First Christmas

Although we were all hoping that we would meet Baby Williams before Christmas, our family and friends were wonderful in including our little Ethiopian kiddo in our celebrations. Every place we went for the holidays, we were encouraged by the kind words and gifts that were shared with us. This is one lucky kid to be loved so much by so many people on both sides of the world!

These are just a few of the gifts that Baby W. got this year, on what I can only imagine was his or her first Christmas:

6 Months Waiting

How many of these "_ Months Waiting" Posts am I going to have to write?!?!?

Today, we're not only celebrating Christmas Eve, but we're also celebrating 6-months waiting for our referral. I have to say, some days have been really difficult this month. There have been some changes with our agency, and although they're good things, any little change can send you in an emotional spiral when you're waiting for the most important phone call of your life. But, we both feel like we're getting the call really, really soon and that has helped ease our minds for this Christmas season.

Besides, this Christmas is really special for us. Its our last Christmas (God willing) as a family of two. So, from our growing family to yours --We wish you a Very Merry Christmas!

Christmas Decorating

Its finally starting to look like Christmas at the Williams house!




We'll give you one guess what we REALLY want for Christmas.....

(if you didn't say "referral" then you should spend a little more time checking out our blog!)

TOMS

What could be better than a new pair of cute shoes?!? ....a new pair of cute shoes that allows a child in Africa the opportunity to get a new pair of shoes AND clean water!!

Mike completely surprised me yesterday with these new TOMS shoes (and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THEM!!):

If you aren't familiar with TOMS, for every pair of shoes sold they donate a pair of shoes to a child in need. The shoes that Mike bought me are the special edition Charity Water design, and each pair sold will also contribute to digging clean water wells in rural Ethiopia. So, if you have any Christmas gifts left to buy..TOMS are super cute and a wonderful cause!

Ethiopian Feast...Sort Of

What do you do when you're driving yourself crazy waiting for the phone to ring....cook! I promised Mike an Ethiopian feast this week to include all of our favorites...doro wat (spicy chicken stew), Misir Wat (red lentils), Kik Alicha (split peas), Dinchi Alicha (spiced potatoes) and Injera (bread..aka eating utensil). I know now that this was a little too ambitious for my first Ethiopian cooking experience, so the red lentils got cut quickly and the Ethiopian feast turned into a few Ethiopian dishes.

I knew that Ethiopian cooking was a long complex process, but I had no idea! My cooking actually started two days before our planned dinner. I had to make Nitter Kibeh, which is a spiced clarified butter that is the base for every Ethiopian dish.

Preparing the Nitter Kibeh (and yes, I'm styling in Mike's Colts sweatshirt)



It took a little over two hours to prepare, but it was completely worth it! What could be better than butter with garlic, ginger, onion, cardamom, fenugreek, cinnamon and turmeric?? I wanted to eat it with a spoon!



And please don't be impressed by my use of spice names. I had no clue what most of them were but my wonderful husband surprised me with an Ethiopian spice kit earlier this year, so I had everything I needed!



I did my best to multi-task with everything going on, but I'm thankful that Mike was there to jump in when I needed a third hand to stir.



And finally, four and a half hours later, the finished product:



So what did I learn in all of this? Well, I learned that split peas need to cook longer than four and a half hours, that potatoes should cook a lot less than four and a half hours, that, while I make a pitiful injera, I do make a pretty awesome doro wat (if I do say so myself), but most importantly...I have a lot more respect for anyone who cooks Ethiopian food on a regular basis!

5-Months

This is a post I was really hoping that I wouldn't need to write, but here it is...we've been waiting 5-months for a referral today. There hasn't been any activity this month (no referrals, no assigned court dates, no embassy appointments), so we're still #2 on our agency's list.

We're hopeful for some news by the end of November, but December or January seems more likely. Although its taking longer than we had thought, we still feel so blessed that God has allowed us to continue on this journey and we look forward with GREAT anticipation to the day when we get to see our Little One's face for the first time.

Watoto Children's Choir

Its no secret that Mike and I both fell in love with Uganda when we were there last year, so we were excited to hear that a children's choir from Uganda was performing at a church in Evansville. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to see their performance!

Each member of the choir was a child who had been orphaned due to HIV/AIDS, war, or disease. The only thing more amazing than the music was the stories that these children shared about the hope they've found through Christ and the new life they've been given by the Watato Village ministry.

Hearing these kids sing took us right back to Uganda. All of a sudden I could smell the red clay dirt again and feel the African sun on my face. Uganda didn't feel so distant anymore, and for that I am grateful. I am also grateful for ministries like Watato that are radically changing lives in Africa, and to these kids for sharing their talent and their testimony with us.

Here are a few pictures of the Watato Children's Choir:








Oh, and my favorite song was called "African Lullaby", and I found a youtube link to the Choir performing it (warning...high potential for tears!)




For more information about what Watato is doing in Uganda and opportunities for you to get involved go to: wwww.watato.com

Ethiopian Cultural Festival

It is such a blessing to have an Ethiopian church within driving distance, and an even greater blessing that they have a specific ministry for adoptive families! I've blogged about Grace Ethiopian Church in Indianapolis before, but I can't say enough about how wonderful and welcoming they are. On Saturday, they held an Ethiopian cultural festival for adoptive families -- an evening full of singing, dancing, cultural displays..oh, and the most amazing Ethiopian food! We had a great time meeting other adoptive families, and reconnecting with families we haven't seen in a few months. A lot of our little F.T.I.A cuties were there too (we love those kids!). Here are a few pictures from the festival:

Pastor Yosef and his daughter (isn't she adorable?!?)




This is one serious drum....



These women could move (they were also the women who spent two weeks making our meal which was incredible...at one point I really wanted to lick my plate; however I did show restraint for fear of offending those around me)



We're looking forward to the next event...and I've heard it might be an Ethiopian cooking class for adoptive moms. Yummmmmmm

Orphan Sunday

The first Sunday in November is recognized as Orphan Sunday -- a day set aside to remember and pray for the 173 million orphans in the world. God tells us in Psalms that "He sets the lonely in families", and we praise Him for that. So today, on orphan Sunday, we thought we would share ten ways that EVERY person can care for orphans:

1. PRAY for them!!
2. SPEAK up for them -- become a court appointed special advocate (CASA)for a child in foster care
3. PROVIDE for their needs -- donate financially to a reputable organization, or organize a drive to collect items for children in foster care
4. SUPPORT those who support then -- mow, babysit or organize meals for foster families or give financially to help a family cover adoption expenses
5. PROTECT them from harm -- Become a foster parent or an emergency foster parent
6. VISIT them where they are -- Go on a mission trip to an orphanage or take dinner to a foster group-home
7. GIVE sacrificially to them -- support orphan care organizations on a regular basis
8. ENCOURAGE them -- Sponsor a child and encourage them through your letters
9. ADOPT THEM -- give a child a home through international, domestic or foster care adoption
10. MOBILIZE your church for them -- be a catalyst in your church for starting a sustained orphan ministry

I can't take credit for this list. It was passed out this morning at our church, and we think its wonderful. As a family, we feel called to adopt. We recognize that adoption isn't something that God lays on every family's heart, but we are ALL called to support orphans (James 1:27, Psalms 68:5-6, Deuteronomy 24:19, Isaiah 1:17, Proverbs 31: 8-9, Matthew 18:5). Is there something on this list that you can commit to?

Faith Like a Five Year Old

This is a conversation I had recently with our 5-year old nephew:

Dylan: Aunt Krista, when are you coming to my house?

Me: I'll be at your house on Thanksgiving.

Dylan: Will you bring your baby?

Me: No, our baby isn't home yet.

Dylan: When will your baby be home?

Me: I don't know, but I hope we find out soon.

Dylan: But, when do you think your baby will be home?

Me: I really don't know...I thought we would already be making plans to bring our baby home but its just not time yet.

Dylan: Its okay Aunt Krista... God must be making your baby perfect since He's taking His time.

Today, I'm praying for faith like a five year old!

4 months

Today we celebrate 4-months waiting for our referral! We're getting so close! We're at the stage of "the wait" now where we carry our phone with us everywhere waiting for it to ring at any minute. I know we could still have a few weeks or even a couple months, but knowing we're #2 on our agency's list has made us anxiously await that call even more. We're hopeful that we will not be writing a "5-month waiting" post!

"The List"

I love it when people ask us how the adoption is going -- some people are afraid that it may make us upset or impacient, but its our favorite thing to talk about so please keep asking! The most popular question we get (after, "have you heard anything yet") is, "How much longer?". Trust me, I wish we knew!

Since we've started this process, I've been creating an "unofficial" list of the other families adopting from our agency. The list is totally based on informal conversations with other families, emails, posts on chat groups, updates from our coordinator, and family blogs. Everytime someone mentions where they are in the process, I make a note in "The List". I have to admit that its a pretty impressive operation.

What started out as innocently tracking where we might be in relationship to other families has turned into graphs, charts and detailed statistical analysis. I'm so out of control with this data! I have determined things like, "Our agency averages 1.3 referrals a month" and "42% of all referrals come in the first ten days of the month" (you get the picture). Although this sounds a little obsessive and border-line creepy, it has been encouraging to watch our name move up that list.

This week, we're THRILLED that there has been some movement and I get to actually update my list. Not one, but TWO families in front of us received referrals on Monday. One family got matched with a little girl and the other with their little boy. We're so happy for them! I'm also happy to let you know that according to "the list".....we're now #2!!!!!!!!!

Certified

This post is to inform all family, friends, co-workers, and the general public that should any of you choke, pass-out, fall from extreme heights, go into cardiac arrest or respiratory distress, experience a puncture would, strain, sprain or fracture...we're there for you! That's right, Mike and I spent eight hours in training yesterday to get certified in CPR and first-aid. We thought these skills would be useful once we had a little person in the house. Here are a couple pictures of us demonstrating our new training.

By the look on Mike's face, you would think that he didn't like the fabulous sling I made him:



I hope to NEVER have to do this in real life:


Thanks, Red Cross, for a great (although very long) day of training!

Church

Those of you who know us at all, know that we are passionate about serving God in whatever way He has planned for us (hence the whole adoption journey!). What you may not know is that since we've been married, we've really struggled to figure out how "church" fits into that equation for us. Don't get me wrong...we have always gone to church on Sunday mornings. We sit in the pew, sing praise songs, shake hands, listen to the message, and then go home. Sunday morning church just wasn't clicking for us. Our church was big (really big), and the reasons we justified joining a church of that size was because they offer so many great programs and ministries. The ironic thing is, that because a church is that size, its really difficult to get plugged into those ministries and programs. I know it works for a lot of people and we love the mission of that church, but it wasn't working for us.

When we were in Uganda, we were blessed with the opportunity to spend a Sunday morning in worship at Kingdom Preparation Church in Juba. The church was a tiny shelter with tin walls and a tin roof. It had a dirt floor and one small light bulb dangling from a thin wire in the middle of the room. Despite all of that, there was something so beautiful about that space. This was our first church experience in Africa and there are absolutely no words to describe what that was like. It taught us that church is not about the size of the building or even if you have a building at all. Its about the hearts of the people in that building and God working through them to do His will. We spent four hours that morning praising God with our brothers and sisters who put our faith to shame and we left there having been forever changed.

This is a picture of Kingdom Preparation Church:


Since then, we've been searching for a new church -- One that would fit our need to truly LIVE the gospel not just preach it. We've been attending a new church for the past few months, and we really feel like this could be our new church home. Not only do their beliefs align with ours, but they have tons of adoptive & foster families (and we love that!). Do you want to know something else crazy....the message yesterday was "Honoring God while you Wait". Could there have been a more perfect message for us?!?!?

3 Months

Its now been three months since we formally submitted our Dossier to Ethiopia. I wish I could say that there has been tons of activity, several court dates assigned and a few referrals this month....unfortunately that's not the case.

The courts in Ethiopia close every year in late summer for the rainy season, and this year they've been closed since early August. When the courts are closed, things in "adoption-land" really slow down. The great news is that the courts will reopen on Monday (September 27th), so we're hoping that there will be some activity late next week. For now, we'll celebrate one more month down....and we're hoping we're at least halfway through with the wait!

Indianapolis Gathering

Have you ever met a group of people and it just felt good -- like in an "I hope that I know you for a really long time" kind of way? That's the best way to describe how we feel about some people we met this weekend.

Let me fill you in on a little background information. We found out about a church in Indianapolis who has started an outreach ministry to Ethiopian adoptive families. The pastor of this church, Pastor Yosef, immigrated from Ethiopia and truly has a heart for adoption. Once a month, he and his congregation organize a gathering for anyone who has adopted or is in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. Each meeting has fellowship time for the families to get to know one another, a lesson about Ethiopia (culture, cooking, language, etc), and refreshments.

We went to our first gathering this weekend, and we met some of the most welcoming people. We met two families (one from Avon and the other from Danville) who were so sweet and supportive. We also met another family adopting from our agency who we hadn't met yet -- small world! It just felt good to be there in a room full of people who know exactly what we're going through. They've been through the same anxiety, excitement and frustration and are now on the other side -- home with their sweet children.

I look forward to the day when Mike and I are taking our child to these gatherings. They'll play with other kids who look like them and share his / her heritage. We'll learn more about the culture of the country who gave us this amazing gift, and we'll offer encouragement to other families who are where we are now...waiting. I'm so excited for that day, and I'm so grateful for Pastor Yosef and his congregation and all of the wonderful families that we met this weekend who I hope will all be life-long friends for us and our child.

Happy New Year!

No, I haven't completely lost my mind with all of the waiting -- yesterday really was New Year's Day in Ethiopia! Ethiopia follows a completely different calendar than we do. Its called the Ethiopian Ge'ez calendar, and the new year begins on September 11th (except in leap years when its celebrated on September 12th). My favorite thing about the Ethiopian calendar....it has thirteen months as opposed to our twelve, so yesterday in Ethiopia they celebrated the beginning of 2003! That means I'm seven years younger in Ethiopia!

Two Months

We've been waiting for a referral for two months today!

In the past two months we have painted four rooms, taken twenty hours of parenting training, tiled our kitchen floor, celebrated birthdays (I know, I'm finally admitting that I'm thirty), celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary, spent weekends in Louisville, Lexington and Cincinnati, recovered from a significant illness (all organs in tact!), joined a gym.....AND ITS STILL GONE SLOW!!

Two months down, and we're hoping to be at least half-way through with the wait!!

Emanu

We had a very Ethiopian weekend!! I can't wait to post about it all, but I'll start with our dinner on Friday night. Ever since we submitted our dossier, we have planned to have dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant to celebrate. Unfortunately, I haven't been feeling well since the day we submitted, and doctor's advised against Ethiopian food (apparently not so "gallbladder friendly"). Now that I'm almost fully recovered, we decided to finally have our first Ethiopian dinner.

We ate at Emanu in Cincinnati, which was opened by an Ethiopian woman who came to the US in 1992. She was also our waitress and we enjoyed talking with her about Ethiopian culture and the Amharic language. Ethiopian meals are not just about the food -- its all about the process.

The first thing they serve is Injera bread. Its a gluten-free bread made from Teff (a grain that grows in the mountains of Ethiopia). Its really spongy and a little sour tasting. This is the first thing they serve you because its the only eating utensil you use in Ethiopia (no knife, fork, or spoon). Then the food comes on a giant plate that the entire table shares. You scoop the food up in the Injera using your right hand only -- we were told that this symbolizes blessing for the group you're eating with. The food can be VERY spicy, but it was all delicious! Here are some pictures of our first Ethiopian meal:

Our plate of food:



Here you can see the Injera rolled up in the background:



This is how you should eat the food (using the injera):



Mike, however, took eating with no utensils to a new level:

Christmas

Here I am again, sitting in front of the computer thinking about what to possibly post to communicate how Mike and I are feeling at this stage of "the wait". Instead of giving up and posting nothing (which I've obviously done every day for about a month now), I thought I would just tell you all what's on my mind right now -- nothing profound or amazing, just my thoughts this morning.

We have been waiting almost two months for our referral, which I realize does not seem so long. But, when you know that you have a child who is alive, breathing, sleeping, crying....on the other side of the world and you can't be there to witness every minute, dry every tear and rock them to sleep, its really hard. Now, pair that with the fact that we don't even know if our child is healthy or if they have food tonight or if they even have a bed to sleep in....that's when hard turns to emotional.

One thing we do know without a doubt, is that our child is not alone. God has been with this child every second, drying every tear and soothing them to sleep. That thought alone gives us unexplainable peace.

God knows our heart, and He knows that we would LOVE to be holding our child by Christmas.In order for that to happen, we are going to need to get our referral by mid-October. The way referrals have been coming in to our agency, and the number of families waiting ahead of us, it seems very unlikely that we would meet that date. But, we serve a God of miracles, and that fact has been evident all through our adoption journey so far. We have completely surrendered the timing of this adoption to Him, and we know that we are going to meet our child at exactly the right time whether that's this year or next.

Speaking of Christmas, a friend sent me this video and I thought I would share. Enjoy this little bit of Christmas in August.

One Month

We have been officially waiting for our referral for one month today! We knew that waiting would be really hard for us, but we've been managing to keep ourselves busy this month. The hardest part is knowing that (most likely) our child is born and living on the other side of the world without us. We can't wait to get our referral and see our child's little face, find out their name and age, and learn the beginning of their life's story.

One month down and hopefully not too many more to go!!

Uganda

This weekend, Uganda was shook by two mass bombings that took the lives of nearly (80) people, including (1) American. A radical extremist group in Somalia has claimed responsibility, and I can't begin to tell you how devastating this is to the tiny country that we love so much. Our prayers are with the people of Uganda as they deal with this tragedy. We were in Uganda exactly one year ago, and thought this was a good opportunity to share a few pictures that show the true beauty of Uganda:





A bit of Africa trivia...what two African countries border Somalia??

What have we been up to??

Its been a few weeks since we've posted, so I thought I would let you know what life has been like "post-paperwork". It definitely feels strange not to be carrying around a binder full of documents! We found out that our dossier was officially registered in Ethiopia on July 9th, so we're VERY relieved to know that all of our information made it overseas in one piece. Meanwhile, we've completed all of our required parenting training (which was wonderful)!! I'll post more about that in a few days. We've also been working hard to get our house unpacked and put together. The moving process took a backseat to our paperwork, so we're finally getting rooms painted and decorated. We're looking for suggestions on other things we can do to distract us while we're waiting...any suggestions??

Its a BIG DAY!

Today's the day we've been waiting for -- dossier submission day!! We got our documents back from Washington at 11:30, and by 12:15 I was officially handing them over to our agency. So, our wait for a referral begins today!!! I tried to get some indication from our coordiantor on how long the wait could be, and very "unofficially" she said it could be anywhere from four to six months. So, we're hoping we'll be matched with our child late October (or ealier?!?!). Thanks again for all of your prayers. Its a huge relief to have all of the paperwork finished and now we look forward to referall day!

Update

Just wanted to let everyone know that Caring Hands called us yesterday, and our documents are finished! They said that the Department of State reattached the cover sheet and they are "good as new"! We should get them back from FedEx today, and we're taking them straight to our agency. Yes...this time I made all of our copies BEFORE sending them to Washington, so we won't have another copy disaster. So, unless there's some FedEx delay, today will be the day that we formally submit our dossier!!

Caring Hands

I don't think I've ever been excited for Monday morning, but we've spent all weekend wondering what to do about our document disaster. We thought that, surely, either the Department of State or our adoption agency would have answers for us when they opened today. Well, the Department of State wouldn't return our calls and our adoption agency had never seen this happen before and couldn't give us a definitive answer. Rather than losing an entire day waiting for the Department of State to finally call us back, we contacted Caring Hands.

Caring Hands is the courier service that we used the shuttle our documents from place to place in Washington DC. Their primary job is NOT to answer international adoption questions. Their sole responsibility is to get documents from place to place in Washington. Honestly contacting them was a desperate attempt to get some idea of whether or not anyone has seen this happen before and we weren't getting answers from anyone else.

I just can't say enough about this WONDERFUL company. Not only did they reassure us that this happens frequently, but they told us that if we send them back our documents with the detached cover sheet, they would take it back to the Department of State to have it reattached free of charge! So...our documents are on they're way back to Washington via FedEx, and we are adding Caring Hands to our list of angels that have helped us along the way!

Copy Disaster

Just wanted to post quickly with good news & bad news (well...maybe bad news). The GOOD news is that our documents came back from Washington Friday afternoon and they were perfectly complete and ready to turn in to our agency. The BAD news is that when attempting to make copies, the authentication page that was so perfect binding our entire dossier together completely detached from our documents. Just when we thought we were finished....

We have a meeting with our agency tomorrow, and they're going to let us know what we need to do next. We are prepared mentally for this to be a big set-back for us, but we'll find out for sure tomorrow afternoon. Its been a rough weekend for us, but we're getting through it. Its all in God's hands, and we know that these set-backs are ensuring that our path meets up perfectly with the child that God has hand picked for us.

No More Documents!!

After 4-months & 2 days, a total of 287 hours of work & two road trips....we have completed all 87 pages of our dossier!! We just sent them all to Washington, DC for the U.S. Department of State & Ethiopian Embassy to authenticate. We're using a courier service in DC to hand deliver them to the right offices, and the service said we can expect to have them returned in approximately one week. After we get them back from DC, we'll officially submit them to our agency and then THE WAIT BEGINS!!

Terri

As you know, we had to recreate a few documents and send them to the Indiana Secretary of State for authentication. The last time we completed this step it took one week and one day. I Fed-Exed the new documents to Indy last Tuesday (June 1st), so (being the schedule driven, obsessive person that I am) I expected to get them back this past Wednesday. Well....no documents. My wonderful, level-headed, problem-solving husband decided that he would call the office this afternoon to check on the status.

At this time, I would like to introduce you to Terri. I have no idea what her last name is, what her title is, how long she's worked for the Sec. of State, but I do know that she absolutely went above and beyond to help us.

Terri is the woman that Mike spoke with at the Secretary of State's office who had the unfortunate job of informing us that they had no record of receiving our documents last Tuesday. That's right...you didn't misread that. Terri said that they didn't get our documents, and that's when I went into panic mode.

Again, my level-headed, problem-solving husband calmly called Fed-Ex who gave him the name of the individual who signed for our documents, and Mike called Terri back. Not only did Terri find this person and retrieve our documents, but she expedited them through the authentication process and shipped them out within an hour.

I know it probably sounds like she was just doing her job, but it was late on a Friday afternoon and she could have easily put this off until next week. Instead, Terri dropped everything, pulled some strings, and worked this all out for us so that we would have our documents first thing Monday morning. She was our angel today, so say an extra prayer of blessing for Ms. Terri!

Roller Coaster

Its been a little over a week since my last post, and there's been a lot of adoption activity going on (hence the reason for little time to post). After getting our USCIS approval, the only thing left to do was get a document authenticated by the Secretary of State in Michigan, and then our dossier was ready to send to Washington D.C.. We made the decision to drive to Lansing, Michigan to get it done as quickly as possible. So, after more than (14) hours of drive time, our documents were COMPLETE!

We sent them to our agency for one final review on Tuesday, and just heard back from them last night. The good news is that all of our documents are perfect! However, there's been a little set-back. There has been a staffing change in Ethiopia. The in-country director for our agency retired this week, and his name is on one of our documents. So, we have to recreate a document with the new director's name, resend it to the Indiana Secretary of State for authentication and then we'll be ready to send our complete dossier to U.S. Department of State & the Ethiopian Embassy for final authentication. Its definitely disappointing since we were SO CLOSE, but better that this happened now than after we sent everything to Ethiopia.

We're learning that International Adoption is like a roller-coaster --- full of ups and downs, twists and turns, moments that you just want to throw your hands up and scream (sometimes from fear and others from excitement), and we know that there's most likely another loop right around the corner.....but we also know that this ride will be completely worth it in the end!

APPROVED!!

I don't have a lot of time to post, but had some GREAT news that I couldn't wait to share. Mike and I came home quickly on our lunch hour today to get a book I left home, and on our doorstep was a FedEx envelope....its our USCIS approval!!! We just got fingerprinted last week (much earlier than expected) and we assumed we would hear back in a month. Obviously, we are THRILLED to get our approval much earlier than expected and so excited to have this important document in our hands. We have two more documents left to complete and then our paperwork is off to Ethiopia. Thanks for all of your prayers!

Why?

"Why Ethiopia?" This is a question we've already answered a hundred times, and I fully expect to answer it at least a hundred more in my lifetime. My short answer to that question is...because we have room in our hearts and our home for a child, and God has a child in Ethiopia He has planned for our family. We're just being obedient, and He's reconfirmed at every step that we're walking on this road together.

STARTLING STATISTICS ABOUT ETHIOPIA
* One out of every 20 children born alive die in their first month of life

* One out of ten die before reaching their first birthday

* One out of six die before reaching their fifth birthday

* There are 4.6 million orphans in Ethiopia

* The median age in Ethiopia is 18

* 1.5 million people in Ethiopia are infected with AIDS

* Per capita, Ethiopia receives less aid than any country in Africa

Fingerprints

Today was fingerprint day!! We got up super early, made the 2-hour trip to Louisville, got a little lost downtown, walked five blocks to the USCIS office, waited, filled out forms, waited a little more, and then in five minutes the whole thing was over and we were on the way home! This may sound like it was a big hassle, but it was absolutely wonderful!!! Every little thing we do puts us one step closer to getting our little guy or gal home, and we're so excited to have this step finished so we can move on the the next!

Mother's Day

Happy belated Mother's Day! Obviously from my last post, this whole mother's day experience has been a little emotional for me, but my wonderful husband managed to make it a great day. Anyone who knows Mike well, knows that he absolutely can not keep a secret...especially when it comes to gifts. He gets too excited about what he's bought that he ends up giving it to me weeks in advance. Well, this time, he completely surprised me with my first mother's day gift. He gave me a silver necklace in the shape of Ethiopia with the word "Enat" engraved on the back (Ahmeric for mom). LOVE IT!! I guess this means the pressure's on for father's day :-)

Request

Mother's Day is coming up (May9th in case any of you need to pick up a last minute card!), and I've got really mixed emotions. Excitement --- because this will be my first mother's day, and complete heartbreak -- because this may be our child's birth mother's last mother's day. Honestly....not an easy thing to think about, but I find myself thinking about her a lot. I don't know who she is or where she is.....but she's most likely already given birth to our child and she's either very sick, very hungry, very scared, or (probably) all of the above. As consumed as my thoughts are about the child we're about to have and how impatient I am to have him or her home with us, I am constantly reminded that there's another mom, half-way around the world, who will forever be a part of our family's story. I want to ask all of you who read this to pray for her. Pray for her health. Pray for her strength. Pray that she knows how much she is loved. Pray that she has peace. And, please, ask God to bless her for the sacrifice that she's about to make.

Surprise....

Remember when I said that we should hear back from the USCIS office in about two months with our fingerprint appointment date? Well, we got our mail today and....... WE HAVE APPOINTMENTS! We just sent our application in six days ago, so this is a lot earlier than we expected. Our appointments are scheduled for May 11th, so we have about three weeks to wait. There really is no standard on the timeframe between getting fingerprints and actually getting final approval so it may still take us around three months to complete this stage, but it was still a very pleasant surprise to have heard back so quickly!

Yard Sale

We've been trying to think of creative ways to save / make money for the adoption, so when we heard that our new neighborhood was having a yard sale we were in! We honestly had very low expectations for how much money our stuff would make us, but we were pleasantly surprised!! Not only did we make a lot more than we expected, we actually met another couple in our town who are also adopting their first child from Ethiopia!!! They aren't using the same agency that we are so its difficult to determine if they're in the same "stage" of the process, but it sounds like our kids will come home within a few months of one another. Who knows, maybe our little Ethiopian kiddos will become good friends!

USCIS

After some minor issues, our USCIS documents are in the mail! Well, technically they're in this FedEx truck somewhere, but they're on their way to Texas!! This means that our first long waiting period begins.

Everyone who has talked to me in the last week knows that I wasn't in the best mood on Wednesday and Thursday. Our home study was finished on Monday, and we just couldn't seem to meet up with our social worker to get our official final copies. I REALLY REALLY wanted to get the USCIS sent off, and we had to have the home study in order to get it in the mail. In my mind, we lost three days. Well....God knows what he's doing! When we got our home study on Thursday, I rushed to the computer to find the nearest FedEx location (because we were getting this thing in the mail that night!) and in my email there was "Urgent News from FTIA". Of course, I opened it right away and the immigration forms that we were getting ready to mail had completely changed. Not only that, but they now needed to go to a different office. If we would have received our home study any earlier than Thursday, we would have sent the wrong form to the wrong place!!! How crazy is that?!?

Well, after taking a couple days to figure out the new form, our documents are on their way to Texas. In about two months, we should hear from the USCIS office to schedule a fingerprinting appointment. Then, once our fingerprints clear, we will get a form back from them saying that we're approved to bring an orphan into the U.S. This whole process will most likely take three months. Anyone have any advice on what we can do while we wait??

Approved!!

"Michael and Krista Williams possess the physical, emotional and financial resources and capabilities to parent a child. They are well prepared for this planned adoption and I, therefore, recommend them to adopt a child from Ethiopia. "

That's right....we have an official APPROVED HOME STUDY! Now we have documented, authenticated, signed and notarized proof that we really are qualified to be parents! Our social worker, Cindy, was wonderful. She has been such a great resource for us through this stage of our journey. She even got us a gift for passing the home study... a beautiful poem about an adopted child's legacy. I'll admit it made me cry, so Mike had to read it to me. Its just been an emotional night.

Anyway, we are so excited to have finally passed this milestone and now we'll be sending off for USCIS approval to begin the next phase of the waiting game!

Progress

We are happy to report that we received our home study this afternoon!!! I have to say, it is really strange to read a huge report about yourself.

Technically, the copy we received today is just a draft. Our social worker wants us to read through and note any corrections that she needs to make. Once we email her back, she'll modify the report and give us our final "official" copies to send to USCIS.

We're finally making some progress again!!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from the Williams Family! We woke up this morning, and the Easter bunny really was in our front yard --- okay, so maybe he was more interested in eating our landscaping than leaving Easter Eggs, but he was still pretty cute.

Even though Baby Williams isn't home with us this Easter, Grandma Robin and Grandpa Steve got them an Easter gift -- Baby's First Bible. It has a little baby chick on the cover and they even got a stuffed baby chick to match (this child will quickly learn about the importance of coordinating accessories!!).

Its exciting to think that next Easter (God willing) our little guy or gal will be home with us!

Update

I wish I had more news to post. We have been waiting for our home study to become finalized, and our Social Worker won't have a draft for us to review until Monday. So...we're officially in our first stage of waiting and its isn't much fun. Once our home study is complete, we can file for USCIS approval (United States Citizen and Immigration Services). This typically has been taking around three months. We've been so anxious just waiting two weeks for our home study...three months will seem like a lifetime!!

On a brighter note, four families who are also adopting from Ethiopia through our agency had their court dates today and they all passed!! Lets just pray that things go as smoothly for us when our court date rolls around.

Goodbye House....

Five years ago, we made the decision to build our "dream house". We spent two years designing it, the next year building it and for the past two years we've lived there. Despite all of the work that we put into the house and the sacrifices that we made to build it, it has never felt like home to us. And, after visiting Africa, our dreams have changed. God has directed us to allocate our time and our finances into things that are a lot more valuable than a house. So, on Saturday, we said goodbye to our old house and hello to our new home!

Vote

There has been a heated debate among family & friends as to whether our child will be a boy or a girl. Right now, the votes are evenly split. What do you think?? We added a little survey in the toolbar, so give us your opinion.

First Toy

Since we don't know if Baby Williams will be a boy or a girl, we have refrained from shopping. However, my mom just couldn't help herself. We went to visit my parents this weekend, and my mom gave us our first Baby Toy! Its the cutest little caterpillar and each section of his body is a different activity.




Notice I took the picture of the toy on the floor, as I'm sure that's where most baby toys end up!


Thanks, Mom!

Letters

As most of you know, we have been frantically gathering documents for our Dossier for the past several weeks. After a while its easy to start looking at each piece of information as just another check mark off our "to-do list", but three of the documents that we received this week are very special to us.

As part of the Dossier, we have to submit three Letters of Reference from non-family members. We asked some of our closest friends to write these for us, and they returned them this week. WOW -- it was such a humbling feeling to read the words that our friends wrote explaining why we would make good parents to an Ethiopian child!! We are so blessed to have these friends in our lives. Sharon, Bill, Kate, Larry & Kathy -- We love you dearly and we could never thank you enough for helping us bring our little one home!

The Process

Now that the news of our adoption is starting to settle in with family and friends, we've been getting A LOT of "process" questions. So, we thought we would get everyone up to speed on how this whole Ethiopian Adoption process works:

Step #1: PAPERWORK....lots and lots and LOTS of paperwork. We have to compile a packet of documents called our Dossier. This is, essentially, our life on paper. The documents include: Birth Certificates, Marriage Certificates, a Home Study, Copies of Passports, Tax Return Documents, Medical Records, Police Clearance, USCIS approval....you get the picture. There are a little over thirty documents total (some are easier to obtain than others). All documents have to be signed, notarized, and translated and then they're off to Ethiopia!

Step #2: REFERRAL. About 4 - 6 months after we submit the dossier to Ethiopia, we will get officially "matched" with a child. This is an exciting time, because we will not only get any medical and background information that is available for our child, but we will also get our first pictures! At this time, we will know if we'll have a boy or a girl and we'll know the age of the child. Let the shopping begin!!

Step #3: COURT. About 2 months after we accept the Referral for our child, the Ethiopian courts will hear our case and officially make a judgement on whether or not they will approve our petition to adopt them. Once we pass court, the child is legally ours!!

Step #4: GOTCHA DAY!! About 6 weeks after we pass court, we get to pick up Baby Williams!

Baby Book

We're determined to make this child the best Baby Book in the history of all baby books! We don't want to miss a single moment of this process because we want to be able to show them how much they were loved every day that we waited for them to come home.

So, even the seemingly smallest events turn into a fill fledged photo shoot.

That's right, we even photographed each other filling out the FTIA application. If you think that's crazy....we also had a stranger take our picture mailing our application at the Post Office. And, I know I'm starting to transition to Mama Mode because I don't even care if you all think that's strange. Like I said, I want our child to have what every other child has -- and that includes a Baby Book. So, look the other way if you must, but I'm going to continue snapping away!!

Our Agency

We're typically an easy-going, laid-back kind of couple, but when it came to choosing an agency to help us bring our little one home, we scoured the Internet for everything ever written about Ethiopian adoption agencies! This is such a big decision. Its no different than choosing what doctor you trust to deliver your child -- this agency will be our partner in this exciting, overwhelming and sometimes uncertain process.

There are hundreds of agencies out there, and we wanted to make sure we were choosing an agency that was: #1 Ethical, #2 Experienced, #3 Engaged. After tons of research, we narrowed our search down to two, had meetings with both agencies, and then contacted families who had adopted from Ethiopia with those agencies. That last step...contacting the families....made our decision VERY easy. We selected F.T.I.A. (Families thru International Adoption), and we know without a doubt that this was the best decision we could have made. We are only a month into this process, and it has already proven to be the best decision. Thank you to all of those FTIA families who pointed us in the right direction. We're happy to be a part of the FTIA family!

Did I mention that FTIA's world headquarters are in Evansville? Who knew that we had a world-class, top-notch, best-of-the-best adoption agency right in our own town?!?!?

Our BIG announcement....

After five years of the, "when are you having kids?!?" questions from family and friends, we're happy to announce that the time has come to expand our little family. We always knew that we wanted time together, just the two of us, before we added kids to the equation.

Now, we've crossed off our pre-kids checklist of adventures, and we're about to start the biggest adventure of our lives -- ADOPTION!

We were so impacted by our trip to Africa last summer (maybe more about that in a future post) and we very clearly felt God's call for us to adopt a child from this amazing continent. After a lot of prayer and months of discussion, we are being obedient to that call and we'll be opening our hearts and our home to a child from Ethiopia. We couldn't be more excited and we look forward to sharing this journey with you all!