An actual UPDATE!!!

I realize it has been a while since I’ve updated my neglected little blog, but I FINALLY have lots to share! The past month or so has been insanely busy and we are not going to slow down until at least the middle of September. I will try and post some pictures from the weddings and other things that have been happening soon, but the big news is that OUR HOME STUDY IS FINALLY FINISHED!!! OK- we got it in the mail 2½ weeks ago, but sometimes I am still amazed that I can actually say that phrase. It took 12 weeks and 1 day from the first meeting with our social worker to finalization. “That sounds like an awful long time to complete a home study” you might think- and we did too. It WAS a long time and our patience was thoroughly tested the last 4 weeks or so. I cannot say in all honesty that we always “passed” that patience test, but we learned a great deal during that time.

A really wonderful thing happened during the past couple of months too- I (Randee) was able to connect with an amazing group of families that are in the process of adopting through our agency right now, and some that already have their children home from the baby home our child will stay in! I seriously cannot tell you what water to my soul this has been! God knew that I needed the fellowship of others in my “boat” to share parts of this journey with. Those that have gone before us are encouraging because we see that our heart’s dream IS attainable and worth the time and effort, and those that we are walking along side in this journey that understand the daily details of what our lives look like and share in the ups, and sometimes, downs of this process. Here are a couple of pictures taken at a dinner we had with the director of the baby home our child will come from in Ethiopia and many of the families that have brought their children home already. Aren’t these kids adorable!?!

Beautiful girls!

7 children adopted from the baby home our son will come from (plus some siblings :)

This is Tegist and her husband Getuhun- she directs the baby home in Ethiopia our son will come from. She is amazing!!!

The day we received our home study in the mail we turned around and sent it right back out with our application to the US government (USCIS) to adopt a child from Ethiopia. We are scheduled to get our fingerprints recorded (Trace says we will be in the "system" now) on Sept 7th!  While we are waiting on this we are working on the all-important dossier. For those of you unfamiliar with international adoption lingo- this is the official paperwork for the Ethiopian government and EVERYTHING they ask for (all 22+ documents) have to be notarized with precision. It’s been looming over me for awhile and I didn’t get the head start I should have (bad Randee!) but I am well on my way to getting many of the documents in process. My original goal was to have everything done by September 8th- so I could feel accomplished and peaceful on my birthday...but since our fingerprint appt isn't until the 7th I now have more time to get things done. 

Life is abundantly full- I could post something specifically on everything that is going on! For now I will just say that we have a yard sale set for THIS SATURDAY to raise more funds for our adoption. Our garage is well more than half full (stacked) and we have lots of great stuff! If you are reading this blog post (especially this far down) please pray that the sale goes well and we’ll raise more money to cover some of the costs that are now due. Already God has shown Himself SO faithful to provide our needs as they’ve come up, and I have a feeling He will be doing so many times this coming year :)

Thank you for reading this… I’ll try to update more often so I don’t write another book again anytime soon!