We’re on the List

June 30, 2007 | Filed Under Adoption, Family | Leave a Comment 

The latest word from the adoption agency we’re working with is that our entire dossier has been received, reviewed, and accepted by the Ethiopia adoption program! The only thing we can do is wait and pray for a timely placement, and three to twelve‚ weeks after we receive our referral (with photos of our children), Rebecca and I will travel to Addis Ababa to meet our new children and finalize the adoption process. We could wait up to a year for placement, but we’re hoping it’ll take less time than that. We’ll continue raise funds as long as we can, and if any readers would like to help us build our family find out how here.

One of our agency’s adoption caseworkers has posted several sets of photos from her experience working in Ethiopia with the nation’s children in need of parents.

Rebecca and I are looking forward to becoming Mom and Dad within the year. All prayers of support and patience are welcome.

Paperwork’s Done

June 12, 2007 | Filed Under Adoption, Family | Leave a Comment 

The mountain of paperwork Rebecca and I have had to complete for our adoption is complete. The process that began with an in-depth, nerve-wracking home study, and which continued with letters of recommendation and financial statements and medical attestations, numerous qualifying fingerprint and background checks, trips to the Arizona Secretary of State for official signatures and notaries, and on and on, came to an anti-climactic end on Saturday when we boxed the just-under-two-inch-thick pile of documents and sent it to our partner adoption agency.

We began to walk this road last June when we really began to consider the possibility of adopting a child or children. Once we decided to pursue adoption, Rebecca took the lead, and over the last year she’s been tireless in our calling to become parents to two children from Ethiopia. She’s an amazing and beautiful woman, possessed of an incredible endurance for this often confusing, depleting, but ultimately rewarding enterprise. I’m blessed that she is my bride, and I am confident she’ll be a fine mother.

All that remains is for our agency to translate our paperwork to Amharic then send it to Ethiopia for the government and orphange to review and, we hope, agree on a placement for us. If we’re approved to adopt, we should receive a referral with pictures of a boy and girl who may become our son and daughter and who we’ll travel to see and meet perhaps later this fall or early next year, although it may be sooner or it could be later. It’s no longer in our hands.

Thanks to everyone for your support, whether you’ve brought in one or one hundred printer cartridges, or if you’ve collected only one or one hundred phone, or donated heaps of toys and clothes for the yard sale or pledged to our adoption grant,or just offered a supportive shoulder or ears, you’ve all helped make this adoption a reality. Our children will know your hope.

As soon as we know more we’ll post an update. Until then, all of your prayers are appreciated.