Pictures of you!

Today we received an e-mail from our coordinator with 6 new pictures of you. What a precious gift! I can't look at them without crying. I'm sorry we don't have you home yet. You are such a beautiful little boy! It's true that a picture paints a thousand words. Who knows if my assessments are correct or not, but from the pictures this is what I gather... You are a brave person. Strong and steadfast, not easily shaken. You move in slow, calculated steps. Not emotionally driven. Contemplative and observant. Quiet and confident. Very patient. You are kind and generous. You and Benaiah will complement each other well. Ben is oh-so-active, loud and emotional. Has a bubbly, extroverted personality and a tendency to act impulsively. You two will be a dynamic duo! In a couple of the photos, you are playing with a soccer ball. Your little brother in typical boy fashion also loves playing with balls and is going to be BEYOND HAPPY when you are here to play with him! I hope somehow across the ocean you are able to sense our love for you. I am praying and hoping that our Christmas miracle this year is a phone call telling us to pack our bags and book our flights to Ethiopia so we can bring our oldest son home!

PAIR Approval!

This morning we received an e-mail informing us of our PAIR approval! We were told to expect a 3-6-month process for PAIR approval, but ours took less than 2 months. Woohoo!!!! This means the U.S. has deemed our boy adoptable. Thanks for your prayers for the finder interview last week. The PAIR approval is a direct result of that interview, so I guess things went well!

Next we will wait to hear from the Ethiopian courts/ MOWA (the Ministry of Women's Affairs) after they have reviewed our case. We ask for extra prayers for this step. We received a program update from our agency's supervisor on Friday. Difficult news to swallow...

"I was able to have another phone call with the Embassy this morning, and while there is not a lot of new news about the delays at Federal MOWA, I did get some info to share. The head official is back and is reviewing cases again. Embassy informed me there are about 340 cases at Federal MOWA. 340. This is a significant back log like I have never seen. And those are just US cases. We have over 20 there now and more PAIR approved cases added regularly. So the bottom line is, it is a mess and it will take a lot of time for them to work through those...In all honestly I have no time frames for you for cases that are waiting there. We have cases approaching a year, I know other agencies have them waiting longer. Cases really seem to get approved in no particular order. This is hard on everyone involved, we understand that."

And now they have 341. That is a HUGE number. Amazing to think there are 300+ orphans who have been matched to families in the U.S. who are ready to receive them into their homes and hearts, but everyone has to wait. Indefinitely. I admit... I've been praying that L's file gets miraculously placed at the top of the stack. But that seems selfish and unfair to the kids and parents who have been waiting for months and years already. Once again, we are thankful that God is in control. He loves these little people more than anyone and knows them intimately. So for the umpteenth time we trust Him with our baby L. and the hundreds of other fatherless ones.

Latest News

Sadly, the unrest in Ethiopia continues to escalate.  On October 21, we received this notice:

"The U.S. Department of State warns U.S. citizens to defer all non-essential travel to Ethiopia due to ongoing unrest that has led to hundreds of deaths, thousands of arrests, as well as injuries and extensive property damage, especially in Amhara and Oromia States. The U.S. Embassy's ability to provide consular services in many parts of the country is limited by the current security situation. 

The Government of Ethiopia declared a State of Emergency effective October 8, 2016. An October 15 decree states that individuals may be arrested without a court order for activities they may otherwise consider routine, such as communication, consumption of media, attending gatherings, engaging with certain foreign governments or organizations, and violating curfews. The decree prohibits U.S. and other foreign diplomats from traveling farther than 40 kilometers outside of Addis Ababa without prior approval from the Government of Ethiopia, which severely affects the U.S. Embassy's ability to assist U.S. citizens. The full text of the decree implementing the State of Emergency is available on the U.S. Embassy's website.

Internet, cellular data, and phone services have been periodically restricted or shut down throughout the country, impeding the U.S. Embassy's ability to communicate with U.S. citizens in Ethiopia. You should have alternate communication plans in place, and let your family and friends know this may be an issue while you are in Ethiopia. See the information below on how to register with the U.S. Embassy to receive security messages."

We also received some encouraging news though! Our PAIR paperwork seems to have passed its first step. We were notified on October 27 that the U.S. Embassy in Addis received our PAIR packet. This means that it was reviewed by USCIS staff in the U.S. and has been sent over to Ethiopia for the next step of the investigation. They said they will now begin the required orphan status investigation (Form I-604, Determination on Child for Adoption) to determine whether the child identified meets the definition of an orphan under U.S. immigration law. We received an e-mail today that there is an interview set up for November 10 between the Embassy personnel and L's finder. This term "finder" is new to us. I'm assuming it's the person who received baby L. when his birth mother dropped him off at the hospital, but I am waiting to hear from our adoption coordinator to have this clarified. Please pray that this interview on Thursday will be a successful one! We are praying that the Embassy will receive all the information they need from this one encounter so that the investigation does not have to take a lot more time.

Dave and I definitely have our moments. It's hard to think of our little boy in an orphanage waiting day after day, month after month. It's hard to feel so powerless. But overall I feel very encouraged. I believe that God is intervening to help push this process along. Given the state of emergency in Addis, it's a miracle that anything is happening at all on the adoption front! We cannot thank you all enough for your prayers!!

Some good news and some not-so-good news

We'll start with the good news. This week we received notice from USCIS that they have received our paperwork to initiate the PAIR process. We also officially finished collecting all of our documents for the dossier!  (Side note as a follow-up from my previous post: Our nurse practitioner went above and beyond and brought our medical reports to be notarized on her own time.)

The not-so-good news came yesterday in an e-mail from our adoption agency's supervisor. She was letting everyone know that there has recently been violent protests in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa. Sadly there have been hundreds of lives lost including a woman from the U.S. The effects on adoption are two-fold.  Firstly, the Ethiopian and U.S. government officials have to prioritize dealing with the chaos in-country over adoption cases, so this will likely slow down Ethiopian adoptions. Secondly, our adoption agency has decided to change their policy and not allow families to stay in Ethiopia between their court appearance and the U.S. embassy adoption approval. This means we will have to make two trips to Ethiopia. After the first trip we will have to return home without L. and wait until the embassy calls us back to pick him up.

It was a good reminder to me that God is in control. I can so easily lose sight of that. Sometimes I think I have a false sense of control. I think if I work hard enough to push the paperwork and processes along, maybe I will be able to bring our son home faster. But I need to remember it's not me that will make this adoption happen. It's God. For that I am thankful.

We ask for continued prayers for those in Ethiopia. For their peace and safety and for an extra measure of protection for little L.

{Psalm 68:5-6a
A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows,
Is God in His holy habitation.
God sets the solitary in families.}

Paperwork Battle

It's really hard to explain why the adoption process takes so long.  It sounds so simple.  Get a home study.  Submit some government forms.  Collect your dossier documents.  But in reality, there's nothing simple about it.  I feel like I have had to fight for every single piece of paper.  Some people call it a paperwork pregnancy.  Really it's more like a paperwork battle.  I will give you just one little example from today...

When I went to the adoption agency last week to have our 50+ pages reviewed and notarized for our dossier, they told me that there were several pages that were not ready yet for various reasons.  Two of them were our medical reports.  

Dave and I originally had adoption physicals completed by our doctor back in 2014.  We had the letters notarized at the time by the physician's office.  But these letters expire after 18 months.  (Every piece of paper in the dossier has a different expiration date to keep track of.)  So we thought we were being proactive when we had updated letters completed by our nurse practitioner in February of this year.  Come to find out, one of our letters had the correct date on the top of the page, but in the text of the letter it said February 2015 instead of 2016.  The letters are on the medical office letterhead (another required element), but apparently you can't have an off-site notary validate something that is on letterhead.  My next step would be to call my doctor's office and request that the nurse practitioner re-type medical reports for us and have it notarized at their office.  BUT our primary care practice closed their doors unexpectedly in July.  Minor detail.  So... I contacted our nurse practitioner who is now practicing at a new office in Castle Rock.  She is very willing to help, but legally she cannot write a letter for us on her letterhead without us being seen at her office.  Which means yet another appointment for Dave and I.  So we made appointments for first thing Thursday morning.  However, this doctor's office doesn't have a notary onsite.  Not sure where to go from here.  I guess I will ask if the nurse practitioner can take the letters to a notary herself.  Doesn't seem fair to her, but I don't know what else to do.  We could go to a new doctor at a new practice that has a notary onsite, but that would mean getting established with a new practitioner and we'd probably have to get more lab work and have a more in-depth physical.

We'll figure it out.  It's not that big of a deal.  But it gives you an idea of why each piece of paper requires so much time.  We'll keep up the good fight.  It is more than worth it in order to bring our son home!

{Ethiopian flag}

Wherever You Are

So far my favorite books to read to Ben are You are my Heart by Marianne Richmond and Wherever You Are by Nancy Tillman.  This one seems especially appropriate for our Ethiopian son too...

Wherever You Are by Nancy Tillman

"I wanted you more

than you ever will know,

so I sent love to follow

wherever you go.

It's high as you wish it.  It's quick as an elf.

You'll never outgrow it...it stretches itself!

So climb any mountain...

climb up to the sky!

My love will find you.

My love can fly!

Make a big splash!  Go out on a limb!

My love will find you.  My love can swim!

It never gets lost, never fades, never ends...

if you're working...

or playing...

or sitting with friends.

You can dance 'til you're dizzy...

paint 'til you're blue...

There's no place, not one,

that my love can't find you.

And if someday you're lonely,

or someday you're sad,

or you strike out at baseball,

or think you've been bad...

just lift up your face, feel the wind in your hair.

That's me, my sweet baby, my love is right there.

In the green of the grass... in the smell of

the sea... in the clouds floating by...

at the top of a tree... in the sound

crickets make at the end of the day...

'You are loved.  You are loved.  You are

loved,' they all say.

My love is so high, and so wide and

so deep, it's always right there, even

when you're asleep.

So hold your head high

and don't be afraid

to march to the front

of your own parade.

If you're still my small babe

or you're all the way grown,

my promise to you

is you're never alone.

You are my angel, my darling,

my star... and my love will find you,

wherever you are."

What's Next?

Just in case you're wondering what we're waiting for now...  It boils down to two things: the PAIR process and completing our Dossier checklist.

Right after we accepted the referral for L. we filled out what's called an I-600 form with information about us and about L.  Once our adoption agency submits the I-600 and other supporting documents to USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services), the PAIR process will begin.  PAIR stands for Pre-Adoption Immigration Review.  Basically the PAIR process was an extra safeguard implemented by the U.S. government in recent years to verify the eligibility of orphans before they immigrate from Ethiopia to the U.S.  This investigation of L's orphan status will take 3-6 months.  During this time, USCIS can request further documentation or birth parent interviews which can add to this time line.  After USCIS approves L. for adoption, we will receive a PAIR approval letter.

The second major step in the process at this point is completing our Dossier (fancy French word for "collection of documents").  It is a collection of 50+ pages that will be submitted to the Ethiopian court and MOWA (Ministry of Women's Affairs in Ethiopia) for approval once we have received our PAIR letter.  The Dossier includes all sorts of things: our birth certificates, marriage license, passports, I-171H approval letter, criminal clearances, employment verifications, medical reports, financial information, references and our home study.  The home study was completed by our lovely social worker Jody who spent MANY, MANY hours with us over the last couple years.  Tomorrow Dave, Ben and I are planning to go to our agency to have our Dossier documents notarized.  After three years of working on our Dossier, we are almost done!

{A picture of our Dossier checklist}

Something Beautiful

May 2013 Middle of the night.  I couldn't sleep.  I was hurting because God didn't seem to be answering our prayers for children.  We wanted to get pregnant but that was not happening.  We wanted to adopt but knew that would be a long process.  So I opened my Bible asking the Lord to speak to me and through blurry tears, God gave me this message:

"O you afflicted one,
Tossed with tempest, and not comforted,
Behold, I will lay your stones with colorful gems,
And lay your foundations with sapphires.
I will make your pinnacles of rubies,
Your gates of crystal,
And all your walls of precious stones.
All your children shall be taught by the Lord,
And great shall be the peace of your children."
Isaiah 54:11-13

These verses have brought me more comfort and encouragement than I can express over the last three years.  I'm not sure I have ever experienced God speaking so specifically to me before or since.  

Through these words, this is what He told me.  I didn't have to be so distraught.  Even though I couldn't see it at the time, He WAS building something beautiful in our lives and in our family.  It was going to be worth the wait.  I pictured a gorgeous castle built with colorful stones and gems.  Sapphires, rubies, crystal... And not only that, but He was already giving promises for the children I did not know yet.  He promised to teach my children and to give them peace.  I know I will cling to this promise for the rest of my life for you and Ben and any other children He may give us.

Why we call you "L"

Your Amharic name begins with the letter "L".  Your country wants us to be very careful about protecting your identity so they've asked us not to post any identifying information to the public... full name, birth date, photos, etc.  Also, we don't know how to pronounce your name correctly!  Our Amharic is not very good.  ;)  

{Some of the orphan boys I fell in love with, Nigeria 2007}

Sniffles and Runny Noses

Last night I was up with your little brother Ben.  2AM He and I sleeping on the living room couch.  He had finally conked out after the tylenol lowered his 101.5 temp.  And it hit me.  Who has been there for you when you were sick?  I started to cry wishing that your mommy could be there for you.  I pray that God has placed others in your life to care for you in the interim, to show you His love.  Someday it will be you and me fighting the cold together at 2AM.  Someday soon.  Until then, stay strong and brave and know the love of your Heavenly Father as you wait for the love of your earthly parents.

{A runny nose, Nigeria 2007}

Answering Heaven

September 12, 2016

We e-mailed Heaven today and gave our answer... an emphatic YES to adopting L.  As always, God's timing is perfect.  We were under contract to buy a 5-acre lot in Sedalia and start the massive undertaking of building a house.  We had one more week to decide and were praying hard for direction.  God gave His answer just in time.  Instead of focusing on building a house, our focus has shifted to building our family.  We are so excited to bring you home, little L.

Now begins another paperwork push.  Reviewing and signing referral acceptance documents. Submitting our I-600 form to start the PAIR process with the U.S. government.  Putting finishing touches on our dossier-- lots of notaries and small details.  Sending off our dossier to be translated into Amharic.  

But now the paperwork seems so much more meaningful because we have a picture of a beautiful face to motivate us.  So many times a day we look at those few priceless photos on our phones.  Photos of our son.  OUR son.

Today we received a call from Heaven.

September 6, 2016

Heaven is the name of our coordinator at the adoption agency.  You would think after almost three years of paperwork, deadlines, classes, red tape, hoop-jumping and lots of waiting we wouldn't be surprise to heard the words, "I have a referral for you."  But we were.  Really??  A little Ethiopian boy picked out for us?!  "His Amharic name translates to Prince in English.  He is one year and seven months old, born January of 2015.  He was abandoned at 2 months old and has been in the orphanage since then."

The original call from heaven started so many years ago.  God planted the seed in 2007 when my Dad and I visited several orphanages in Nigeria.  I knew then that if I could adopt a child (or two or three!) from Africa someday, I would.  Fast forward to our first year of marriage 2010.  One Sunday morning during church Dave leaned over to me and whispered out of nowhere, "I think we should adopt a little boy from Africa."  I said, "Okay" and smiled thanking the Lord for putting the same desire in my husband's heart.

So now we pray for wisdom.  We have two weeks to decide whether or not to accept this referral.  I can't imagine that we would say "no," but we will pray that God direct L. into the family He intends for him.  Hopefully that family is us.

{Photos from first trip to Africa in 2007}