Forever Family Day (and the entire weekend too)!

The day FINALLY arrived! Our daughter is finally home from Ethiopia. But keeping true to the drama of our journey, not without some worries.

We knew ChallieJayne's flight was scheduled to land at 3:40PM on Saturday June 12th in Newark, NJ, and that she was being escorted by Ivy, who works for our agency in Ethiopia. We knew she was in good hands. All of the immigration paperwork was done (and done correctly), the POA's were in place to have her escorted to the USA. We left the hotel and took the shuttle to Terminal B at Newark Liberty International Airport at 1:45PM. It should go off without a hitch, right? Sure, if it was another family's life!

We had time to have a quick, last lunch as a family of 3 before heading down to the International Arrivals Terminal to wait for our baby to arrive. We got to the waiting area at 3:00PM, and received an e-mail notice that the flight had landed early a 3:20PM. So we waited, camera ready, AlinaJayne waiting with the stuffed elephant she had for her new sister. At 3:45PM, a rush of travelers came out of U.S. Customs. Nope,she was not in the group. At 4PM, another group came rushing out. We knew we'd be meeting our newest child now! Nope, not in this group. Matt checked the monitor again-yep, the flight had landed. At 4:15PM, another group, this time we even saw the flight crew from Lufthansa. She MUST be coming!

5:00PM came and went, as did another group of travelers through customs. No ChallieJayne. We started to wonder, at what point should we be worried? Who do we call? What can we do on a Saturday anyway? We decided to move to some chairs and figure out what to do next. AlinaJayne had been so good and patient waiting through all of this, way better than we were!

Finally at 5:20PM, we saw what looked like Ivy (we had seen pictures) and a little girl being pushed in a stroller-it WAS ChallieJayne!

She was very shy at first (we had heard from many families who had traveled to get their children how sweet and loving she was...........but she seemed very, very shy and unsure). She really wanted to stay with Ivy. Then Ivy told her "Chaltu, you need to go with them, they are your Mommy & Daddy & Sister." Finally she allowed AlinaJayne to talk to her, then she approached me and felt my face. I allowed her to come to me, and she motioned for me to hold her, so I did. Then, without warning, she kissed me on the cheek. This was a very different experience than it was with AlinaJayne!

Ivy said her goodbye's and it was then that ChallieJayne started to cry for her. She continued to cry as we waited for our shuttle back to the hotel, all the way back to the hotel (in China, people expected this, they knew the Americans were there adopting babies, so they were understanding-here, nobody had a clue, thought we had a misbehaving child), and up until we got into our room. Once she was there, she did stop crying, played with the toys (although she did not immediately take to AlinaJayne), ate a snack and had some juice, and allowed me to give her a bath. The poor baby fell asleep sitting on a suitcase after supper, so Matt put her in bed with him!

We made a 12 hour trip back home on Sunday, stopping briefly so Matt's Mom and my Dad could at least see her (although she never woke up once)! Both of the girls traveled extremely well, even if ChallieJayne never woke up-even when I got her ready for bed after midnight! During the trip back, she decided that AlinaJayne was pretty cool. She even allowed her to play "rock, paper, scissors" with her, AND put her shoes on her! The night before, she wanted NOTHING to do with her!

The entire family slept until 10AM, then headed out to run errands (and to have ChallieJayne's first of two bloodwork appointments). She is settling in nicely, and learning her way around the house. She calls me Mama or Mommy (has NO trouble yelling for me), calls Matt "Ababa" which is Amharic for Dad, calls AlinaJayne "seesy" for sissy, and is absolutely terrified of our youngest cat. Not sure how she will do when the older, grouchy cat and German Shepherd are home on Tuesday! She also randomly tells us "Mommy! I love you!" or "Ababa, I love you." She counts to 10 in English (started doing this by herself, but AlinaJayne has been helping her). She sings songs and speaks in Amharic all day, but mixes in some English when she sings "B I N G O" and "Old McDonald."

Lots of new things around this house. We are so blessed. Enjoy the pics and check back soon.

***Click on the pics to make them bigger*****

(Forever Family Day)

 

("Almost" and Back Home)

 

We're Here!

After a 10.5 hour road trip (including 4 stops and one wrong turn) we are here in Newark NJ. ChallieJayne is on her way here (Via Frankfurt, Germany, which is so appropriate since my Mom's family was from Germany) as of this posting! Her flight is scheduled to arrive at 3:40PM.

During her stop over in Frankfurt, she was able to spend some time with another family from our agency, and she will be sending some pics. It was nice to wake up to a Facebook update from her today confirming she is on the way!

We are about to become a family of FOUR!!! in a few hours.

More later!


(The view from our hotel room)

 

FINALLY!

Well, I have finally put aside my caution and decided it was time to post-CHALLIEJAYNE IS COMING HOME!!

As international adoption goes, this has been a roller coaster. We knew on May 25th that ChallieJayne's embassy appointment for the visa interview would be on June 2nd, and that her homecoming was tentatively set for June 12th. We have been waiting for the final itinerary (which we still do not have)so we wanted to keep things under wraps until we had that. However, our agency assures us that this *is* happening, which means we will leave next Friday, so I simply cannot keep this quiet any longer! I am trusting in the Lord that this will all happen according to His perfect timing.

A couple of other families from our agency were in Ethiopia this week adopting their children, both of who were at the embassy with her during the appointments. One e-mailed me and wrote "Just wanted to let you know Samantha and I saw your little Chaltu at embassy today. Jessica brought her and was raving about what a great personality she has. Afterward we all went to Kaldi's for coffee and Jessica bought her some ice cream. She was having a great time. We wanted to get a picture for you but they didn't allow cameras at the embassy."

Another posted on my Facebook wall just today "Guess who I hung out with in Ethiopia?! Your Chaltu! I held her on the way back from her embassy appt! I learned that she loves: gum, sunglasses and ice cream! Got pics too!"

Can I say WOOOOOOOO HOOOOO???!!!!???

We are so thankful for all the support of our friends and family during this seemingly endless wait. A big thanks to all of the families who have traveled to Ethiopia to meet their children, who have taken photos of our girl for us-those are precious and helped sustain us during the long wait.

There will be more to come. Check back soon!

5/10/10......SO WHEN!!????

Well, on May 10th we found out that our document to classify Chaltu/Challie as our immediate relative was in fact approved. In fact we found out it was actually approved on May 6th!

For those of you who do not know this, this is the document that states she can be issued her American Visa to enter the country and come home to us!

So now we wait for notification that she is ready to be escorted here. We have been told it could be on the East Coast on May 28th, or the West Coast on June 2nd. Or even DC on Jun 10th. All we can do is wait!

What a day that will be!!!!!!

Check Back Soon!!!!

More USCIS............

(Immigration Officer)


You have all likely read the drama from Monday 4/26, concerning the non-existent documents that USCIS was requesting from us. Items and documents that simply are not available in Ethiopia.

After we mentally processed this information and e-mailed our agency, they contacted us and said they would have their coordinator in Ethiopia write a letter, as would our agency's United States office, which would be sent back to USCIS for review this week. However, if this was not helpful, we should get our senators and congressman involved. Sounds like a lot of fun, right? Well, while we waited, the immigration officer contacted our agency on Thursday 4/29, to let them know that they accepted the extra documentation that both the United States and Ethiopia had provided, and were ready to adjudicate the file...... Oh, but not without a catch....they could not seem to find the notarized divorce decrees for our previous marriages (which I most certainly sent.) Matt gave our agency permission to fax those decrees directly to USCIS (so now they have them).

Based on all of this, our agency told us that as long as the National Visa Center receives this information by next week, ChallieJayne should be on track to be home by the end of May or early June!


Still praying fervently here......................
Our agency has really been here for us when the times got rough!

More later.....................




I WILL PRAISE YOU IN THE STORM.....................

Crushed, confused.............

I am not even sure where to begin or what to think.

I just arrived home from work to find that USCIS rejected our I600 application. Their reason is that they say that part of the supporting documents were not filed. Specifically, they will not approve the I600 because our daughter's birth mother did not provide a *written* statement relinquishing her parental rights, and because there is not a death certificate for her birth father.

I called and e-mailed our agency but of course, they are closed already.

We are so worried about this. They do not keep accurate legal birth and death records in Ethiopia (and sometimes no records at all)-what if these documents cannot be produced? We passed court in Ethiopia, the judge accepted that her birth mother appeared at the hearing and stated she could not care for her, the Ministry of Women's Affairs approved the adoption and wrote the letter supporting it.....we thought the tough part was behind us. We followed ALL of the rules, it is all legal, and now our own country will not allow this adoption?

We don't even know what to think.

So, What *IS* Taking So Long????

Tape. Red that is. Government, bureaucracy.

While I admit I *think* I have a better handle on the unexpectedness of adoption this time around, I am still impatient. I also still find myself "concerned" about the details.

We have noticed (and it has been pointed out to us), that families who passed court 3 weeks after us are already home with their children. On top of that, families who just passed early in April have May 19th embassy dates. Hmmmm. We passed on February 1st (although I noticed that the adoption paperwork from Ethiopia says February 2nd). But still no embassy date. We know the I600 (the document that is filed to classify your child as a relative) was filed by our agency on March 22nd, and we received written confirmation that USCIS did in fact receive it on March 24th. So where is our embassy date?

I finally stopped wondering and broke down and asked our agency. We were told that the notice we received from USCIS verifying that they had received the I600 application, simply means that it was received in their central lock box (I think this was in Missouri). From there it was sent to our local USCIS office (Detroit), and they are NOTORIOUSLY SLOW in terms of processing anything. While I knew this, I guess it did not occur to us that the notice we received did not mean Detroit had our file yet-which is where all of the action will take place. I pulled out a copy of our immigration approval, and the cover letter listed some of the common applications and the respective processing times for the Detroit office. I almost fell out of my chair! They listed 3 months as the processing time for the I600! T-H-R-E-E MONTHS! This does not include the time it will take to then get an embassy date, OR the additional time it will take to get the escorting arranged! YIKES! Math is not my strong suit, but it seems to me 3 mos will be sometime after June 24th, then another month (or so) to get an embassy appointment, THEN about another month to have the escorting arranged. According to my math, it looks like.......August?

I keep re-reading some encouraging e-mails and Facebook messages from some of my Christian friends, reminding me it is not in *my* time, and that worrying will not do me any favors. Most recently, my friend Anne reminded me "God already knows our future, and even if we're craning our necks to try and figure it out we aren't going to accomplish a thing except wasted energy and frustration. Trust Him. His best is a whole lot better than ours."

I am reminding myself of that constantly.

On a more positive note. AlinaJayne had a good, healthy week. No headaches, no fevers, no infections-just one nosebleed that stopped with a nose clamp and Afrin nasal spray. She still needs to see the specialist in May, but we welcome the good week. Plus, she gained back the 3 pounds she lost in the hospital. My Dad had to undergo some unexpected cardiac testing Friday (stress test Monday which was abnormal/different than the last, and then a cardiac cath on Friday) and he does not need another bypass or more stents at this time. PRAISE THE LORD!!!


So there you have it. See, I promised to keep this blog updated now :O)

Adoption Update!

There has certainly been no lack of activity in this house-just a Mama who has been remiss in reporting the recent events. In order to bring you up to speed, here is the latest news.

On March 4th we received Chaltu's (I will likely refer to her as ChallieJayne or Challie from now on) Ethiopian birth certificate. We were told by our agency that they were just waiting for the rest of the adoption and court documents to arrive so that they could file the paperwork to classify her as our relative (this is the I-600 in adoption/immigration speak). On March 11th, we found out that the local immigration office officially updated our approval to reflect an older child, YAY!
Then on March 22nd, our agency informed us that they had in fact submitted the I-600(and immigration verified that they received it on March 24th)!

So now what?

We wait for an embassy date in Ethiopia. This is when the visa interview occurs, and when she is issued a United States entry visa to come to the US! We don't know when or where, but we were told by our agency that it has typically been taking 6-12 weeks from the time the I-600 was filed to the embassy appointment. She will be escorted to the US, and although we do not know the exact port of entry, it looks like there is a good chance that it will be Washington, DC. We will drive there a day or so before and rest up before we have our "Forever Family Day." We were hoping it would be before her birthday, but since that is May 7th, it does not look like that will happen.

Reminding myself that it is all in His perfect timing.

I have posted some pics. Thank God for the families who have already traveled to pick up their children and volunteered to take pics of our sweet girl (THANK YOU AMANDA)! From the pics we have, we have determined a few things:

(1) There are a LOT of pics of her eating-she will fit in well with this family :O)
(2) She has a LOT of personality (will be very interesting with AlinaJayne)
(3) From the bruise on her forehead, she is as graceful as the rest of this family
(4) I may finally have a daughter who is short like me

The other thing we found to be amusing-there is a pic of her on the potty, and she has the exact same undies that AlinaJayne had when she was 3!

Check back soon. I promise to be better about keeping this blog updated! In the meantime, enjoy the pics.


(you can click on the collage to make it bigger)

 

More 02/01/10 News!

We found out today that Chaltu's case PASSED COURT! Praise GOD!

What does this mean? According to Ethiopian law, we are legally her parents! We still have a LOOOOOONNNNGGG way to go in the process. We found out on Tuesday that there have been some errors on the part of the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Service) in updating the immigration approval. We were originally approved to adopt a child up to 30 months-but once we accepted the referral of Chaltu, we had to update the approval to reflect an older child. We found out Tuesday that USCIS did not receive all of the documentation needed to update the approval. We are praying that this is resolved soon. This must be done before any of the "usual" steps can be taken to bring her home-and that process is lengthy. So lengthy that we are not even telling our employers, most families, or posting on Facebook-we just don't have any concrete answers about *when* this will happen. Plus, those who are not familiar with adoption tend to not understand the process, and it makes for a difficult wait.

So you say you want details? Her tentative b-day is May 7, 2007. Her name is Chaltu, we will name her ChaltuJayne Keaton Baird, and will call her ChallieJayne/Challie for short. Like "Charlie" without the "R." Like my Dad (Charles) and my Mom (Jayne).

Now that the court case has passed, we can post pictures :O) Thanks to all of the families who have traveled to Ethiopia, we have 53 pictures of ChallieJayne. However, I need to scan them, so only a handful are digitized. That is going to take me some time to do!

So, until then, enjoy the photos I have posted. I have included a caption under each, and you can click on any pic to enlarge it.

Check back again!


The first picture we saw of ChallieJayne-referral


The second referral picture


Ethiopian Christmas


ChallieJayne with the gifts we sent her in her welcome bag-photo album, ladybug and t-shirt that says "Special Delivery From Ethiopia."

Here's the scoop

Here's the scoop on this seemingly never-ending adoption process.

Chaltu was supposed to have her day in court on January 6th. None of the cases scheduled for that week were heard. Some were re-scheduled for February 1st, some were "pending." Ours was allegedly re-scheduled for January 14th.

January 14th came and went, and you guessed it-no news. Was her case heard? Wasn't it heard? Did it pass? Did it fail? Our agency said "they did not know anything. Period.

Being "seasoned" adoptive parents, we tried to sit back and be patient. However when other families found out Monday that they had court dates THIS Wednesday January 27th, and then they passed (praise God for those families and their great news), we decided it was time to make some noise.

Matt called our agency Thursday and once again, he was told they did not know anything, and that a lot of families were in this limbo that we are, but for a lot longer. He pressed the issue. Was the case heard on January 14th? If it did not pass, why? When might it be re-scheduled? The agency rep said she'd contact the attorney in Ethiopia to see what she could find out.

Turns out, there was some documentation missing from the file (nothing we missed, on Ethiopia's end) and that the case was scheduled to be heard again on Monday February 1st...........AlinaJayne's 5th birthday!

Could be an even more exciting day than usual.

Praying for God's perfect timing.

Miss you Mom.......................

"May the road rise to meet you, May the wind be always at your back, May the sun shine warm upon your face, May the rains fall soft upon your fields, And, until we meet again, May God hold you in the Palm of His hand." Miss you Mom, more than you can ever know......Jayne Anne Keaton (Alderman)
08/25/1948-01/18/2000..................

Ten years ago today, my Mom went home to be with our Lord and Savior. I miss her more than anyone can imagine.

No word whatsoever about whether or not our case was heard in court on 1/14.

Will post when we know something.

No Dice.................

We found out on Wednesday that there was no good news-we did not pass court. That is all our agency knew as of the close of business. They knew if the other families who were also scheduled for a court hearing had failed, were pending, or were re-scheduled-but did not know what *our* status was! Not a lot of useful information :O(

We did find out today that none of the cases that were supposed to be heard this week actually passed. It seems they were all missing required letters from the Ministry of Women's Affairs (MOWA).

Our case has been re-scheduled for January 14th.

Stay tuned.

Oh, and Merry Christmas (Melkam Gena). It is Christmas in Ethiopia.

Wednesday 01/06/10

Wednesday will be a big day for us. This is the day that Chaltu's case is heard in court in Ethiopia. *IF* we pass, we will be her legal parents, and can move forward with the adoption process.

On top of that, our USCIS (Immigration) fingerprints are being re-taken on the same day. Nothing is wrong, they need to be updated every 15 mos until and adoption is completed, so this is the day the government randomly assigned to us for our appointment. Funny these two major events ended up happening on the exact same day-a half a world apart, and without our input.

Coincidence? I think not.

Please pray for positive outcomes for all of us~once we have been notified that we have passed court, we can post pics! YEAH! We just saw three new ones of her today-all the kiddos lined up on potties for a bathroom break. Too cute! Looks like her hair is coming in nicely-and it is all TIGHT curls. I am not even going to TRY to figure it out-I am asking Auntie Dawn for her help!

Check back soon :O)

Sent with LOVE!

Part of the fun in this process, is being able to send a "welcome" bag to your new child. The agency asks that you send a couple of smaller toys for younger kids, a photo album, and a t-shirt (or onesie if your child is really young), as well as a letter. We ordered a photo album that was similar to the one that we took to AlinaJayne when we met her in China, and a special t-shirt. Everything finally arrived, so I spent the night labeling photos, filling the photo album, and packing the bag. We figured she was still too young for a letter, so Mama just used a laundry marker and wrote captions in the photo album. Oh.....we had to fit it all in a one gallon Ziploc bag *without* stress. THAT was the hard part!

Here is what we sent.....................

(click on the image to make it bigger)

 

Submitted

On Wednesday 12/2 we received an unexpected e-mail from our agency. The coordinator in Ethiopia notified them that they requested a court date in Ethiopia for our daughter's case. Yes, this is good news-we were told that generally families know in a week or two *when* the date is (and that the actual court date is typically 4-6 weeks after the date was requested). We should be jumping for joy.

But.......we also found out from our Homestudy agency (a few hours before we even knew a court date had been requested in Ethiopia)that since we need to formally update our immigration approval to reflect the older child we have accepted, as well as a few other specifics that were not addressed in the original homestudy, that we not only need to to this NOW, but should plan to wait at least 90 days for it to be adjudicated. Without the update to our original approval, she may pass court, but will not be able to obtain the visa needed to travel to the US for as long as it takes for the amendment to be done in MI and sent to Ethiopia. Then we are looking at another delay-even if all off the immigration paperwork is fine, and she can enter the USA, we need a second document provided by our home state of Michigan, that gives us permission to take the child from the port of entry into the US (likely Chicago) to our home state in Michigan. Add to that, *this* whole process has been taking about 3 months. And this isn't the worse case scenario-this will all be happening after (I am guessing) several court failures/delays, due to the region in Ethiopia where our new daughter is from.

Needless to say, this is going to be a bumpy ride. And a slow one too. So pull up a chair and wait with us!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like CHRISTmas!

Hello all!

I am finally feeling like I am accomplishing some of the Christmas season tasks. Tree up-CHECK. Outside decorated-CHECK. Christmas cards designed & ordered-CHECK. Stamps ordered:CHECK! Shopping finished: (almost)CHECK!

Part of my work to get the Christmas cards done was finally taking some pics of AlinaJayne in her Christmas dress. I finally did that today. It took a lot of work, since she is always moving and saying "Merry Christmas everyone, Happy Birthday Jesus!" But I think they turned out okay.

Hmmm....next year I will have two schoochy kiddos to take pics of! Something tells me it will be worth the struggle :O)

 

Giving Thanks............

On this day of thanks, I have so many things to be thankful for. First and foremost, I give thanks to God for always proving me all that I need-I have more blessings than I deserve-in fact, I cannot begin to list them all here.

I have recently found myself giving even more thanks than usual for our daughter. Although I have had "scholarly" articles published nationally, I cannot ever seem to find the words to express my thanks for our daughter AlinaJayne. My cousin sent me a link to this article today-on Thanksgiving no less, and I just had to share it.

I listen to NPR many times each day, and I had no idea that one of my favorite correspondents (Scott Simon) has children adopted from China. He also mentioned Oromia (in Ethiopia) where our youngest daughter (waiting for us) is from.

I will defer these words of thanks to Mr. Simon.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Signed, Sealed Delivered!

......well, on its way at least!

We made it to the Notary, signed all of the forms, completed a questionnaire and scanned all of the documents (oh, wrote another check too), and the official referral paperwork is on its way to our agency's office.

Now what you ask? Wait. And wait some more. Now we are waiting for our day in court. Which could be a few months from now. I try not to think about it too much, but the *real* wait truly starts now. We know who are daughter is now, and it is so hard to know she will be there for another 9 or more months until all of the red tape is done and she can come home. Agonizing.

We are supposed to send her a "welcome bag" containing a shirt, a couple small toys and a photo album-it all has to fit into a gallon sized ziplock bag. We ordered a soft photo album tonight (we got the same kind for AlinaJayne when we went to China), and a T-shirt that says "Special Delivery From Ethiopia." Now I need to find some pics. I need about 12. The problem will be choosing 12 from the thousands I have taken! I'll be working on that this week.

So, this was not a lot to report, but I wanted to share this small step in the long journey to bring our daughter home.

Check back soon.

Signing the referral paperwork

REFERRAL ACCEPTANCE!!

We are beyond thrilled to announce that on 11/16/09, we officially accepted the referral of our second child! Praise the Lord!!

Chaltu is from the Oromia Region of Ethiopia. She is "about 2 years old" (her actual birthday will be decided by the judge at the hearing) and is tiny. She is about 30 inches tall and only about 22 lbs. What a contrast to the AlinaJayne the Chinese Amazon! She is described as a good sleeper who eats well, loves her bath, and rarely cries unless something really traumatizes her. She plays well with others and walks by herself. She has been in care since early October. Due to Ethiopian adoption law, we cannot post a picture of her until after we pass court and are her legal parents. In the meantime, let me just say she is a cutie-bald as can be (shaved-so much for AlinaJayne being able to do her hair right away), but adorable. Big chunky cheeks and huge soulful eyes.

The next step is a court date, which *may* be filed in the next month or so. I know there have been many delays and failed court hearings for babies referred from this region due to new, stricter guidelines. In fact, we were approved for a baby aged 0-30 mos, and the agency called to say we need to update our homestudy to reflect that we are approved for a baby as old as 4 years old-we JUST updated it on 10/23 (sigh). So it looks like they are anticipating delays!

We are not making this public on Facebook for privacy reasons. In all honesty, not all of my FB friends are privy to this info. All updates will be posted here on the blog as soon as we receive them.

We are expecting to receive the official referral package tomorrow. We are hoping for some more pics-we only have one! Deciding on a name now. we thought we had it figured out, but now we are back and forth between two.

The wait has a whole new twist now!!

Praying that the Lord will keep her safe until she can be home forever.

Check back soon!

A year?

I haven't been posting a lot on this blog lately. I guess there has not been a whole lot to report, so I have just avoided it so I would not have to be reminded of this seemingly interminable wait. However, I was reminded by a friend today that I needed to update this blog (thanks for keeping me in line Katie Jo), so here it is :O)

Saturday 11/14 will mark the one year anniversary of our DTE (Dossier to Ethiopia). Sometimes it seems like just yesterday that we were paperchasing to bring our second child home-but at the same time, it feels like an eternity. We've already had a homestudy update, and we just received a reminder from our agency that we will need to be re-fingerprinted soon-and that we'll need to file for an extension on our I-171 if our child is not home by May. MAY?!!!

We have watched as the wait for a referral gets longer (like in did when we started in the China program in 2005), other families receive referrals, court dates, travel and get settled in at home. Here we still are..........

I do want to share some info. A few weeks ago (11/2), we received a referral for a beautiful 2 or 2 1/2 year old girl. We accepted her file for review, and discovered some potentially significant medical issues. After a lot of talking, e-mails back and forth between the agency and more talking, we decided we had to decline the referral (referral/declination #2). We asked for more medical info on her, but could not easily obtain it. The agency director e-mailed us and asked us if we wanted to wait for more medical updates on this child, or start waiting for another referral. We said we just wanted to wait for another.

However, we could not get her out of our minds. Yes, it appears she has some major health issues-a few of which Matt and I are unlikely able to provide for (and we may not even have been approved for), but we felt that maybe the Lord was placing this child and our "second guessing" on our hearts for a reason. We had already told the director we could not proceed, to put us "back on the list," but it just did not *feel* right (keep in mind I am all about trying to control EVERYTHING). We e-mailed the director and asked her to not refer a new child to us right now, and that we wanted to wait for more testing/results, and a consultation with an International Adoption Physician before a final decision was made on this child. The physician will be reviewing the medical records this weekend.

Please pray for us as we prepare for the report from this physician. Pray that the Lord will guide her and give her knowledge as she reviews the complex medical facts. But most importantly, please pray for this child in Ethiopia, and for all children in need of forever families.

Please also consider supporting one of these organizations that provide orphan support. It isn't about one person giving a large sum-but about many people doing a small part.


Love coffee? Check out how you can support an orphan in Ghana, China, Ethiopia or Thailand . Find out how you can help orphans in Ethiopia, Colombia, Vietnam, Russia or India. Or HIV positive orphans.
Need Angel Gear? Just need to do some last minute Christmas Shopping?

We do have one request. If you are also on Facebook, please do not post any public comments to our wall with specific info about this or any other referral. That's not to say that general comments about the wait, etc, are note welcome-they are! Just no "specifics." We are trying to keep details private. Detailed private e-mails and private FB messages are great!

So there is the update. Thanks for dropping by and check back soon!