So it's official!!! After months of paperwork, waiting, paperwork, homestudy, paperwork and more waiting our dossier has been approved and sent to Ethiopia. Ethan and I are so excited to have the largest part of paperwork done with and cant wait for the day when we get to meet our son and bring him home.
So if you are reading this and very confused I will fill you in. :)
Ethan and I have always talked about adoption, but were not sure if God was calling us to adopt and if so when we would start the adoption journey.
God has taken us on a very tough journey to become parents over the past 5 years. After having our beautiful twin girls Lucy and Madeline who are now 3 years old, Ethan and I suffered a miscarriage of twins in September of 2010 and then another miscarriage in March of 2011 due to a ectopic pregnancy which ended in emergency surgery and removal of one of my fallopian tubes.
After a very tough and emotional few years of failed pregnancys, Ethan and I became more serious about discussing adoption and spent a lot more time in prayer.
Last July we meant with a adoption agency in Ferndale called Childrens House International. They were recommened to us by our friends that used them to adopt their son. We filled out our application and were approved. After being approved and starting some of the paperwork we decided through prayer that we wanted to wait a little longer and take time to pray and make sure we were doing this all for the right reasons and that we were ready to start this journey, so we placed everything on hold.
In October God called us to start the adoption journey. Since October we have been filling out tons of paperwork, and getting all sorts of back ground checks done as well as having a homestudy done by a social worker. As of this Monday 4/9 our agency received our dossier that was Authenticated by the U.S. Secretary of State and the Embassy of Ethiopia in D.C. The dossier was then sent today to Ethiopia and we are offically on the wait list for our son.
Although this is GREAT news. The hardest part which is waiting starts now. We have been told by our agency that the average wait time for a baby is 18 months. Although there are many children living as orphans in Ethiopia because of the high level of poverty it is hard for the officials to prove which children are orphans and which have living parents who dont have enough money to feed then but have not given up parental rights, and because of this every case has to be carefully investigated and the Ethiopia officials have to give proof that parents are deceased or have filed papers of relinquishment. The officals are doing this in a case by case basis which takes a lot of time.
Ethan and I wanted to start our blog up again so we can share prayer requests and updates of our adoption journey with our friends. We will also try to post some pictures of our girls Lucy and Madeline when we give updates. Lucy and Madeline are so excited to have a little brother and ask at least once a week
"when is our brother coming home?"
Also I want to apologize for my spelling and grammar ahead of time!! Most of the time I will be typing with my girls pulling at my arm:) ( I will just blame it on that)
