Our Hearts are in Africa

Final Post

2011-01-31T20:45:00.000-08:00

As this adoption is completely (absolutely, all the way, altogether, competently, comprehensively, conclusively, effectively, en masse, exclusively, exhaustively, extensively, finally, from A to Z, from beginning to end, fully, heart and soul, hook line and sinker, in all, in entirety, in full, in toto, on all counts, painstakingly, perfectly, quite, solidly, thoroughly, to the end, to the limit, to the max, to the nth degree, totally, ultimately, unabridged, unanimously, unconditionally, undividedly, utterly, wholly, without omission)

FINISHED...,

this will be the last entry of this blog.

Our hearts are now back in Iowa (for now) and the Gitlins can be followed at our our family blogsite:

http://www.unspkblejoy.blogspot.com/

Amazing what God has done.

To Your glory Lord you have brought this boy into our family.

Give us patience, kindness, supernatural wisdom and annointing to raise him.

Make up for our short comings and be strong in our weakness.

May Josiah grow to be a mighty man of God.

Amen.

5 Months Later

2010-12-21T19:49:00.000-08:00

Just over five months ago we met our son for the first time. It seems like just yesterday and at the same time seems like we have never been apart.
This video is from the very first time we were able to get him to smile, and let me tell you it wasn't easy! This child wasn't especially excited about his new parents.

These days you can hardly catch him without a grin from ear to ear. God has done a wonder in healing this child's heart and filling it with joy. We are praying that his soul will always be softened to the voice of God and that good deeds are being prepared for Josiah to do in service to the King.
Would you believe this video is of the same boy?

Through the abundant grace of God and the prayer of His saints, we have seen miracle after miracle in bringing Josiah into our family:

Passing court the first attempt.
Our immigration paperwork being completed in the nick of time for us to only make 1 trip to Ethiopia.
Even though the July travel groups were cut from 10 families to 5 families we were able to go on schedule because of the earlier flight we had chosen.fjm
A truly supernatural attachment and adjustment since we returned home.

This last month has been no less of a move by the hand of God. Learning from the IRS during the beginning of Decmber, that in order to be eligible for a tax credit, our adoption had to be finalized in state by December 31st. We were a little panicked! Our last post-placement visit was not scheduled until January of 2011! With the help of our agency and our social worker, they worked to speed up the process and have our post-placement packet prepared a month early. My brilliant husband found an attorney that was willing to go the extra mile for us (after talking to some that told us it couldn't be done). She called in a favor to get us a court date before the end of the year.

December 27th at 2:30pm our adoption was finalized and Andinet Micah Gitlin became Josiah Andinet Gitlin, the SON of Micah and Sarah Gitlin now "considered to be the same as a child born to us, with every right of inheritance." When the judge said these words I could not help but be reminded of our place as children of God.

This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and shares together in the promise in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 3:6

2010-11-07T15:52:00.000-08:00

When I get behind in blogging, there is something inside of me that gets a little panicked thinking of all of the catch-up I will need to do when I finally sit down to write about the happenings in the Gitlin house. Tonight, I told myself, "You don't have to update about everything...just start with today." So here is what happened Today.

This morning we attended M'side Baptist in Sioux City to celebrate National Orphan Sunday. This church has been so warm and welcoming to our family, not to mention overwhelmingly supportive of our adoption of Josiah. Their actions simply scream compassion for the oppressed and lonely. After barely really even knowing who we were, several families from this church were at the Omaha airport to greet us when we arrived home from Ethiopia. They were simply there to celebrate with us ONE LESS orphan in the world. What a greeting!

This morning, three families in this congregation that have adopted, or are in the process of adoption, gave testimony and encouragement-- really focusing on God's heart and commands for the church to care for the orphans. God's grace and abundance is more than adequate when we answer YES to His calling! The hope for the 150 millions in the world is the gospel and we are the messengers of this hope. I was also reminded this morning that our multi-racial family is a taste of what heaven will be like.

Here are the blogs of these 3 families:

http://nordstromsadopt.blogspot.com/

http://untohimwelive.blogspot.com/

http://hennsadopt.blogspot.com/

Two of these families are still in process of bringing children home. Please join us in praying God's abundant protection, strength, and compassion to manifest in their lives!

Overall, the most poignant message spoken to me this morning:

If we love God we will care about what God cares about.

It is no mistake that the Bible speaks of defending orphans over and over again. This is God's heart--He is the Father to the orphan, He upholds the orphan, He commands us to do the same!

EeteeOpia

2010-09-11T20:22:00.000-07:00

This weekend we took a mini (like one day) vacation up to Sioux Falls. We were needing to get a new key made for our VW and decided that we would spend the night in a hotel and do some fun things with the kids. On Friday night, we found a little Ethiopian restaurant in a small house on East 10th St. that we decided to check out. Josiah was, of course, excited to have.....

INJERA!!!!!He did love eating the injera and did love that he could freely eat his meal with his fingers again, like in Ethiopia. It was amazing how walking into the house was like walking back into Ethiopia--what a feeling! The people were extremely hospitable and the food was excellent. People in the restaurant expressed to us how great they think adoption is and would smile and talk amongst themselves when we would say things to him in Amharic---maybe b/c we weren't saying it right or maybe they were just amused. I am happy to say that given the choice between injera and my pancakes he said he would choose pancakes--- Chalk it up.

The weekend also included swimming at the hotel, the Great Plains Zoo, and Toy Story 3. Josiah's FIRSTS this weekend: Ethiopian cuisine in America, elevator ride, zoo, and movie theatre experience. I think he enjoyed it all except the movie, during which he repeatedly told me, "Andinet, movie, twadeley no." Interpretation..."Andinet does not like the movie." He also put in a couple, "movie is yucky"s. Oh well, he enjoyed the popcorn and was exhausted enough to nap the whole ride home.

Josiah's Lunch Time Prayer

2010-08-26T19:46:00.000-07:00

I started recording a little late..."Thank you, God, for our family. Thank you, God...thank you, God, for Julesy, Mommy, Daddy, AMEN"

We ask that his passion for prayer only increases as he grows to be a mighty man of God.

2010-08-10T18:38:00.000-07:00

Wow. I have really wanted to be more active with this blog since we returned home. Who knew that adding a new kid to your family would be so involved?--Just kidding... kind of. I have found that I have had to be much more "present" at home during this transition, which has been tiring but WONDERFUL. It has also given me opportunity to see all of the selfishness inside of me (really rears its head in the early morning hours...). Stretching situations are an awesome tool to allow God to make your ashes into beauty. I'm working on that beauty part.

We have seen fear being cast out by God's perfect love in our sweet boy as he is beginning to enter rooms by himself, pet kittens, and sleep from 8 to 8---Praise God!
I have a lot that I want to write about but even tonight I will be cutting it short. Micah and I have a movie that we have been wanting to watch and have had to watch it in 45 minute increments after the kids are asleep. This is our third night watching ONE MOVIE. Oh well, we are savoring this time in our life that will not last forever. Thank you God for this great BLESSING.

Here are some snapshots of activity since our return home.

He Started It All

2010-07-19T14:23:00.000-07:00

We're back! We're home! We have our new son! We are adjusting well.

There is so much that I would like to write about our trip and our time here at home but there is just no time so please excuse the discontinuity of this post.
Julianna and Josiah have been getting along very well. Each difficult moment is an opportunity for us to learn to love each other as Christ has loved us.
We have found 2 fears that keep Josiah clinging on to our necks for dear life: animals and being alone.
Our days are filled with giggles and activity. Our nights are filled with hushing sounds and rocking chairs. Routine has proven to be a life saver in putting him down for naps and to bed; however, he continues to wake up at about 2:30 and cry until about 6 (thanking God that Jules is a deep sleeper). We are trying different techniques to foster attachment and also to foster my sleep! I am trying to use the time during the night to pray for him and our family. Today I cut his nap short and am trying very hard to tire him out with a lot of activity. I'll keep you posted...

Here is a link to the pictures we took on our trip to Ethiopia (which was amazing and priceless):
http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2613327023/a=152754705_162347016/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

We have been having a lot of fun experiencing all of Josiah Andinet's firsts like... bubble baths, bikes, a daddy, happy meals, seat belts, learning to cuddle with a blanket, picking out clothes, flushing the toilet, putting the seat down, and teaching him all kinds of new words. My favorites so far are "Mommy," "pa-leese," and the rolling r "rrrrrrrrred" and "grrrrrrreen." When he walked into his room for the first time he immediately saw the semi-truck meant to hold small race cars, sat on it, and frantically raced around the room. We both knew that we should be recording the moment but also both knew that we should just enjoy it while we were there.

Life is good and Josiah Andinet is proving to be a great fit for this family.

Panic Attack & Praise Report

2010-07-07T15:04:00.001-07:00

We are sitting in Dulles Airport in DC waiting for our flight to board in about 2 hours. Thirty minutes ago I checked my email on Micah's phone. There was an email from Holt with the subject: Important Program Update. I opened the email and read that yesterday Holt started contacting families that were to travel in July to tell them there was a miscommunication with the US Embassy in Ethiopia and that many visa interviews have been cut. Families who were to be leaving today will have their pushed back. We immediately called Holt. Our worker stated that of the 10 visa appointments for July 13th, 5 would be seen as scheduled....WE ARE IN THAT 5!!!! It happened that from the 10 families with Jly 13th visa appointments, 5 had already began their travel, these 5 would keep their appointments. Praise God that we began travel on Tuesday--had we waited until today our travel may have been cancelled. My heart sinks for those who received bad news---Lord, protect their hearts.

Ethiopia or Bust!

2010-07-05T22:00:00.000-07:00

Well, I had some great packing pictures taken to put

here,

and here,

here

and here....

BUT the day got away from me and our camera is securely packed. Along with about 150lbs. of other luggage and about 50 more pounds of documents. We are leaving in the morning to start this adventure and shall return in about 10 days.

Tonight we ate supper together for the last time as a family of 3.

Tonight was our last night of tucking in just one special person.

Tonight was our last night praying as 3 hearts united for our 1 missing part.

Excited for our lives to be part of a bigger plan and excited like crazy to meet our son on Friday morning!

"When they walk through the Valley of Weeping, it will become a place of refreshing springs. " Ps. 86:4

FAITHFUL: MONEY MIRACLE

2010-07-01T12:14:00.001-07:00

This post has been a long time coming. I just wanted to put down in record how God blessed us with financial miracles during our adoption process.

Adoption costs big bucks...

Thankfully, God has commissioned us (the church) to care for the orphan. When we tap into his heart He is ALWAYS FAITHFUL to provide the means. What an amazing thing to be serving so close to God's heart and to be blessed with a child because of it.

We can't publish every way that finances have been given towards our adoption, but I want to let you know some of the ways that God has used his people (you will be blessed for it!): memorial fund from our dear friends' infant daughter, family sacrificing Christmas presents and handing us a check, funds like Katelyn's Fund, Lifesong For Orphans, and a church in Sioux City with a heart for the orphan (can't thank you enough!). Another huge showing of support was from our friends and family who raised money, donated, and/or walked with us in our Walk-A-Thon to bring Josiah home (you can find pictures of the event here: http://s918.photobucket.com/albums/ad29/msgitlin/Walk%20A%20Thon/ ).

What a beautful day and a what a wonderful feeling to see so many people supporting you!

If you want some hard numbers, this adoption has ended up costing around $24,000. That's a big money bag--- but God is BIGGER! God has blessed us by provided EVERY PENNY of this! After our adoption tax credit comes in next spring, we will have enough surplus to give back into some of these adoption funds that have blessed us! Isn't God amazing? It is so obvious to us through these past 9-10 months that God's will is to place the homeless in homes. Every prayer has been answered. So much so that many times I have had to shake my head, throw up my hands and repent to God for ever having a doubting thought about His provision. Even yesterday, I stopped by our church to prepare for our service that night and a loving brother in Christ who happened to be there from a sister church (and that has always taken care of me on mission trips when I was in high school) handed me a handful of cash for our trip. I am sooo thankful that God sees every sacrifice that his children make and blesses them right back because there is no way we could repay all of the kindness that has been shown to us.

Thank you for paying it forward, we stand back amazed.

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. 1 John 5:1-15

ummm...Happy Birthday!

2010-06-23T10:46:00.000-07:00

So...It is two weeks until the next adoption travel group heads to Ethiopia.

Are we in this travel group?

--NO ONE KNOWS!--

The U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia has not assigned any Holt families to the next visa interview date

(July 13th). Micah called the agency this morning and they said no news yet. The understanding staff there did say we could keep calling if it gives us peace of mind. HA! They are so gracious, we are thankful for this agency!

......HOLD THAT THOUGHT......

This was the blog I was in the middle of writing when Micah called me to say, "Happy Birthday, check your email." I opened an email to read...

We have received a visa interview date for your travel group of July 13, 2010 and you are travel group # 13 for calendar year 2010!!!!!!!

(exclamation points mine)

Ok, well I better get busy it looks like we are taking off 2 weeks from tomorrow! This is the culmination of a long, exciting process and we are so blessed by the parts that you have all played! Please continue to take these things before the throne with us:

Reasonable ticket rate, safety, health, that A. will be ready to receive love and warm up to us quickly, smooth adjustment time as a family when we return home.

Update

2010-06-11T10:26:00.000-07:00

We received confimation that our approval is at the Embassy this morning!!!!!

"Though it tarries, wait for it..."

2010-06-10T11:46:00.000-07:00

It's pretty quiet around here...

except for the sound of a mouse click checking my email every 15 minutes...
other adoptive parents, I'm sure you understand.
One place that it is not quiet is inside my heart and mind! This last leg of our adoption has been the hardest to be patient through. All of our homework is complete: our son and our travel to embrace him are now in the hands of others.

Here is our current situation:
Passed Court: 4/20
Immigration approval sent to Ethiopia Embassy: 5/14
Waiting: ongoing
Travel: unknown
Micah called our agency today just to ~~bug them~~ check on our status. The wonderful staff member at Holt was very patient and just told us that they haven't received confirmation that our immigration paperwork has arrived at the Embassy yet. As soon as they receive this confirmation they will send over our file and we will be eligible to receive a travel date. She did reassure us that no one has been assigned travel dates in July yet and we are among the top of the list. Micah and I would desire to have an embassy date on July 13th--approximately leaving on July 8th. Would you pray that the embassy would contact our agency with the confirmation very soon?

It is amazing the toll something like this can take on you. This is the first time that I have felt real stress related to waiting! We saw new pictures last week from a family that traveled to Addis and took some snapshots at the Children's Academy. We have sifted through about 600 photos and found about 6 that Andinet happened to be in! Seeing how much he has grown and seeing his smile for the second time has made us all absolutely heart sick.

Do not fret--it only causes harm Psalm 37:8

"It's easy to say, 'Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him' Ps. 37:7 until our own little world is turned upside down and we are forced to live in confusion and agony...Worrying always results in sin...Fretting rises from our determination to have our own way. Our Lord never worried and was never anxious, because His purpose was never to accomplish His own plans but to fulfill God's plans." --Chambers

Lord, give me YOUR vision.

Bummer

2010-05-27T10:31:00.000-07:00

BUMMER

We found out yesterday that we won't be traveling in June.

All of the travel groups are full for the June Embassy dates.

We don't understand all of the hows and whys;

However, we do understand that...

God's timing is always perfect and

Andinet is protected in His hands.

We will continue to...

engage in the spiritual battle for this little boy,

prepare our hearts and home for a new family member,

put our hope and trust in the One who has ordained

and written our days before one of them has

come to be,

shrink the miles between us by letting our love grow.

What's another month, right? We will keep ourselves occupied while we wait and continue to expect him home by his July birthday.

Moving on Up

2010-05-23T13:17:00.000-07:00

Goodbye main floor, comfortable, queen sized companion...

One of the transitions being made in adding a member to our family is that we are all moving our bedrooms onto the upper level of our home--and that's what we did this week. Moving upstairs just as the hot summer days begin!--Everyone may need a mister fan next to their bed by July.

Our new digs are in the loft room just at the top of the stairs. From our bed, we can see both of our kids' doors. We want to be close by for any night-time needs--especially in the crucial first months of adjustment. Hopefully the air compressor is not a permanent fixture at the foot of our bed.

We began re-doing the kids' rooms upstairs in March. You can read about Josiah Andinet's room remodel here. Unfortunately, we had redone Julianna's downstairs bedroom just prior to being matched with Andinet. Oh well, all of the redoing just made it's way up stairs.

Julianna's make over was a lot of fun for me--if there has ever been a girl more in love with powder pink and floofy flowers I would be laying down with my legs elevated in shock.
She loves pink and floofy and so I did my best at pink and floofy (spell check will not like this word, I'm sure).

It is amazing what $15 of bubblegum colored paint can do. Actually, I had enough paint left over from the re-do downstairs- so this part was effectively free. Much thanks to The Light Giving Thrift Shop, Salvation Army, Goodwill, Hobby Lobby, and my late grandmother who painted the picture above the bed. If the bedspread or curtains look familiar to something you dropped off at a local thrift shop-- thank you too. Micah, once again, was the plaster and trim man on the job, thanks Babe!

"My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes,

in undisturbed places of rest." Is 32:18

Our Immigration Story

2010-05-14T10:11:00.000-07:00

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services....

Oh we loathe you and love you.

All internationally adopting families in the United States have to apply for an immigration visa to bring their new child home. This has been the most wearisom process for us in the entire adoption.

Here is the protocol:

I-600 (application petition to bring home an orphan)

Fingerprinting invitation/background check

I-171H (approval of immigration visa)

This approval has to be in Ethiopia in order to be assigned an Embassy date, a.k.a TRAVEL DATES!!!!

The procedure began for us in the first days of February this year. We sent in our I-600 application to the immigration center in Texas. The instructions stated that we could send in our application prior to the completion of our homestudy. Post homestudy completion, a copy of the final study should also be sent to the center in Texas. So...that's what we did. Our application and our homestudy were confirmed to be in Texas as of February 4th.

We were pleasantly ignorant for a month just waiting for an invitation to be fingerprinted. Our bliss was interupted when on March 12th we received a letter stating that the office in Des Moines had our application but was missing our home study....WHAT??? We should have our fingerprinting invitation by now and your just telling us that you are missing a document?

The letter gives an email address to contact if you have any questions. I email my concern and then I waited some more. A few days and 2 unreturned emails later, I call the national hotline. The helpful people there kindly direct us to the email address I have been unsuccessfully tapping for the past 3 days. SIX days later we receive an email stating that they don't know where our home study is but it is not in the Des Moines office where it needs to be in order to receive an invitation to be fingerprinted. We secede to the black hole between Texas and Iowa and send another notarized, original copy of our homestudy to Des Moines--- which they received on March 29th. So this has put us about a month behind. The staff in Des Moines did say at that point that they would request us to have the first available fingerprinting appointment....ok some good news. However,this happened not to be until May 7th. By this point, we have passed court in Ethiopia but we have not been so successful with our own governments' paperwork trail.

Well, we realized that there is nothing we can do but trust in the God who has leveled every other mountain standing in our way during this journey.

We went for fingerprinting last Friday. The lady there said it would take at least 20 days to be processed. This actually made us feel pretty good considering the length of waiting we had already done. I then started looking at other family's blogs and saw that most of them had waited at least a couple of months before they got their approval after fingerprinting. We also received an email from our agency saying...We haven't received your I-171H approval form yet. You can't be assigned travel dates without this. Let us know as soon as you receive the form. Ok, panic started to creep in a little.

Micah and I started to pray for a miracle. After all, why would the God who has completely laid the path for us in every other aspect of us becoming a father to the fatherless forget us now?

"Does he who implanted the ear not hear? Does he who formed the eye not see?" Psalm 94:9

Micah shot another email to Des Moines at about 10 o'clock last night telling our case worker about our situation and politely inquired if there was any possible way to expedite this process. This was the response that we received this very morning:

"Your I-600A was approved today,

and the I-171H approval notice was mailed to your home address."

FIVE BUSINESS DAYS LATER WE HAVE BEEN APPROVED.

Why do we waste even an iota of time or energy into worrying when all we have to do is call on our loving and abundantly gracious God?

We now ask that God's hand would move this approval to Ethiopia quickly so that we can be assigned travel dates.

I am thinking God wants this little boy in our family fast--maybe even more than we do.

Fingerprint Models

2010-05-10T18:18:00.000-07:00

Well we finally made it to our fingerprinting appointment at the Department of Homeland Security... "Securing America's Promise" ---I really like their motto.

On the way into the center there is a sign on the door telling us to leave our cell phones and cameras in our car. We take a couple quick snapshots....

Micah grabs our camera, both cell phones and runs back to the car...running because if you are not on time for your appointment (the one we have been waiting for since February) your application will be considered "abandoned." As I walk back into the breezeway of the building, I see that the sign also says to leave your multi-tools, knives, and box cutters in your car. I remembered that I had a multi-tool in my purse and so I hand it to an out-of-breath Micah as he opens the door, rolls his eyes and starts running back to the car to ditch it. As he is running away, I remember a small pocket knife I also have in the bottom of my purse. I open the door, yell at Micah, he turns around, I hold the knife in the air to show him the extra part of my ridiculous weapon store and I toss it to him from across the parking lot.

Well, after all of this, I did surprisingly make it through security and we were still on time for our appointment. The lady who took our fingerprints told us that both Micah and I could be poster models for fingerprints. I guess that's good, or maybe it means we don't wash our hands enough. Either way, our prints should fly through. She also told us that if things go right, we should have our approval in about 20 days. This was thrilling to hear. We have been waiting so long for every part of this immigration process and a delay on these papers would be the only real possible hold up to us traveling.

We are still waiting to hear our dates for travel but have been told that we may not be issued dates until just two weeks before we need to hit the road! We are preparing for early June.

God continues to shower blessings and level the mountains that have stood before us.

Beauty for Ashes

2010-05-10T08:36:00.000-07:00

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me...He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted... to give them beauty for ashes...that He might be glorified." --Isaiah 61:1-3

I have heard that:

"Adoption is born of loss and sacrifice."

This Mother's Day I have thought a lot about that statement. In every miracle of adoption someone has suffered loss. It can look different in each circumstance---sometimes it looks like the birth parents surrendering their heart so that their child will have a better opportunity. Sometimes it looks like the child experiencing cold abandonment. Sometimes it looks like the adoptive family experiencing loss by walking through infertility.

Ashes
I have thought a lot about the birth mother of our son and what her Mother's Day may look like when her country celebrates it this fall. I have thought a lot about all that our son has had to grieve in his short life.

Ashes

I have thought a lot about how Jesus came to bind up brokenhearts and how one day there will be no more sorrow or pain or separation.

Beauty

"In adoption the fearful become beloved, the scorned become adored, the nameless become cherished, the lonely become the laughing, and death becomes life abundant."--Hasenbalg

Beauty

One Last Package

2010-04-30T10:33:00.000-07:00

This will most likely be our last correspondence with Josiah before we meet. It takes at least 4 weeks for our letters to get to him --- 4 weeks from now we should be in deep preparation for our journey! We are only allowed to send "thin" items that fit into a letter envelope so we wanted to make the most of it. (You'llwant to pause the music at the bottom of the page).

He won't know the song but we hope it makes him smile!

I have a few other things that I need to blog on, including the great Walk-A-Thon that so many of you were part of!

2010-04-23T10:48:00.000-07:00

Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act. Psalm 37:5

Julianna is "getting her praise on" and doing the "miracle dance" because we.....

PASSED COURT the FIRST TIME!!!!!!

We feel incredible and are now the parents of a beautiful 3 year old boy!!

His birth mom was there, our recommendation from M*WA (an overworked/ understaffed organization in country) was there, and everything they needed to say YES. We will now wait for a few papers to be processed and to be assigned a date for us to show up at the Embassy in Ethiopia. Many families are having to wait through several failed court dates (I just read a blog of a family on their 7th date). Please lift these families up today b/c we know the prayers of the righteous accomplish much!!

Thank you for your prayers People of God!!!

More Waiting...

2010-04-22T14:04:00.000-07:00

Our court date has come and gone and.......

days have passed....

nights have passed....

and...

We still haven't heard the outcome!!

Waiting to see if you have become the legal parent of someone half way around the world is no easy thing. We are anxious and yet we know that there is nothing we can do to speed up this process and so we will wait, hope, and rest in God's sovereign hand.

The main adoption branch in Oregon can only tell us that the internet in Ethiopia is unpredictable but that we should know soon.

Anytime....really....anytime....

But tonight we will celebrate anyway in joyful expectation,

Ethiopian style

Welcome Packet

2010-04-09T19:14:00.001-07:00

Well, now that we have a court date set, A. will be packing his bags and moving to the Holt Transitional Center in Addis Ababa (the capital of Ethiopia). The center is a beautiful, well kept facility and is where he will be when we go to pick him up. Also, for all of you that we have shared the scary, retro, caucasian Santa video with, this is that place...HA!--Thank goodness A. will be home before Christmas.
All joking aside, we are now able to send him a book of pictures that we made of our family so that he can get to know us a little bit. I put the packet in the mail today! We also sent a letter, a couple of coloring pages, and a few puffy stickers that Julianna picked out for him.

Blogger is being strange tonight so here are pictures of the pages in our book...in crazy disorganization.

We are building a nest.

2010-04-04T19:16:00.000-07:00

For the past couple of months we have been working to get bedrooms ready in our upstairs. We were in a big rush the past couple of weeks to get A's room set up for a picture we could send to him in a welcome book saying, "This is the bedroom we have prepared for you!" We have done painting, some wiring, and trim work.

I was mostly the painter, scrubber, and tool grabber.

We still have some trimming around the windows and the door but the room was "picture" ready this afternoon.

We purchased a "twin" bed frame at a second hand store. When we set it up yesterday, we discovered that it was about 2' short! This is a strange mystery to me. Micah had to make a box spring and supports so that it would hold our twin mattress.

Here is a peek at the pictures we sent him. I love the quilt I waited for...it is perfect. And for all of my facebook friends, that is the lion that I got by asking for the discount b/c of a smudge. I am also VERY happy with him. The frame above the bed will hold our family picture once A. arrives. Here is a picture of the north and east walls. I was unable to find any art that I really liked for his room... and perhaps a little too cheap to buy any, so I rescued a couple of square pieces of chip board from our basement and tried my hand at painting. One is a Jeep driving up a mountain and one is a lion under the night sky. I am pretty happy with them considering the only thing I had to buy was a 60¢ bottle of orange craft paint. We bought the glider off of craiglist last week and it fits in perfectly.

Also, this past weekend we drove to Omaha for an adoption parenting class that was actually in Des Moines.....WOW, what a day that was. But, while we were there we had some cash from Micah selling his paintball gun and decided to have some fun at Toys R Us. After all, every boy needs a Tonka truck and the closest thing we have to that is a pink pony wagon. We found some awesome deals and we now have some boyish toys and some toys that are a little more co-ed than what we have now.

Things are getting exciting as "gotcha day" is coming into view!

2010-04-01T12:07:00.000-07:00

We have a date!!! April 20th is our scheduled court date in Ethiopia and by all appearances we will NOT HAVE TO ATTEND!!! This morning, for no apparant reason, Micah and I both felt like we were going to hear news today about our adoption. I checked my email several times this morning, always keeping in mind the time difference between Iowa and the main Holt office in Oregon. I checked it again right before lunch and WOOHOO! A date had been set.

This is, of course, tentatively set as they are often (very often) pushed back once or twice. We will be fasting and praying on this day that, by a miracle, we could get through court on the first date set. We do, however, know that, like everything else in this process, God's timing has been perfect and we trust that it will continue to be that way --but we do pray that no scheme of the evil one will put any delays on us becoming a father to the fatherless.

We will be having a Walk-A-Thon to help raise money for the remainder of the adoption on April 24th at 2pm, 3 laps around Little Sioux Park. We have pledge cards available (we're bringing them to church or we can mail one to you) if any of you would be willing raise some support and walk with us. We are still trying to raise a significant amount through grants and fundraisers. We will be traveling to Ethiopia 6-8 weeks after a successful court date.

God, we are SO grateful for your sovereign and loving hand. You give us your shield of victory, You stoop down to make us great!(Ps. 18:35) This weekend we remember how low you stooped down and the pain you endured so that our adoption as Your sons and daughters would be secured.

IB-1

2010-03-18T14:43:00.000-07:00

Our dossier has made its way to Ethiopia!!

It is now in the hands of MOWA (Ministry of Women's Affairs). This is an organization that is overworked and understaffed but they will be shuffling our papers and making sure we are assigned a court date. Our agency says that they expect us to be processed under the old court procedure as our dossier made it in before the deadline (the beginning of April). Thank you God for orchestrating this so timely!

In other happenings, I am trying my hand at Injera. Injera is a traditional, spongy flatbread that is eaten at most every meal in Ethiopia. It is made out of Teff, the smallest grain in the world, which happens to grow well in Ethiopia. Here is a picture of how it is traditionally served.

Instead of utensils like our trite fork and spoon, Ethiopians use pieces of the Injera bread itself to scoop up their meals. Talk about practical...plates are kept clean and no pesky silverware to swish around the bottom of the kitchen sink.

I plan on keeping a diary of several different recipes that I try. When we travel I will decide which one is most like the authentic.

Here is IB-1 (Injera Bread trail 1).

It was quite tasty and quite spongy. Next time I plan on making it bigger and fermenting the dough for a few days. As this is part of my recipe diary, you will be kept posted.

Prayer Need

2010-03-11T10:10:00.000-08:00

In a land of 5 million orphans, there is tremendous need for God's people to step in and become fathers to the fatherless---and they have. In 2009, 2,277 orphans were adopted by Americans alone (http://adoption.state.gov/news/total_chart.html). Families have risen to the calling to care for the orphans and, of course, as this happens, the enemy has taken advantage. Because of suspicions of misconduct by some adoption agencies here in the states, the U.S. Dept. of State and the Ethiopian High Court has put new regulations on Ethiopian adoptions. These new regulations will make Ethiopian adoptions more difficult and costly.

Our agency has notified us that it has been able to secure 1 more month to get adoptive parents paperwork through before they would be required to adhere to the new regulations. As I posted earlier, our paperwork has been in process since the end of February. We are praying that we will make it within the 1 month deadline! Will you pray with us for our adoption and for the hundreds of others in the same situation?

We are concerned that if we were required to take the new additional steps, our adoption would be pushed back farther into the year---possibly much farther if it fell into Ethiopia's rainy season.

"I will go before you and level the mountains,

I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron,

I will give you the treasures hidden in the darkness

and riches hidden in the secret places,

so that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel,

who call you by your name."

Is. 45:2-3

Lord, I ask that you would level the mountains in front of us. Please bring the son you are giving us home soon. We love him.

Update

2010-03-02T14:13:00.000-08:00

We just received a new health report today from Ethiopia. Here are some details: He is 25 lbs. and just under 3 feet. He is now in good health and no longer suffers from nutritional deficiency!
The staff say that he:

Has good appetite and feeds well.
Can wash his hands alone
Can walk on tiptoe
Identifies own gender
Has good relationship with caretakers
Plays with other children
Uses cups and spoons
Participates in group play
"He is a sociable child and has tendency to obey rules."
...and many other development markers that are right on track!

We are ecstatic to hear that he has adjusted well and seems to be developing in a healthy way!

Dear Jesus,

Be with our son today. Fill him with joy and comfort, allow his heart to love and trust again. Thank you for making him strong and healthy. Please protect him from evil and prepare the way for him to become part of us.

Yahoo!!

2010-02-23T15:26:00.000-08:00

If it seems I have been behind in life during the past couple of months--it's because my life has been this... preparing our dossier.

To give you some idea of what internationally adopting parents go through and what a dossier entails...

Family Profile
Notarized letter to Ministry of Women's Affairs in Ethiopia
2 passport size photos of ea. parent
Home Study Report (notarized and state certified)

Agency license

Power of Attorney (notarized and state certified)

Certified Birth Certificates and Marriage Certificate of parents

2 notarized letters of recommendation

Notarized police clearance for each parent

Notarized medical certificates from Physician for each parent

Notarized employers letter

Notarized Tax returns

Notarized declaration of personal condition

Notarized letter from bank

Notarized post-placement agreement.

This is a picture of the evening we received our last state certification letter.

The next morning I headed to the post office to mail a certifide package. This is what I wanted to write on it...

It is a little unnerving to hand over something like this...I cannot imagine how devastating it would be to have to start over if it were lost in the mail, BUT, thanks to God, today I received an email that read this:

"I just wanted to let you know that I received your dossier here in the Eugene office today, had a chance to review it and everything looks complete."

Hence, the title of my post today....."Yahoo!!!!"

We will now wait for our dossier to make it's way to Ethiopia, wait for our immigration approval, wait for a court date, wait for a travel date and...pray for continuation of divine help in financing. Hopefully, this process will be around 4 months or less....."Yahoo!!!!"

Brown Like Me

2010-02-16T19:31:00.000-08:00

Newsflash: We are adopting a black son.

Bigger Newsflash: We're not black.

Since this discovery, I have become extremely aware that if we are to have any black skinned toys or books with black characters in our house, I must become very intentional about it.

Julianna saved her money for several weeks in order to buy a t-shirt with the princess of the Princess and the Frog on it. She was excited because she loves the princess and I was excited because finally there is a black Disney princess! Isn't it about time?

For valentines day, we bought Julianna a black fairy (which she loves). We want her to have some diversity in the dolls that she plays with. We need diversity to be normal in our house! If you walk into the toy section in any given store in Sioux City there are 20 white figures for every black, if any at all. I suppose this is just due to the demographic in this area, but it makes it hard to prepare toys that our son will relate to.

How terrible would it be to live somewhere where you never saw anyone that looked like you? Would you feel like an outsider? Would you have a hard time feeling that you were beautiful and accepted?

Here is our current doll census:

Two is progress right?

We are also expanding our book library.

I am extremely excited to add to our family in this way. I'll admit I am nervous about how we are going to handle the trials our son will face because of his color. I will also admit that I am confident in God's guidance and will be asking him for help along the way. God is an artist and the mixture of the tones of our skin is a beautiful thing, especially within a family.

"Pardon me, your epidermis is showing, sir....

A piece of canvas is only the beginning

It takes on character with every loving stroke.

This thing of beauty is the passion of an artists heart"

--Colored People, Dc Talk

Moving Forward

2010-02-03T14:08:00.000-08:00

Well, our home-study is complete today. It is being sent for a final once over and then we will wait for our copy. Here is our social worker, Nikki, who was so efficient in getting this done quickly...she is also in a hurry to get our little guy home.

Once we receive our completed, notarized copies of the home study we will send one to the State of Iowa to be certified and one to Immigration Services to go along with the application for adoption of an international orphan we sent this week. After they receive this, we will be fingerprinted...AGAIN, and then receive our approval. Our next immigration paperwork will be done while we are in Ethiopia! After our homestudy is certified by the State of Iowa, it will be the final piece in our Dossier (a stack of papers and documents all about us sent to Ehtiopian gov't). When our Dossier makes it's way to Ethiopia we will be waiting for a court date... I will blog about this later.

What else are we doing in the mean time?

Jesus, please lift up our little boy today. Make his heart happy and ready to be loved. Make the space between us small as you give us favor in the courts, as you provide for this adoption financially, and as our love for him and our faith in You grows.

December Activities

2009-12-26T17:57:00.000-08:00

We have accomplished a few things on our adoption to do list during the month of December. Even in the middle of preparing for the holiday, we are in a rush to complete hurdles because the thought that our son will celebrate with us next Christmas puts excitement in our heart!
We attended a required course for Parents in Progress in Omaha the first weekend in December. Here we met with three other adoptive families--two for China and one for Ethiopia.
It was great to have conversations about our fears and hopes for the adoption process with each other and to be able to ask questions to the Holt staff. The director in Omaha was actually leaving for a trip to Ethiopia a few days after our class. We are sure that she saw our little boy!

During the month, Micah and I filled out our 16 page questionnaires. We also had our health papers completed. Micah, thankfully, had just been HIV tested for life-insurance and so his doctor said that was good enough for him to sign off on. I, on the other hand, had to send my blood away to be tested.
...the results are still out.

Julianna was my photographer here--what a steady hand!

The lab tech also, thankfully, had a steady hand.

We are so thankful for the Dr.'s office and Dr. for being so kind and patient with all of the paperwork we pushed their way!

We are excited for next Christmas when our boy will come claim the puppy under the tree that Julianna is taking care of for him in the mean time.

2009-11-28T17:11:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday, we received an unexpected (wonderful) surprise. The FedEx truck came to our house delivering a cardboard envelope holding something we will treasure forever. Inside was a DVD with live footage of our future son!!
We had no idea when/if we would get any more information about him and certainly were not expecting it this soon! Seeing him play and clap to music was amazing and I knew that I was in love with this little boy! The video cleared up a lot of unknowns in my mind. I saw what he really looked like (quite a bit different than the little blurry picture we saw when we chose him) and let me say, he is even more of a cutie than I thought! We saw him observe the children around him and really seem to be thinking deeply about his new surroundings at the intake center. We saw him build with blocks and share with another child. We also saw him eat big spoonfuls of food and watch a beautiful smile come across his face.
Next weekend we are spending two days in Omaha participating in classes about international adoption and the adjustments we will need to prepare for. We are now more excited than ever and still beg you to pray for an efficient flow of paper work and task completion so this process can move quickly!

"All children are beautiful when they are loved."---Bertha Holt

2009-11-15T19:34:00.000-08:00

We have chosen to adopt through an agency called Holt International. This is a national agency with a main office in Eugene, Oregon and branch offices all over the country. Our home study is being done in the Omaha branch. The experience we have had with this agency so far has been phenomenal! It is so evident that they are committed to putting children into families and have the process streamlined. They are incredibly efficient and helpful.
The founders of Holt are Harry and Bertha Holt, who decided to adopt 8 Korean children back in the 1950's. They quickly found out that international adoption would be impossible unless Congress would pass a special law allowing it. This couple, believing that God wants His children to care for those without families, championed this law and brought their 8 children home. A few years later, Holt Internat'l was incorporated and since have put 40,000 children into homes in the U.S.
One of the things that Micah & I love about Holt is that they have staff abroad as well as domestically. The children who are put into Holt's care in other countries, are considered individually and only when there is no other option than international adoption are they placed with U.S. families. The children being placed in homes are never put up for adoption due to poverty alone--otherwise our money would be better spent providing for the family instead of taking the child away to a different country. In order to be placed in the program, the children have lost one or both parents, are homeless, or have been abandoned. Holt offers assistance and counseling to the birth families if possible. Of course, it is best for a child to stay with their birth families and to stay within their culture, so it is good to know that our son's unique circumstances were considered and being placed up for adoption was absolutely the best option for him. We are also incredibly thankful that he is in good care during the time we will be waiting to go get him!
If you are the least bit interested in adopting a child who needs a home check out www.holtinternational.org.

First Steps

2009-11-08T15:51:00.000-08:00

Even though Micah and I have been licensed with a home study to adopt in the U.S. we will need to do a "do over" in order to make a home study specific for Ethiopia. A bummer in the way of time and money, but we want to make sure everything we do sets us up for success in the Ethiopian courts.

This last week, we began to work through a large pile of paperwork (the first of many large piles). It seems to be going faster this time because we are familiar with the process now and already have many of the documents that will be required.

Just like we did last year, all of the adults in our home had to go to the county jail and get fingerprinting done for our background checks.

It is good to have started this process as it takes 6-9 weeks to get a clearing from the FBI. This will be the longest part of the home study. Hopefully, we will have everything else completed by the time these are cleared.

Last Thursday, we all got inked, all of our papers got notarized, and we headed to the post office.

Good-bye stack of papers, soon someone special will make you seem very worth it!

When God is silent He is still working....

2009-11-08T15:34:00.000-08:00

For those who have been praying for our family and our adoption journey, we are finally seeing the handiwork that God has been fashioning together-- even before he put the desire in our hearts. We have been selected to be the forever family of a 3 year old boy in Ethiopia! I hope that you will take this journey with us through this blog and by praying with us! We are praying for our son's safety, health, and for God to touch his broken heart. We are also praying that God would prepare our current family to accept him wholeheartedly and for a supernatural bond to be formed even across the miles.