"Next Steps" Call

Friday we were on the phone for 1 hour and 15 minutes with our case worker. This was called the "Next Steps Call." It covered the basics of all that would happen between now and being home after trip #2 with that little one in our arms FORVER!!! It was a lot of information. My last post, I made reference to someone getting a super fast court date, while someone in front of them still doesn't have a court date. I asked B about this. There is no rhyme or reason as to when we get a court date. It could be next week or in 2 months. Normally we have about a month's notice before we go. There have been a few exceptions to that. I am trying to get some of our ducks in a row in case we don't have much notice. We were also told to expect it to be 4-8 months before we are home for good. We knew some of this, but hearing it is so much harder. I try to trust in God's timing and not let the human side kick in and freak out. It would be great to be home at the begining of the summer. If we get home late in the summer, I'll have to take off time from school. It isn't easy to miss the first part of a new school year, but it will have to be done depending on when we get home. We just hope/pray that things move quickly and that we can have patience while we wait.

We have started painting in the baby's bedroom. The green is finished. Now we have to wait a few days to re-tape and paint the brown. It still doesn't seem real. Last night I actually ordered a few things on line. I got a night light and switch plate cover. I also ordered some clothes since they were having such an amazing sale. I was able to get 2 piece outfits for less than $6.50 a piece!!!! I got 18 month winter clothes. Y will be 12 months on September 12. Right now he is pretty small, but I know he is already growing quickly. Guessing what size he may be when we come home is tricky...especially when it could be 4 months when we get home or 8 months when we get home or any time in between.

So you may wonder what is next. You will never guess...WAIT! We wait, wait, and wait some more. The waiting hasn't been easy and will continue to get harder. At least now, we have a precious little face to stare at when the days get long. We appreciate your prayers this far in this journey. We would appreciate the continued prayers until we are all home together as a family of 5!

Baby steps to our baby :)

Sunday--We finished all of our referral paperwork and got it all notarized.
Monday--Mailed referral paperwork! :) I had to email B and tell her we were going forward with Y! I guess they don't wait to get your paperwork. The ball is rolling! :)
Tuesday--A dear friend that is waiting for their Embassy appointment (trip #2) was told to expect to wait 5-10 weeks. UGH!! Punch to the gut. That is a long time. Also, it got me into a tizzy thinking about coming home in the middle of the summer instead of the beginning. By the time I went to bed, I was done freaking out and the logic was coming back. I looked at my little Y's picture and knew it would all be okay. :)
Wednesday--We had our "Referral Call" with E. We mailed Y's photo book to a friend that is going over for court soon. She will deliver it to our precious little boy. Thank you N. Even if Y doesn't know about it, I know he has it. It is a soft photo book that he can play with and chew on. He will be drooling all over his new family. HA!!!  I got an email from our case worker.  Hi Jason and Angie!  I hope you're day has been great!  I just wanted to send you a quick note to let you know that your paperwork for Y arrived today and all looked fantastic!  The form from your social worker also arrived today.  This means you are officially placed with little Y!  Congratulations! That was so fun to read!! : ) Also...the family that got their referral right before us on December 16, got a court date for next week! What in the world?!?! That is super quick and little notice. Wow! There is a family in front of them that is still waiting for their court date. :( So there is no way to predict anything in this journey. (even though we still try...ha) It all depends on paperwork especially on the Ethiopia side of things. There are some things that I need to do to feel a bit better about the possibility of a court date sooner than later. I can't imagine having 1-2 weeks before court. So I'll do a few things to ease my mind. Then we will wait another 3 months for court. (Just our luck..ha) Court has been going quickly, now if the Embassy would follow suit.  Micala and I primed Y's bedroom. The painting won't start until this weekend. Praying for all families in every step of this journey. It is not easy, but we know the end result will be AMAZING!!!!

Please sign this petition

Adoption is a very expensive journey. The cost keeps lots of people from not adopting. There was a refund that adoptive parents could get on their tax return. There is a petition now to extend the Adoption Tax Credit Refund through 2013. This tax credit refund ended 2011. This tax credit is HUGE in helping cover the costs of adoption. Please consider signing it and passing it along. Thanks!!
http://www.change.org/petitions/make-adoption-costs-fully-refundable-in-the-2012-2013-tax-years#

A perfect summary of adoption

He Is Mine
A sweet adoption poem, acknowledging that our children are entrusted to us by God.
By Valerie Kay Gwin, from Chicken Soup for the Adopted Soul
I tiptoed into your room one night.
          I watched you sleeping there.
          Your tiny body looked so snug
          Wrapped in peaceful slumber's care.
I thought of how you came to be
          The child we'd longed to know.
          I wondered at the sight of you:
          "How could she let you go?"
Tears streamed down my cheeks as I
          Felt the pain she must have known.
          For I will have to let you go
          Some day when you are grown.
A mother I might never meet
          Had given me her son.
          Yet, surely as you've filled my heart,
          A piece of hers you'd won.
"How could she let you go?"
          The question kept returning.
          And in the depths of my own heart.
          A question kept on burning.
"How can I ever let you go
          When years have come and gone?"
          I stood there by your crib until
          The nighttime turned to dawn.
And as the sun peeked through the shades,
          The voice of God broke through.
          "I trusted her to give him life
          And now I'm trusting to you.
"To show him what is right and wrong,
          to love him and to be
          The one who teaches him the way
          To come back home to me.
        "He wasn't hers to give, you know.
          And he's not yours to own.
          I've placed him in your life to love
          But he is mine … on loan."

IT'S A BOY!!!!

We got "the call." I just can't even believe it! We got "THE call!" AHHHHhhhhhh!!! We have a baby boy!! BABY BOY BISHOP!!! A 4 month old, tiny baby boy!!! I know that everyone is waiting to hear all about the details so I'll get to them. ;)

       

About 5:00 pm, Jason had decided to go to the Lumber yard to get some wood for the cornice boards we were going to be putting up in the baby's room. I was pouting because "I wanted to do something for the baby's room." I refused to paint until we had a referral, but there had to be something constructive I could do with my time. Jason left. About 5:15, the phones rings. Micala brought the phone to me and said, "All God's Children." Here is the glory people...I rolled my eyes and was kind of disgusted. I had recently sent our case worker "B" and email requesting for her to NOT call us for our January check in call. I didn't want the heart attack thinking it was the real thing and having it end up being a check in call. She was chit chatty like normal. Then she said something. Seriously she was so excited, I don't know what she said. Oh my gosh! This is it! Okay just that day I decided to settle in for the long haul. I asked B at what point Jason was to get involved. She said anytime. Well, he wasn't home. He was at the Lumber yard (remember?) I called him and said that B had called and we needed to call her back. He got home in record time! :) Funny thing..Jason has had a cell phone for about a week. We weren't going to pay for him to have his own b/c we didn't feel it was worth the money. Micala was told that if she got on the A Honor Roll, we would get her a cell phone. Poor kid has had to live until almost 14 to get a phone. ;) Sooo proud of her! So since we had 2 lines, it didn't cost that much to have the 3rd line. Great tming, huh!? So glad I was able to get Jason home as soon as possible. Micala was at the library and Lexi was playing at a friend's house. Jason called Micala on his way home and said to GET HOME and to call and get Lexi home. Micala's comment was, "I can't walk that fast!" Not that the girls had to be home, but I thought if it was possible, it would be nice. While I was waiting for Jason to get home, I called "K" who is right behind us on the list. I babbled a bit. She made me repeat it and then finally figured out what was going on. I'm sure it was confusing to her b/c I probably wasn't making sense telling her B had called and we needed to call her back as soon as Jason got home. Well...I tried. ;) Jason got home and we called B back. We had our hour long call going over every detail of our little man. Wow! Even at this point, we weren't feeling this was real. Keep in mind that it has been 23 months since our decision to adopt and 17+ months on the wait list. Now we finally see that face and hear all about him. Is this really happening????? I didn't react the way I thought I would. I think I'm pretty numb from all of it.


Jason was to be somewhere at 6:00 and I was to be somewhere at 7:00. It took until almost 6:30 to get our pictures. While we waited for the picture email to come, I posted on the AGCI list serve and the AGCI FB group. I know after waiting for so long, that people really wait to hear good news. Things have been pretty down in the referral world. I posted in these 2 places knowing that our AGCI family would be happy for us and they wouldn't tell our secret! Then we FINALLY got pictures. Oh my gosh! We got pictures of OUR little boy! Wow! We made a few phone calls. Jason went off to his destination and I went to mine. I had a fun meeting to go to. It was awesome b/c it was with some of my very close friends. I walked into church and said, "Who wants to see a picture of our baby?" I think they were in disbelief too, but so extremely happy. So cool! So fun! We continued to contact people via phone calls and texts. Finally I got to make it public on FB. It is fun to see everyone so happy for us.

A special note: We have dear friends in Sioux Falls that are adopting siblings from Ethiopia. Our families had dreamed about our kiddos being at HH together. They have already been to ET on trip #1. It hopefully won't be long before they go on trip #2 to bring their precious kiddos home. I was seriously bummed thinking our kids probably wouldn't be together at HH. Well, God does have big and amazing plans. These kiddos are all currently in Ethiopia at HH together. They will travel all across the world and live in South Dakota. It warms my heart to have this special connection. God sure blessed us with the S family.

What's next? Get this...paperwork!! We have contacted an International Pediatrican. She will have to review all of Y's medical paperwork and let us know if there is anything that is a red flag, etc...We have a transition plan to do. We have lots of other paperwork to do. The sooner we get this paperwork submitted, the sooner the head of HH can start working on getting stuff ready for court. It will be 3 months 'ish' before our first trip. Then we come home and go back in another month'ish' to be our baby home!!! Any questions? Just ask!!

We thank you so much for your prayers. This has been a hard, hard journey. It still can be tough as we long to hold this little one and have him home. At least know, we can rest knowing he is safe and being very well taken care of.  Please continue to pray for all people in all steps of this amazing journey. It isn't easy, but we know it will be so well worth it.

What to say?

What to say? What to say? Today is the 3 week mark of being at the #1 spot. The excitement of being #1 has ended. The reality of how long we have been on this journey is becoming more and more evident with each passing day. I've really had my faith tested lots in the last few weeks. Finally I decided to sit back and expect to be in this place for a long time. That has helped some what, but my heart is still sad. It is hard to be so close and yet so far away. The inside news from HH is that there have been no new babies brought in for quite some time. :( I have a hard time comprehending this when there are so many children that need families. Our agency will NOT go out and search for possible children that need families. They wait until the families bring the children in. (which is the way it should go) That still doesn't make it any easier. I thought all of you should be updated that the wait can still be long even though we are where we are. I also bring up "God's perfect timing" b/c I know that will be the case. The human side of me struggles with that though. Hopefully soon we will be shown why we had to wait so long. Please pray for patience and strength. This is so very hard. Thanks for all of your love and support. It is appreciated.

To be honest

23 months ago we made the decision to adopt. We are into month 18 on the wait list. We have been #1 on the wait list for 2+ weeks. The key word in the adoption world is WAIT. There have been so much waiting. Waiting for the application to be approved, waiting for a certain document to come in, waiting on case workers, etc...Wait, Wait, Wait! Needless to say, we were pretty pumped to be at #1 knowing the next little one that comes into HH will be ours. The excitement has left. Now we wait, wait, wait. Last week all case workers were out of the office so we didn't expect a call. I was content. Not anymore. It sounds like there aren't any new babies at HH waiting for a family. :( There have always been certain things that we hope for. For example, when a certain family goes to HH they will take pictures of our little one. So many of this things have come and gone without us being able to act on these plans. I know....it needs to be God's plan, not ours. Even so it is hard for these things to come and go with nothing. Our call could still come soon or it still could be weeks yet. This is hard. We are so close yet so far away. I can't explain on much I long to see our child's face and to find out how old he is. Then after we get to see his face, we wait some more and then wait some more. It is a lesson in patience. Some days I'm content waiting on God's time. Other days...not so much. This mom is past ready to see our baby's face.