It's in Ethiopia

We heard from our agency that our dossier is in Ethiopia and it's in the process of being translated. It will then go through the court system. They are closed still but I think they open October 1. Our agency director will be traveling to Ethiopia in October to meet and vdieo interview more of the new children who are waiting.

Many of the children we felt drawn to were already placed with families by the time we completed our dossier and could request more information on them. There are a few girls that are 10 years old that we were interested in but they are out of the original age range we had put in our home study. We'd have to do an addendum to get that changed - which we may do eventually - but for now we feel like God wants us to wait. Many times they are actually older than they papers say so we could end up completely bumping Andrew to the youngest again and we don't have peace about that at this point.

We know it's all in God's hands and He already knows who will be our daughter. For now we wait and trust His plans and His timing.

We'll keep you posted! Thanks for your prayers.

Our Dossier is on the way! (to Ethiopia)

Just days before we left for vacation, we completed our dossier for the adoption of our little girl(s) in Ethiopia. Just in case you didn't know, we are in the process of adopting a daughter or two between the ages of 4- 10 from Africa.

It's been almost a year since JJ and I felt God calling us to take the first steps. We did a lot of research last fall and then completed our home study in January/February. We got our I-600A approval in the Spring and have been working on our dossier for the past several months. There is so much paperwork! Look at all those stacks, with multiple papers in each pile.

The boys are so excited that we are finally done with the paperwork and actually making progress. It's been a long wait for them. They keep asking "WHEN" are we really going to adopt? Part of our delay was that we put our house on the market, sold it in four weeks and moved in May, but the reason we moved was to make room for our new family so it was worth the wait.

Okay, can you see the excitement in their eyes as we prepared for the auditing of this paperwork?! We double checked our stacks, made sure we had everything on the official list, had the boys bring us each piece as we read it out to them and then put the dossier in one envelope.

The next day the boys and I went to the post office to mail everything. We also needed to send our power of attorney paperwork to the secretaries of state in NC and in Washington state where our adoption agency is located.

I was a little paranoid so I double checked AGAIN to make sure I had the right papers in the right envelopes going to the right addresses with the right return envelopes so they could send them back to the right people - us or our agency.

Here the boys are ready to send "the package"! It felt like that envelope was holding a million dollars. What an amazing day - what an amazing accomplishment. Now it's all in HIS hands!!

We found out this week that it's been sent to Washington, DC for approval, then it will go to our agency and they will send it to Ethiopia to be interpreted and submitted to the courts. It usually takes 4-9 months from this point (I think).

With our dossier completed, we can now view DVDs that have footage and some interviews of children in the orphanages who are waiting for families. As we watch them, we pray and trust that God is going to show us just who she is - just who this little girl or girls will be that He wants us to bring home.