Update on the O haus

In July, the O Haus moved down to Orlando, Florida. It was not the easiest transition, but we knew that God was in the midst of our circumstances. We are now 8 months into our time here, and the winds have shifted. While it was chaotic and emotional in the beginning, we now feel like we are getting settled and God is providing us with a community and more peace. We are even in the process of buying a house!!!

Evan
One of the main reasons that we moved from Virginia was for Evan. He finished up a Master's degree from Virginia Tech in Instructional Design, and in January of last year he began his search for something in this industry. Lo and behold, Orlando is a major hub for the type of work Evan does. He is working for a government contractor designing instruction for Naval battleships. He is thoroughly enjoying his job, loving the change of pace, and the creative challenges of his job.

Jackie
I have returned to teaching 5th grade. The school where I teach is nestled in a community and has some of the hardest working and supportive teachers I have ever encountered. It's been a tough adjustment from teaching in Virginia with all the differences in standards and testing. I regularly struggle with balancing motherhood and working and if this the career for me long term. However, I am trusting that God is using me where I am right now and so I will keep trucking.

Liv
Liv is an adorable package of joy and energy. She is walking, running, climbing, chattering, and bringing smiles to everyone around her. We regularly hear, "She is so happy!" She has been smiling since 6 weeks and pretty much hasn't stopped since.

Enzo
Enzo is adjusting to the role as big brother. He is enjoying Liv's new found ability to throw the ball for him.

Adoption
Since we have been in the process of adoption (July 2012), the wait time has increased 3 times. We are now in the midst of a 36-48 month wait from DTE (the date went sent our Dossier to Ethiopia- March 1, 2013). As of right now that means the soonest we would receive a referral is March 1, 2016 and the latest is March 1, 2017. HOWEVER, wait times are showing a trend of increasing so the wait time is likely longer. It's been hard to continue waiting. It seems like the pregnancy that will not end sometimes. We are trying to find the balance of expectancy while still living in the present. We will be working on some fundraisers in the near future to keep up with the financial demands.

In the wait

I received an email from our family coordinator recently just wanting to check in and confirm the details of our request. I answered all of the same questions as I have before (male or female, possibility of siblings, between 0-24 months). I told her about Liv, and how she brings us such joy,  smiles constantly, and overall is a very laid back girl.

Then, she asked a simple question, "How are you doing in the wait?" Well, I started to respond, and realized that the flood gates opened. I have so many more doubts, fears, and questions than I did when we started in 2012. I don't see this as a bad thing though. I think that this is a necessary process to go through instead of blindly walking through this.

I asked a lot of questions about why the wait is so long, why I don't hear anything about our specific case, and what comes of the orphans that are in orphanages right now. My family coordinator had some great insights, and I've included some of her thoughts below.

Basically, there’s lots of families and lots of children. I can ensure you this is very frustrating for me being in Ethiopia and seeing children who need families and knowing there are families waiting. However, it is mostly the government of Ethiopia causing this delay. We used to have very quick wait times years ago, but now the government is taking very long to sign off on documentation for a child to be cleared for adoption. We certainly support ethical adoptions and examining paperwork. But there’s lots of unnecessary holds. There has been negative adoption news coverage in Ethiopia, as well (one being the Hannah Williams story about an American couple who punished a child to the point of death). We are working to get more positive stories out to the Ethiopia government. But the reality is, there is  A LOT of documentation needed for each child’s adoption and everything takes much longer here. And sometimes, one level of the government doesn’t sign off on a document sitting on their desk for a while. And that document may be a preerequisite for another document. We have had a child sit in our Transition Home for a year before because of paperwork issues.

 

Here is some more information that may help, as well:

 

Included here are links to a couple of blog posts written by our CEO about ethical practices in adoption, especially pertaining to America World.

Ethics in Ethiopia (May, 2013)

Striving for Integrity

 

Integrity in Ethiopia

 

Below talks about how we get referrals and operate in country:

America World partners with several orphanages in Ethiopia.  Before we choose to partner with an orphanage, it goes through a screening process.  America World holds our partners to high standards and will break a partnership should there be any sign of unethical activity occurring.  Many of our orphanages do not strictly work with AWAA, but instead partner with other agencies and organizations, as well. 

 

America World also does their own investigation in each case before making a referral match.  We have specific staff that go to the field and investigate each child’s case.  In a relinquishment case, the staff member goes to the living family member and asks questions such as:

·         “Why did you give this child up for adoption?”

·         “How old do you believe this child to be?”

·         “How did you hear about adoption? Were you coerced into this decision?  Do you still want to give this child up for adoption?”

·         “Do you understand that once court is complete this is permanent?”

 

If it is an abandonment case, our staff goes to the locality of abandonment and interviews the local police and others in that area.  Our staff ensures this information is consistent with the information in the profile and that the case has no red flags.  If there are red flags, we further investigate.

Here is a note from Ryan Hanlon, the Executive Director of Programs:

Response to Book on International Adoption

At America World Adoption, we generally use our blog as a means of updating families on news and updates about adoption programs, training opportunities or other resources. Today, however, I want to use this forum to address some of the misinformation we’ve heard recently about Christian adoption agencies and the movement over the last decade in which Christians around the country have responded to God’s call on their lives to provide a family for parentless children.

A recent book calls into question the commitment, practices and motivations of reputable Christian agencies and the commitment and motivation of Christian adoptive families. This book, which I will not name, and the author have exaggerated facts, and misquoted and quoted out of context Christian adoption professionals.

As a licensed, accredited adoption agency, America World Adoption maintains the highest standards of service throughout our work. America World Adoption is proud of our work in Ethiopia and other countries and have been recognized by the U.S. Consulate in Ethiopia, the Department of State’s Office of Children’s Issues as well as the Ethiopian government for our strong efforts to ensure our work in Ethiopia is ethical, transparent and prioritizes children’s best interests.

International adoption is not the only thing we do in Ethiopia. In fact, we serve hundreds more families and children in Ethiopia every year that are not part of our adoption services. Our agency offers (free of charge) domestic adoption services to Ethiopian families interested in adopting a child. We are proud that we (with the support of our donors and adoptive families) are able to work with the Ethiopian government to provide financial assistance to vulnerable families so that we can prevent their family from breaking apart. In addition, we support nutrition projects, child education sponsorships and many other important projects. In total, we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to support vulnerable families and communities in Ethiopia that is not part of the adoption processes for the families we serve.

In the book I’m referring to, the author asserts that evangelical adoption agencies are trafficking children and willfully separating families at any cost for the sake of finding children for adoptive families. Unfortunately, we all know that many children and families are exploited in this world. However, I don’t think it’s fair to say that evangelical adoption agencies are fueling this problem. It may be true that some agencies have had poor practices or even blindly allowed poor practices to be part of their adoption services – but that is not characteristic of Ethiopian adoption or international adoption in general. We at America World Adoption find unethical and disreputable practices to be reprehensible. 
It’s commendable that the author of the book attempts to raise awareness for unethical practices in international adoption; however, there should be recognition that these practices are not characteristic of international adoption as a whole. It’s inaccurate of her to broadly paint Christian agencies and Christian families as responsible for problems with international adoption. This book does not adequately recognize that many of the organizations that are at the forefront of combatting child trafficking, caring for the poor and supporting family services across the globe are Christian organizations. We thank God for organizations such as World Vision, International Justice Mission, Compassion International, hundreds of other groups and thousands of churches around the world.

There are tens of thousands of children around the world that desperately need families. At America World Adoption we continue to affirm our mission of building Christian families according to God’s plan of adoption. Our hope and prayer is a world where every child can grow up knowing they’re loved by their family and loved by God.

 

Ryan Hanlon
Executive Director of Programs

Ethiopian Adoption Update

We began our journey with our Ethiopian adoption in the summer of 2012. We submitted our Dossier (adoption paperwork) to Ethiopia on March 1, 2013, and since then our wait time has increased to 30-36 months to referral from the March 1st date. So, we are looking at receiving a referral some time between September 2015-March 2016, and this is just the date of receiving the referral not bringing the child home- that is another about 4 months for that. Oye, waiting is tough.

However in November we got a gift to keep us busy. We welcomed our daughter to the world, and have enjoyed getting to know her and this thing called parenthood. I have been asked many times during my pregnancy and after our daughter arrived-  Are you still adopting? Our answer is -absolutely! You see, our story is different than some. We are not adopting because we are not able to have biological children. We are adopting because we believe a call on our lives is to care for orphans. We may have more biological children during this long wait for the adoption if the Lord wills, and we still plan to bring home one or two children from Ethiopia (depending on what or referral says). So doing the math, we may have nearly enough for a basketball team, as my dad likes to say. 

Do we have any update about our specific case? Nope. We know that our paper work is in Ethiopia, and based on our request for 1 or 2 children under the age of 2, we can assume our child is not yet born. This is pretty crazy seeing as there are over 4 million orphans in Ethiopia. The Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs in Ethiopia is working to reform the adoption process and protect children from being trafficked. In every adoption case, there is a check to see if there are any living family members to care for the child. This is the country's and our first choice- stay with your relatives and in your country and culture if at all possible. We believe leaving your country is a last resort, but we believe we are a better alternative than an orphanage. In addition, our agency does a private investigation to insure all paperwork is authentic.

How can you help? Prayer.  Please pray for the people of Ethiopia and orphans around the world. We want to see families restored, and in the very least, more domestic adoptions and foster programs so children can stay in their country in their culture and not in orphanages. We have found a great organization called Bring Love In (http://bringlove.in/). They work to provide homes for orphans in Ethiopia with widows to care for them. 

We still feel blessed by and sure of this calling to adopt regardless of how long it will take. Thank you for your continued love and support for us in this journey. 

Ethics and adoption

We have been so blessed in working with our agency, America World. I know, though, when going through the adoption process it is easy to get impatient. I found this article by blogger, Addison Cooper, to be very helpful when thinking about adoption. There are also great resources out there for "interviewing" your future agency. I found great questions in a yahoo group file. The interview helped Evan and I decided on AWAA. Our now family coordinator patiently answered 2 hours worth of questions, and she is amazing about returning phone calls and emails promptly (a must in my book!) Here is Addidion's blog post:

Twelve Things You Can Do to Make Sure Your Adoption is Ethical

Watching Beasts of the Southern Wild started me thinking about ethics in adoption. I know I wrote some hard things yesterday. If you're on this site, you probably want to have an ethical, kid-centered, health-building adoption. I want to be a part of making that happen.

Here are some of my gleanings from the online adoption community, and from my own practice as an adoption social worker - twelve things that you can do to make sure your adoption is an ethical one.

Here are twelve ways to make sure your adoption is an ethical one:

flickr.com / Tsahi Levent-Levi

Ask Questions

1. Ask your adoption agency how they find children who need to be adopted.

2. Ask what sort of counseling that they provide to the child’s first family. Is their counseling a balanced representation of all options geared at helping the person make the choice that’s best for them, or is it a one-sided “sales pitch”?

3. Ask whether they still extend full services to women who, after contact the agency, choose to parent their child – or, do they only provide services if the woman says she’ll relinquish, but only provide referrals if she decides to parent?

4. Ask how actively they pursue the involvement of the birth father. Do they seek his input and participation, or do they just do the legal minimum standard of notification and assure you that he “probably won’t show up.”?

5. Ask how thoroughly they train and assess adoptive parents.

6. Ask how they feel about openness. Do they speak of it as a wonderful commitment, or as something that adoptive parents can agree to, but then quickly change their minds on, once an adoption is finalized?

Do Your Research

7. Research the adoption practices in the country you’re considering adopting from.

8. Research your agency – if they’re “for profit” their motivation might more easily be on the side of pleasing the adopting parent (and although that sounds good, it increases the risk of unethical treatment of the birth parents.)

9. Speaking of that term, "birth parent" – does the agency use the post-adoption term “birth parents” for women who are still pregnant? That might communicate an expectation which makes it difficult for pregnant women and expectant fathers to feel like they have the freedom to make whichever choice they see as best.

10. If your agency is non-profit, check out their profile on Guidestar.org and see where they get their funds from and what they do with them. If they’re for-profit, try to figure out how they avoid being driven by profits rather than by people’s real needs. Friends of mine who were considering adoption once told me of a for-profit agency that would have charged them around $25,000 up front, and which expressed a commitment to encouraging pregnant women to choose adoption once they’d expressed an interest in it. My friends ended up adopting through a different agency. They expressed that it “felt like the agency was more on the birth mother’s side than ours,” but that they were comfortable with that balance. It seemed healthier that way.

11. Visit your agency’s website, and read the pages for adopting parents and for expectant parents. See if the message is consistent, or if they seem to say different things to different people.

12. Check out the Internet adoption community. There's lots of insight from all sides of the adoption community. Some excellent articles have been Shannon LC Cate's “Ten Red Flags That Your Adoption Agency Might Be Coercive," Creating a Family's "Red Flags for Unethical Adoption Agencies" and adoptionbirthmothers.com's post, "Is Your Adoption Agency Ethical?"

These are some hard questions - but if you work through them now, you'll be able to proudly share your adoption story with your child. Adoptive parents, birth parents, social workers, adoptees --- I'd love your input. Which questions belong on this list? Which don't really matter? Which should be added?


Find this site helpful? Check out Adoption at the Movies on Facebook.

A day long awaited...

Evan called me today and said, "Guess what arrived?" I knew. The I-171H. Thank you so much to my prayer warriors for your faithful prayers that the letter would come this week. It has arrived at last!

The letter is so formal. It comes from the Department of Homeland Security, and it grants us permission to adopt an orphan and bring he/she into the United States. Even in its formality, I was still moved to tears, "It has been determined that you are able to furnish proper care to an orphan(s)..."

Since I got home from work, we have been feverishly working to check and double check our Dossier documents so that we can head to Fed Ex for it to head to our agency, America World, first thing tomorrow. Thank you to my amazing friend, Stacie, who has notarized countless documents for us and put up with me blubbering as she notarized the last document today.

Our child is one step closer. In just 3 weeks all of the work of 6.5 months will arrive in Ethiopia and will lead us to our child (or children). Please join us in prayer for the paper work to be processed smoothly, for the Dossier to arrive in Ethiopia and be processed efficiently, and most importantly for our child (children) that this stack of paper will lead us to.

We have our fingerprinting appointment!!!

Happy New Year!

The holidays have been wonderful, and it has been great having a nearly 2 week break from teaching. However, it feels good to be in a routine again starting a new year. We got wonderful news last week- we got our federal fingerprinting appointment!!! We'll be heading to West Virginia on Wednesday to get our fingerprints taken. We are praying that our I-171H will come within 2-4 weeks. Please joining us in praying for this. It is possible it will take longer. The wait time for the Ethiopia program is looking like 24-30 months from Dossier submission, so the sooner we get the Dossier submitted the sooner we can  hurry up and wait. I look forward to posting about receiving the "golden ticket" soon!

Silent Auction Gratitude!

Many thanks to all who helped with the Silent Auction! It was a lot of work, but it has paid off. You help us raise $1,200!!! Remember, you can still enter the iPad give away. I will be drawing the name on Black Friday.

DId you see? Have you heard?

Did you notice the fundraising thermometer? We broke $10,000! God has been so faithful in continuung to provide, and we are believing Him for the full amount. Before we can submit our Dossier, we need to raise another $3,000-4,000. Will you join us in praying for this?

Sweet sacrifice

I love what I do. I teach enthusiastic 10 year-olds each day. I love that my day never looks the same as the last. Mostly, I adore that I can make an impact on a young person's life. Every once in a while, one of my former students stops by to pay me a visit. I'm always floored by how grown up they look!

At the beginning of the school day today, I had a sweet surprise. A younger sibling of a former student stopped by and handed me an envelope. Sydney heard that Evan and I are adopting from Ethiopia, and she and her sister decided to help. Riley, Sydney's younger sister, hands me an envelope and said, "We've been earning money for your adoption." They had a lemonade stand and saved all the funds for us. I hugged this sweet girl up and told her how much that meant to me. Later on, I opened the envelope and found this:

$28 in one dollar bills.  The generosity of the two young girls reminds me of the story of the widow's offering. 

Luke 21

New International Version (NIV)

The Widow’s Offering

21 As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. ² He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. ³ “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. ⁴ All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

Thank you Sydney and Riley for your faith!

Poker Night!

Our first fundraiser, the Texas Hold'em Tournament, went wonderfully! We were blessed by the genersoity of those who showed up and those who bought in even through they weren't able to make it! Thank you to Jimmy John's and Kroger for donating food, and a big thanks to Bull & Bones for donating the 1st and 3rd prizes. Evan did an amazing job coming up with this fantastic fundraiser and with organizing it. Congrats to Dwayne for winning the Gloss Boss Streetailing raffle for a free car detail!

Our 3rd place winner is Joe with a $40 gift card to Bull & Bones
Our 2nd place winner is Matt with a free car detail from the Gloss Boss
and........
Our 1st place winner is Tom with a $100 gift card to Bull & Bones

We raised $590!!! Congrats and thank you for all your support!!!

Having a tough time....

It's inevitable that there will be times of discouragement, and I am in one. There have been several sad events in the lives of those around us that have intensified my discouraged state.

We are currently in the paper chase. All of our paper work is in and we are simply waiting for the approval and a phone call from our social worker. I have trouble with this waiting, and I think my discouragement comes from knowing that the waiting I'm experiencing now is only the tip of the iceberg.

The reality of my wait time is sinking in - 18-24 months......once I submit the Dossier. However, it's looking like wait times are increasing and so 24 months to referral can be more like 30 months. Keep in mind that is not even to bring our child home; that is just to the referral. Add about 4 months from referral to bringing the child home.

I hate to be a real downer, but this space is here to share the ups and the downs. Please pray that God comforts and encourages us during this time.

Wisdom from our orientation

First of all, the AWAA office is beautiful. It's warm, inviting, and we immediately felt more at ease upon entering. I teared up when passing the cubicals (prettiest cubicals I've ever seen) because there were groupings of pictures of adopted children pinned to the wall. I look forward to sending such a picture to our family coordinator in the future.

Our orientation was splits into 3 sessions- home study tips, trans-racial parenting and attachment, and discipline and behavior.

Home Study tips
We learned that our orientation counts as our first of 3 (possibly 4) home study visits, and that our social worker should contact us shortly to set up our appointments since we have handed in all of our paperwork (pray it's soon!). One visit will be both Evan & I together and the 2nd one will be each of us separately. After the visits are done, our social worker will write up the Home Study. This is the big piece that goes in the Dossier and enables us to get necessary paperwork from US immigration.

We also learned about re-adoption. Re-adoption is not mandatory for Ethiopia, but it good to do because: you can legally change your child's name, get a U.S. birth certificate and U.S. passport. In Ethiopia the child is named with their Ethiopian first name, adoptive father's first name and our last name....kind of funny for a girl.

Trans-racial parenting and attachment
This session was very helpful because it walked us through different scenarios and possible comments so that we can think through how we would respond graciously rather than out of defensiveness. This is going to be a toughy for me. For example: After adopting your child, someone asks "When will you have one of your own?" I realize that a person probably means "biological, " but saying "your own" implies that your adopted child is not your child. Can you imagine the little ears hearing that? Another scenario is when a family goes to the costume store for Halloween and their adopted child from China chooses a cowboy outfit and their Caucasian brother chooses a ninja costume. The person ringing them up says to the Chinese son, "Shouldn't you be the ninja?" Wow, I would really have to fight back a smart comment here. The recommendation was "It's Halloween, he can be whatever he wants."

As far as attachment goes, there were some great tips as to how to encourage healthy attachment including limiting visitors upon return. If you think about it, the child is used to a lot of people caring for them and so they need to learn who are the parents.

Scary term- RAD- reactive attachment disorder. While adopted children struggle with attachment to varying degrees, RAD is a very severe diagnosis. They are now starting to look at RAD on a spectrum (like autism) instead of a cut and dry diagnosis.

Discipline and behavior


What I learned and need my friends and family to know:  parenting an adopted child is completely different. Tried and true parenting techniques (time outs, etc) often don't work with adopted kids because of living in an institution. Also, we signed an agreement not to use spanking, and will not be using that as method of discipline.


Also, for these children food is a big thing. We build trust and attachment by making sure they are fed on time and enough. A lot of adopted children have great anxiety about food because of their past experiences. The idea of waiting 10 minutes for food, is not the same for an adopted child because there is a lot of fear and trust tied up in it. A simple granola bar in hand can build trust that we will not let them go hungry.

All in all it was a great and informative meeting!!

Home Study milestone!

This past weekend Evan and I went to our home study orientation in Mclean, VA. Since we live in Virgina, AWAA is our home study agency and our first "visit" was our orientation. At the meeting we handed in all of our home study documents. It was such a relief! We have been crazy busy collecting paper work over the past month. Evan and I both had an audible sigh of relief.

We met some other families that are pursing adopting older Ethiopian children a hosting program that AWAA started. There were some testimonials that were real tear jerkers! We also were blessed to have our friends Tom & Whitney there. They are also pursuing adoption of an older child. Check out their blog here http://www.relentlesslove-ouradoptionjourney.blogspot.com/. We had a great time connecting with them and enjoying some stress relieving laughs over lunch. What a blessing they are!

This week Evan & I decided to take a break from paper work (yes, there is still more for the Dossier), and for the first week in a long time, there is no to-do list on the fridge! I'll share more this week about some specific things we learned at our orientation.

Prayer requests:
-That this week we can enjoy some down time.
-For good attendance for our first fundraiser- our Poker Tournament on September 29th.
-That all of our Home Study paperwork is approved and we get matched with a social worker soon

Waiting wisdom

This post was written by Jenn about the purpose and lessons in waiting. Be sure to check out her blog over at Pure and Lasting. (How cute is this family?!!)

So here we are in our last stage of waiting for Maya’s adoption to be complete. It has been a long road. We applied to our agency, America World Adoption, on May 14, 2010. Our dossier was sent to Ethiopia on November 19, 2010. Our estimated wait for a referral was 7-9 months. We waited 19 months to see her beautiful face. The wait was longer than we ever expected, but worth every moment.

This week, I got the sweetest message from a blog reader. She sent in her paperwork a few months ago and was asking for advice on the waiting stage. I thought I would share our experience here on the other side. When we decided to adopt, I read lots and lots of blogs. I ran across many blogs filled with posts bemoaning the wait, desperate to be on the other side of the wait. Chris and I had several conversations about waiting, waiting longer than we expected. We made a conscious decision to settle into the wait, snuggle up and accept it. Every time it got hard, we would remind each other (ok, HE would remind ME!) that this was a choice that we made, knowing that there would be a wait, knowing that there were so many unknowns and there was nothing we could do about it. Our daughter was in Ethiopia. It sounds so simple, but the way we waited was to just accept that we would wait. Deep down acceptance. Accepting what you cannot change. It is something Chris does so well and I have learned through this process. Don’t let waiting steal your joy. It is one of the many lessons that adopting has taught me.

We also believed that God had a plan for us and for our family. A plan that we did not know. So we had to trust. Either we believe God has a plan or we believe He doesn’t. There isn’t much middle ground. For us, we got the amazing, in-the-flesh, obvious proof that God had a specific plan for us through our trip to Ethiopia/Rwanda and Alain coming to live with us. If we had filled out our paperwork any sooner or if the waiting time had been any shorter, he would not be here with us. It makes me shudder just to think about it. Why we are waiting isn’t always so obvious, but I try to remember in those moments that I cannot see everything. What I think is not always what is best. What God has planned is better.

Waiting has a purpose in the process. Adopting a child is not always easy. Attachment is not instant. Bonding takes time. As parents, we have a lot to learn, to prepare for before our child is home. Waiting is vital to the process. Use this time of waiting to prepare your home, your family, your friends and your heart. Adding a child to your family will begin a new stage in your life, an amazing one, but a new one. Let me encourage you (and me!) not to forget to celebrate the stage that you are in now. The waiting isn’t to be overlooked or fast-forwarded. It can be celebrated. Spend more time with your spouse. Do new things with your children at home now. Visit your parents. Go on a mission trip. Talk to your friends and family about adoption and sponsorship. Keep busy with other things. Read. Learn. Live the life you have now, don’t waste today waiting. Be open to God changing you. I am certainly not the same person who filled out that application two years ago. My heart is transformed. My priorities have been rearranged. My desires are new. Embrace the wait.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are quite small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us an immeasurably great glory that will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see right now; rather, we look forward to what we have not yet seen. For the troubles we see will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever.

And because they are the two most beautiful children on the planet and worth EVERY MOMENT OF WAITING!! My sweet boy and his new sister. Melt my heart. This cannot truly be my life :) So blessed!! -Jenn

Breakdown of our fees

Some might think, "what makes up the $38,000 amount that we need to raise?" Well, I took this chart from our agency's website to give you an idea of the break down. Right now we are in the midst of the "paper chase" which includes collecting documents for the home study and the Dossier. We have covered the application fee and 1st installment of the program fee already. We are working on raising funds for the first two sections right now. Here is the break down:

APPLICATION & DOSSIER BUILDING

Application Fee

$300

1st Installment of Program Fee

$2,500

Home Study (varies by state)

$1,200 - $2,500

Additional Home Study Documentation Prep. Fee (varies by process)

$0 - $100

Home Study Visit Travel Fees
(could include mileage, etc. based on current federal mileage rates)

$0 - $200

Adoptive Parent Training (2 adults)

$140 - $200

Documents/Background Checks/Miscellaneous
(varies by state and number of states previously lived in)

$100 - $1,000

USCIS Fee & Update Fee + Fingerprinting

$890

Notarization, Certification & Authentication (varies by state)

$400

DOSSIER SUBMISSION & WAITING

Courier Service

$150

2nd Installment of Program Fee

$2,000

Post Adoption Report Deposit
(fully refundable if all post-adoption reports are returned on time)

$1,000

Dossier Service & Translation

$800

1/2 International Program Fee (1 child) •••

$4,500

REFERRAL & TRAVEL

International Specialist Consultation (varies by specialist)

$100 - $400

3rd Installment of Program Fee

$1,500

Post Adoption Administrative Fee

$750

1/2 International Program Fee (1 child) •••

$4,500

Trip 1 - Airfare (2 adults; prices will vary by season and location)

$2,400 - $4,000

Trip 1 - In-Country Travel Package (2 adults) ••••

$1,400 - $2,500

Trip 1 - Visas (2 adults)

$40

Trip 2 - Airfare (2 adults; prices will vary by season and location)

$2,400 - $4,000

Trip 2 - Airfare
(1 child; prices will vary by season, location and ticket - ie: lap pass or child seat)

$250 - $1,000

Trip 2 - In-Country Travel Package (2 adults) ••••

$1,000 - $2,000

Trip 2 - Visas (2 adults)

$40

Visa/Embassy Fee (1 child) •••••

$230

POST ADOPTION

Post Adoption Visits (varies by state)••

$600 - $1,300

Post Adoption Visit Travel Fees
(varies by state and location from social worker)

$0 - $300

Post Adoption Report Refund
(refunded in installments as, and only if, each report is returned on time)

($1,000)

TOTAL •

$28,190 - $38,100

OPTIONAL EXPENSES

Re-Adoption
(highly recommended; state dependent; required if only one parent travels)

$50 - $1,500

The Odd Life

I am so excited to see this movie! I was reading my agency's blog today, and they mentioned that they had the chance to view the pre-screening of this movie. It looks like it's going to be a wonderful film that carries the message of adoption. Check out the trailer below.

We need your support!

As I mentioned in my last post, Evan & I have begun the process of compiling paperwork for our home studies and Dossier. There are many fees associated with these processes, and we need your help! Would you consider supporting us financially? You can sponsor us through our agency, America World Adoption Agency. They have something called the Eternal Family Program where you can donate online on our behalf. Since AWAA is a nonprofit organization, it is likely a tax deductible donation, but please check with your tax professional. If you feel led to give, the website is https://www.awaa.org/forms/donations.aspx. Once on this page, you need to select the "Eternal Family Program" and then make sure to put our names in the notes section. If you can not give at this time, will you join us in prayer for God's provision? Thank you for joining us in this journey!