Say a prayer

Although this is probably not a breaking story that will be aired on tonight’s world news - it is very close to our hearts and we ask for your prayers. Ethiopia’s Ministry of Women, Children, and Youth Affairs (MOWCYA) has stated a desire to reduce the number of recommendation letters they write each day for families in the court process. Although some of the details still remain unclear, as of March 10, 2011 the MOWCYA will reduce the number of adoption cases it processes down to five per day. Our hearts desire is what is best for the children of Ethiopia and we believe that every child deserves a family. What we know for sure is that we have been called to build our family through adoption. We know that God is bigger. We also know that His plan may not look like our plan. All we can do is pray, trust and rest in Him who is in control of everything.

For more information:

http://adoption.state.gov/news/ethiopia_alert.html
http://adoptedbydesign.typepad.com/

Now what?

Nov 25, 2010 2:26 PMDeliveredKIRKOS SUB-CITY, ADDIS ABABA ET - while most of us were enjoying turkey on Thanksgiving day...our dossier was delivered to Ethiopia. Now that is something to be THANKFUL for!

Just realized how long it has been since we have posted an adoption update…

Recently we have been getting many questions from friends and family about the current status of our adoption. There is not much news to tell. We are in the waiting phase of the adoption process. Unbelievably we are not feeling anxious (at least not yet!). Rather, we are using this time to prepare ourselves for a huge life change – our family of two becoming a family of three. It is a thought that is both exciting and scary. We are reading books on the ins and outs of adoption. There is still so much to learn! We expect to have more information and a referral sometime in the early months of summer.

In the little free time that we have left we are beginning to plan our baby nursery. This is a step that has caused the adoption to feel more “real”. We are preparing a room for our future son or daughter! So far we have been given a hand-me-down crib from our brother and sister-in-law. We purchased a dresser this week from Craigslist that we plan on giving a facelift with paint and new hardware….pictures to come in our next blog.

Once again, thanks for your kind words, thoughtful prayers and many other expressions of support.

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!