On your mark....get set....GO!!

We're off to Ethiopia! We've got 4 tubs of orphanage donations, lots of luggage....and maybe just a few jitters. Jeff and I are thrilled to have Hannah and Josh along for the ride....and Jonathan and Danielle are looking forward to eating lots of pizza while we're away. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and generosity. We couldn't do it without you! I hope to have Jonathan update our blog while we're away, but internet access might be spotty. But once we're back, we'll have lots to share!
Blessings,
Julie

Kids in Addis!!

Our kids are finally in Addis at the care center! We're so glad they arrived safe and sound from Shashemene. Poor T and A had their heads shaved again, but that should be the last time for them. We can't wait to see them face to face, in less than 2 weeks!

Showers of Blessings

Here's a few pictures from today's adoption shower. Thanks to all our friends, especially the Lamb family, who worked so hard to put this together for us!

Blessings......and Nesting

What a week! It all started with an unexpected phone call. An anonymous person from our church was wanting to help us with our adoption...with a very large donation! We were in shock. And the amount more than covers our airfare to Ethiopia! God provides in so many ways, but I confess He really took me by surprise this time.

My nesting instinct also kicked in and I've been on a whirlwind decluttering mission throughout the house, from top to bottom. The result? A very clean and reorganized master closet, a complete overhaul of the entire basement, and believe it or not, we rediscovered our garage actually has a floor. I guess when you remove more than two vans-full of assorted junk from your house (I mean that literally!), you can reclaim some much needed space. Special thanks to my very dear Hannah, who faithfully stuck by my side during my cleaning spree.

Jonathan, who is graduating from high school one week after we get back from Ethiopia, got back a very respectable score on his recent ACT exam. Danielle has a flute recital on Saturday. And come Sunday, very dear friends are giving us an adoption shower.

Can this week get any better??

"Sing a new song to the Lord...tell everyone about the amazing things He does!" Psalm 96

Blessings,
Julie

Introducing....our handpicked children!

From left to right: T (5), W(4) and A (7). They are biological siblings from the Oromo region south of Ethiopia's capital. They have been at a Christian orphanage in Shashemene since August, 2008. They are Muslim by ethnicity, but we are told at their age it's not a religious identity. We found out about them not long after we started with CWA. Josh wanted a younger brother, but not too young. We felt led to keep a sibling group together, and we weren't particular about the other ages or genders. These children fit these requirements, and we said, "Yes!"

I wasn't always sure I could say "Yes!" Like many other people, I hadn't seriously considered adopting before. I was much like a young believer, wanting to 'surrender all' and yet not really ready to. So you half-heartily pray, "Oh God, do you want me to be a missionary to Borneo?" And after waiting 2 seconds and getting no response, you quickly breathe a sigh of relief and think, "Oh good...that's out of the way. I didn't really want to be a missionary anyway!"

So in the past, I'd asked if God wanted us to adopt, more out of guilt than anything else. And I have to say I never felt led to do so. And we've done some pretty crazy things out of obedience before (like give up a great job, sell our home and most of our possessions and move to Hungary with our infant son to be short-term missionaries), so in all honesty, adoption wasn't in God's timing...until now.

Watching close friends go through the process...meeting their lovely children and seeing the need up close and personal...having been to Cambodia twice in two years and understanding more of what growing up an orphan in a developing country can mean...our homemade children getting older and knowing our time with them and our ability to impact their lives was drawing to a close...it all came together.

I was still unsure if this was really the right thing to do. I mean, could I really love children I've never met as if they were my own? Children with a different skin color, different hair, different language, different culture, different everything?

During my regular Bible time, God answered my question. I was reading through Romans and I came to chapter 9. Paul quotes a passage from Hosea 2:23 : "Those who were not my people, I will now call my people. And I will love those whom I did not love before." How much more clear could it be? Yes, I could love these children as if they were my own, by God's grace.

Knowing they were Muslim, I was concerned about their willingness to accept Christ. I've worked with kids for years, but never Muslim kids. Could we bring them into the Kingdom? Again, God spoke to me, out of Isaiah 43 and 44. In one passage in particular, God promises to "pour out my Spirit and blessings on your children...Some will proudly proclaim, "I belong to the Lord." Others will say, "I am a descendant of Jacob." Some will write the Lord's name on their hands and will take the honored name of Israel as their own."

With those questions answered, along with others, our direction was clear. And we said, "Yes!"

So this is why we are adopting. God's direction has been clear and his grace and provision has been sufficient. And I know whatever challenges we face going forward, God's answer to us will continue to be, "Yes!"

Blessings
Julie

Here we go...

I've had many people ask us about our adoption journey. And now that our first phase is coming to an end and the real adventure is about to start, I decided it was time to share our experiences with others. As our journey continues, this blog will also give us a convenient way to chronicle all the ups (and downs) that await us.

So to start, a few F.A.Q.s..

Q. Why are you adopting?
A. Because God told us to. It was a surprise to us, too. We'd never seriously considered adopting before, not until good friends of ours did so. Walking alongside them through their journey opened our hearts to adoption. And God clearly led us to take a leap of faith and make the decision to adopt.

Q. Why from Ethiopia? Why not adopt domestically?
A. Because God told us to. God calls all of us to meet the needs of orphans and He doesn't limit that ministry to any one race or one nation. Each of us needs to be obedient to God's leading. In our case, it was adopting orphans from Ethiopia. For others, it's sponsoring a child, doing foster care, or hands-on volunteer work locally. Adopting doesn't make us more noble than those who don't. We are only following His lead.

Q. How do your kids feel about it?
A. They were even more excited about it at first than we were. Their response is what convinced us that God was working in their hearts so we could adopt as a family, not just as a couple.

Q. How long does it take to adopt from Ethiopia?
A. It depends. People waiting on baby girls can wait many months for a referral. In our case, a group of children meeting what we felt led to adopt came to our attention before our dossier was even done. We started the process with Christian World Adoption (CWA) back in July of last year and we're picking up our kids in May.

Q. What's the adoption process like?
A. The first step is to have a home study done, where you show the state you are fit to adopt. During this time you cause the destruction of a small forest as you put together a mountain of paperwork lovingly called a 'dossier', of which your home study is a part. You also file a request with US Citizenship and Immigration to get a visa to bring your adopted children into America. Once all of this paperwork is done (and you are so very glad when it is, and I've left out like a gazillion details here), our agency sends it overseas to Ethiopia for final translation and authentication there. Then it's submitted to the proper authorities and a court date is set. In our case, there was an almost 3 month wait for the court date, but we passed the first time. Six weeks from then, on May 6th, we'll be in Ethiopia, at the US Embassy, doing the final paperwork to bring our kids home. While our adoption is final, we will readopt in the US to fulfill our visa requirements and so the kids have a US birth certificate.

Q. So do you go to pick them up?
A. Yes. Jeff and I are bringing Hannah and Josh with us, to help the new kids feel more at ease during the transition, and to help provide a better perspective on where our handpicked kids are coming from.

Q. Is adoption expensive?
A. Yes, it is. Because we're adopting a sibling group, the cost per child is a little less, but on average you can expect to spend at least between $12,000 and $20,000 to adopt one child. There is a tax credit of over $11,000 per child available, which means that's over $11,000 per child in federal taxes you don't have to pay once your adoption is complete. (You can carry this credit forward several years.) That's quite a help! And some agencies have programs that help cover some of the costs. You can also apply for grants and no-interest loans. So even if you aren't well-off financially, many families are able to find ways to make adoption possible, whether domestic or international.

I hope this has answered a few of the questions you might about our adoption, and adoption in general. I'll be adding more posts and photos to try to 'catch up' on almost 9 months of our journey.

Blessings,
Julie