Hair Video

Just a little something cute I thought I'd share with you.  I totally appreciate how Sesame Street makes an effort at being racially diverse.  (To hear this video you need to pause the song box on the right column under our pictures.)

Movement

There has been some movement in Rwanda which is very exciting.  Some families have been approved in the last couple weeks.  We also received our dossier number which was a relief.  I have had multiple dreams about our dossier getting lost and never making it to the Ministry.  I'm just so excited to hear that there have been some approvals.  As for us, we still have quite a wait ahead of us and have no idea when it will be our turn, but God's timing is perfect.

Matthew West & Story Behind "One Less"

God is doing some great things through adoption and touching many lives. This video says it all! (Sorry that the song gets cut short, it's the only video I could find.)

Quote of the Day

A friend and mentor whom I really look up to shared this with me today, thought I'd pass it on to you:

"Orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names. They are easier to ignore before you see their faces. It is easier to pretend they're not real before you hold them in your arms. But once you do, everything changes."~ David Platt

My Heart

God has given me a heart for a country I have never been to, and not just because of our adoption.  Last spring God really laid Africa on our hearts and we know that someday we will be investing in some kind of ministry there.  What that looks like and what country, well I wish I knew, only God knows.  But in the mean time, He continues to remind me in random ways of these people that are in such great need, and I just ache to know that so many of God's children are suffering!  So many tears for these hurting people and a reminder that I am not worthy.

1 Month and Counting

Not much new here.  Our dossier has been in Rwanda for  a little over 1 month now, and that alone is reason to rejoice!  Rwanda announced last week that as of August 31st, they will no longer be accepting new dossiers.  For those of you wondering, this shouldn't change anything for us and others who's dossiers have been there.  To see the update, you can view the link below.

http://www.migeprof.gov.rw/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=183&Itemid=131

Since nothing really new is going on here, I thought I'd post our annual pictures we just took of our children.  Hopefully these pictures will soon be joined by their baby brother and sister whom we already love SO much!

Now What

I have had many people ask what happens next now that our papers are in Rwanda, so this is what happens next, we wait.  We now wait for an approval from the Rwanda government, this wait has gotten longer since we started this process.  When we started this process, our agency said it typically takes 3-6 months for approval, they are now saying it takes 9-11 months.  We are still hoping sometime next year to bring home our sweet babies.  When will that be?  Well only God knows! =) 

Attachment

I have spent the last month taking a summer class on early childhood development to renew my teaching license.  Little did I know that it would have a huge impact on our adoption.  Every book we've read so far and the trainings we have taken have talked about the importance of attachment with your children and strategies to help this.  Little did I know that my class would also emphasize the importance of attachment.  I'll spare you with the boring details of Attachment Theory by John Bowlby, but attachment is crucial to a child's development and can really hinder them in the future if they do not attach correctly.

So, once we get our children, we may be doing some things with our children that may seem a little drastic to some of you.  But we have the support, recommendation, and encourage from our Case Worker, Family Coordinator, and now my professor. =)

Keep watching, details of our plans for attachment will be posted on this blog once we are closer to getting our babies.

Hello Rwanda

Our dossier is officially in Rwanda!!!  It even arrived early, gotta love FedEx.  Now the real wait begins!!!

DTR (Dossier to Rwanda)

After 7.5 months of paper chasing and multiple bumps in the road, our dossier is finally on its way to Rwanda.  We are so excited and relieved.  Now I get to watch our papers journey to Africa via FedEx tracking.

Still Waiting

We are still waiting for our papers to be done at the embassy.  Surprisingly, I'm really at peace about it.  God's timing is perfect.  Even though I would love to go get our babies right now, that is not what God has planned.  We still have a long wait ahead of us, making that moment we get our children that much more special!

I would like to ask you all to be praying.  There have been some families adopting from Rwanda that have been waiting for quite some time.  Pray for them and the people in Rwanda who process all the paperwork.

Dossier Update

Our dossier has been at the Rwanda Embassy (in Washington D.C.) for 2 weeks now.  I found out today from our family coordinator that it is going to take longer to get our dossier authenticated  at the Rwanda Embassy because they are short staffed right now.  We've hit yet another bump that may make us wait longer, but God's timing is perfect. =)

A Reflection of Our Life

While we wait for our dossier to head to Africa, here is a little bit of entertainment for you.  This is actually a very good reflection of our lives, except Luke is not bald. =)  (Make sure you pause the music on the right side so you can hear the video.)

In D.C.

Now our dossier waits for it approval or "Letter of Non-objection" at the Rwanda Embassy in Washington D.C.  This should take a couple weeks, then it will be on its way to Rwanda.  Yay!

S.O.S. Again

Today we took another trip to the Secretary of State.  When our family coordinator was going through our dossier, she found a wrong date.  So we fixed it yesterday, had it certified today, and it's on its way to our agency right now.  I am very thankful she found this error.  I went through our dossier many times, and missed it.  Better to have it fixed now than have this problem when our papers are in Rwanda.  Even if we do have to make more corrections, I'd do it all over again.  Our babies are worth every bit of effort!

S.O.S.

Here are some pictures of our trip to the Secretary of State today.  There aren't very many children in the downtown area, so we made lots of friends.  I took the picture with the church because K was convinced it was a castle and a princess lived there.  So I took a picture of my princess standing in front of the castle. =)

Our dossier is now in the hands of the post office, and our agency should have it in their hands tomorrow. 

The Golden Ticket

One of my favorite movies is "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (both versions)." In this movie everyone wants a golden ticket to get into the factory and some went to great feats to actually get that ticket. I feel like our approval from the USCIS is like that golden ticket, because it tells me I can bring my kids back into this country. And now I sit like Charlie, in awe that I am now actually holding this golden ticket in my hand. I feel like it has taken forever to get to this point. We started this paper chase December 1st, 2009.

Tomorrow, 1st thing I will have a copy of this approval letter certified at the Secretary of State, then add it to the rest of our paperwork (dossier), and overnight it to our agency. Our medicals expire next Tuesday, please pray that this will not be a problem.

In the mean time...YAY...I'm so excited we finally made it to this point. Our dossier is SO close to Rwanda. For those of you wondering, I checked my mail 5 times today, and attempted to watch out the window for the mail man for the last 4 hours (too many trees in the way).

Mail Man Stalker

And so, for 2 weeks now I have obsessively gotten my mail, in hopes that our approval from US immigration would be there. Well, my obsession has not paid off! Still nothing. Yesterday I literally stalked our mail man as I sat and watched him fill the boxes. Thankfully he was very nice and understanding about it, he was even more understanding once I explained what I was waiting for. Although I'm sure he went home yesterday to tell his family about this crazy girl waiting for him. So today as I went to the mail box today, my blood pressure was extremely high, and the anticipation great, "maybe today was the day."

Since the mail failed me again, I decided to call USCIS to find out the status of our case. I guess we were recommended for approval on May 28th, it usually takes 5 days to process after that. The very nice lady told me we should have it any day, and if we do not have it by Friday, to call our case officer, whom she also gave me the info for. This is good news! In the mean time, I will continue to stock my mail man until we get our approval! =)

Garage Sale

This last weekend was our garage sale and bake sale to help raise money for our adoption. God blessed us with an unbelievable amount of donations for the garage sale and bake sale. We were reminded at how many wonderful people God has placed in our lives! The garage sale was slow, I guess there were 75 other garage sale ads in our small town, but despite how slow we felt it was, God blessed us more than we deserved!

Long Time No See

Hello everyone, I just now realized that it has been a long time since we posted anything. To my faithful followers, I'm sorry for the long delay. Nothing has really happened this last few weeks, we have been waiting for our fingerprint appointment (which was this morning in case you were wondering). We went to the immigration office had our biometrics (this is a very big word for me) taken. Now we wait again for our approval from the USCIS. Yes, this means I will be obsessively walking to my mail box again, this is the last piece of paper we are waiting for before we send our dossier away.

In the mean time we will be preparing for our fund-raising garage sale and bake sale. For more information on how you can help, see the post below.

For those of you just joining us, check out our first few posts this year to see why are where we are.