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!