REFERRALS

After a long year of paperwork and waiting Dave and I have finally received our referrals. This means that we have finally seen the faces of the 2 precious boys we will be adopting. I can't share much information with you until after the court date. I want to say thank you to the wonderful physicians who poured over medical reports with me, I appreciate you so much.
What I can tell you is that we will get 2 unrelated little boys (there were not any siblings available). One of them is somewhere between 2-4 (They are unsure of his age), and the other is 2 months old.
Where do we wait from here?
Now we wait for the second medical reports just to be sure the children remain healthy. The second medical is already done on the older boy, and we are waiting for the baby's. When it is complete, our paperwork will be submitted to the courts for a court date. We think it will be some time in December. If it goes through, the boys will be legally adopted as our own, but the process is not done. The agency then needs to apply to the boys' villages for birth certificates. Once those are issued then we will be assigned an Embassy date. It is at this date that we must be present in Ethiopia to sign papers and bring the boys home. We figure the earliest that this could happen is February, and the latest would be April. We will receive a 2 weeks notice of when we are to be there.

Thank you everyone for your support and prayers as we enter this last stage of our adoption journey. When the court date goes through, we will be able to share pictures of the boys with you. The are each coming with one Ethiopian name and we will keep them as their middle names. We have changed the name that we formerly planned to call the baby because too many girls were popping up with it. So when you think of them, think of Seth and Zane Routly.

Adoption Update

Hello to all our adoption partners.
I wanted to give everyone a quick update. It seems that one should never lay out a time line for an international adoption. These things are not static and seem to be subject to the whim of whatever politician or governmental office is premiere that day. Originally we thought that we would have our referral (finding out which children we will adopt) around June and travel sometime at the end of July. Here we are in the last week of July and we still await the referral. The email that we received last Friday put waits for a referral at 5+ months for boys and 8+ months for girls. Our paperwork was sent in May so we are at the 3 month mark. We are also requesting sibling boys, so it may take even longer than the projected 5 months to receive the referral. Also do to some governmental changes to the adoption process in Ethiopia the wait for the paperwork to be complete and the court hearings to be final has also increased. It looks right now that we will be waiting another 6 months after we receive our referral before we are able to go pick up our kids. Regardless of the wait times, we are still hopeful that God will give just the right boys to complete our family. In the meantime, we are taking the time to reorganize our house and get it ready for a possibly very exciting first year or two once they arrive. Please keep our family in your prayers as we continue on this journey. Remember me as I will have all 4 children in school for the first time and will then have the responsibility of all the house projects. Please pray for the safety and care of the new boys and that the system will keep chugging along.
Thank you so much,
Maia

Those things you say...

We have recently listened to a sermon series by Mark Driskoll of Mars Hill Community Church in Seattle called the Peasant Princess. It goes through the Song of Solomon. These sermons have been great to listen to and Dave and I have learned much about marriage. One thing that is stressed in a certain sermon is how the man compliments the woman on her appearance. Mark states that it is like a running commentary on how good she looks. He compliments her hair, he compliments her neck, her dress, her shoes, etc... Dave has always been great in this area and the children often times follow suit. Tonight after I had dressed to go out to dinner, Bryce came up to me and stated, "Mom I like your dress, it is very pretty. You look very beautiful. I like your shoes...I just passed gas...should I say excuse me?...I just passed gas again." I think he's got the running commentary part, but I'm not sure we are quite clear on the content yet.

Waiting, waiting, waiting

Why is it that the wait seems to be getting longer. Our paperwork has been in Ethiopia for 5 weeks now. We got an email today from CWA stating that due to difficulties getting birth certificates printed in the country for adopted children that the wait after a successful court date has increased from 5 weeks to 10 weeks. Are you joking??? Also there has been difficulty in getting court dates to be successful, because there is a back log of paperwork and often times the documents for the children are not ready by the time the date arrives and the court date has to be postponed. I look at my friends who have their kids here and I'm jealous. It looks like we still have a lot of waiting to do.

Spring Break Vacation

It is a wonderful day, great Georgia weather as the happy family left on Monday last week to go on their spring break camping trip. The weather report said snow...WHAT???
So here's what happened. We get to our KOA cabin which consists of 2 rooms and 2 space heaters and 2 doors that Bryce can't open. It is raining and we play tether ball in the rain. What could be more fun. Then it actually does start to snow. Did I mention we were in Georgia in April? Okay, so everyone but mom is in the cabin playing board games cuddled around the space heaters. Mom is outside trying to make a spaghetti dinner on the camp stove in the snow. Unfortunately it is too cold and the water won't boil in the big pot. By the way, you can make spaghetti without ever boiling the water. Our evening treat that night was camp stove popcorn. Everyone bravely trooped outside to pop it and then ran back inside to sit on the floor, eat popcorn, and listen to Dad's ghost stories that can't be too scary because then no one will sleep. Somehow it was about a lost 6 foot tall chicken...

Tuesday - still snowing. The boys and Dave go on a trek to try and find the 6 foot chicken while I look for indoor activities. We decide that caverns under a mountain count as indoor, so we go on a cave tour. We sit down to share a 24oz hamburger for lunch then head back to camp. We go on another hike on the trails around the KOA when we get back. We climb trees, rocks, and see who can balance the best on fallen tree trunks. The evening is filled with smores and fire.

Wednesday - We GO SEE ROCK CITY. For those of you who do not drive in Georgia or Tennessee, you see these words painted on barns and billboards all around the Lookout Mountain area. We have fun and decide to get annual passes because the place is so stinking expensive to visit once. Then we head back to the KOA for a campfire treat of roasted apples. That goes well so we roast all our bananas too.
"Dave where is the water bottle?"
"It's in the camera case."
"Where is the camera case?"
"X@#%$^ It's at Rock City!"

Thursday - We SEE ROCK CITY AGAIN. Did find the camera and case intact, went to the Battles for Chattanooga and were delighted to use our newly bought season passes.
So we come home and I have several bug bites on my arm and face and neck. I suffer through the weekend at work itching like crazy. Everyone else is fine...or so we thought until today.
I noticed some red spots on Bryce's back. I asked him if he was itching and he states "Oh it's just the bugs that are eating me." I take his clothes off and he has over 100 bites on his body. We believe it is chiggers. GREAT! We've been home for 3 days and he has slept in his bed with his brother. All children and beds get stripped, everyone gets scrubbed with hot water and I'm still working on the laundry. That child!!!!\
So when are we going back?

JOY

Hello all,
I just had to share my joyful moment. We have been waiting for a certified copy of my birth certificate to be sent to us from the US government since I was born in Germany. We asked for it in December and have only received a letter stating that we may need to go to a formal court hearing to get it released. A man from the Secretary of State's office called me today to let me know that they cannot give me a copy of my Certificate of Birth Abroad, but that they did find my US birth certificate and were going to send me 2 copies of that and refund the rest of my money. Hallelujah, finally!! I would have been a big problem to submit the Ethiopia paperwork without that document. Now forward we go.
Maia

Countdown to babies

The Countdown Begins…
The Timeline:
February - I600A submitted to immigration. 90 days processing, expected approval in the beginning of May.
- Dossier and all outstanding fees sumbitted to Christian World Adoption for approval.
March - Dossier sent to the US embassy for authentication then to the Ethiopian embassy for authentication
April - Dossier sent to Ethiopia for translation and approval.
May - We receive names and medical reports of the boys and immigration approval.
Possibly July - 8 weeks from immigration approval is the court date.
Possibly August - 5 weeks from the court date is the embassy date when we get to travel to Ethiopia to pick up our children.

The above timeline is VERY hypothetical in that there can be delays at any stage of the process. Still we are hoping that our two newest children will be in our home as soon as possible. At this time we are pulling together the final documents for the dossier and the rest of the CWA fees.
Our friends have been extremely generous to us. We have some who have showered us with baby furniture and clothes. We have others saving clothes and other baby things for us. Children’s Heathcare of Atlanta, Maia’s employer, has given us $10,000 toward the cost of this adoption. We are grateful that Maia works for an outstanding company. We thank all of the others of you who have given us monetary donations. Every little bit moves us closer to bringing these children home and we are so grateful to all who have participated with us so far. We will continue to keep all of you updated on how things are progressing. Again, Thank you. Dave, Maia, Bren, Jace, Joel, Bryce, and soon to arrive Seth and Quinn.

Sleepless nights

I am up late tonight unable to sleep so I thought I'd put up a post. Christmas was a unique experience this year as the boys were a surprise to all who asked them what they were getting. There were no presents underneath our tree this year as we bought the boys a trampoline a few months ago and are saving our money for the adoption. When asked what they were getting for Christmas the boys would launch into a dissertation about the new boys in Ethiopia and how expensive it is to bring them to the US. They would tell people how they are contributing and how Jesus gave the greatest gift of all. Those were proud moments for both Dave and I to witness. My mom made the boys each a small tote bag and filled them with underwear and socks. When they opened them they were thrilled. They were so grateful and excited that they received anything. The feeling this Christmas season was so much on giving and the gift. I hope to replicate it somehow in the future.