17 months DTE!

I forgot until another family from our agency who has the same DTE date as we do posted on Facebook.

Our dossier has been in Ethiopia (DTE) for 17 months today!

Sometimes it's nice when you are so busy that time flies. We are trying to be patient, and rejoice with the families ahead of us as they get referrals, go to court, and pass Embassy. Hopefully by this time next year we will be home with our little girl, but we trust God's perfect timing!

We still have a ways to go, but once we get into the 20s on the wait list, we'll start posting pics of the boys counting down...

16 months since DTE!

As we approach Christmas, our family also is celebrating 16 months since sending our dossier to Ethiopia (DTE)! 

Two weeks ago was so exciting and encouraging - after nearly 3.5 months of total referral drought, our agency was able to give multiple referrals every day for several days, adding up to a total of 14 referrals in November! Necessary clearances for some of the children in the transition home finally came through, and so we get to rejoice with the families who got good news. We still have a long wait ahead of us... but the referrals resulted in significant progress up the wait list (3 spots movement for us). Progress is GOOD! 

I finished painting this stained glass style piece of Mary and baby Jesus

~Sweet girl, we hope that we will get to celebrate next Christmas with YOU in our arms!

Guest post by sweet Momma K

Hello all! I first want to thank Katie for allowing me to submit this guest post. I really love her artwork, and being an adoptive mom of a beautiful girl from Ethiopia, it definitely strikes a chord with me. We have a number of prints up throughout our house.

I am writing to ask for a HUGE favor, but more on that in a bit..

First – let me introduce myself. As mentioned above, I am K, a single mom of a fantastic 3 year old Ethiopian princess.

I felt so blessed by my first adoption experience, I wanted to embark on bringing home another beautiful child.

As many of you may know, the international adoption road is a long and winding one. There have been some changes throughout this process that have caused me to look for financial support through fundraising. I have been working on multiple things to raise money, but have also taken advantage of an adoption fundraising website called Just Love Coffee. The idea of this website is to allow people to buy items (coffee, apparel, mugs, etc.) with a portion of the proceeds sent to our family to assist in our adoption.

The website for dedicated to our family is: https://justlovecoffee.com/about/beneficiary/ourblendedfamily/

Now for the favor part: I would greatly appreciate any support that you (or your friends / families) might be in a position to provide through purchases from this site. Every purchase will make a huge difference in my goal of growing to be a family of three. Hopefully you can also take care of some holiday shopping while you are at it.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading this post and any assistance you are in a position to provide.

~K

15 months since DTE!

Our dossier arrived in Ethiopia 15 months ago!

Things have been pretty quiet in our agency, concerning referrals. Some sweet little birdies tell us that there are many little ones in the transition home that have not been referred... but right now it is taking a long time for kids to receive the necessary clearances. Our agency does not issue a referral until the clearances have been obtained - which means a longer wait up front. However, this also means that once a referral is given, things move pretty quickly with court dates and Embassy appointments. We are thankful for the thoroughness of our wonderful agency, AWAA.

~Please join us in praying for clearances to come through - these must be obtained in sequence, first at the local level, then the regional level, then at the federal level. The Ethiopian officials processing such clearances often don't feel any sense of urgency, so it can take months to complete. 

14 months waiting since DTE!!!

Ooops, last Friday was our 14-month-waiting-since-DTE-versary, and we were so busy, it totally flew past me!

Today we had our homestudy update meeting - everything was easy and smooth, and getting the documents updated (new security clearances, new fingerprints, new doctor's form and letter, new financial spreadsheet, copy of tax forms from last year) was much easier than when we had to do it the first time (there were also fewer documents we  needed!).

We still have a long wait ahead of us, but it was encouraging to talk to our social worker. Hopefully we won't have to do another homestudy update before we get our referral!

13 months since DTE!

Huh, this last month actually kind of zipped by me! We sent our dossier to Ethiopia 13 months ago!

Today my kids were pretty whiny, and while I was talking to them, I almost had to giggle, because some of the things I was telling them TOTALLY apply to our wait.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who on the inside sometimes feels like doing one of those whiny-jumping-up-and-down-waving-arms-making-whiny-noises-dances we see our kids doing...? (Ok, folks, don't leave me hanging here... I TOTALLY know I'm not the only one!)

While telling my 2-year-old that throwing a fit hasn't really gotten anyone anywhere, I realized that I really need to stop throwing an internal fit. I mean, seriously. God totally KNOWS what he is doing, and AWAA totally KNOWS what they are doing, and it really is out of my hands when things happen. So why on earth am I feeling whiny?

While telling my 6-year-old that it is ok to feel mad inside, and that it is ok to feel sad, but that HE is responsible for what he does about it... I was totally reminded that yes, I can acknowledge my feelings of frustration and sadness about the wait, but that I AM responsible for my actions, and that I can DECIDE to make the best out of the wait!

Also, while having my kids repeat their request for a snack in a non-whiny and non-rude tone... I was reminded (and I don't think I have mis-stepped in this manner YET) that we need to keep in mind that our social worker and family coordinator are TOTALLY on our side, and that we need to be kind and patient and polite with them, too! So, when I am feeling whiny and demanding, can someone please bop me over the head with one of those green flotation noodle things, and remind me that I need to ask nicely? :)

This long wait sucks. Have I mentioned that it sucks? I would love to get a call TOMORROW that we have a referral (totally not going to happen yet for a long time). BUT do you know what? God is bigger than my selfish little ideas about timing. He is bigger than my impatience, and he is definitely bigger than any hold-ups with paperwork. Don't lose hope, guys!

One final challenge: Let's use our time wisely. Don't check the yahoo group page every hour (*cough*) to see if there is news. I for one am going to *try to* only check it once every few days. When there IS news, I will totally be cheering! But don't take precious time away from your husband/wife/kid(s)/friends by checking yahoo and then having another one of those whiny-jumping-up-and-down-waving-arms-making-whiny-noises-dances fit when there is no news.

Did I make you smile just a little? I sure hope so!

1 year DTE!!!

Look how little the boys were 1 year ago:

Happy to be DTE! (1 year ago~)

Today marks our 1-year anniversary since we sent our dossier to Ethiopia. We anticipate our adoption journey to continue cruising along in the "wait" stage for 6-12 more months, then HOPEFULLY we'll get a referral... but it could take longer.

On the bright side, the process of travelling and  passing court in Ethiopia and getting US Embassy clearances is going SO much smoother now for the families ahead of us, so the time frame in which we get to bring our daughter home after referral is hopefully only about 3-4 months.

I've been reading a lot of books about African and Ethiopia specifically, and one thing that stands out to me is how differently people mark time. Seasons are defined by the crops that grow, the rains that fall, which animals have babies when.

Even though sometimes time crept unbearably slowly, this year also seems to have flown by as we waited impatiently.

A few benchmarks in OUR last year since we sent our dossier to Ethiopia:
-S learned to walk!
-M started Kindergarten!
-S turned 1 (will turn 2 next month)
-We had visitors from near and far
-We visited family and friends near and far-ish (we miss our friends who are really far away!)
-We all bled a little blood from various small injuries
-We all sneezed and wheezed a little during the winter, but overall had a very healthy year
-Many hours were spent building with LEGOs (hubby + boys), reading (all), painting (me + the boys), gardening (me), writing awesome cool computer code (hubby)
-Many miles were hiked, fish were fished, and camps were camped
-Much mischief was achieved (boys, mostly)
-M lost his first tooth... and then continued losing more and more and more teeth!
-M finished his first year of school, and turned 6
-S is running and climbing and talking up a storm
-Hubby and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary

In short, life has been so good, and we feel so blessed! God has been so good to us! Yet, our family does not feel complete.

We really really really hope to have a referral this time next year, but international adoption can be unpredictable. We love our adoption agency, and are so thankful to know that they work so hard to ensure our adoption is ethical. I will happily wait as long as it takes if it means that we can be sure that everything is as it should be.

God's timing will be perfect, and I can't wait to meet the wonderful little person who will become our daughter!

Baby girl, we can't wait to include you in our family updates... family hikes... family hugs... family EVERYTHING!