When is this going to happen?

We began our paper chase process this summer and completed everything on November the 4th. That date is the day our official wait began because that is the day our “dossier” (our BIG stack of paperwork) left the USA and headed to Ethiopia.

The average wait time from the time your dossier leaves the USA o referral (for our agency) is 4-6 months for a boy and 7-11 months for a girl. We said we had no preference on the gender category but the age we requested is 0-12 months.

When we receive our referral, we will see our child’s picture and their medical history. At that time, we begin to make our travel arrangements for the first trip which is scheduled around our court date in Ethiopia. At this time, there is an average wait time of 14-16 weeks between the time of referral and the first trip. (YES.... it will feel like an eternity). Once we travel and meet our child, we go to court and promise the judge we will be adopting this child and then when we pass court, the child is legally ours. However, we then have to leave the country, fly back to the USA for about 5-6 weeks and then return for our Embassy appointment and to pick up our child.

Things in Ethiopia can change at any point so none of this is set in stone. We could travel sooner than we anticipate or it may be later. What we do know is that we will be travelling exactly when God has planned for us to travel! So, in the meantime, we are enjoying our time as a family of four and thankful for the time we have to prepare for this new child to enter into our family!

This is our first post about our adoption process. This blog will not be a glimpse into our daily lives, rather a journal of our adoption process. We have had so many people ask about why we wanted to adopt and why we chose Ethiopia so I wanted our first entry to be about these 2 questions.

After Courtney was born, we thought that there were more children (or at least another child) in our future. However, it seemed as though God did not have another biological child in mind for us. It felt like God had grown our hearts to love another child, but we were not sure how this child would come into our family.

In 2007, some of our good friends, adopted a sweet girl from China. It was such an amazing experience to see adoption "up close and personal". To see this little girl come off the airplane into a community of people who had been praying for her and were going to love her forever was a moment that I will never forget.

In 2008, I went to China on a missions trip with our church to visit an orphanage in a city called Hohot. During that trip, I saw the faces of many orphans and my heart was burdened by these children who had no one to call mommy and daddy, no one to tuck them in at night, no one to comfort them when they were sick or fell down and scraped their knee and no one to celebrate their birthdays. In fact, while we were there, we had a large birthday party and gave everyone a new pair of shoes and a new outfit. We gave them birthday cake and let them eat until their bellies were full. I think that is a sensation they rarely, if ever, had felt. I thought to myself then how MANY birthday parties we attend when you have children. For some people with several children, they may average 1-2 parties a weekend. The birthday parties can be extravagant or they might be simple. However, I would venture to say that we have all felt that feeling of "not ANOTHER birthday party". It really is amazing to think about all the things we take for granted because of how much we have. We have families that celebrate us. We have friends that call us or send cards on our birthdays. It was the first time I realized that even knowing your birthday was a luxury that some people (some children) do not have. Needless to say, my trip to China opened my eyes to the fatherless in ways that I wasn't prepared for and in ways that prepared me for what was to come...

Tony and I had already talked about adopting before my trip to China but we did not have a strong feeling of whether or not we would adopt domestically or internationally, nor did we know how we would ever decide. With at least 147 million orphans in the world, how in the world does one narrow it down?

In the fall of 2008, we met a little girl who would become the next seed God planted in our hearts toward adoption. This little girl was adopted from Ethiopia when she was 5 and was in Mallory's 1st grade class. This girl had so much joy in her heart and was a complete joy to be around. The more we were around her, the more we would stop and think about the amazing story of her life. As a result of this fallen world, there were reasons this girl needed another family to care for her and God had chosen a family in Franklin, TN to be that family. Beauty from ashes....

In the spring of 2009, I had reconnected with a girl who I used to work with at the pediatrician’s office. She and her husband were in the process of adopting a girl from Ethiopia. Over the next few months, we were able to see glimpses of the process unfolding and the excitement building of the arrival of this little baby into their arms. This would be yet another seed planted into our hearts about adoption and specifically adopting from Ethiopia. We went to the airport to see her coming home and once again, we were humbled to watch another life be changed forever. This past spring, we went to her 1st birthday party. It wasn't your average 1 year old party.... it was a CELEBRATION! Once again, I thought about what life looks for many of the orphans in the world. No one knows their birthday and there is no one to celebrate them and make them feel special. For Tony, he says that was the day that the Lord really confirmed for him that not only were we supposed to adopt but that we were being called to Ethiopia.

When we began to learn more about the orphan crisis in the world, there were two statistics that wouldn’t leave my mind....

· There are approx. 143 million orphans around the world.

· If only 7% of the Christian population around the world adopted ONE child, there would be no orphans.

If I am being honest, I can tell you that before a few years ago, I really wasn’t aware how many times the Bible mentions taking care of orphans. I knew the Bible frequently mentions taking care of the poor and the the needy, but I knew there wasn’t a commandment that said specifically.... “thou shall adopt orphans”. It didn't take long to see how often the Bible mentions caring for widows and orphans.

“In you the orphan finds mercy.” Hosea 14:3

“Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.” James 1:27

“Father to the fatherless, defender of widows — this is God, whose dwelling is holy. God places the lonely in families.” Psalms 68:5-6

“Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows.” Isaiah 1:17

“And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me.” Matthew 18:5

As for Ethiopia, there were some statisctics that I read that became another reason that we felt God calling us to take this leap of faith.

In Ethiopia,

· One in ten children die before their 1st birthday.

· One in six die before their 5th birthday.

· 60% of children there are stunted in growth because of malnutrition.

· Half the children in Ethiopia will never attend school.

· 88% will never attend secondary school.

· Ethiopia has approx. 4.3 million orphans and the country is twice the size of Texas.

So, the final decision felt REALLY BIG and REALLY SCARY but we knew that this is what we were being called to do. We knew that taking a step like this was going to take stepping out in faith and trusting God that He would take care of all the details. I had a moment folding laundry one day when I realized that if I was thinking about this decision from an eternal perspective, it was a "no brainer". Would we ever look back and say..." I really regret trusting God on that decision" because that is really what it came down to for us. We were standing on the edge of the cliff knowing that God had brought us to that edge for a reason and that we were supposed to step off.

So that is where we are.... we have stepped off and started this journey. We look forward to seeing where God takes us along the way!