Fingerprint Appt Tomorrow!

Well, the Department of Homeland Security is our new best friend. They rescheduled our fingerprint appointment just one week from the last one we had to reschedule. It's tomorrow! I met with Belinda at Bethany yesterday and went over our dossier. Just two very minor adjustments and it is good to go! Here is the next few steps of our process:
Fingerprint appointment: tomorrow - takes about 1 to 2 months to get back results
Once we get the results we take our dossier (with this paper in it) to the Secretary of State's office in GR to get state sealed.
We then make four copies of this whole packet.
We take these copies to the Bethany corporate office in GR as well (these three steps can be done in same day).
They look over our papers (takes about two weeks) and send them to the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington D.C. (takes about 2 months).
The Ethiopian Embassy then sends them back to the Bethany corporate office in GR.
They then send everything to ETHIOPIA!! This then starts our wait time (which takes about 12-15 months for a referral).
We're getting closer even though it seems so far away. It is well worth the wait.

Dossier Done!

Happy Thanksgiving. We are so thankful that our dossier is pretty much done. Just a few minor details that won't take long at all. We had a minor set back when we got our fingerprint appointments on Friday and they were Dec 10th at 1:00 p.m. Kreg is in Las Vegas for his job so that is definitely not going to work. We're hoping and praying that they can reschedule sometime VERY soon so that we can keep the process moving. Have a great day everyone and remember all of the things, even so small to be thankful for!

November is Adoption Awareness Month

We are in the middle of getting our dossier for Ethiopia completed. It is actually coming along quite well now. We have 30 items we need to put in this packet. We are trying to teach Kendal a new word each week that is in Amharic (Ethiopian language). I think it's more for us too! Our word last week was, "woosha" which means dog. Amharic is a very difficult language. It doesn't match up to our alphabet and it's difficult to pronounce. It will be fun learning this new language and culture though. We should hopefully hear back from immigration soon about our fingerprint date and then get our other paperwork back to send across the world! :)

Taste of Africa

We went to the "Taste of Africa" last night in Grand Rapids. It was so much fun. We really enjoyed the food, the music, but most of all, the people. Everyone was so warm and kind. We went with some friends and they seemed to enjoy themselves as well. You should have seen Kendal dance to all of the upbeat African music - so cute. Kreg works with a woman from Kenya who was there and was filling us in on the food and anything we asked her about Africa.

Also, our home study is finally completed. We will pick that up this week and send that and some other paper work to immigration. They will go through this and assign us a day to get fingerprinted. This process should take about 4 months.

Tax Credit

Please, please, please pray that the state and federal adoption tax credits go through. The current one expires in 2010.

Last Home Visit

Kreg and I had our last home visit, in our home this time, last week. It went really well and she got to meet Kendal and Remington. Now, we are just waiting for the paperwork to be done. Kreg and I have some online training to finish up as well. When we get the home study in our hands, we can send it to immigration. The process of immigration sending our paperwork back to us takes four months! Can you believe it? In the meantime, Kreg and I have a TON of paperwork to get ready for our "dossier" to send to Ethiopia along with our immigration papers. It will probably take us that long anyways. :) We are so excited to keep this process moving. I saw a little boy and girl at Meijer with their adopted family yesterday it just warmed my heart. The little girl actually waved at me and smiled. I've been thinking about them a lot and I can't wait to have our own wonderful, loving, beautiful children soon.

2nd Home Visit

Today we met with Belinda, our social worker again for our second home visit. We went over our Dossier, which is our formal application to Ethiopia. Wow, is it long! We have so many things to fill out and most everything needs a notary. It's a long process but Belinda says she will help us along the way. We also gave her personal information about ourselves today as well. We found out there is an Ethiopian coffee being sold here called, Kaffa Bunna. We are going to go try it at DeBoer Bakery tomorrow (one of the few places selling it). 100% of the proceeds of this coffee goes towards one of the three orphanages in Addis Ababa (which could be the one we go through). It supports mothers, children and staff at this orphanage. You can also buy it online at www.blueniletraders.org. We'll let you know how it tastes. Coffee is said to have originated in Ethiopia!

Home Visit Went Well

We met with our social worker for the first time yesterday. She is amazing and very supportive. The process so far has been very pleasurable and exciting. She prepared us for what is to come in the next two years. The time frame is just incredible as to how long it takes to do everything especially since we are doing international adoption. Some of the information we received yesterday helps us to understand why it takes so long. So many fees that are unimaginable but very worth it. We have a lot of "work" to do including 8 hours of online training and classes and reading as well. It will definitely prepare us (hopefully) for what is to come. Please pray for us as we try to understand and process all of the new forms we need to fill out and that the process goes smoothly. So far, so good! Our next home visit is Friday, the 21st.

First Home Visit

We just found out that we have been assigned a social worker and our first home visit, which is actually not in our home, is next Tuesday the 11th. We will have two more in the office and then she will actually come to our house and even interview with Kendal. This process, if all runs smoothly, should take a little bit longer than a month (we hope).

Formal Application was Approved

We just found out today that our formal application has been approved. Our social worker will contact us in the next couple of days to start the home study. How awesome!

Kendal's Response

I was talking to Kendal this afternoon about adoption (as much as you can with an almost 4 year old). I asked her if she would like a brother or sister in our family. She said, "Is a brother a boy?" I said that a brother is a boy. She said, "No, I want a sister." Then I asked her why she would want a sister and she said, "No, I want both" with an excited smile on her face. So, I guess we're safe with Kendal with whatever gender (s) comes our way. :)

Thank You

Kreg and I just want to say, "thank you" to everyone. We have so many people in our lives that are so supportive and we absolutely know without a doubt that this child (children) will be loved no doubt by us, but by all of you as well. I think my favorite comment has been by my grandma who most sincerely said, "Stacey, I am so proud of you for adopting." It makes us feel so good to hear all of your heartfelt comments and we just wanted to say that we love all of you and thank you for being a part of our life and this wonderful journey.

The Beginning

7/2009 - Kreg and I have decided to take another step in building our family. We have decided to adopt. We have, as many of you know, had trouble with conceiving any more children. The best way to describe the past 2 1/2 years is what happens in the grieving process: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Well, we are in the acceptance stage and have decided to move on a different path. We have researched domestic, foster, and international adoptions for the past couple of months. We've also researched different organizations to go through with adoption. We've read books and talked to people who have adopted. We've been waiting for a "sign" and we have decided on adopting from Ethiopia. One comment from a staff member at Bethany Christian Services was this, "Children in Ethiopia are waiting for a family compared to a family waiting for a child." We would like a baby under 2 years of age. We do not have a gender preference. You don't get to choose when you're pregnant so we didn't want to choose here either. We are also open to a sibling group. We just finished our paperwork last week and are now waiting for our home visits with a social worker. This will be a very long process but we are definitely ready for this next step in our lives. Please pray for us while we take on this journey. We'd like for you to take this journey with us by visiting our blog and keeping up-to-date on our progress.