to keep our hearts and mind focused on the end result and God's plan so I can get through the tedious and not so fun parts of the process.  Really we have so much to be thankful for because we have the resources and everything has been going smooth so far.  Thank you for some of your loving and thoughtful comments on Facebook and appreciate those who want to follow our blog.  God is good!  Stay safe and warm in this winter storm.  God bless!

Our Last Email from Abby at America World

Received an email today from Abby, our current coordinator at America World.  She informed us that she received all of our signed agreements and first payment.  We should be receiving a phone call within one week from our new assigned family coordinator that will be working with us in the next steps of the process.  We are really excited to meet our new family coordinator!

Announced last night to the Facebook world the news of our adoption!  Loved hearing all the feedback, thoughts, and encouragement.  It really meant a lot to us and we are excited to share this journey with everyone!  God bless each one of you who plans to follow our blog and pray for us!

First set of official paperwork sent

Feeling a lot of emotions today and it's just the beginning.  Spent my Saturday morning doing my favorite class at the gym Grit, followed by breakfast with one of my dearest friends Tiffany.  Trying to cherish many more moments with her as possible before she moves to Minnesota in April.  We talked about the adoption and the different feedback we are getting back from family and friends.  All positive with the only concern of the long and challenging road ahead of us to bring our daughter home.  We also had the fun and girly talk about buying new girls clothes instead of boys.  Haha!  After breakfast, I stopped at the post office and mailed off our first official set of paperwork to start the process.  Mostly legal agreements, procedures, guidelines, and our first installment.  So this is it....no turning back now.  Excited that we are one step closer to having a daughter, but really nervous about what lies ahead....the unknown!  Really need to turn to the Lord in prayer again today and trust in His plan.  Once our current coordinator receives our paperwork, we will be assigned our official family coordinator who will give us the dossier guidelines and guide us step by step through the rest of the process.  Going to celebrate tonight with my husband with dinner and tickets to Jersey Boys.  Many blessings to be thankful for!

A Journey Begins!

Good morning family and friends!  I am starting a blog to chronicle our journey of becoming the parents of an Ethiopian girl.  I always wanted to do a blog for my boys when I was pregnant and record their first 12 months of life, but I never had the patience or time to commit to a blog.  I do have baby books for both boys and realized that I will not have a baby book for our future daughter since I will not be her birth mother.  I will however commit to recording the process of adopting her through a blog so that she will have something to connect to her journey here.  Also, it gives me an outlet to write how we are feeling through this long process that will require a lot of patience.  I wanted to be able to share the blog also with our family and friends to keep them updated and request prayers.  We will need many in this journey.  We are so thankful and blessed for our support system!  God truly has great plans in store for us!

You might ask how we came to the decision of an international adoption.  For me, adoption has always been on my heart even before we started a family on our own.  My heart has always ached for children without parents or a safe and loving home.  No child should grow up feeling alone or abandoned.  I prayed to God for patience and direction in this conviction and need.  In the meantime, Brian and I decided to try and start a family on our own and we were so blessed to get pregnant right away and had our first son Evan.  19 months later we were blessed with another son Erik.  We knew we wanted to have at least one more child, but let's just say Erik made that difficult with not being a good sleeper and really fussy as a baby.  Lol! I'll just be honest and admit also that I really do not enjoy being pregnant.  I was tired, cranky, and felt huge!  I am so thankful that I had healthy pregnancies and babies so please do not think for one minute I take that for granted.

Due to our health insurance change and maternity coverage, we really needed to wait another year til February 2012 to try and have another baby.  It gave us a year to pray and think about what was best for our family.  Again adoption was in my heart and mind and Brian and I started to research a little more and talk to other families who have adopted or were adopting.  Last year, I had a mom in my MOPS group that had adopted from Ethiopia and she was able to share her journey with me.  We really did not even know where to start, but it just so happened some friends had just announced they were adopting through America World.  I pulled up their information online and was impressed with their services and our friends had great things to report about this particular agency.  I talked to a representative from America World over the phone and they sent us a huge packet of information and a formal application.

Next came Brian's second thoughts.  The process, national versus international adoption, how it would affect our boys, were all thoughts racing through our minds.  We decided we needed to turn it back over to the Lord in prayer and just be patient.  We really wanted to make sure our hearts were 100% in this and looking back I know we were not ready to make the decision and commitment at that time.  We did not discuss it much further and just tried to be still for God's plan and answer.

Fast forward to November 2012.  Brian and I were able to take a long weekend away in Scottsdale, AZ.  I will never forget the first night we were there and went to dinner at El Chorro.  It was one of the most romantic outdoor patio dining venues I had ever been to.  We were next to a fireplace enjoying wonderful food and conversation.  Brian brought up the future of our family.  Honestly, he and I are not getting any younger and we needed to be at peace with either staying a little family of 4 or adding another child.  I just knew when I looked into the future I saw more than 2 boys sitting at our table growing up and coming home for the holidays.  He told me he really wanted to consider adoption again, and that's when I knew God was nudging us to move forward.

When we got home, I really wanted to get through the holidays and get all our financial reports done for 2011 and 2012 before completing the lengthy adoption application.  Not once through this process did I want to rush or be hasty in our decision.  On January 28, 2013, I officially submitted our adoption application to America World.  We decided to use America World because of our friends' referral and it felt like a right fit for us.  Our letter of intent was to pursue adoption in China or Ethiopia.  China was on our hearts due to the restrictions of one child and preference to a male in their culture.  However, we found out the wait for a Chinese child is approximately 6 years.  That is how we decided Ethiopia and it really helps that there are numerous families in the area with adopted children from the same country.  We are requesting a girl for obvious reasons....we already have 2 boys!

On February 20, 2013, Abby from America World called and welcomed us to America World.  Our application had been approved!  Many emotions were felt that day.  Joy, relief, and uncertainty of what lies ahead.  However, we are certain God has had His hand in this the whole way up to this point.  We are moving forward and finished the next set of paperwork and are mailing it in tomorrow with our first payment toward the adoption.

This whole process and journey is going to require so much trust and patience.  What we do know is that God already has our daughter picked out and for that we are very thankful.  I will try to update the blog throughout the process for our Emma's chronicle, family and friends, and maybe some other parents out there going through the same journey.  We are told 24-36 months before a child is even referred to us.  Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.  I will close by explaining why we already have a name for our little girl.  Even before we started our family, if we were going to have a girl, it was to be Emma.  My grandmother's name is Emma and Brian's grandmother's name is Emma.  Both are and were very special ladies and since it's a name on both sides of our family, it just feels perfect!