I600A Off To Immigration!!!!

Well, Jerry stepped off the plane from Bolivia today (Saturday) and signed the paperwork (form I600A - Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition) to send off to Immigration so they can grant us permission to adopt an orphan. We were waiting for the approval from our social worker to go ahead and send it in, and of course, that came while Jerry was in Bolivia. The catch was that the fees for the process go up on Monday...it's only a couple of hundred dollars, but any little bit helps! So we wisked Jerry away from the airport and drove to the nearest post office that had late Saturday afternoon hours, and made it with about 15 minutes to spare.

Please pray that our paperwork goes through Immigration without any hitches, and that they grant us permission to adopt. Without it, we go no further.

We've Got an Agency

So, we've picked our agency!!! We've decided to go with Childrens Home Society from Minnesota. They are very impressive and have a great Ethiopia Program. So, now it's paperwork time! We sent our police background checks and child abuse clearances off today, sent in our app yesterday for the agency, sent in our homestudy application yesterday, will mail a longer home study application today, go to the dr for a physical next week, and start writing our autobiographies. It is a time of great anticipation! We know we've got a long road ahead of us as we tackle the mountain of paperwork, apply for grants, raise $, etc, but we also know it is going to be so worth it once we get there!

Time of Decision

We are going to be picking the agency we are working with over the next couple of days. There is so much to decide!! As we have begun looking at agencies we have become more and more excited at this adventure.

We are finding out some encouraging things along the way: that we will be able to adopt a very young infant girl (possibly only 6 months old...or even younger!), that the potential is that the whole process will be much shorter than we first thought (could be 7 - 12 months) and that that cost of the adoption will be approximately $10,000 less than we first thought.

We are excited to start the process and begin getting our paperwork together. In some ways it feels like stepping out onto a branch that we've been testing to make sure it was strong enough for awhile now, but we know its time to step out and take the risk!

Say What????

So, maybe its been awhile since we last talked...For a few months now we have been saying that we are going to adopt from Vietnam. Let's just say that over the past week we have had a change in direction. Last week, Christy was talking with someone at the agency we were thinking of using and found out that we will not be able to choose whether we get a girl or not. This threw us for a bit of a loop, because we have been so sure that God was leading us to adopt a little girl. So, we started to pray...In the midst of praying, we got the impression that God was leading us to change direction and look to Ethiopia instead of Vietnam.

As we started to pray about this, there were some confirmations that came along the way and it really seemed to be right. It is quite a change in direction for us, but we both think it is the right decision. As we have done more research on Ethiopia and adoption there, it lines up with what we have been longing for...to adopt a daughter from a place where the chances of her having a life without help would not look feasible. Ethiopia is a prime candidate.

While it is one of the oldest nations, it also is one of the poorest in the world. It has been ravaged by war, famine, drought, corrupt leadership, and now the AIDS crisis. Ethiopia ranks 177th out of 194 nations in its GDP, making it one of the most impoverished nations in the world. The GDP is $1,000 per capita compared to $44,000 per capita in the US and it is estimated that this year 14 million Ethiopians will face severe food shortages and possible starvation without outside intervention. AIDS has also ravaged the land. Some estimates say there have been upwards of 130,000 AIDS related deaths to date which have resulted in over 800,000 AIDS orphans. The crisis continues.

It is fascinating to consider adopting from Ethiopia. We both remember growing up watching children on TV who were starving to death in Ethiopia during the horrible droughts and famines of the 70s and 80s. It was so surreal...millions perishing around the world while we watched them from the comfort of our living rooms. Of course it seems like such a drop in the bucket to merely help one young girl have hope and life, but that is the starting place that it seems as if God has put in front of us. We are honored, humbled and challenged all at the same time!