Update...Finally!

Hi Friends. I have not used this blog in the capacity that I originally intended. Lots has happened with our adoption and I hope in the future to do a better job of updating as things happen. I'm going to do my best to summarize things from the past several months :)

Our homestudy was officially finalized on September 30th. It took MUCH longer than we were told that it would. Some of that was because of us, but a lot of it was because of the agency we selected. We applied to the homestudy agency at the end of March and had our first meeting with them in the beginning of April. I (Sarah) had a difficult time understanding the process and was hesitant to relay the depth and nature of the personal information they were requesting from me. I'll just say that if you have ever seen a therapist for any reason or had any level of anxiety or depression, whether clinically diagnosed or not, be prepared to share that if you are planning to adopt and be prepared to have to prove yourself fit to adopt. I could say a lot more here, but that's another topic for perhaps another day.

So, we were able to work through that, but it took about two weeks. Then we had a list of documents we had to gather before we could be assigned a social worker. This took us another 3-4 weeks. By mid-May we were told that we had been assigned a social worker and should hear from her within the next few days. A week went by and we hadn't heard anything. We contacted the agency and they assured us we should hear something soon. Another week went by and the social worker finally called to tell us that she was traveling for the month of June and wanted to start our interviews when she got back. WHAT?! We did not want to delay an entire month. We contacted the agency and asked to have another social worker, but alas, the other two were both on leave so were stuck with her. So we waited. The interviews were completed tin July. This part was actually much easier than I had expected. I had cleaned my house top to bottom and was so worried about what she would think of me, but she walked in, sat herself down on the couch and didn't get up for the entire 2 hours. She actually asked Pat to fill out and sign the safety checklist! Can you believe that? Honestly I wonder if she was a bit negligent in her duties- I mean, surely, she should have at least looked around a little bit or checked out where the baby would sleep? But anyways, all was well and we passed with flying colors.

We waited for the draft of our report another 3 weeks (thought it was only supposed to take 10 days). Once we got the draft we had to check it for errors, of which there were several. Then nothing happened for several weeks and finally by the end of August we were told that the reason our report was not finalized was because one of our references had neglected to return the social worker's phone calls. This was again very frustrating to us- why had the agency been sitting on this for weeks? All we had to do was contact the reference ourselves and explain to him the importance of returning this phone call. Long story, I know, but we do have an approved homestudy now, which means we CAN adopt :)

In October we completed and submitted an application to Show Hope, an organization founded by Steven Curtis and Mary Beth Chapman to help adoptive families. Their grant program helps thousands of Christian families adopt every year with financial assistance and helps families access resources designed to encourage and support adoptive families. Our application deadline was October 31^st and we were told to not expect to hear anything for at least 90 days, so hopefully we will find out in February whether or not we were awarded a grant. The average size grant awarded is $4,000. We really have no idea what to expect in terms of whether or not we would be selected but we are hopeful and, as always, trusting the Lord.

The next step was to submit our I-600A application to the USCIS (United States Citizenship & Immigration Services...I think...). The first time we submitted this application we got a bright pink letter back saying that there were two pieces of missing information, one being my birth certificate and the second being a section of the homestudy. Wow, this was so discouraging. We had both double and triple checked these documents before mailing and we were so confused, how could this be missing? We went back to the homestudy agency, who then reviewed the file and they didn't understand it either, so they contacted the caseworker at USCIS. We heard back from them that oh, nevermind, everything is there and they don't need any additional information. So this was a relief, but also a concern. How was my birth certificate not in our file the first time it was reviewed but then it was there the second time? And again we had an unnecessary delay in our process (I am beginning to think this is just going to be our reality…). Our trust in this government agency’s competency is hugely diminished which is very discouraging because of how the Ethiopian process is changing, more on that later.

We then had to be fingerprinted at the USCIS agency in Baltimore. They send you an assigned date and time and ours was December 2^nd at 9 AM, the morning of MOPS L I was sad to miss MOPS but happy to be moving forward with the process. Our fingerprints came back clean, of course, and we now have a “Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition.” Hooray!

The next step is to put together our dossier. The dossier is a collection of documents that will be translated and sent to Ethiopia to be reviewed by their government agencies. Every document in our dossier has to be notarized, state certified and authenticated at the Ethiopian embassy and the Department of State. We have many of the documents already and are working on getting them together with the hopes of sending our dossier to Ethiopia in early February. Once our dossier is approved then we will officially be “on the list” so to speak, waiting for a referral!

When we send our dossier we also send a large check with it, and we did not have the funds to do that yet, which is why we had not worked harder to get everything done quicker. We have said from the beginning that we knew we could not afford this but we trust the Lord will provide, and provide he has! In October I did a Pampered Chef vendor event which nobody came to; there was not a single customer. It was a complete waste of my Saturday, or so I thought. I did meet the other vendors there and was able to talk with one woman who showed a particular interest in hearing our adoption story. This woman looked me up and called me before Christmas and told me that she wanted to donate to our adoption. I heard from our agency today that she sent them a check for $5,000. A complete stranger was so moved by God’s call on our family to rescue an orphan that she gave us five THOUSAND dollars. Lord, I hear you loud and clear! HE WILL PROVIDE! “And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus” Philippians 4:19.

I have more to share, but this post is long enough already. Stay tuned for more updates soon J

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and joyful New Year’s celebration! Blessings to you and your families!