Important News on our Adoption... Please Read

Ok, we wanted to start out the new year with new news & be very open about our adoption plans. Some people know but many do not. Please read through this entire post before making any judgments & don't stop half way through. This is very important for all who are involved in our lives! I have mentioned in previous posts that we decided to adopt a child with special needs. Well, what does that mean. In China most special needs are physical deformities with many children missing limbs, cleft pallet, etc. In Africa that is not the case. What is the big problem in Africa? HIV & AIDS. YES, we are adopting a child with HIV! Like I said, please keep reading!

When I first started reading about others who had adopted a child with HIV I thought “That's awesome for them to do such a great thing but I could never do that.” It was still such a scarey thing for me. I knew that you couldn't just catch HIV by being by someone but I didn't really understand much about it. Much of the information that people have about HIV is from the 80's.

What you need to know:

• HIV is considered a chronic but manageable disease with proper treatment.
• Children who receive treatment are expected to live a normal lifespan.
• HIV has never been transmitted in normal family living conditions.
• You NEVER have to fear contracting HIV through casual contact with an HIV+ person.
• HIV is spread in three main ways: sexual contact, IV drug use through the sharing of dirty needles, mother to infant (pregnancy, birth or breast feeding.)
• All around the world orphans are overlooked for adoption because of their HIV+ status
• Medications called ARVs can mean the difference between life and death.
• The combination of three or more ARVs is called HAART. (Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy)
• With medication, HIV can be effectively managed to the point that the virus is undetectable in laboratory tests.
• There is a term for the miraculous transformation HIV+ people undergo when they begin receiving the medications they need
  The Lazarus Effect is a term commonly used to describe people who were once on the brink of
  death who have been restored again to health through medication.

Yet still, why would we CHOOSE to care for such a serious illness? Regardless whether we adopt them or not, they already have HIV. If they remain an orphan in Ethiopia, they could die of the illness without medication. We started this adoption process to bring a child into our family that needed us. There are so many people on the waiting lists for a “healthy” child. There is nothing at all wrong with adopting a healthy child but that is not what we felt God was calling us to do. Just to sit & wait forever for this perfect healthy child (which there is still no guarantee they won't have any issues when they come home). There are so many children being passed over just because of those 3 letters HIV. It is so sad. From what I've heard from other people who have adopted HIV children, their children were made to feel “less than” or told they are “yucky”. I want our child(ren) to know that they ARE loved & they are not “yucky”. That is why we have chosen to not keep their HIV status private. We don't want them to feel like there is something wrong with them & that they have to keep it secret. They will take 3 medications twice a day for the rest of their lives & will visit the doctor every 3 months but other than that, their daily life will be just like any other person. Yes they may have to have some tough conversations when they get in to a serious relationship but as I mentioned, they already had HIV so this would have already happened regardless of whether or not we adopted them.

This was already on the blog but thought it was appropriate again.

"...once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows that we know, and holds us responsible to act."

~ Proverbs 24:12

I will continue to post information on here. I don't expect this to sink in right away. It took us a while ourselves to make this big decision. I just ask you to be open to this information. Please feel free to ask us any questions & if we don't know, we will find out & let you know. Also there is very good information that can be found at www.projecthopeful.org/

As always, thank you for your love & support!  To receive updates via email on our new blog posts, please enter your email on the right of this page.

Can't Wait to Wait!

I can't wait to start waiting! Adoption is all about waiting!

We mailed off our I600a to USCIS on November 30^th. We received our fingerprint appointment for December 26^th but were unable to go with the holiday so took a chance & walked in on December 19^th. We didn't know if they would let us do it early or not as they specifically say you are not coming in without your appointment. Thankfully we had no issues & got in & out quickly. We are now in the process of waiting on our USCIS approval. It could come in the next few days our could be a couple of months. We are really praying for the first option! Some of the forms are required to be dated within 6 months of submitting our dossier & some of those will be expiring in February so we are getting down to the wire! We only have a few more things we need & it would be amazing if everything got done in the next week. Prayers are much appreciated for speed!

I am so thankful for our Facebook Group for our agency. I have learned so much from the people in the group! If anyone else is with West Sands or their partner agencies & is not a part of the group, let me know & I can add you! There are some very big prayer requests for those in the group. One family left their children 2 weeks ago after their court appointment where they were supposed to be name legal guardians of their children but a form wasn't done in country so they had to leave without that. Regardless they wouldn't have taken their children home yet but they aren't able to disclose pictures of their children until that's done & is also setting back the next stage of the adoption of being submitted to Embassy so they can bring their children home. There are lots of other people in the group that need various prayer requests! I really don't know what I would do without this group.

Another prayer request for orphans in Russia. If you haven't heard, they have ended all Russian adoptions by Americans. This means many children that were already in the process of being adopted & were waiting for their families to get them, now will remain orphans. Families were already in love with their children that they may never get to see again. Many people who haven't adopted before don't realize that even just starting the process, these children ARE already your children even though you may or may not have every seen them, met them or know anything about them. It would be like losing one of your biological children. What would you do? PLEASE pray for this that something can be done to undo this! Another awful thing about Russian orphans is that children with special needs often are put into mental institutions because no one wants them even if there are no mental issues. It is so sad. And there are many Americans open to adopting them & now can't.

What happens next for us? We have to wait for our USCIS approval. We will then mail all of our dossier documents to West Sands. They will be authenticated & sent to Ethiopia. At that time we will officially be put on the waiting list. It could be 6-9 months (or more or less) until we receive our referral. Once our referral is received we will wait for a court date when we will first see our child(ren). That could be 1-3 months. We will then leave them & wait to be cleared by embassy. That process is changing & time increasing so it could be 2-5 months before we can bring them home. What a glorious day that will be!

Thanks for following us & for your prayers! If you want to get updates via email you can do so on the right side of the page.

Homestudy is Complete!

I'm not doing very well keeping this updated on a regular basis. Trying to think what all has happened in this last month. We FINALLY got our official homestudy in the mail on Friday! Yay!!! Not very happy with the timeline on that but there's nothing we can do about that. I immediately had Jeremy go to FedEx on Friday afternoon to ship off our I600a to USCIS. That can take about 5 weeks – 3 months to get back. This give us clearance from the US to adopt a child internationally. This will take the longest of the items that are required for our dossier. I'm really hoping to complete our dossier at the beginning of January. If not we will have to re-request copies of our birth certificates & marriage license as all documents have to be dated within 6 months of being submitted to Ethiopia. The dossier is the last step before we get placed on the wait list. It's funny to think about being excited to “WAIT” but if you ask any adoptive parent they will understand! Of course that will be extremely hard to WAIT but I know God will work in his timing. We have no idea what the wait time will be for us. Hoping not too long but we also need LOTS more funding before we receive our referral as we will owe $8500 before we can accept the referral & also another $5500 if we get 2 siblings. I am going to start applying to grants over the next few months & hopefully we will receive enough. Many of the grants take several months to find out if we are accepted & how much we will receive. The grant applications require a bunch of paperwork as well. This is all SO much work but it will be so worth it to finally get to have our child(ren) home! We just got our first order of sheets in from our fundraiser & raised $522 from that one order. These sheets are amazing!!! So soft & a great deal. Make sure you contact me if you want to place an order!

As always, thank you all for your prayers & support! Keep the prayers coming! Please feel free to share our journey with others that may be interested!

Orphan Sunday is Today

Today is Orphan Sunday.  Today is a day to bring awareness to the need in the world.  The numbers vary but some sources show that there are 143 Million orphans in the world.  Yes MILLION.  It is so sad that the Christians of the World have allowed this to happen.  I think I heard somewhere that if just 7% of Christians would adopt a child, there would be NO orphans left!  That is amazing.  The church needs to step up & DO SOMETHING!  Whether that is adopt a child, help someone who is adopting, donate money or items to orphanages or something else.  We all can do something even if we don't have the money to do so.  We most definitely do not have the money to adopt a child but know that God designed this & will provide the funds.  I know that not everyone is called to adopt but God tells us we are ALL called to care for orphans. 

Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. (James 1:27)

So what are you going to do TODAY?

#$%@ People Say To Transracial Families - Must Watch Video

Check out this video I found today... apparently this is exactly what most/many transracial adoptive families experience on a regular basis.  These mom's that made this video are adoptive parents & thought it would be good to make fun of this annoying situation they experience regularly. 

Home Study Visit #1

Just a quick update on our home study visit today.  It went much better than I thought.  Of course we (mostly Jeremy) cleaned & cleaned this weekend to make the house spotless.  She spent only a few minutes walking through our house to look at everything.  I didn't think she'd check every nook & krany but thought she would look more than she did.  Well, at least our house is now clean!  She mostly spent 2 hours asking us questions about us, our childhoods, jobs, etc.  We have a 2nd & final visit next week where she wants to meet Jack, discuss discipline, discuss special needs & more.  After that should have complete a week later.  We can then send our paperwork off to US to get approval which has been averaging about 5 weeks but could take up to 90 days.  That is what is going to determine the timeline for finalizing our dossier as I believe that is what takes the longest of all that is required.  I'm excited that our home study is almost done but that means that we desperately need the remainder of the dossier money immediately.  Please be in prayer for donations or that we can borrow the money so we can start on our dossier in 2 weeks when this is all done. 

Home Study Paperwork DONE!

It’s been a while since my last update & we’ve gotten a lot done, yet still have so much more to go before we can even start WAITING!  We have completed our 24 hours of Ohio Adoption Training & 10 hours of Hague Training for International.  We had to do all of it at home by ourselves which I think slowed it down even more than if we had gone to an actual class making us do it on a schedule.  But we successfully did it! We mailed off all of the paperwork to our home study agency last Friday. We have our 1^st home study visit on Monday!  Praying that we can get the house together for it & that we “pass”!  There will be 2-3 visits total.  Some together & some separate.  I’m not sure how quickly the other visits will be, hoping not too long as I’m eager to WAIT!  Once our home study is complete & official copy is received, we will send it off to Homeland Security & wait another month or 2 for approval.  After that, along with probably some other paperwork, we can officially send our dossier off to Ethiopia.  That is when we will officially go on the waiting list.  We of course have no time frame of how long we could be waiting as it is unpredictable with special needs adoption.  It just depends on what children are referred to our agency by the orphanages with special needs, how many people ahead of us are waiting for special needs & what ages & needs they are open to.  I’m really “hoping” to have our child home by next Christmas but that’s probably just a dream!  If we wait too long to submit our dossier, some of the paperwork we have already done will start expiring causing more time & money to re-do. 

Also since my last post we had a Fundraiser Yard Sale on October 13^th.  I think it was successful considering it wasn’t prime yard sale season.  We raised $341.50 & I am still trying to sell some of the stuff online so that could increase some.  I need to double check at home & update the fundraiser thermometer but we should be around $2200.  We still need over $5000 before the end of the dossier process so we still have a long way to go.  Once our home study is complete, I will be applying for a bunch of grants but that money will not be received before this is all due but will help out with the future costs we will owe once we receive a referral which will be another $20,000+.  I do NOT like asking people for money.  I was never allowed to do fundraisers as a child, but this is so important & I know this is what God wants for us so I AM asking!  We have several fundraisers going on now & in the future.  If there is anything you are able to help with, it would be appreciated more than you ever know.  Check out the Fundraising Page for the 2 currently going on as well as information on making a direct donation. 

As always, please be in prayer for our family & our adoption journey.  It is HARD & takes a lot out of me but it will all be worth it to see our child(ren) for the first time!