A Taste of Ethiopia

So Mimi and I had a chance try out some Ethiopian food.  The flavors were exciting and vibrant!  I learned that Ethiopia has some great coffee, and the honey wine is definitely unique . . .lol.  Next time Mimi and I thought we may try the vegetarian dishes as most of the food we leaned toward on this platter was the veggies.   We had a good time. . . can’t wait to be eating in country! ! !

Paper, Paper EVERYWHERE!

So we are nearing the end of the Paper chase or some call it Paper Pregnancy.  Basically how the adoption works is you pick your agency.  For us it was America World Adoption Agency www.awaa.org   We did a ton of research and after hearing the testimonies of personal friends that had adopted through them we felt confident in our decision.  

We then reviewed all the countries that we could adopt from and after much prayer we decided on Ethiopia.   I'll have to share later why we decided on that country.    We received our welcome email and the paper pile started!    All adoptions require paperwork.. international ones from what I gather require a lot more!   From background checks, medical check ups, financial records..(all of which need to be notarized) our government and the government that we are adopting from want to make sure that we will responsible, loving, stable parents.   We have been working pretty steady on this paperwork since February.   What I thought would take 3 months has taken a bit longer...  We're at 6 months currently and we submitted 2 weeks ago the I600A  which is a federal document that is required to pass embassy and legally bring our children back to the US.   We still need to be fingerprinted and are waiting for the governments permission to do so.  So I'm hoping this will be wrapped up in the next month.  

All of this paperwork is referred to as the Dossier.   The  Dossier is submitted to our agency and after an installment payment is made is then shipped off to Ethiopia.   Once in Ethiopia it is reviewed (which can take months and months) and then per our requests children are then matched to us.   This stage is called the Referral.  We receive a file of information on the children and pictures.  We then prayerfully will make the decision to move forward or to wait for a different referral.   Upon acceptance, another payment is made and then we wait for a court date.  Once a court date is set, Josh and I will travel to Ethiopia to meet our children for the 1st time!!  We will be in the country for around a week and upon passing court the children are legally ours.  But then we go back to the U.S. WITHOUT our precious children to wait 6-8 weeks for our embassy date.   We then fly back to Ethiopia to pass embassy and bring them back to the U.S. for good!  There is a process called readoption that takes place once you return to the U.S... but I'll save that for when that happens since I don't know too much about it all yet.   I'm putting together a timeline and will put it on a side post in the future.

'He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance to his pleasure and will."-Ephesians 1:5

Beginning

It was over a year ago that Josh and I mailed our application to America World to officially start our journey of starting our family through adoption.    Five and half years ago we pledged our love to each other in the presence of 80 orphans in Acapulco Mexico. Hopefully soon we will pledge our love once again to our children in the land of Ethiopia.    

Family and Friends are constantly asking questions about our adoption process .  We hope that you all will enjoy reading about our journey as well as learn about the staggering need for adoption throughout the world.    We chose to adopt as our plan A for our family.   While most people are shocked by this. We know that God has called us to do this and here are some of the reasons 

The statistics are overwhelming. Per UNICEF  in 2004 over 143 million children are orphaned by 1 or more parent.     Per the ABBA fund  approx 80 million are adoptable.     What would it take for these 80 million children to find permanent loving Godly homes??????  6-7% of Born Again Christians to open their hearts and homes and obey God's calling to adopt.    He is the Father to the Orphan... and He is our Heavenly Father by way of Adoption.  

Romans 8:15 ' For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba, Father!" '