I want to begin this blog by saying Thank you! Thank you to all of you out there who have asked about our adoption, who have given financially, or have been praying for our adoption and the process. It's hard to believe that we began this process a little more than a year ago this month. At times it seems that this year has flown by but at other times I feel like 10 years have passed. I will quickly update all of you on the progress of the adoption and then continue to the lighter side of the process in a difficult time.
Right now we are still waiting, we were informed that AIAA is expecting to receive more referrals in either October or November. We are not guaranteed that our referral (child information) will be with that group. A few month ago we received an email regarding the status of International Adoption in Korea. Korea has been trying to reduce their total number of international adoptions for several years and plan on greatly reducing that number as of July 2012 with their goal being to eventually phase out international adoption completely and have all of their children adopted by Korean families in country. My immediate reaction to the email was panic, had we made the wrong decision, is this really what God wants for us? I emailed our representative to ask about the status of our adoption. She assured me that the new plans should not effect our adoption at all. As I have said before, all of this is new to the agency and to us, I think God wants us to learn to have faith! I don't update the blog when things like this occur, I don't want the whole world to know of my emotional turmoil during those times!
So now we are still waiting, faithfully waiting, for God to move in this adoption. We trust His plans and provisions completely. We are praying for our referral to come sooner rather than later that we may travel to get our child before the end of the year. As we wait and discuss the adoption around our house Anna has a lot to say about the whole thing:
Anna to Mommy in the car, " Mommy I think it would be ok if our baby is a girl now," (she has been telling us that she wanted a boy)
"What if it's a boy?" (Mommy)
"That would be ok too, how bout we just get both!"
Later that same day...
"Hey Mommy, why don't we just call Korea and find out where our baby is!"
"Hey Mommy, is our baby in Korea's belly?"
After I explained to her that Korea is a country she then asked if we would have to be on the airplane a long time. I told her yes and after thinking she told me that I could have her princess movie Jasmine (Aladdin) to watch on my trip. (She only gets to watch movies in the car on long trips). Anna wanted to make sure my trip was enjoyable, not so sure 24 hrs. of Aladdin would be so great!
Anna has been practicing being a big sister, when she is around her cousins or a baby at church she is always trying to help. She follows her helping jesture with, "I am practicing being a big sister, I am going to be a great big sister aren't I!"
At the same time as we are waiting for the referral in the mail Anna has been waiting for her Wildcat Club letter. (We signed her up for the Jr. Wildcat club online) After several weeks of not receiving her letter she says, "I am not sure what is going to come first our baby or my Wildcat club." Time is so different for a child!
Anna has been both our joy and our sorrow during this time. It is the precious time with her that has helped me to remember what this process is really about. I have taken her out of preschool just to enjoy this last year before she starts kindergarden. I love spending my days off with her, acting out seens from princess movies and Dino Dan. Some days, though, she is sad. She has had a difficult time understanding why so many other babies have come and ours isn't here yet. She prays every night for her brother or sister and for them to come soon. She really will be a great big sister and one day, very soon, we will get to see that.
We ask that you continue to pray for us, for our child and for the process. May God be glorified through it all!
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Update
I have been approached by many people in the last few weeks asking for an update on the adoption process. Truthfully I have dreaded updating this adoption blog because of the lack of progress I have to report. So here it goes...the update is...we are still waiting!
At the beginning of this process back in early October we were instructed that once the home study was complete that it would be approximately 5 months until we receive our child referral (picture and specifics about OUR child). Our home study was completed on Dec. 12, do the math, May 12! So for months I have been eager for the month of May to come so that we can finally see the child that God has hand picked for our family. My longing for the month of May was completely misplaced after I received an email last month updating our process. The email informed me that the referral would arrive closer to 6-9 months, not from the home study date, but from the time that our file was sent to Korea. Our file was sent to Korea on March 24.
My heart was broken, I cannot explain the emotions that overwhelmed me at that moment! 6 to 9 more months, are you serious? Our adoption agency explained the process again and informed us that appoximately 25 other families are waiting with their agency for a child from Korea.
Doing the math again it could be Sept. or after before we even have our referral and then another 3 months before we can travel to pick up our child. I can't imagine spending Christmas with part of our family a whole world away, not only Christmas but the possibility is very real that it could be next year before we go to pick up our child.
So now you know that math, you know the possibilities, but the fact is that we don't know anything at all. AIAA receives no updates from Korea, they know nothing until the referrals are sent to the state. Our adoption agency could easily call us tomorrow and tell us that they are sending a referral, we just don't know. There is nothing left for us to do but wait and trust God.
I have to admit to you that I have really struggled in the last few weeks with trying to grasp all of the unknown. The truth is my heart absolutely longs for our child in an indescribable way. As I explained in my first blog, this has been a life long dream for me, a dream we now share as a family. Anna is beginning to feel the effects of the wait as well, one of the first things she said to me when we woke up on Sunday morning is, "when am I going to get my baby?" My answer, "I don't know baby, I don't know."
As I write this, with tears in my eyes, I know that God has a better answer than I did. He knows exactly when our child will be ready and He knows exactly how to comfort us as we wait. Please pray for us, for our child, and for us to be able to accept God's timing, whenever it may be!
"Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for Him!"
Isaiah 30:18
At the beginning of this process back in early October we were instructed that once the home study was complete that it would be approximately 5 months until we receive our child referral (picture and specifics about OUR child). Our home study was completed on Dec. 12, do the math, May 12! So for months I have been eager for the month of May to come so that we can finally see the child that God has hand picked for our family. My longing for the month of May was completely misplaced after I received an email last month updating our process. The email informed me that the referral would arrive closer to 6-9 months, not from the home study date, but from the time that our file was sent to Korea. Our file was sent to Korea on March 24.
My heart was broken, I cannot explain the emotions that overwhelmed me at that moment! 6 to 9 more months, are you serious? Our adoption agency explained the process again and informed us that appoximately 25 other families are waiting with their agency for a child from Korea.
Doing the math again it could be Sept. or after before we even have our referral and then another 3 months before we can travel to pick up our child. I can't imagine spending Christmas with part of our family a whole world away, not only Christmas but the possibility is very real that it could be next year before we go to pick up our child.
So now you know that math, you know the possibilities, but the fact is that we don't know anything at all. AIAA receives no updates from Korea, they know nothing until the referrals are sent to the state. Our adoption agency could easily call us tomorrow and tell us that they are sending a referral, we just don't know. There is nothing left for us to do but wait and trust God.
I have to admit to you that I have really struggled in the last few weeks with trying to grasp all of the unknown. The truth is my heart absolutely longs for our child in an indescribable way. As I explained in my first blog, this has been a life long dream for me, a dream we now share as a family. Anna is beginning to feel the effects of the wait as well, one of the first things she said to me when we woke up on Sunday morning is, "when am I going to get my baby?" My answer, "I don't know baby, I don't know."
As I write this, with tears in my eyes, I know that God has a better answer than I did. He knows exactly when our child will be ready and He knows exactly how to comfort us as we wait. Please pray for us, for our child, and for us to be able to accept God's timing, whenever it may be!
"Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for Him!"
Isaiah 30:18
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Closer...?
It has been awhile since I updated this blog, it's harder than I thought to come up with something poetic to say. Since my thoughts aren't high school portfolio quality today I will just share the news.
In the last few months we have been working on gathering information for our Formal Application. The arrival of the Formal Application meant good things for us; 1. One of the last steps before we receive our actual child referral (picture and medical history of the child) 2. That our home study is complete and approved 3. That referrals are actually coming in to the agency from Korea because they do not send our Formal Applications until they have some referrals in hand.
Our Formal Application included more information about us, our medical history as well as pictures of our family and home. The process of gathering the photos was fun for me, these pictures would be the ones that introduced the agency to our family as well as our future child. I made scrapbook type pages including vacation photos, snow photos, daily living photos and even pictures of our extended family. The goal of all the pictures was to make the agency think, "I would like to be a part of that family, send them a referral quick, maybe two!"
Soon after sending the application I sent an email to make sure they had received it, the reply to the email went as follows:
"I did receive your formal application which has been approved by the director. I should be putting your file together and prepping your paperwork for Korea later this week. I will keep you posted."
After receiving this email I was elated to say the least, we are really getting closer, how close, well who knows? But closer! Closer than we were a few months ago! Closer than we were a few days ago!
We are beginning to prepare our home as well as our hearts! Travis and his Dad have been working on finishing up part of the basement all week (so that Travis will have a place to sleep! HA! HA!). I am reading over the materials provided to us for the adoption about preparing for the questions and days ahead.
Please continue to pray for our Amazing Race! For the journey ahead, for the financial concerns and for grant approval. I will keep you posted!
"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
James 1:27
In the last few months we have been working on gathering information for our Formal Application. The arrival of the Formal Application meant good things for us; 1. One of the last steps before we receive our actual child referral (picture and medical history of the child) 2. That our home study is complete and approved 3. That referrals are actually coming in to the agency from Korea because they do not send our Formal Applications until they have some referrals in hand.
Our Formal Application included more information about us, our medical history as well as pictures of our family and home. The process of gathering the photos was fun for me, these pictures would be the ones that introduced the agency to our family as well as our future child. I made scrapbook type pages including vacation photos, snow photos, daily living photos and even pictures of our extended family. The goal of all the pictures was to make the agency think, "I would like to be a part of that family, send them a referral quick, maybe two!"
Soon after sending the application I sent an email to make sure they had received it, the reply to the email went as follows:
"I did receive your formal application which has been approved by the director. I should be putting your file together and prepping your paperwork for Korea later this week. I will keep you posted."
After receiving this email I was elated to say the least, we are really getting closer, how close, well who knows? But closer! Closer than we were a few months ago! Closer than we were a few days ago!
We are beginning to prepare our home as well as our hearts! Travis and his Dad have been working on finishing up part of the basement all week (so that Travis will have a place to sleep! HA! HA!). I am reading over the materials provided to us for the adoption about preparing for the questions and days ahead.
Please continue to pray for our Amazing Race! For the journey ahead, for the financial concerns and for grant approval. I will keep you posted!
"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
James 1:27
Sunday, February 6, 2011
The Wait
The waiting season is upon us, it is kind of like the winter season I feel. A time of unrest, excess energy, and drury days. There is the occasional spark, a ray of sun breaking through the clouds to make us smile. The waiting season, like winter, is long and I am soooo ready for it to be over.
I recently sent an email asking about any other paperwork that we needed to file or task to be complete at this time. The reply was simply this, "You are in the waiting period right now..."
So here is an update of what we have done while we wait. The last month we have concentrated on working on grants. We have researched all of the grants available to us, we have crossed them off as we apply. We have gathered more paperwork that is required for our grant applications. We have a date scheduled to be finger printed by homeland security. And we pray!
One of the drury days this month has to do with a letter we recieved in the mail from AIAA (the actual child placement agency). This letter had a 2 fold purpose, to let us know that the cost of adoptions from Korea are going up this year and that there may be another 4-6 months of waiting prior to recieving a formal application. The cost of the adoption really didn't bother us much at all, we are counting on God for the money and when you are spending $30, 000 plus, what is another $1000. The real problem was with the second part, the longer wait. We have already been told that our wait from home study completion (Dec.) to our referral will be about 5 months. I could not bring myself to think that we would have to wait an additional 4-6 months on top of the already loooong wait.
I will have to admit, like waking up to an unexpected 12 inches of snow, I was very upset! My heart longs to bring our child home. To hold our child, to kiss their sweet little cheeks and to rock them good night. In my mind, and in Travis' as well, our child is out there somewhere right now waiting for us. I couldn't grasp the thought of waiting a whole year for this to take place. Travis, being the voice of reason, told me of God's timing and that maybe "our" child hasn't been born yet. I listened and with my mind agreed but in my heart I prayed.
Since this day, I have spoken with our representative from AIAA, she assured me that the months would definately not continue to "pile up", that the letter was simply to inform us that they were not in control of the length of the wait, but it was up to the number of referrals being recieved from Korea at the time.
Right now, we still wait. We have no idea when we will receive our referral or if we will receive any of the grants we applied for. All we can do is wait, just as we wait for spring! We are praying that this waiting season along with the winter season are over soon.
Please continue to pray for us in our adoption process, specifically the grant applications. Pray for our child (the possiblity of more than 1 is very,very slim). Pray that they are warm on these cold nights and that they are in a loving home. Pray for my job situation, recently my hours at work have been cut and I am not working very much this month.
We continue to trust Him for everything. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight."(Proverbs 3:5)
Bethany
I recently sent an email asking about any other paperwork that we needed to file or task to be complete at this time. The reply was simply this, "You are in the waiting period right now..."
So here is an update of what we have done while we wait. The last month we have concentrated on working on grants. We have researched all of the grants available to us, we have crossed them off as we apply. We have gathered more paperwork that is required for our grant applications. We have a date scheduled to be finger printed by homeland security. And we pray!
One of the drury days this month has to do with a letter we recieved in the mail from AIAA (the actual child placement agency). This letter had a 2 fold purpose, to let us know that the cost of adoptions from Korea are going up this year and that there may be another 4-6 months of waiting prior to recieving a formal application. The cost of the adoption really didn't bother us much at all, we are counting on God for the money and when you are spending $30, 000 plus, what is another $1000. The real problem was with the second part, the longer wait. We have already been told that our wait from home study completion (Dec.) to our referral will be about 5 months. I could not bring myself to think that we would have to wait an additional 4-6 months on top of the already loooong wait.
I will have to admit, like waking up to an unexpected 12 inches of snow, I was very upset! My heart longs to bring our child home. To hold our child, to kiss their sweet little cheeks and to rock them good night. In my mind, and in Travis' as well, our child is out there somewhere right now waiting for us. I couldn't grasp the thought of waiting a whole year for this to take place. Travis, being the voice of reason, told me of God's timing and that maybe "our" child hasn't been born yet. I listened and with my mind agreed but in my heart I prayed.
Since this day, I have spoken with our representative from AIAA, she assured me that the months would definately not continue to "pile up", that the letter was simply to inform us that they were not in control of the length of the wait, but it was up to the number of referrals being recieved from Korea at the time.
Right now, we still wait. We have no idea when we will receive our referral or if we will receive any of the grants we applied for. All we can do is wait, just as we wait for spring! We are praying that this waiting season along with the winter season are over soon.
Please continue to pray for us in our adoption process, specifically the grant applications. Pray for our child (the possiblity of more than 1 is very,very slim). Pray that they are warm on these cold nights and that they are in a loving home. Pray for my job situation, recently my hours at work have been cut and I am not working very much this month.
We continue to trust Him for everything. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight."(Proverbs 3:5)
Bethany
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