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| Tina, Amanda, Gretchen, Melinda and Jen at Uchenna |
By the way Uchenna means God's Will.
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| Beef dinner |
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| Vegetarian Dinner |
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| Chicken Dinner |
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Dinner at Uchenna Ethiopian Restaurant
By the way Uchenna means God's Will.
Picking up from where I left off...which was where!?!
On April 17th Paul told me he thought we should take a leap of faith and follow this adoption thing. That weekend we filled out our official 7 page application, Colorado DHS background check info, child abuse record search paperwork, disclosure agreements, fee policy agreements (ouch) and service agreements packets, had many pages copied and notarized and sent off to Denver along with our application fee for $200.00. Ok so I guess that means we were moving forward.
On April 24th I received a letter from CCAI stating that our application had been approved and we could start working on our home study and compiling all of our documents for our dossier. We met with our Social Worker for the first time on May 13th for our first home study session. It went really well and we had two more meetings with her one on May 18th and the last one on May 27th. To say I had a sense of urgency to complete our home study and compile all of our dossier documents is a HUGE understatement. It is a very good thing that I didn't start blogging during that time because I was a temporary CRAZY lady. They say it usually takes about 3 to 6 months to complete your dossier paperwork, I completed ours in 2 months and 14 days with all the corrections that were needed. I can't tell you how many documents we had notarized, fingerprints taken, doctors appointments for the whole family, reference letters from friends, reference letters from employers, trips to Denver, passports made, copies of blueprint lay out of our house, every bit of financial information you could ever want to know about us, more info about our health insurance than anyone really needs to know about, and actually the list goes on and on but I am getting stressed again just typing about it.
In a nut shell we got it all done in a very timely manner and on July 28th, 2010 I got a very exciting email from International Adoption Net saying "CONGRATULATIONS! We have received your dossier from CCAI and have reviewed it. Your dossier was sent to Washnigton DC today for certification and authentication. Once that is complete it will be sent to Ethiopia.
You have been added to the following wait lists:"
Baby girl: 62
Toddler girl: 25
Siblings: 28
Ok so what does this wait list mean to us as far as when do we get to bring our little girl home??
I of course called IAN immediately and spoke with our coordinator. She told me wait time for a baby girl for our #62 was around 12 to 18 months, toddler girl was wait time at # 25 was 6 to 12 months and wait time for siblings is unknown. I really found that time frame a hard pill to swallow. I truly didn't think it would take that long and told her so. She told me we were actually lucky to get on the wait list because they just stopped taking applications for Ethiopia because they were so back logged. Are you kidding me????
I guess I had a sense of urgency for a reason. Again I felt God's hand in this. It is such a cool walk, this walk of faith.
As of today we are
# 52 on the baby girl list
# 17 on the toddler girl list
# 19 on the sibling list
By the way our baby girl's name is Corynn. It should be spelled Corinne but we have to spell it Corynn because it has to end with a N to match Colton, Caitlyn and Carson!! We know we are weird but we can't help it!
Please keep little Corynn in your prayers! We can't wait to meet our little blessing!
On April 24th I received a letter from CCAI stating that our application had been approved and we could start working on our home study and compiling all of our documents for our dossier. We met with our Social Worker for the first time on May 13th for our first home study session. It went really well and we had two more meetings with her one on May 18th and the last one on May 27th. To say I had a sense of urgency to complete our home study and compile all of our dossier documents is a HUGE understatement. It is a very good thing that I didn't start blogging during that time because I was a temporary CRAZY lady. They say it usually takes about 3 to 6 months to complete your dossier paperwork, I completed ours in 2 months and 14 days with all the corrections that were needed. I can't tell you how many documents we had notarized, fingerprints taken, doctors appointments for the whole family, reference letters from friends, reference letters from employers, trips to Denver, passports made, copies of blueprint lay out of our house, every bit of financial information you could ever want to know about us, more info about our health insurance than anyone really needs to know about, and actually the list goes on and on but I am getting stressed again just typing about it.
In a nut shell we got it all done in a very timely manner and on July 28th, 2010 I got a very exciting email from International Adoption Net saying "CONGRATULATIONS! We have received your dossier from CCAI and have reviewed it. Your dossier was sent to Washnigton DC today for certification and authentication. Once that is complete it will be sent to Ethiopia.
You have been added to the following wait lists:"
Baby girl: 62
Toddler girl: 25
Siblings: 28
Ok so what does this wait list mean to us as far as when do we get to bring our little girl home??
I of course called IAN immediately and spoke with our coordinator. She told me wait time for a baby girl for our #62 was around 12 to 18 months, toddler girl was wait time at # 25 was 6 to 12 months and wait time for siblings is unknown. I really found that time frame a hard pill to swallow. I truly didn't think it would take that long and told her so. She told me we were actually lucky to get on the wait list because they just stopped taking applications for Ethiopia because they were so back logged. Are you kidding me????
I guess I had a sense of urgency for a reason. Again I felt God's hand in this. It is such a cool walk, this walk of faith.
As of today we are
# 52 on the baby girl list
# 17 on the toddler girl list
# 19 on the sibling list
By the way our baby girl's name is Corynn. It should be spelled Corinne but we have to spell it Corynn because it has to end with a N to match Colton, Caitlyn and Carson!! We know we are weird but we can't help it!
Please keep little Corynn in your prayers! We can't wait to meet our little blessing!
Here we go!
A blog you say?? Thanks right, Melinda wants to start a blog. I know it sound crazy this coming from a girl who is afraid of
1. The computer
2. Email
3. Uploading photos (or is it downloading photos?)
4. Sitting at my computer
5. Typing (I still look at the keys when I type)
6. Facebook
7. Wasted time
8. Writing (actually I am not afraid of writing, I just really hate writing)
9.Not having my privacy
I guess I could go on and on but this is actually not intended to be a bad thing for me. It is going to be a great thing for me. It will get me out of my comfort zone and put my life and feelings on paper. Be patient as I work out the bugs of trying to figure this whole thing out. I am beyond computer illiterate. I am hoping to figure out how to get the pictures off my camera, onto my computer and then onto the blog.
My main reason for starting this blog is because of our adoption. I want to put on paper our process and the day to day roller coaster ride of all of this. I should have started in January, but of course I didn't, so now I will try to backtrack. I don't really have a template to follow for this, I am not a blog follower at all, so I figure this best way for me to start, is to well , just START!
Here we go;
My New Year's resolution for 2010 was not so much a resolution as it was a leap of faith prayer. I said a prayer to God something along the lines of " Lord let me be your servant. Use me as your vessel to further your kingdom and love your people. Give me eyes to see, ears to hear, hands to feel and a heart to do YOUR will Lord NOT mine. I am your servant Lord, I will go anywhere you lead me and I follow you at all costs. I want to be addicted to your Holy Word. In your most Holy name I pray, Amen.
I didn't think anything to crazy when I said the prayer, it was just something I prayed during my quiet time. Nothing changed except I really tried to focus on my reading (the Bible) during my quiet time. I did feel more of a pull to pick up my Bible and not my leisure reading books. I have always loved reading the Bible, I was just more "in to it" lately. Many different verses were really sticking with me. I will share a few of those in a moment but first let me back up a little bit more.
Some time during 2009 I prayed another "resolution" prayer. I wanted to get through the entire New Testament in 2 months during summer break. I had read it before but skipped through a lot of the parts I felt were boring or not very important. Isn't that crazy that I would actually have the gall to call any part of the Bible boring or unimportant. Anyway, I did change my attitude about that :) School started and well frankly I got side tracked. I was reading different parts of the Bible to go along with my daily devotions and reading through the whole New Testament fell by the way side. I had stopped at the end of Hebrews and was putting off getting into the book of James. I didn't start back up with reading the New Testament until January and I started where I had left off which was the book of James. I couldn't stop reading it. I still can't stop reading it. I didn't know what was drawing me to that book so much but I now know that Jesus was. God's timing is perfect. That has taken me a LONG time to figure out, but I now believe it with all my heart.
On January 10th during worship at church I felt a flood of emotion run over me. I was seeing visions going through my head like a slide show of people God has put in my life and different experiences I have had in my life. It sounds pretty lame I am sure but I had a very powerful day that day. My main feeling was an unexplainable urge to seek out adoption. I had been wanting another baby for a while and had even researched vasectomy reversals on the internet without Paul knowing about it at the time. Yikes I know :) I remember telling him about it in the summer of 2009 and him laughing and saying NO WAY, I was crazy if I thought he was going to get a reversal. I remember feeling sad but thinking to myself God was bigger than a vasectomy so maybe I was one of the 0.1% of people who would get pregnant with an vasectomy. I just had this feeling that our family wasn't complete yet. I couldn't shake the feeling of wanting another child although adoption had never crossed my mind at the time.
So when we were driving home from church on that January day I told Paul about my experience at church that morning. I asked him if he had ever thought about adoption and he said yes sometimes he does and sometimes he wondered if it was something we should look into. I couldn't believe my ears. I truly thought when I asked him that question I would get the same responce I did when I asked him if he wanted to get a reversal. A big ol' NO WAY, but he didn't. We talked about it the whole way home and I told him I was going to get on the internet when we got home and just throw out a few emails. I had never listened to that little voice in my heart and acted on it so quickly before. I sent my first adoption email inquiry that day and I about threw up when I hit the send button. I felt like someone was doing the typing for me. What was I thinking, surely this was a mistake and I didn't just do that. People don't just get a feeling about adoption right. I can tell you for the next few month Paul and I were on our knees in prayer about if we should persue this adoption thing or not. I was scared out of my mind and not sleeping very well either. We didn't talk about it too much more although it occupied every second of my waking thoughts. I just knew with all my heart this was something we were going to do. I didn't want it to be something I had talked Paul into so I really kept my mouth shut. I know, ME keeping my mouth shut is really hard to believe, but I did.
During this time is when I started devouring the book of James and so many of those passages pierced my heart. Examples:
James 1:27 look after orphans and widows in their distress and keep one self from being polluted by the world.
James 2:15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
James 4:17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
Wow that was so powerful to me to know that if I didn't do the good I ought to do that I was sinning.
1. The computer
2. Email
3. Uploading photos (or is it downloading photos?)
4. Sitting at my computer
5. Typing (I still look at the keys when I type)
6. Facebook
7. Wasted time
8. Writing (actually I am not afraid of writing, I just really hate writing)
9.Not having my privacy
I guess I could go on and on but this is actually not intended to be a bad thing for me. It is going to be a great thing for me. It will get me out of my comfort zone and put my life and feelings on paper. Be patient as I work out the bugs of trying to figure this whole thing out. I am beyond computer illiterate. I am hoping to figure out how to get the pictures off my camera, onto my computer and then onto the blog.
My main reason for starting this blog is because of our adoption. I want to put on paper our process and the day to day roller coaster ride of all of this. I should have started in January, but of course I didn't, so now I will try to backtrack. I don't really have a template to follow for this, I am not a blog follower at all, so I figure this best way for me to start, is to well , just START!
Here we go;
My New Year's resolution for 2010 was not so much a resolution as it was a leap of faith prayer. I said a prayer to God something along the lines of " Lord let me be your servant. Use me as your vessel to further your kingdom and love your people. Give me eyes to see, ears to hear, hands to feel and a heart to do YOUR will Lord NOT mine. I am your servant Lord, I will go anywhere you lead me and I follow you at all costs. I want to be addicted to your Holy Word. In your most Holy name I pray, Amen.
I didn't think anything to crazy when I said the prayer, it was just something I prayed during my quiet time. Nothing changed except I really tried to focus on my reading (the Bible) during my quiet time. I did feel more of a pull to pick up my Bible and not my leisure reading books. I have always loved reading the Bible, I was just more "in to it" lately. Many different verses were really sticking with me. I will share a few of those in a moment but first let me back up a little bit more.
Some time during 2009 I prayed another "resolution" prayer. I wanted to get through the entire New Testament in 2 months during summer break. I had read it before but skipped through a lot of the parts I felt were boring or not very important. Isn't that crazy that I would actually have the gall to call any part of the Bible boring or unimportant. Anyway, I did change my attitude about that :) School started and well frankly I got side tracked. I was reading different parts of the Bible to go along with my daily devotions and reading through the whole New Testament fell by the way side. I had stopped at the end of Hebrews and was putting off getting into the book of James. I didn't start back up with reading the New Testament until January and I started where I had left off which was the book of James. I couldn't stop reading it. I still can't stop reading it. I didn't know what was drawing me to that book so much but I now know that Jesus was. God's timing is perfect. That has taken me a LONG time to figure out, but I now believe it with all my heart.
On January 10th during worship at church I felt a flood of emotion run over me. I was seeing visions going through my head like a slide show of people God has put in my life and different experiences I have had in my life. It sounds pretty lame I am sure but I had a very powerful day that day. My main feeling was an unexplainable urge to seek out adoption. I had been wanting another baby for a while and had even researched vasectomy reversals on the internet without Paul knowing about it at the time. Yikes I know :) I remember telling him about it in the summer of 2009 and him laughing and saying NO WAY, I was crazy if I thought he was going to get a reversal. I remember feeling sad but thinking to myself God was bigger than a vasectomy so maybe I was one of the 0.1% of people who would get pregnant with an vasectomy. I just had this feeling that our family wasn't complete yet. I couldn't shake the feeling of wanting another child although adoption had never crossed my mind at the time.
So when we were driving home from church on that January day I told Paul about my experience at church that morning. I asked him if he had ever thought about adoption and he said yes sometimes he does and sometimes he wondered if it was something we should look into. I couldn't believe my ears. I truly thought when I asked him that question I would get the same responce I did when I asked him if he wanted to get a reversal. A big ol' NO WAY, but he didn't. We talked about it the whole way home and I told him I was going to get on the internet when we got home and just throw out a few emails. I had never listened to that little voice in my heart and acted on it so quickly before. I sent my first adoption email inquiry that day and I about threw up when I hit the send button. I felt like someone was doing the typing for me. What was I thinking, surely this was a mistake and I didn't just do that. People don't just get a feeling about adoption right. I can tell you for the next few month Paul and I were on our knees in prayer about if we should persue this adoption thing or not. I was scared out of my mind and not sleeping very well either. We didn't talk about it too much more although it occupied every second of my waking thoughts. I just knew with all my heart this was something we were going to do. I didn't want it to be something I had talked Paul into so I really kept my mouth shut. I know, ME keeping my mouth shut is really hard to believe, but I did.
During this time is when I started devouring the book of James and so many of those passages pierced my heart. Examples:
James 1:27 look after orphans and widows in their distress and keep one self from being polluted by the world.
James 2:15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
James 4:17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
Wow that was so powerful to me to know that if I didn't do the good I ought to do that I was sinning.
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