Let the Wait Begin!

We're officially on the waitlist for a baby boy! Our dossier is on its way to the Department of State and the Ethiopian Embassy, then it will be sent to Ethiopia to be translated into Amharic. The average waiting time for a referral is 3-5 months, so we're hoping it will be before Christmas. At the time of referral, our adoption agency will give us all the info they have on our baby: photo, name, age, medical history, and anything else they may know.

Although we've heard the wait can be the hardest part emotionally, today we are just thrilled beyond belief that we're one step closer to meeting our son. I'm so glad we have football season (yay!) and the holidays to keep us occupied. Please keep praying for us!

D-Day and Consignment Sale Fun

Chris and I mailed our completed dossier to Gladney yesterday! Chris was a huge help running all over town on Friday getting things authenticated while I was at work. We worked really late into the night—really, early into the morning—to finish scanning everything onto CDs. It was a very emotional and tiring day! We had lots of frustrating little mishaps along the way (like don't get home and realize that you left your original, authenticated document that was scanned at Staples). But we're glad to be done.

I had a pretty bad headache yesterday after little sleep on Friday. That, coupled with the relief that our paperwork was done, made me crash for several hours yesterday. I slept hard and long from about 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. yesterday. I guess I needed it!

Our dossier will arrive in Texas on Monday morning. Our caseworker will look through everything to be sure everything is perfect. Although we sent everything to our agency to look over before we went through the authentication process, I'm still a little nervous something could be wrong because we've had two different caseworkers. So, please pray everything is perfect! If it is, we could potentially be on the wait list to receive a referral for our baby boy by the end of this week!!!

While we wait to be one step closer to being matched with our child, I enjoyed lots of consignment sale shopping this week! I went from never having attended a kids' consignment sale to going to two in a week. It's a little overwhelming. But I got some great deals! I got a Bumbo seat, a grocery cart cover, a Diaper Genie, and a changing table pad. It's so fun to shop for Baby H! I can't wait until I know how old he will be so I can do some serious shopping.

Chris and I continue to talk about baby names. For the record, Maverick Robert, aka "Ricky Bobby," is out. :)

We'll let you know as soon as we are offically wait-listed. Thanks for all of your prayers! Please keep praying!

What a Relief!

We got our I-171H in the mail today! This means we're approved to bring an orphan back into the U.S. Next we'll send off our dossier and be put on the waiting list to be matched with a child. Wow! We're so excited!

Garage Sale

It’s Garage Sale Time!

Saturday, July 19, from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.
321 Stewart Springs Dr. in Adelaide Park

Furniture, children’s items, clothing, toys, Christmas items, home décor, electronics, and more.

Thanks to everyone who donated items for our sale! We didn’t have much to begin with, and now we have a garage packed from floor to ceiling.

Hope to see you Saturday!

Update

It's been a little while since we have had time to update and this is my first time updating, this is Chris! I figured I needed to do more than sign where Dawn told me to and sell stuff on Craig'st list! A lot has happened since our last update! We are both now officially FBI cleared. I know some of you thought that might be a close call, but no close calls here. Our home study has now been completed and approved. It makes me feel good that someone else thinks I can be a good father! We are now waiting on our immigration papers to be approved saying we can bring an orphan into the United States. As soon as we get this document the waiting game begins!

Monday Dawn and I leave for camp with our students, Camp Whatever! We were talking last night that this time next year we will be loading our son up and heading to camp! Well maybe not the whole camp but part of it. We have to start him early!

Thanks for keeping up with us! We are so thankful for your support and prayers! Please continue to pray that God protects our son and his birth mother. Pray Dawn doesn't pull her hair out with all the paper work. Pray that God continues to be faithful, as He has been so many times, as we continue to save for our adoption. Pray for me that I don't fly to Africa tomorrow so I can bring my son to camp with me on Monday! :)

We will update again soon.

Tired!

Chris and I just got back from picking up two loads of donations for our garage sale. We've settled on July 26 so we can get past student ministry camp and have time to sort everything. Thanks to everyone who has given us stuff! Because we've only been married for three years, we personally haven't accumulated enough to hold a garage sale of our own. That doesn't stop me from "shopping" our own house, though, to see what I can sell!

Since my last post we've sent in lots of paperwork and completed part of the home study. We should finish our home study this week.

The rest of our paperwork is going well. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! Thanks for continuing to read even though we don't have much to share right now!

Paper Progress

Amy H. told me last week how much difference a week can make, and boy is she right! Last week we didn't have any paperwork ready to send off, and this week we're mostly done and have scheduled our home study. Now is the dreaded process of authenticating documents for our foreign dossier. Yeah, I have no idea what that means either. Basically, I think it means following the paper trails for the foreign government to be sure the documents are indeed authentic. There's a former employee from our adoption agency who now helps people with this process for a small fee (relative to the rest of our expenses), and I'm trying to decide whether or not to hire her. My first instinct was that this fee is so small in the grand scheme of things, and it's worth it to be sure everything is done quickly and correctly. Again, a month ago I didn't know about any of this!

Well, I need to work on gathering more family photos so we can show our agency and Ethiopia what kind of life a child in our family would have. Note to self: How on earth do I "label" a picture of all of our students?