I couldn't agree more, that's crazy!!!
So why are we doing it?
Because we have an empty bed, an extra seat at the table, clothing in a wide variety of child sizes, leftovers after nearly every meal, and room in our hearts to love another child.
Because there are 147 million orphans in the world and the reality of that breaks our hearts. We cannot adopt them all but we can decrease that number by 1.
Because we are blessed with clean water pouring out of the faucets in our home, abundant food, quality medical care, and excellent public schools while in Ethiopia 60% of the children are stunted because of malnutrition and half the children will never attend school. Ethiopia’s doctor to child ratio is 1 to 24,000. Ethiopia has struggled through periods of famine since the 1980s with over 1 million deaths since that time.
Because as we were learning about Ethiopia we fell in love with its children; they are some of the cutest kids we’ve ever seen!
Because after 2 years of hearing Him whispering and shouting in many, many ways, we are so very sure God is leading us to this.
Because He adopted us!
"In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will." Ephesians 1:5
And we all just thought it was chaos before!
Adoption Details
Agency - Gladney
Requesting a girl age 0-30 months
Adoption Timeline
Sept. 9, 2009 - 1st Request for information from agency
Sept. 26, 2009 - Returned info. form and initial fee
Oct. 6, 2009 - Orientation over the phone with Gladney worker
Oct. 8, 2009 - Returned Request for Application from Gladney and fee
Oct. 14, 2009 - Service Plan Call with Gladney
Oct. 22, 2009 - Mailed I-600A application to CIS
Nov. 7, 2009 - Mailed group 1 of Gladney application documents
Nov. 17, 2009 - Doctor physical for my husband
Nov. 20, 2009 - Mailed group 2 of Gladney application documents
Nov. 30, 2009 - Doctor physical for me
Dec. 9, 2009 - New passport for me
Dec. 12, 2009 - Began working with KBS Dossiers to compile our dossier to be sent to the Ehiopian government.
Dec. 17th - Health check-up and sign-off on all 3 of our children children
Dec. 17, 2009 - Mailed group 3 of Gladney application documents
Dec. 23, 2009 - Fingerprinted for FBI clearances
Dec. 28, 2009 - Mailed off request for FBI clearances
Jan. 8, 2010 - Homestudy done by Gladney
Jan. 25, 2010 - Gladney Approval for Adoption
Feb. 19, 2010 - Fingerprinted by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration (CIS) for I-600A
Mar. 9, 2010 - I am re-fingerprinted by CIS because 1st set couldn't be processed
Mar. 10, 2010 - Receive news that Ethiopia will now require 2 trips to finalize the adoption
Mar. 11, 2010 - Receive FBI clearances for both of us
Mar. 15, 2010 - Get notice that CIS still cannot process my fingerprints and considers them "unclassifiable". I must obtain police clearance letters from all cities I've lived in over the past 5 years and bring them to and appointment on Mar. 25, 2010 with a CIS officer
Mar. 16, 2010 - I apply for police clearance form 2 different police departments
Mar. 25, 2010 - Appt. at Dept. of Homeland Security regarding my "unclassifiable" fingerprints. Hopefully, prayerfully, the issue is resolved, and we will be getting our I-600A approval in the mail soon to be able to bring an orphan into the U.S. then we'll be on the wait list!!!!
Apr. 8, 2010 - Final I-600A approval!
Apr. 12, 2010 - On the waitlist!!!
Apr. 29, 2011 - Referral for 30 month old little girl!!!
July 15, 2011 - Notified of our court date on August 2nd
Aug. 1, 2011 - met our little girl in Ethiopia for the 1st time!
Aug. 2, 2011 - appeared in court
Oct. 20, 2011 - Officially passed court
Nov. 17, 2011 - Submitted to embassy
Dec. 14, 2011 - Cleared by embassy
Dec. 19, 2011 - Take custody of our new daughter
Dec. 22, 2011 - Embassy appointment in Ethiopia
Dec. 24, 2011- Back home in the U.S.; our family of 6 together at last!
