Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Paper Chasing

For those who want to know....here's where we are in the paper chasing stage. (To explain a little bit, there are three "hoops" to jump through: the local agency homestudy, the Colombian government dossier requirements, and US Citizen and Immigration Services requirements.)

Right now: To complete our homestudy--
*Pete's autobiography (it will probably be written on our vacation!)
*Still have to take a current family photo
*Finish up one last education course
*Our medical forms (Pete & Em)...waiting for our doctors to finish them
***We should be done with our homestudy very soon!!!

Right now: To complete our Colombian dossier--
*Too much to put down, really, there's a list of about 20 documents, all of which have to be notarized and appostilled (which is basically a notary of a notary that costs $10 a page! I've read they justify that exorbitant cost by saying that is what it takes to make our documents legal documents in another country.)

To complete our filing with USCIS--
*Waiting on our homestudy to submit our initial application.
*Then we wait to receive fingerprint appointments and clearance.
*Then we wait for our piece of paper: titled 171H (fancy, huh?) which we have to send with everything else to be appostilled!

So, the theme of this post is insanity and waiting. I think the two are going to go hand in hand for a long time. I was talking to the program director today for Colombia and, for the millionth time verifying that we will probably be waiting 2 years after all our papers are in. I really, really, really don't know how I'll cope. That's a LONG time. I keep going back to prayer and faith in God. I can't doubt now what I know He is calling us to do.

During that wait time, my newest scheme is to audition for Deal or No Deal and win 1 million dollars. I think I have a chance. :) Think of the great human interest appeal for ratings...what would you do with a million dollars, Emily? Oh, adopt our child and I think we'd give the rest to re-model the Lighthouse. I'm actually fairly serious about this idea. I can act ditzy so I can get on the show!!!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Give Me Your Eyes

Why am I always so tempted to be selfish all the time? I am in constant need of reminders about where I should focus my thoughts, energies, dreams, and goals...this song reminded me of it tonight
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VWIpQuGwSyQ&feature=related
and this verse reminded me this morning:
Matthew 16:24-26
Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?"

Saturday, July 19, 2008

The Home Visit

Our social worker came to our house Friday. I actually didn't go crazy with cleaning. We just made sure the house was normally clean and pick-upped...not crazily clean. :) I was actually really proud of how "chill" I was. Good thing, too, because it's not like our social worker did a white glove test or anything. She just walked through the house and then we talked about how our days normally went. It was a good meeting. We just have one more in two weeks and then we're done...except for making sure all our paperwork is in our file. We're just waiting on Pete's birth certificate and our letters of recommendation! Amazing how quickly it went. I'm just praying that assembling our dossier is the same b/c I know our referral wait time probably will seem like FOREVER.

One quick praise...we turned in our passport applications/renewals last week and we got them TODAY. Can you believe it? 2 weeks for our renewals and Ali's brand new passport.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Fears

Psalm 34:4
I sought the LORD, and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.

I've heard people say that the paper-chase of adoption can be considered the 1st trimester of an adoption...I remember being scared and nervous that something would happen to Ali during my first trimester of pregnancy, and strangely, I'm nervous again now for our second child. But there are so many more unknowns. It is taking, by far, more prayer, more trust, more EVERYTHING to keep my eyes on God and trust His will and timing over the entire adoption process. I'm scared about how long we'll have to wait for our child--I wonder how I'll cope during the wait, I'm nervous about being approved by the Colombian government, I'm anxious about all the paperwork that has to come back from a million different places before we can even say we're done paper-chasing, I worry about the finances of the adoption...aahhh. The reason I post all of this is to ask you to pray for us (for me mostly...Pete is amazingly level headed about all of life, thank goodness!) Will you ask God to keep me dedicated to Him and seeking His face through this entire process? I desperately need to trust Him. I KNOW I can't do this without Him.

In other news...our home visit is tomorrow. I'll post about how that goes.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Our Homestudy

We're currently in the midst of our homestudy! We have had two meetings with our social worker, and we have three more to go, plus a LOT of papers to gather. On our fridge right now I have a to do list: medical appointments/forms, application & personal bios, financial statement, life insurance (yeah, we should get some...kind of required for this), take family photo (in nice clothes...which for those who know me...it'll have to be a Sunday), get driving records, insurance affadavit, continue with our education courses (one down, 5 to go).

And that's only for the homestudy...wait'll you see the list for our dossier for Colombia! :)

Monday, July 7, 2008

The Beginning

Lamentaciones 3:22-24

El gran amor del Señor nunca se acaba, y su compasión jamás se agota. Cada mañana se renuevan sus bondades ¡muy grande es su fidelidad ! Por tanto, digo : «El Señor ese todo lo que tengo. ¡En él esperaré ! »


Pete and I have decided to begin an adoption. We couldn't be more excited about growing our family! We want to be able to keep those who want to updated, and we also want to be able to have something to share with our son or daughter someday when they ask to hear their story. We can't wait to share it over and over with him or her!

God's faithfulness is great...even in the midst of sorrow, he brings joy. The sorrow a mommy and daddy must feel when they cannot raise their child, the sorrow a child must feel while they wait in an orphanage for a forever family, the way they miss their mommy or daddy, our sorrow that we won't be able to be there for every single minute of our child's early life...but we truly believe that God can redeem every situation. Out of sorrow, he can create joy. We enter into our adoption process praising God for miracles, but also praying for the day when He will wipe every tear from our eyes and we will rejoice in His physical presence with us.

So, be excited with us...pray with us...we love you all and most of all...to our baby...we love you so much already, even before we know your name, and we can't wait to hold you in our arms. We're praying for you! Love, your Mommy and Daddy and big sister, Ali!