Reflections

Tonight I am feeling reflective of our journey to this point. I have not actually used this blog to journal many of my emotions regarding our story. I guess I was mostly just tracking dates and keeping in touch with my new friends in the blog-world! However, tonight, I just feel like I need to lay it all out there. So, here goes...

Everything began when my sister and brother-in-law gave us some land (2 acres adjacent to their farm) so that we could build a house. Around that same time, our hearts were stirred for international adoption. Through a series of circumstances and much research, we decided in the spring of 2006 , jointly, that we would all go together to bring home our new sons. We applied at CHI into their Vietnam program and hoped to actually travel together. My brother-in-law had the idea of selling the land to finance the bulk of both of our adoptions. We were totally on board, feeling like it was a huge gift, either way; and we believed that God was calling us to international adoption, so it seemed like an answer to prayer. I felt so strongly that God was going to have to finance this thing he was calling us to do, since we were already struggling to make ends meet due to lack of funds in my husband's ministry (soup kitchen/food pantry in St. Louis). So, with no savings and too much debt, we started down this road and downloaded the application from CHI. The day that I had to send off our $100 application fee, my husband ran into a local pastor friend at the gas station that morning, both on their way to work. Our friend handed him $100 bill and said that he just felt like God wanted to bless us with that. It was exactly what I needed that day and I had to worship, knowing that God was assuring me He would be there for whatever I needed each step of the way. So, after a bit, we sold the land (my brother and his wife actually ended up purchasing it!) and it was just in time for all the initial homestudy and government paperwork fees. So far, so good!

Then, my sister and her husband decided to accept a referral for a baby from Guatemala. We were overjoyed for them and fell in love immediately with our new nephew. However, that left us wondering what we should do next. We looked into Guatemala a bit, but didn't feel that was the right door for us to walk through. I became increasingly more uncomfortable with Vietnam, just not sure that I had heard the Lord on which country. We put our homestudy on hold. It was completely ready, just awaiting the country. Throughout November and December I felt nothing. I was really praying, too! Finally, as January 2007 rolled around, I decided I had to put a deadline on things. I told the Lord that by the end of the month I would put something down and just send it in, regardless. The 3rd weekend of that month is when I had a revelation as I was talking with my sister. She asked if I had noticed that CHI was beginning to open a new program for Ethiopia. I looked into it and immediately felt that this was right. The needs of the country, the beauty of the children, the cost, the timelines, the short length of stay in country (since I had 3 children at home, this was important to me), and the excitement of being one of the pioneer families for the program were all perfect! So, we switched programs, sent off our homestudy and within one month had our 171-H form (INS clearance) back the same weekend of my birthday and the same weekend that CHI received their licensing for Ethiopia!!!

I got to work on our dossier and made sure to submit that before we left on vacation in June. We were the 3rd or 4th family to submit a dossier. The 1st 2 families, requesting infant boys, and another family, requesting siblings, actually traveled before the courts closed in August. So, we were sure that we were next on the list and would be receiving our referral any time and traveling by October at the latest. Well, that didn't happen. Several other referrals came through, but all for older children or siblings or infant girls. I was excited for all these families. However, I kept waiting for the call.

Finally, it came in October. We received a referral for an infant boy and were thrilled. However, we immediately realized that we were going to struggle to get the necessary funds together for the country/referral fee. Several of our friends gave generously to us and one long-time friend of our family gave us a loan so that we could go ahead and process the referral to get on the list for a court date. God was good, once again! I was believing that He would come through on the funds we owed to them, as well as the money it would take to travel. However, we had one setback in the plan. When our court date came the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, we found out (the day after Thanksgiving) that the court had not ruled in our favor. For reasons I will not go into here, the court could not separate the baby from the birth family. We felt some loss with this news, obviously; but also felt that it was an answered prayer. We believe that the court had ruled righteously in their decision and tried to be at peace in that.

So, we were on hold again. CHI told us there was another infant, but could not give us any specific news yet until they finished the medicals and paperwork for him. We waited one month with no more information. Finally, on Christmas Day, the director of the program called us and gave us the news! She emailed all the medicals, photos and background info. on Ashenafi and we were overjoyed that she would take time out of her holiday to do that for us. God gave us a beautiful Christmas gift! The baby was perfect!

Now, we awaited a January 23 court date. This time everything went beautifully the first time through. Again, the hurdle of the finances came to weigh on us as we contemplated the cost of travel. As we were waiting for our official travel dates, we received a notice from Shoahannah's Hope (Steven Curtis Chapman's adoption-assistance organization). We were awarded a $3,000 grant!!!! (This is something we applied for in the early fall!) God is sooooooo good!!!!! Plus, my husband had a friend give us some money for our trip and a side job that he was working was going to pay exactly what we needed for the hotel/food cost with enough to take some cash with us!

Plus, the thing I'm most excited about...I have been working on a project close to my heart, related to adoption and Ethiopia, for the past several months. I can't reveal what it is quite yet because of confidentiality issues, but be sure that I will be shouting it from the rooftops as soon as it comes to fruition. It has been so exciting. I went to Chicago one weekend and Atlanta another weekend, meeting the people involved and getting things moving along on this production. There has not been one door shut as I've followed my heart in this matter. That is truly something for which I am thankful!

So, now, we are ready to go! Next week, I'll set my face to shopping and packing and making final plans for my 3 children who will still be at home. Then, I'm just going to totally enjoy this experience and immerse myself into the culture of Ethiopia and loving on my baby!