The meaning of a blog

 I wanted to once again share with you why I write this blog in hopes that if you are one of the readers you will have a clear understanding of why I do this. When we started this adoption journey 2+ years ago Wow- I can not believe it has been that long! like many new adopting parents I wanted to read as much personal stories as I could so that I could get a better understanding of what was to come. Likewise I decided to share my own personal stories so that others could learn from me and I could share this journey with our family and friends. I think it also became a bit therapeutic for me to be able to share it with others because it made the process feel genuine and real to me. In adoption there is no baby growing inside you so you have to have some way of tracking your progress and knowing one day you will have a child. For me blogging about it helped. We also feel that adoption is so closely tied to God and his purpose for us that we had to share our hearts with others.

Because we have chosen to keep this blog public and adoption/orphan care related I often times struggle between being honest and genuine while still keeping privacy to my family. I am going to make some changes to the blog in hopes that I can continue to keep it public while respecting my family. You will now see my children referred to by their first initial  and I may share some more technical jargon when sharing certain situations in our lives in hopes that you will be able understand more.

As I work on writing a truthful look on our continued journey I hope to share with you the realism of our lives and in the same regard I ask your privacy as well.

Thank you for sticking with me and sharing in our journey. You words of encouragement and support have helped us so very much and we are extremely grateful for the outpouring of love we have received!
 

A Positive MOWCYA Letter !

This week we have been anxiously awaiting hearing the news of our MOWCYA paperwork court date. This was the date exactly one week ago that N's Aunt went to court to again confirm that he is an orphan and that she understands what adoption is/means and gives her consent and that the judge reviewed our paperwork and agreed that we can pursue adopting him.

Normally you hear from MOWCYA in a day or two but they were a little behind so each day passing has increased our anxiousness but we continue the mantra "In God's timing, in his way" over and over and over.

Well, today I had this in my inbox......

" I am happy to share that MOWCYA has written a positive

 recommendation letter for your family! We should receive

 a court date for your family in the next few days. I expect your court

date will be for sometime in mid-late June, so I’d encourage you to be

ready to travel in the next 2-3 weeks or so. "

 

 

Totally ecstatic over here !!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

(at this point I would love to post an excited picture of myself but at several epic failed attempts by my co workers and myself I reside to a simple Yea!)

So now we wait to hear when our court date will be and we start packing things like mad. Gene and I are still collecting donations so feel free to continue collecting (or check out my last blog posts for the list of items in need).

  

Thank you Lori Ranfeld, Mark Campbell, Linda Dudley, Karen Bowker for your donations to the many mission programs in ET!

We still are not able to share any more details about N but I can show you his first official outfit. Saria and I picked it out together, we couldn't resist!

 

Can I just say he is going to look so adorable!

 

 

 

 

Update on ET Donations - and a new list

So I have to brag on a fellow counselor, Lori,  and her coupon queens. They have taken it upon themselves to join us in our mission to gather supplies for ET and are going to clip away for some great personal hygiene items! I am honored that they have chosen their time and precious coupons for our donation project.  (If you have never couponed before you may think "precious" is a strong word- as a former coupon clipper attemptee it is not, those things are like gold!) She has even partnered with a dental office to provide a box of toothpaste and toothbrushes!!!! Way to go Lori!!!

 

Another surprise- I stepped into my office this morning and found a big back with some children's pj's, books, medicine and band aids from our sweet LHS Librarian Karen.
 

 

 

I even had one of our small group buddies and his son- Mark and Collin Campbell bring me by some unscented baby wipes and flinestone vitamins- bet it's been awhile since they have done down the diaper isle :)

 

 

After checking with sweet Stacy who will be running Project 61 for the summer, they have MET THEIR GOAL FOR NEW  Twin sheets for their boarding school that sponsors children to attend school who once lived in or around the city landfill. They also provide a feeding program, job support and a medical clinic as well.  Korah has a very special place in our heart and so does this agency so we are so excited to get to partner with them. Some of the other items of need are posted at the end of this blog or you can always donate some funds.                                                        

For my Lebanon Peeps- anyone recognize these Shirts!

 

Here is the new list of items since some will be covered by our coupon queens:

 

 

Vitamin D Drops

Flintstones Vitamins-Chewable

Lotrium for ring worm
Baby wipes- Unscented
Medical Gloves - Disposable Examination Gloves
Hand sanitizer
Tylenol -Infant and children's
Neosporine- generic or name brand
Lice kits
Childrens’ Clothing – Sizes 6 months to 3 T. Please, however no shorts nor tank tops.
Childrens’ Outerwear - Coats, Sweatshirts, Sweaters, Jackets. Sizes 6 months to 3 T.
Childrens’ Shoes – for Ages 9 months to 4 years old. No flip flops, please.

 

We are so blessed to have had so many people ask us how they can help fight the cause of poverty in Ethiopia and these are some tangiable ways to do that. Please do not feel that you HAVE to donate, we simply wanted to let the needs be known if you felt led to partner with us.  

 

 

-Amanda and Gene

 

 

The process and where we are....

Many of you have asked what the next steps are. I will try my best to explain the process from receiving a referral to bringing our child home.

                                   

 

Step 1: Our agency sends all the documents that have been gathered to show that our son is a true orphan by international standards and is adoptable. These are sent to the the Ministry of Women and Youth Affairs (MOWCYA).

Step 2: A family is issued a MOWCYA/Birth Parent court date for their case. On that date, MOWCYA is subpoenaed for an adoption recommendation letter, and a birth parent is requested to appear to give their consent for the adoption. (this will be N's Aunt )

We were assigned a MOWCYA date yesterday

for May 29th !!!!!

Step 3:  if MOWCYA writes a favorable letter (which we believe will happen the first time) a court date will be assigned within a week. These dates are usually 2-4 weeks after the MOWCYA date.

Since our MOWCYA date is at the end of this month that means we will most likely have a court date and travel to Ethiopia to meet our son around the middle to end of June!!!!

Step 4: Receive our Court Date then Fly to Ethiopia on a Jet Plane... don't know when we'll be back again,  Yes I'm know I am a dork, moving on....

Step 5: Return home while we wait for post court paperwork submission to the US Embassy. (Things like passports and court decrees- this usually takes 3-5 weeks).


Step 6: Get cleared by US Embassy in Addis Ababa and receive a VISA interview date for our son.

Step 6: Travel for the Embassy appointment and bring N home to his new forever family!!!!

If you do the math the shortest timeline would be court in Mid-June

and bring him home Mid-July.

 

The longer part would be court first of July and

 bringing him home  mid to end of August.

 

Either way we trust that God's timing is perfect and are anxiously awaiting meeting N!

We received a few more pictures that I wish I could share in their entirety but until then here is a cropped pic :)

 

           

 

Wondering what his hand is on?

          That is a trace of my hand...we are holding hands folks!

                   Miles apart but close together. 

                             I wish I could show you that beautiful grin too !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

In the next post I am going to share some of the work we intend to do while we are on our court trip and our hope for you to partner with us to bring much needed supplies to Ethiopia.

Care Packages = Sweet smiles!

The past few weeks have flown by. I still am in awe that God has matched us with a little boy so perfect for our family! The peace that has come from receiving our referral and now being able to place a face and a name has shocked me. I think I lived in such struggle for so many months and have finally came to a place of calm and understanding. I knew that God had to work on our hearts big time to prepare us for this adoption journey and that when our hearts we ready he would reveal our son, and he has!

We are now in the waiting stage for the next month or two while paperwork continues to be completed.

One of the exciting parts of this time of waiting is Care Packages.

 

 

Our agency allows us to send photo releases to families who are traveling to the transition home and with the photo releases they may also take care packages. Now, in the 18 months of waiting you would have thought that I, the planner, would have made a care package....you would be wrong! I was afraid I would jinx it..

 

                             (I know- great faith step- insert eye roll!)

So we made it a family event and took the children to walmart to buy their new brother his first gifts.

    Saria picked out a toy car

   Kellsie crayons and a small coloring book 

   Jacob- a can of Flarp....

 

 (For those of you that have never had a jokster in your house Flarp- it is like a jelly type play-dough that is in a can and when you push on it the noise it creates is similar to a really gross body function- I can only imagine these two boys together and all the mischief that will ensue ! )

 

They then all wrote letters and drew pictures to "N".  I totally love my children and their diversity:

   Saria- a simple getting to know you letter

   Kellsie- a picture of N and her playing

   Jacob- a picture of the Flarp saying: Don't get into trouble with the Flarp!

Gene and I added a few other things in like some family pictures, socks, sunglasses and gum.

 

We received a picture of him with his very first care package today. Each family shares with us how sweet he is and how he shared his gum with their daughter. We can't wait to hug this little man!

 

 Is he not the cutest -even with out seeing his little face!

Our New Son

In the last blog post I showed your our children's reactions. This past week we have had an out pouring of love and support for our new son. Thank you to each and every one of you for the kind words.

 

 



This blog post is difficult to write, not because of a lack for words but rather we want to keep some of our new son's life history his own that he can choose to share or not to share as well as remembering the Ethiopian governments' request of disclosure while providing an opportunity for you to read about our journey in an open format.

Adoption is beautiful but it comes from a place of pain and sadness. Our son may be gaining a new family but has lost his birth family. We will always honor the commitment and love that his birth family gave him before he came to us.

One of the many reasons we chose Ethiopia is because of the amount of poverty. If you ever read the statistics on our blog you would see the lack of health care, education and overall resources. Our son comes from a beautiful country with loving people but many lead very humble lives.


In international adoption an "orphan" came mean lots of different terms and there are many reasons why a child is not with there birth family. For N both of his parents died due to a lack of healthcare. He then lived with an Aunt for a few short months before going to the Orphanage. He was very loved by his family and they wanted the best for him. It is hard for me to write this with out tearing up. Hs family made the ultimate sacrifice, they choose a life for him in America where he would receive an education and health care and a complete family unit rather than a life of poverty and illness in Ethiopia. We will forever be indebted to his birth family for the sacrifice and love they have for him.

Due to Ethiopian policy we can not share his name with you so we will call him "N". He is a sweet little boy who is 6 or 7 years old. We are unsure of his birth date because Ethiopia runs on the Ge'ez calendar which is different than ours. They also do not keep track of dates or documents like we do so discrepancies in age are common.

He loves to play games and already knows some of the English alphabet!  This week our agency told him that he has a forever family and gave him pictures from our dossier. It melts my heart to wonder what he was thinking and his initial reaction.
              
Here is Kellsie with her new big sis shirt holding his picture.....sorry no disclosing his face!

Each month we will receive updates and pictures from our agency as well as pictures from other families that are traveling. Until then I stare at that beautiful little face and count down the days until court!

In the next blog post I will try to describe the process of court and embassy and hopefully be able to write a general timeline for us.