Our Dossier

Well, our dossier made it to America World's Virginia office! Praises! We are officially on the waiting list now for a little boy! I cannot believe it. Our dossier will probably be mailed to Ethiopia next Friday the 5th.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for!

"Oh give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples." Psalms 105:1

Featuring families adopting......

OK the word is out here are the families I mentioned in my last post that we found out were adopting AND ALL FROM ETHIOPIA. Each story is beautiful!!


First is my good friend Laura Kelley and her husband Josh. You know Laura, the talented owner of Pitter Patter Art. They are just starting the process to bring home a baby boy from Ethiopia. Check out their blog here. If you haven't checked out the Pitter Patter Art blog you are missing out! Laura paints and hand makes great stuff!


Secondly, the Freemans. You may know Jonathan and Brea from their huge consignment sale Encores and More they run twice a year. They go to Long Hollow with us and are adopting again! This will be #5 for them! A very cool story. Check out their adoption updates here and look what they are doing today and tomorrow for their adoption fund!


Third is the Carman Family. They have two girls and are just starting the process to adopt 1 or 2 children from Ethiopia. This is their story.


We are always excited to journey with other families with our heart for Africa and the orphans there.


#1 please pray for these families as we know first hand that when you step out of the comfortable Christian life into dangerous surrender to God's will, persecution will start.

#2 each of these families are raising money to fund their adoptions. Check out each blog to see the clever things they are doing to bring home a precious orphan!

I-171 was in the mailbox!!

Oh yeah it was! It took 2 days shy of 8 weeks for us to get our I-171. I was taken back by how informal it looked. It actually looked like a print out of an email which scared me at first. I told Clay I don't think this is it. Once I pulled over and looked it over pretty well I was convinced it was it! From there I had to go get county certifications and state authentication. The day was an adventure in itself. I had a couple of panic attacks but bottom line it was Fed-Exed (sorry dad) to America World. They should have it there in Virginia by 10:30am Thursday! I learned alot today about the whole process so please call me or someone who has done it before you b/c the directions are as clear as mud if you haven't done it before. After tracking down a couple of people by phone to make sure I was doing everything correctly, I learned that I probably did a little more than required but you know me the overachiever. I am anxious to get the good news that my "paper baby" arrived in Virginia safe and sound. By the way the "paper baby" weighed 2lbs 4.5oz. That's alot of papers that I was so glad to get out of my possession. A huge weight was gone when I left Kinkos without it.

So what's next everyone ask.
1. America World will review everything.
2. They have a courier service take it from their office in Virginia to D.C. They review it and put their stamp of approval on it.
3. Then it gets mailed to Ethiopia.
4. Once its in Ethiopia we are officially on the waiting list! OH YEAH!!
5. Then we will probably wait 6 months or so for a referral. A referral is a picture, stats, info on a little boy 0-12 months.

We are praying for no big glitches and to travel to pick our son up in the summer!

Yippy

Our I-171 was mailed from USCIS yesterday!!!

I'll let you know when I get it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Very encouraging!

I couldn't believe it yesterday when I heard that 3 people we know are adopting. Not only are they adopting but from Ethiopia!! These are Godly families that we will be able to raise our children with!!! You feel such a special bond with others who are going through the same process. I cannot believe how God is calling people out to adopt around us. I know the importance of our children cherishing their heritage and having friends from the same country to grow up with!

I have people often call me or see me and say that they would like to adopt. I have a list of about 20 families that have shared that with me and I have a prayer list. I pray that if their calling is from God that He wouldn't give them peace until they followed through.

I am expecting our I-171 within two weeks! That would put our dossier in Ethiopia in December. What a wonderful birthday and Christmas gift that will be for us! Stay tuned.... I will post when we get it.

Some updates

Wanted everyone to know the latest on the adoption. Still waiting on our I-171. This week I went to the mailbox to see an envelope from USCIS my heart was pounding only to find they needed an addendum to our homestudy plus Clay didn't mark how many times he had been married. Hmmmm.The good news is that they are actually reviewing our case which means we are only 1-2 weeks away from receiving our I-171.

About 3 weeks ago we also received a letter from our agency stating that b/c of the economy they were increasing fees by about $4,000. I totally understand the increase and know that they really didn't have a choice. Whatever it takes!

It is interesting the encouragement God brings in a waiting time like this. Everywhere I go I seem to see colorful families. Today at the zoo I at least saw 4 families where I thought those kids are adopted. I ended up meeting one family that adopted a sibling group of 3 from Guatemala. It seems like if you get south of Nashville you see it everywhere. I love running into people where conversation always arises about our adoption. I think it is a great time to share the need of orphans and what God is doing personally with us through it. God is continuing to provide for us in some awesome ways.

Thanks for all of your love and support

"Blessed is he who has regard for the weak; the Lord delivers him in times of trouble." Psalm 41:1

Piper on adoption

This is a video from one of my favorite pastor/authors John Piper. He is so passionate!

The first half of this great sermon he talks about our adoption by God. The second half is about Christian's adopting.

My notes from the sermon:

1. We adopt for God's glory.

2. In adopting a child we are not to make much of the child but enable the child to make much of God.

God is to be center of our universe, NOT CHILDREN.

3. We model for children and others the mercy and justice mingled in wise proportions.

4. Adoption will bring stress, heartache and suffering just like our adoption through Christ cost God his son's life!

5. We adopt by faith of future grace.

We don't know what adoption will bring but we DO know that his mercies are new every morning!

I was so encouraged by this sermon and it made me really think about things in a new light. I would highly encourage you to watch it. You can watch all of John Piper's sermons at this link. This is one of my favorite places to go to for good sermons to listen to while I fold laundry.