Ethiopian Food…MMMMMMMMMM

Ethiopian food is messy! Our experience eating Ethiopian food on Friday made for an interesting date night. We decided to celebrate the completion of our adoption paperwork by going out for Ethiopian food - a delicious way to finish the last fives months of our paperchase. This was our first experience of many to come and we both enjoyed it (We highly recommend Queen of Sheba on MLK in Portland!). Below you will see a picture of the dishes we ordered. They bring all the food ordered out on one plate and you use the pancake looking bread (injera) to scoop up the food and eat it. Ethiopian meals are eaten without utensils. Injera is made in large circles and placed on the bottom of a large tray. Various stews are spooned on top in small mounds. To eat, pieces are torn off of extra injera and used to scoop up the food. Injera is made from a fermented sourdough batter. In this way, it has a slightly tangy flavor and a light and airy texture. It is traditionally made from a grain called teff, a staple in Ethiopia.

Jeremy was cleaning his hands after every bite while Megan just dove right in and ate like a pro. We had a great evening while enjoying a new experience together and talking about the next steps in our adoption process.

You might be asking what the next steps are :) Our paperwork is currently in Virginia and we be reviewed by Emily (our family coordinator) and two others from her office this week. They will then ship the documents to Ethiopia on Friday November 19th! Once accepted, our names will be put on the list of adoptive parents. We will be notified when we are the next on the list and then we will receive a referral. A referral is a picture and medical information of the child that God has chosen for us. Please be praying for patience during this process and preparation as we expect it to take at least 6 months. We feel so blessed to be on this journey together and to have such great support from our family and friends.

Something to think about

Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us.
James 1:27

Wow. Kind of takes the air out of you for a moment, right? God is serious about us needing to care for the vulnerable populations. To be obedient we need to be looking after orphans and widows. Don’t get us wrong….we do not think that everyone should feel obligated to adopt. Adoption is just one of the many ways that we can care for those who can’t care for themselves. My sister and brother-in-law support a child overseas by giving financially to a reputable organization. Our church has set-up a partnership with an orphanage in India to make it easy for members to support children with specific needs. The money sent to the orphanage pays for meals, school supplies, medical care, housing and clothes. Along with the partnership in India, our church has also partnered with OWT (Orphans and Widows of Tanzania). These are just a few examples of ways that we can respond to the above passage.

As for us, we feel God has put adoption in our life as an answer to this call in James. Will we stop there? No way!! We continue to watch for opportunities that arise to help those around us and we will make international missions a priority for our family.

Ultimately we all have to deal with how we are answering the call that God has put on our lives. In working in the hospital I meet many widows, some have family who care for them but many do not. Do you have an elderly neighbor that needs some repairs done on their house or just wants a friend to chat with over a cup of tea?

We would love to hear the ways you are responding to the needs of orphans and widows…

What’s in a name?

Many people have already asked us what we plan on naming our child. To us, it is more complicated than just picking a name out of a book. Through the adoption process we will be taking this boy/girl out of their home country and everything they have ever known. What will they have left? Because of this we hope to keep at least part of their original name intact. We might make some changes or only keep parts of the name because it may be difficult to pronounce for English speakers. Interestingly enough, we found out that when you participate in an international adoption the US government names the child for us upon our re-entry in the country! Initially their name will be their original first name and then the father’s first name will be the child’s middle name and then the family’s last name. That sounds confusing….our child’s name will be _____ Jeremy Logue. And this is the same for both boys and girls! Fortunately there will be an opportunity to legally change the child’s name to whatever we have selected :)


ADOPTION UPDATES:

We had a fabulous garage sale! Thanks to everyone who made generous donations. After we spit the profits with our brother and sister-in-law (who are also pursuing adoption) we got to apply $1,000 to our adoption!

We recently submitted our paperwork to the United States Citizenship & Immigration Services. Next the USCIS will schedule a biometrics appointment for us to go to Salem to have our fingerprints and photographs taken.

We are hopefully still on target to submit our dossier to Ethiopia by the end of October.

Children are Priceless

Even though we are not parents yet, we understand that children are priceless. The truth is that children are expensive whether through adoption or by the old fashioned way. No parent would ever put a price on their child. There will be people that ask the question, “How much did you pay for your child?” After learning about adoption our answer will forever be, “He/she is priceless.” As many of you already know, it requires a significant amount of funds to finalize an adoption process. No one actually pays for a child (it is illegal!). Of course we will pay an agency, lawyers and travel costs…just like many other parents would pay doctors and hospital bills to have a child. We already know that the cost will be nothing compared to the joy gained from growing our family.

In the process of seeking ways to raise funds for our adoption, Megan came across Just Love Coffee Roasters. You can read more about the company on their website: www.justlovecoffee.com. The owners have a heart for the people of Ethiopia (sparked by their own adoption journey) and a knowledge of coffee. They combined those two passions and started a business. By setting up an online store we can support the hard working people in Ethiopia and also provide a simple way to raise funds for our adoption. Just Love Coffee makes a small donation to our adoption with each purchase from our online store. Click the image on the right side of the blog to get to our coffee site. We are so thankful for your generous love and support! Please continue to pray that God will prepare our hearts as we take each step closer to our child.

Paperwork, Paperwork and More Paperwork

The process for international adoption has been interesting - so far just full of paperwork. The beginning phase of the adoption process has been given the nickname “paperwork pregnancy”. Just so you know…it is a lot of work. When we first got the information from America World, we thought “this doesn’t look too bad”. It seemed simple looking at the required documents on the computer. Here are a few examples of the paperwork needed:

• Birth & marriage certificates - has to be issued within the last 5 years
• Fingerprinting – this was done at the police station
• Physical Exam - This has to be notarized which means bringing a certified person with you to the doctor’s office (Thanks Clint!)
• Criminal background checks
• Letters from your employer
• Letters of reference
• Financial statements
• Etc. Etc. Etc.

Slowly but surely we have been gathering all the necessary documents. The hard part is keeping it all straight. Because one person needs some documents, another person needs other documents and then some of those have to be combined. Confused yet? We sure were. For a few days we had all the documents lying on the kitchen counter in different piles. Every once in a while we would rearrange the documents, make a new pile and start another checklist. We finally decided, after talking with our social worker, that we should just complete each form and then email it her and our family coordinator with America World. So we fill it out, scan it and email it to both of them. Then they tell us what else we still have left to get to them and what we need to keep for our Dossier.

Definition: Dossier dos•si•er (dŏsˈē-āˌ, dôˈsē-āˌ)
A collection of papers giving detailed information about a particular person or subject. (from http://www.yourdictionary.com)

Our definition of dossier is: tell us everything about you plus some more information that you don’t even know about yourself yet. This has all been an interesting process and has brought up some great questions about what kind of parents we will be. We have already had some good discussion about parenting styles, discipline and how we can foster bonding/attachment with our child. Of coarse we still have a lot to learn!

Update: We have just completed our second meeting with our social worker. She will now work on typing up our home study while we complete dossier paperwork. We are hoping to be done and ready to send it all to immigration by beginning of October. Thank you for continued prayers!

A New Journey: international adoption

Over the past year or so we have been considering starting our family. Through many different joys and trials we believe that the Lord has led us to the point where we are beginning the process for international adoption. This is something that we have felt would eventually happen – we talked about this topic before we were even married! Since we both have had the privilege of traveling to several other countries we have seen and been touched by the incredible number of children who live as orphans in this world. It may surprise you that we are choosing to adopt our first child (it did us too!) but we know that God has great things in store as we follow His leading.

Over the past 6 years Megan has been to Africa twice and Jeremy has been once. We are both excited to be going again to Tanzania in three weeks. Those beautiful children have captured our hearts. When we decided to start the adoption process it was obvious to us that we would pursue a child from the land that we both have grown to love. On March 17th, 2010 we were accepted to the America World Adoption Agency. We will be adopting from Ethiopia.

Why Ethiopia? Why not!?!

There are many reasons why we chose Ethiopia. To name a few:

1. We meet the country requirements. Each country sets its own requirements for adopting couples. For example: net worth, length of marriage, and how old you are, etc.

2. Young children and infants are available. Since it is our first child we wanted to be able to experience as much of those first stages of life as possible.

3. The time it takes to process an adoption is shorter than most countries allowing us to bring home a younger child. Also, our stay in Ethiopia is only 7-10 days many countries require 2-6 weeks.

4. The children are well cared for in Ethiopian orphanages and are given thorough medical exams. America World only adopts through orphanages that make certain that the children are actually orphans – thus preventing child trafficking.

5. There are an estimated 5 million orphans in Ethiopia. Most often Ethiopian children become orphans because their parents have died or they cannot afford to care for them. These children are in desperate need of families!


So our hope is that this blog will serve in two ways….we want to keep a written record of this incredible journey and we want to include our friends and family in this process. This will allow those of you who live in other parts of the nation and world an opportunity to be a part of this crazy adventure. Thank you for those of you that have already poured out encouragement and love! We are so grateful.

Crazy Love by Francis Chan- Chapter 8 "Profile of the Obsessed"

The first thing that Chan does in this chapter is define the word obsessed. To be honest I have never really thought much about what this word means. Most of the time I equate it to somebody who is crazy about something. This was the definition Chan gave at the start of the chapter - Obsessed: To have the mind excessively preoccupied with a single emotion or topic. Based on that definition of obsessed, I’m not sure I have ever really been obsessed. Well maybe I have….during high school wrestling, I was probably obsessed with winning. When I was preparing for a match all my focus and energy went into the thought of winning. Thinking back on those few hours before a wrestling match, my focus slowly got more and more defined as I got closer to the match. Rarely would you find me sitting 30 minutes before a wrestling match. I would pace back and forth thinking about what I would do on the mat. I guess that is what I would call obsessed in my life. The honest truth is that I have never thought of my relationship with Christ to be something that I’m obsessed about. But that is because I thought being obsessed was a bad thing. After reading this chapter I want to be obsessed. Here is how the chapter went…Chan would give a characteristic of an obsessed person, talk about it and then give a phrase that described that characteristic in one or two sentences. The way I read this chapter was that each of these are ways we can be obsessed. Chan listed 12 different characteristics that an obsessed person could have. They are: lovers, risk takers, friends of all, crazy ones, the humble, server, giver, sojourners, the engrossed, unguarded ones, the rooted, the dedicated and sacrificers. It would take me forever to write out even just the phrase for each of these things listed. I wanted to pick a couple that really got my attention and spoke into my life. These two things really made me think about my relationship with Christ and the way they are explained help change my perspective.

Lovers

"People who are obsessed with Jesus give freely and openly, without censure. Obsessed people love those who hate them and who can never love them back."

I read the word lover and I go straight to the marriage relationship between a husband and a wife. That is what lover has always meant to me in my life. I was a little confused when he used this term to explain a way a person can be obsessed. Read Luke 6:32-36. This is the definition of what it means to love someone. Jesus is the ultimate lover. The reason I say that is because He loves us even with all our dirt. He loves us so much He gave His life. We can’t pay Him back.

Unguarded Ones

"People who are obsessed are raw with God; they do not attempt to mask the ugliness of their sins or their failures. Obsessed people don’t put it on for God; He is their safe place, where they can be at peace."

We as humans are rarely, if ever, honest with each other about everything. Most of the time we are scared about what people will think of us if we tell them the truth about ourselves. We carry this same attitude to our time with God. What I often forget is that God knows everything I have done. So even if I don’t say anything He knows it. But you know, I think there is still tension between us and God if we don’t tell Him everything. He wants us to be unguarded and willing to tell him everything we are happy about, struggling with or have messed up.
Those were just two of the 12 things Chan talked about in this amazing chapter. It was so much information that it is probably something you should go back and read again and again. Chan ended the chapter with a great short paragraph that really spoke to what we need to do with all these characteristics.

"While these descriptions combined don’t necessarily answer the question of what it looks like to be wholly surrendered to God, they represent important pieces of the puzzle. Hopefully you are beginning to imagine and pray about what this looks like in your own life."