Hello Children! Momma and Daddy love you, where ever you are!

Hello Children,

I wanted to write you this letter to let you know how much daddy and momma already love you.  I know we have not met yet, but you burn in my heart like nothing I have ever experienced.  Momma and I hope for you, pray for you, and love you daily.  The best way I know to tell you of my love is to write you a letter to tell you about your family.

First, I want to tell you about your church family.  You see momma and daddy were adopted too.  No, not exactly like you.  But there is this whole group of people who love us, call us brother, sister yet we do not live with them or share biological blood lines.  They taught us about adoption.  They love us for who we are.  They support us and pray for us.  Tonight at church the pastor allowed me to come up on stage and tell the congregation about what momma and daddy are doing to get to you.  He then prayed for you.  I hope tonight you did not feel alone.  Because you are not alone! Tonight you had a whole group of people agreeing in prayer for your safety and health.  Most importantly the God who created this world looked down on you tonight and smiled, because He heard our prayers.

I can’t wait for you to met all these people who are already praying for you.  I can’t wait for you to meet our spiritual family who we are so very close with.  I can’t wait until your first hug from Felicia.  She will love you like momma and daddy do.  I can’t wait for the first time Joe teaches you something new.  I’m betting it will be about how to show kindness.  I can’t wait for Stephen Thomas to lay his hands on you and pray over you.  I can’t wait for Daniel to teach you to sing, and frustrate you because you can do it as well as him or do it at the kitchen table like he does.  I can’t wait for Angela to ask you to snuggle.  Or Kayla to teach you the social economics of the United States.  Or for you to experience the love of so many people who have loved on momma and daddy!

I can’t wait for your to met the rest of the family.  Meme to spoil you.  Bebe to tease you. Uncle Shawn to say, “What’s up, buddy.”  Aunt Maggie to try to take you home with her. Grammy to show you her very special brand of love.  Poppy to whistle at you. Aunt GiGi to explain why she is Aunt GiGi, and the kindness of Uncle Sam.  Oh and your cousins.  Both in Texas and Georgia.  The fun you will have!

I can’t wait to get you home to Ooltewah.  Where Kimberlee and Brody will teach you balloony ball in the den.  Where we can hold you, kiss you, and keep you safe.  A place where you will always be loved for who you are.  A place where your biggest worry will be how successful can you become.  

Most importantly, I can’t wait to introduce you to my Abba Father.  The God who adopted me when I did not feel I was worth being apart of a family.  The sweet Savior who gave me hope when I was lost.  I pray you learn to love Him as much as I do.  I know He loves you!

So tonight, where ever you are, what ever you are doing, Momma and Daddy love you very much. My heart breaks not to be able to hold you and tell you so today.  But I promise, every day of your lives, you are loved greatly!!

Love 

Daddy

To all other readers:  I had to make this part of our blog.  To show the newest addition one day that before they were here, they were already a part of our lives.  Please join us in praying for our children who are a world a way.  

Where We Are

Hello Everyone!

Since we created the blog, I have had many people ask us where we are in the process.  Jennifer has also asked several times when we were going to update the blog.  Well, this should do both!

I have found the adoption process to be a “hurry up and wait” game.  This of course has been explained to us by everyone in the world; from the good people at Bethany who told us this process was long and full of unexpected twist, to every person we have ever met who ever knew anyone who had adopted and felt obligated to tell us how long the process was for their friend/family member/ person they once heard a story about.  However, all of the stories in the world do not prepare you.  You think this is a God thing so the waters will part, the sky will open and wham your done!!  Not so much!!

The process is long, and long for many good reasons.  If you have never looked into adoption, here is a brief glimpse into the process.  First you choose where you want to adopted from.  For us, we knew it was Africa, but we didn’t know where in Africa.  All we knew is that we were children of the 80’s, and the pictures of Africa we had in our heads were of “WE ARE THE WORLD” and all of the little Ethiopian children in that music video.  So naturally we said, “Anywhere but Ethiopia!”  But God….  Everywhere we turned, God laid Ethiopia and the people of Ethiopia on our hearts and the hearts of our friends.   We have learned to love a country we have not been to and to love a people we have not met!

With the “where” addressed, we contacted Bethany Christian Services.  The process sounded simple, even though they stressed the length of the process.  First you have a home study done.  A little scary to think your 5 year old will be discussing your parenting skills with a person who will be deciding your fate as an adoptive parent.  This is not just a person taking a couple of pictures of your house and talking to your children.  It is a dissertation on your life.  “What was life like growing up?”  “How often do you talk to your parents?”  “Your in-laws?”  “Do people like you?”  “Do you like yourself?” “Do you like people liking you?”  Then just for fun, everyone in the world gets to read it and approve or decline you.  

Then you have good ol’ Uncle Sam!  No, not Uncle Sam, Aunt GiGi’s husband.  The US Government.  Once the home study is approved you must ask Uncle Sam if you may bring a child back into the country.  You write them a check, get your fingerprints taken, and wait to see if you are on some watch list somewhere.        

Once that is done you can complete your dossier.  This is the file that will be sent to a country that outlines everything there is to know about you.  It has letters from friends saying you are good people.  Letters from your boss that says you’re a good employee.  Letters from a doctor saying you are in good health.  Then there are pictures of your house and family.  This is all accompanied by a host of other documents.   Not including the home study, there were some 26 documents.  All needing to be notarized, county sealed, and state sealed.  

Once this is all done, the file is sent back to the adoption agency for final approval, translation and sent to Ethiopia.  Once there and approved, you hurry up and wait for a child to be referred to you. The referral process can be 6 months to 3 years.   Then a whole other process for bringing the child/children home begins.  But that is a different blog.

So where are we?  There was a long delay by the US government. It was a miscommunication that cost us about a month.  With that hurdle cleared we have gotten all of our notaries, county seals, and everything has been sent to the state for the state seals. We expect to have our documents back on Monday the 15th from the State of Tennessee.   We hope to meet with Bethany early in the week to finalize our Dossier.  Then…. We hurry up and wait!!