My Montage 4/17/10 at OneTrueMedia.com

Our Haiti Mission Trip

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Haiti

In 2 days my sister and I will be in Haiti....it is a busy few days before we go packing...cleaning the house and preparing to leave my family for a whole week!! I have been blessed by all the monetary donations and all the toys and goodies people donated. We have 2 suitcases Full of stuff for the kids!!!! Many friends and clients gave towards this mission trip. One of the best surprises was my random meeting at walmart yesterday.... I went to go purchase more Matchbox cars...while I was loading my cart the couple that was stocking the display asked what I was doing...I use EVERY oportunity to tell anyone about this trip! They told me they worked for the manufaturer and to put the cars back! If I could arrange to pick up some boxes from thier home they would give them to me for FREE!!! I pick up boxes full of cars..I now have 172 cars in TOTAL!!!! Plus over 500 stickers....over 200 tattoos..276 Bubbles....78 pinwheels...candy and lots of other good stuff!! Also the manager at another store gave me 10% off and a bunch of free stuff! I can not wait to go and bless all the children!

a little movement.....

A family got a referral today for a little girl, they were also in line for siblings....because they accepted just a girl we moved UP on the sibling list!! So we are now 3rd in line for siblings and still in 12th for a boy. Bring on the referrals!!!!!!

Still waiting:)

Soon it will be 10 months that we have been on this adoption journey.... it has certainly been eye opening! Our lives have changed so much and our kids are not even here yet! The process really makes you look at things a lot differently. It is so much a FAITH thing! For those of you going through it you understand. Ever turn, every piece of paper, every fee....we are testing our Faith. To the average person this whole process is probably crazy.....we already have 3 healthy kids and we want 2 MORE?!?! CRAZY!! We have no idea where the money is coming from!?!? CRAZY!!!! NO its a FAITH thing! We know we are on the right path because God led us there and we know God already knows the outcome! So yes maybe a little crazy but a good CRAZY!!

As I said 10 MONTHS since we started and we are still tyed in 12th place on the waiting list. There were several referrals giving out this month but none on our unofficail waiting list. So we wait.....

While we wait I prepare to go on my First mission trip! We(my sister and I) are traveling to Haiti this Sunday!! We are meeting up with fellow bloggy Mom Kari and her Church James River Ministries. We are meeting up with Missions of Mercy which is already in Haiti. We will be handing out a whole lot of meals to families in need. I have been collecting donations such as bubbles, stickers, matchbox cars and other goodies to be able to give to the children. I am sure this is going to be a life changing journey.

Here are some pics of what we have been up to lately..

While we wait.......

While we wait....I have decided to go to HAITI!!! Another crazy bloggy mom gave me the idea! Her church is going on a missions trip to Haiti to distribute food. Ever since the earthquake my heart has ached to help in some way. This is giving me the opportunity! Along with me will be my sister Jodi and 11 others. I am so excited to see how it all turns out. This came up with only 24 hours notice! Within seconds of reading my friends facebook post I KNEW I must go!!! Crazy I know!! I love how the Lord makes you do crazy stuff! Isn't that what being a christian is all about?! Going where the Lord leads you....He clearly wanted us both to go...there were no spots left but at the last minute they made room for both of us! I am nervous and excited!!! It will truly be an experience to remember! Please pray for us as we go to lend a helping hand! If you would like to help in any way feel free to comment and I will give you my email! Also pray for my husband and children as I leave them for almost a week!

1 MONTH DTE.....9 months since we started

Our paperwork has been in Ethiopia for 1 month now...Since we have been added to the waiting list NO children have been reffered out to thier families. Each month usually many families are "matched" with thier child or given thier refferal as we call it! In January 17 children were reffered to families...In February..NONE....March...NONE(so far). We are unsure of why the slow down, we believe it is partly to do with the new guidlines the courts and the Embassy are following now. 1) Families are now required to travel for thier court apperence(previously it was done by Power of Attorney) 2) the embassy is now taking at least 8 weeks to issue the Visas our children need to travel home. So we wait!!! We are still way down on the list so we are praying for some movement!!!!
While we wait we are working on getting to house ready to accomodate 2 more children...we painted the kids rooms and put in new closet organizers and made room for the crib in the boys room! NOW BRING ON THE REFFERALS!!!

Another obstacle to test our faith..

As of March 1st all families adopting from Ethiopia will be required to travel TWICE! First time about 4-8 weeks after we recieve our referral ( for 5-7 days)and then again about 10-12 weeks later when we go to pick up our children. I am excited that we will get to see our children but we will then have to leave them again. The problem is this is going to add quite a bit of money to our total..probably another 5-7,000 dollars! My hope was to be able to take all of our children with us when we travel to go get our children but this extra expense changes alot! It also requires another week away from our jobs and our children. I know in the end it will all work out but lately I have been waiting for some good news..we have hit road block after road block!

Update

So we have been on the list for a short time now even though we have been in the process for almost 9 months!!!! According to the Unofficial list we are in 4th place for a sibling referral and tied at 10th for a boy referral. What does this mean?? 3 more families have to receive thier sibling referral before we can....how long that is the real question! Until this month multiple families per month were being matched with thier children, 17 children found forever families in January alone! February..ONE!!!!!!! None so far this month:((( So we wait..and wait and pray for some movement soon. It is exciting to be officially on the list but I will not get excited till we start getting closer to the top. At least I will try!

WE ARE DTE!!!!!!! 2/19/10

After 8 months of paperwork and waiting our papers are finally on the way to Ethiopia!!! We are DTE(Dossier to Ethiopia)!!!! What this means is our huge amounts of paperwork is now in line with everyone elses!!! We are now on "The LIST" We will now wait our turn for our Agency to give us our referral! It is complicated to explain how long we will wait. We are requesting siblings a boy 0-6 mths and a girl 18mth-5 yrs. So we will go in line with those requesting siblings which could be a longer wait. The current wait times are 3-6 mths for a boy and 7-9 mths for a girl. If at our turn siblings are not available we would be willing to accept a single referral for a boy and then we would hopefully choose an unrelated girl from the WCL(waiting child list..a list of older children) We are approved for 2 children 0-6 yrs. Now it feels real!!!!!! We know our children are coming... it is just a matter of when!!!!

Next on the list...After thanking GOD!!

1) Raise the funds we will need for the rest of the process
2) Get all the vacinations we need
3) Get the kids rooms ready to fit 2 more kids!
4) Pray for the hearts of some of our family members to be opened to our decision and our future children

Winter weather...

Well our last winter blast has put us on hold again...our paperwork arrived at our Adoption agency on last Friday..in D.C!! Needless to say our Dossier set on a desk somewhere unattended for almost a week. We were supposed to be DTE today but looks like we are waiting another week! At this point what is another delay! With the luck we have had getting all our paperwork done..OF COURSE a blizzard would hit DC the day of paperwork arrived! This time I actually laughed..totally not in my control! So hopefully next week!

DTE soon!!!

So that precious piece of paper Finally came in the mail yesterday!!! I quickly made copies and headed off to Fedex it overnight to our adoption agency! While there I made my husband pose for a quick picture...this is a huge milestone..8 1/2 months of paperwork...tears..praying...praying some more.. to mail it was the best feeling ever! As I was driving home from mailing it I was pondering when my DTE date would be and started laughing when I realized how funny God can be at times..Each time I got pregnant whether by chance or by trying I ALWAYS got pregnant in February so I guess he saw fit for another February pregnancy:)

So my Family coordinator emailed me today:

Dear Anthony & Paige,

Your dossier was successfully received today. Thank you for sending it so quickly. It will be taken next week (weather permitting) to be further authenticated at the State Department and Ethiopian Embassy. After we receive it back from the Embassy, we send them out within 1 to two weeks.

If there are no delays at all, your dossier will be sent to Ethiopia next Friday.

Have a blessed weekend with the paper-chasing weight off of your shoulders!

So What Does DTE mean?(Dossier to Ethiopia)
This is the date that they go by when considering your place in line for a refferal. How they determine this is by your request..
We requested a boy 0-6 mths and a girl 18mth-5yrs old(siblings) if siblings are not available when it is our turn the we would have a choice to accept just a baby boy then we would try to adopt a girl from the WCL(waiting child list) This is a list of older children that are available for adoption.

How long will we wait??
Well right now the current wait time is 3-6 mths for a boy and 8-11 mths for a girl but because we are requesting siblings we are really unsure of how long..we are praying with the rate at which children are being adopted lately that it will not be too long but that is up to the Lord. As frustrated as I get I know he has our children already picked out and we just have to wait to meet them!
So thank you all for your prayers and support and keep checking in for updates!

Waiting Patiently....

Well we are at 6 weeks waiting for our approvel for our I71H form. I have calls in to USCIS and emails hopefully I will hear something soon or it will come in the mail! So many families are waiting for paperwork in order to be able to travel to pick up thier children..this waiting pales in comparison. To see there faces and know they are waiting for you is heart wrenching. If they can wait through that I can certaianly wait through this. I have to say all the waiting is the hardest part of this journey..waiting on others and government offices. I know in the end our children will be here and this will be long forgotten but we still pray for patience and focus our eyes towards our children.
 We were wonderfully blessed by a large donation by friends, words can't explain how greatful we are!! All money we raise goes right into our account to help bring home our children!
Praying to have an exciting announcement soon:)