Matthew and I have always been filled with the desire to build our family through the gift of adoption. In February 2010 we began investigating the process of adopting domestically and internationally...costs, time frames, process, etc. We decided we would pursue international adoption in the beautiful country of Ethiopia!
We have now officially been in the process with our agency, Children's House International, for two years. For the last 19 months we have been awaiting a referral. A referral is a packet of information on a child that meets your adoption specifications for the child you would like to adopt. A few days ago we increased our age range...yesterday we made a HUGE change. (In my opinion anyway). After conferencing as a couple - via Skype messaging mind you - and after prayer and fasting we decided to change our child preferences to be as follows:
A girl OR boy between the ages of newborn and 2 1/2 years old, can be HIV+ and can also have minor correctable defects. We are also approved and happy to accept a sibling boy or girl up to the age of 4.
What is so big about that you may very well wonder. Well, we have been expecting to adopt a baby girl from Ethiopia for the past two years ...and perhaps we still will, but we felt like we needed to open ourselves up a little bit to allow the Lord to help us find the child intended for our family. I must say, I am still very excited about this change even though it was a difficult one to make. A referral could be right around the corner!! Which of course means <gulp> we need to have at least $9500 ready in order to accept the referral, or more than that if we receive a referral for siblings. I know God can work miracles, and we are about to need a big one.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Friday, July 20, 2012
Just Keep On Moving
The process of adoption is filled with many unexpected road blocks for every family choosing to embark on the journey. We, however, seem to enjoy taking the adoption "road" under perpetual construction with seemingly endless road closures and detour signs hindering the path.
Did you know that each time you move, a home study update is required? Yes indeed, it is true, and each home study update costs another big chunk 'o change out of the already withered wallet. We FINALLY got our second home study update completed and approved today!! (We have moved twice since our original home study was completed.) So wonderful! Except that just today we decided to shift the age range of our child up to 30 months instead of 18 months. Alas, the home study update is now under way again.
The good news is...we DID change our approved age range for a child to "newborn to 30 months (2 1/2 years)"! Yay!! We are waiting on a referral for a little girl in that range and many, many families just like us want a little girl too. As a result, the wait can be veeeeerrry looooonng. (We have been waiting 19 months.) But as I said, we are excited about the change that we decided to make after careful consideration and prayer. We know our Father in Heaven has His plan and timeline mapped out for us and our daughter. Each day we are continually reminding ourselves that all will be well as we continue in faith.
Did you know that each time you move, a home study update is required? Yes indeed, it is true, and each home study update costs another big chunk 'o change out of the already withered wallet. We FINALLY got our second home study update completed and approved today!! (We have moved twice since our original home study was completed.) So wonderful! Except that just today we decided to shift the age range of our child up to 30 months instead of 18 months. Alas, the home study update is now under way again.
The good news is...we DID change our approved age range for a child to "newborn to 30 months (2 1/2 years)"! Yay!! We are waiting on a referral for a little girl in that range and many, many families just like us want a little girl too. As a result, the wait can be veeeeerrry looooonng. (We have been waiting 19 months.) But as I said, we are excited about the change that we decided to make after careful consideration and prayer. We know our Father in Heaven has His plan and timeline mapped out for us and our daughter. Each day we are continually reminding ourselves that all will be well as we continue in faith.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Photo Updates
We got a dog! Moto Moto is a Great Dane.
Daddy getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan.
Our First Home!!
Learning Focus and Patience
Can you believe my last post was almost 11 months ago? What has happened in that time to keep me away...too much, I tell you, too much!!
Just five days after my last post on August 10th, I closed on our first house. Matt was away at Army Ranger School still so I went through the whole process of contracting, obtaining the loan, making selections and closing on the home by myself.
A couple weeks later Matt graduated Ranger School and mid September the Army moved us to our new Duty Station in Georgia and into our new home! A new home means a new Home Study is required. Unfortunately, we had to wait on the Home Study until we had fenced in our yard and fenced out the massive pond at the back of our 1 acre lot. Sadly, this meant dipping into our adoption fund in order to be able to put up the fence.
Obviously we needed to pass the Home Study, so the fence went up. We finished unpacking our belongings into our new home...and Matt received deployment orders. He spent the month of February training for deployment at Fort Irwin, California and came home with just enough time for our social worker to perform the home visits and interviews before he left for Afghanistan in March.
The boys and I have been missing Daddy so very much each day. I am finishing up with the final year of my Bachelor's degree program in Family Life Studies and our sweet, goofy boys are so tired of seeing me with my nose stuck to my textbooks and computer screen. The good news is that I will finally be graduating in December of this year!! Wahoo!
So mid-June marked three months of Matt being gone to Afghanistan and a whopping 18 months that we have been on the "waiting list". We are waiting for a baby girl from Ethiopia between the ages of newborn and 18 months. We also decided that should a baby girl with HIV come our way, we would love to bring her into our home. So we are learning all we can now about what it means to care for a family member with HIV.
I have to admit, I thought that we would have our baby girl by now but the Lord has other plans. I am learning the meaning of patience as we continue to wait and work for our little girl and trust in the Lord's timeline for our family. When the time is right we will finally be united with the precious daughter that we belong to. Keep us in your prayers please, we have been waiting so long and we miss having our beloved Daddy in our home.
More updates to come soon...
Just five days after my last post on August 10th, I closed on our first house. Matt was away at Army Ranger School still so I went through the whole process of contracting, obtaining the loan, making selections and closing on the home by myself.
A couple weeks later Matt graduated Ranger School and mid September the Army moved us to our new Duty Station in Georgia and into our new home! A new home means a new Home Study is required. Unfortunately, we had to wait on the Home Study until we had fenced in our yard and fenced out the massive pond at the back of our 1 acre lot. Sadly, this meant dipping into our adoption fund in order to be able to put up the fence.
Obviously we needed to pass the Home Study, so the fence went up. We finished unpacking our belongings into our new home...and Matt received deployment orders. He spent the month of February training for deployment at Fort Irwin, California and came home with just enough time for our social worker to perform the home visits and interviews before he left for Afghanistan in March.
The boys and I have been missing Daddy so very much each day. I am finishing up with the final year of my Bachelor's degree program in Family Life Studies and our sweet, goofy boys are so tired of seeing me with my nose stuck to my textbooks and computer screen. The good news is that I will finally be graduating in December of this year!! Wahoo!
So mid-June marked three months of Matt being gone to Afghanistan and a whopping 18 months that we have been on the "waiting list". We are waiting for a baby girl from Ethiopia between the ages of newborn and 18 months. We also decided that should a baby girl with HIV come our way, we would love to bring her into our home. So we are learning all we can now about what it means to care for a family member with HIV.
I have to admit, I thought that we would have our baby girl by now but the Lord has other plans. I am learning the meaning of patience as we continue to wait and work for our little girl and trust in the Lord's timeline for our family. When the time is right we will finally be united with the precious daughter that we belong to. Keep us in your prayers please, we have been waiting so long and we miss having our beloved Daddy in our home.
More updates to come soon...
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Vibram Five Fingers
For those who have been hiding under a rock... just kidding
Here is a link for Men's VFF Bikila
Here is a link for Women's VFF Bikila
Balance In All Things
I must apologize for my long absence and complete lack of updates over the past 1 1/2 months. My focus has been on supporting my husband in Ranger School, caring for our busy boys, and getting myself and my son ready for school to start. I know the importance of maintaining balance in all areas of my life and I admit, I have done far from that!
We have officially been on the waiting list for almost 2 months now and we have not as of yet heard anything. Our agency case worker, Patty, estimated our wait to receive a referral for a child could be anywhere from 3 to 9 months. While that sounds like a reasonable amount of time, it feels like years to me! We have been working on our adoption since January 2010 so we have already been over 1 1/2 years in the process. That being said, I firmly believe that God will bring us to our precious daughter when the time is right. He guided us to search for her in Ethiopia and now we must wait with faith and patience.
In the mean time, we must endeavor to raise the remaining money we need to fund our adoption to bring our daughter home! Remember, it costs almost $30,000 and we are $12,000 short. Hopefully by now most of our friends and family know, I am running in the Rock 'n' Roll Savannah marathon in November. As uncomfortable as it is for me to do this, I am asking friends and family to pledge a set dollar amount (or cents - whatever you can afford in this fantastic economy) for every mile that I complete of the marathon.
As a little incentive, for every $20 that you pledge and eventually donate when I dominate the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon, I will enter your name into the raffle for a brand new pair of Vibram Five Finger Bikilas! The only question now is... can I pledge money and enter myself to win the shoes?? No? Are you sure?? ... Oh shucks, those are some awesome shoes! Guess you had better make a pledge if you want a shot at them for yourself!
As Time Passes...
Hours melt into days ... days puddle into weeks ... weeks turn into blurry months. Now I have a small glimpse of how my husband must have felt while I was gone for a year on deployment. Has it really been a year that I have been back now? Yet I find myself without my husband again as he conquers school after school of good 'ole Army training. First it was Infantry Basic Officer Leader Course or IBOLC. Now, he drudges through the swamps of Florida in the third and final phase of Ranger School.
He began Ranger School on June 26th and he successfully passed both the Darby Phase and Mountain Phase the first go-around. I am infinitely proud of him as he has endured the unimaginable strain of Ranger training with little to no sleep and the delicious feel of MREs in his stomach. After tearing something in his shoulder during Darby phase he decided to keep it hidden and drive on so that he would not be kicked out. He also had a massive abscess on his arm which he poked with a needle to drain the festering cream-cheesy puss while he was on an Field Training Exercise in the mountains of northern Georgia. I consider myself to be pretty tough as a Non Commissioned Officer in the Army and a certified Modern Army Combatives Instructor, but there is no way I would ever be able to do the things he is doing in Ranger School. I salute you, 1LT Kohler, not because I have to but because you deserve it, you have earned it.
If he continues to do well and be blessed by God in his efforts to pass Swamp Phase the first time he will be graduating on August 26th. Hooah!!
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