I get asked, daily, "How's the adoption going? Have you heard any news out of Lesotho? Do you know who your baby is yet?" I am really getting sick of saying, "It's at a standstill. No, we haven't heard anything. We are in the waiting stage." I know, I know. Patience! Well, it ain't that easy folks!
I know that in the adoption world we have not been waiting long at ALL!! We have only officially been waiting since the end of February. Most people wait more than a year before hearing of a referral. We are waiting for Lesotho to begin the match meetings down there. They had one scheduled for the end of March. Due to some paperwork issues they were going to postpone that meeting for 2 weeks. Well, that meeting STILL hasn't happened! Not sure why. Our hope is that they are getting all their ducks in a row so that when they do start to have the match meetings they will be smooth and wait time to travel isn't too long. I know that we will not be matched at the first meeting or probably the second and maybe not even the third! We are about 15th or so on the "list" for the USA families that are adopting from Lesotho. So, we need to get some people crossed off the list. But we don't even know if they will follow the "list" when matiching families! We need to have some of these families united with their babies and the babies united with their forever families! Precious time is passing and these families and children are missing out!!!
I have said before that I do not do well when I don't know any information. I start to drum up scenarios in my head. I start to lay awake at night wondering.......My saving grace right now is that God's timing is perfect and there is a reason for all of this! Also, there is an end to this, at some point, we WILL have a precious little girl join our family at just the right time. This I know! What a day that will be! It will be worth every day I sit here waiting for an email that says there is a meeting scheduled!! Worth every pop can I bring back to the store. Worth every t-shirt order placed. Worth every sacrifice made! Someday, I will be sitting here playing with my daughter wondering what all the worry was for!
If I could be so bold as to ask for prayer for my heart and the heart of my family. Pray for patience and peace. I need prayers so I don't get bitter. I tend to get bitter when things aren't going my way. I don't want to be bitter. I want JOY pouring out of me when I talk about the adoption process and not bitterness. How is bitterness going to make anyone else want to go through this agonizing wait time!
I hope to update again soon with some NEWS!!!
Friday, June 6, 2014
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
T-Shirts!!!
T-shirts are ready!!!! Thanks to Trench apparel for getting the website ready for you to order the shirts you want. All you have to do is go to their website and order the items you want. You can choose to have the items shipped to you, or you can pick them up at Coast 3, in the outlet mall in Holland.
The design for the shirts were done by Lynnett Bell and she graciously let us use it for our fundraiser shirts. It represents the coming together of Michigan and Lesotho. All the money raised from these shirts will go to our adoption fund to bring home our daughter/sister. The shirts are navy with a white Michigan and Africa outlined in green. These are the colors of the Lesotho flag. The back of the shirts has
Isaiah 43:5 "Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west"
Thank you in advance for supporting us in this way. Please let us know if you have any questions!!
Monday, March 3, 2014
Approved!!!
WOW! I can't believe it has been almost a month since my last post. Sorry about that. There have been some exciting things that have happened. I guess they are exciting to us at least. These things mean we are closer to our baby girl being in our lives. Really each day we live we are closer to her coming to join our family!
Our case has been approved by USCIS! This means the government sees us fit to adopt from Lesotho! Great news! It took about 8 weeks for this process. Glad that wait is over.
Our dossier is in Lesotho! Our agency representative took a trip to Africa the last 2 weeks in February and carried along with him our dossier to hand deliver it to the government there! They now know that we want to adopt and it is all up to them now! We have to wait for them to schedule a match day and we have to wait for them to choose our file. We all know that it is not actually the Lesotho government that is choosing our daughter/sister for us, it is GOD! He is going to pick out just the right one for us. I love knowing that!!! I love knowing that it has nothing to do with our wants or desires, it has everything to do with His will. When she comes to us, it will be because she is the ONE little girl that fits in our family perfectly! I hesitate to say that she was born to be in our family. I do, because she was not. She was meant first and foremost to be in her birth family. God ordained that for her. He wanted her born right where she is and to whom she was/will be born to. In the life of an orphan, it doesn't stay that way, for a multitude of reasons. Her second best option is to be placed in a home with us so she will know the love of a family. I thank God for this opportunity and it is not lost on us the sacrifices people had to make to accomplish this.
We had a great update from our agency in the middle of February. Small World has received their first referral from Lesotho. A family in California has received a referral for a little boy!! This is great news because Small World is new to doing adoptions in Lesotho. As I said in my previous post, they had no reference of time lines. Now they have a little bit of an idea of how things MAY go in the future. At least we know that they are matching USA cases and hopefully that will continue in the following match meetings. The next meeting is in March sometime. Our agency told us not to plan on being matched at that meeting as there are at least 15 cases ahead of us from Small World. We also know that this family was matched by Lesotho in December but wasn't notified of the match until February, 2 months later! Again, not sure if that is the norm or not but it is a point of reference.
We are working on a T-shirt fundraiser. Details on that are almost done!! I'll update as soon as I know all the bugs are worked out on the website. You will be able to order them right on a website and pay for them that way too. They can be shipped to your house or you can pick them up in Holland at Coast3, in the outlet mall. Details to come!!!
Stay warm!!!
Our case has been approved by USCIS! This means the government sees us fit to adopt from Lesotho! Great news! It took about 8 weeks for this process. Glad that wait is over.
Our dossier is in Lesotho! Our agency representative took a trip to Africa the last 2 weeks in February and carried along with him our dossier to hand deliver it to the government there! They now know that we want to adopt and it is all up to them now! We have to wait for them to schedule a match day and we have to wait for them to choose our file. We all know that it is not actually the Lesotho government that is choosing our daughter/sister for us, it is GOD! He is going to pick out just the right one for us. I love knowing that!!! I love knowing that it has nothing to do with our wants or desires, it has everything to do with His will. When she comes to us, it will be because she is the ONE little girl that fits in our family perfectly! I hesitate to say that she was born to be in our family. I do, because she was not. She was meant first and foremost to be in her birth family. God ordained that for her. He wanted her born right where she is and to whom she was/will be born to. In the life of an orphan, it doesn't stay that way, for a multitude of reasons. Her second best option is to be placed in a home with us so she will know the love of a family. I thank God for this opportunity and it is not lost on us the sacrifices people had to make to accomplish this.
We had a great update from our agency in the middle of February. Small World has received their first referral from Lesotho. A family in California has received a referral for a little boy!! This is great news because Small World is new to doing adoptions in Lesotho. As I said in my previous post, they had no reference of time lines. Now they have a little bit of an idea of how things MAY go in the future. At least we know that they are matching USA cases and hopefully that will continue in the following match meetings. The next meeting is in March sometime. Our agency told us not to plan on being matched at that meeting as there are at least 15 cases ahead of us from Small World. We also know that this family was matched by Lesotho in December but wasn't notified of the match until February, 2 months later! Again, not sure if that is the norm or not but it is a point of reference.
We are working on a T-shirt fundraiser. Details on that are almost done!! I'll update as soon as I know all the bugs are worked out on the website. You will be able to order them right on a website and pay for them that way too. They can be shipped to your house or you can pick them up in Holland at Coast3, in the outlet mall. Details to come!!!
Stay warm!!!
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Update
There isn't a whole lot to update on but progress was made. We heard from immigration on our application (I800a). They were not satisfied with a couple of things, boooo! So, we had to revise a letter by adding ONE SENTENCE!!!! No big deal, we did that. They also weren't clear on a couple of things in our home study so our case worker from AAI had to call Immigration to explain that what they were looking for was actually in the home study. So, the revised letter is on its way to immigration and we hope to have our approval in the next couple/few weeks.
The dossier looked good to Small World. They only needed one thing from us, our police clearances, and that was it! It was easy enough. I just went online and paid $10 for a search for each of us and that was that! In case your wondering, nothing came up on a criminal background check for either Jeremy nor I :) So our agency will email our dossier to Lesotho!! Our caseworker from Small World is taking a trip to Africa in the next couple of weeks and will be taking our dossier with him to hand deliver it to the Lesotho government! Woo Hoo!
There is so much unknown with this because Small World has never done a complete adoption case for Lesotho. They don't have much to go on as far as answering questions for us in reference to time lines. They have no point of reference. It's a little frustrating not to have any sort of idea how long this could take. But then, I just keep remembering that the Lord knows the perfect time for "Ruby" to come to our family and it won't happen until then! He said not to expect to get a referral from the meeting that is taking place shortly because there are 15 families with dossiers in ahead of us. How many families they match depends upon how many kids they have ready to be adopted. And by ready to be adopted, I mean this. In order for a child to be deemed adoptable the country has to make sure that there are no other people in the child's life that want to take care of the him/her. They also have to make sure that the parents sign off their rights, if the parents are still alive and can be found. While there are millions of orphans around the world it's not as easy as it sounds to have them all adopted. All the red tape really is meant for the best interest of the child.
Our family is doing well. Noah is playing indoor soccer with his cousin Parker. They are having a great time! So glad Noah is getting to know so many new kids. They are all from a different school than him. We are finally going to have a full week of school since before Christmas break, i think. We have had snow day after snow day! All this snow is getting a little out of hand. I'm ready for spring!
I am excited for my weekend. I am attending a live web cast of a conference that is taking place in Austin, TX. It will have speakers like Ann Voskamp, Jen Hatmaker, Jennie Allen and a few other women in ministry. It will be a very Spirit filled weekend and I cannot wait for how the Lord is going to speak to me through these women.
Thanks for keeping our family in your prayers! We can feel them. This next step is going to be the hardest, as I have said before. Now all we do is wait.
God Bless
The dossier looked good to Small World. They only needed one thing from us, our police clearances, and that was it! It was easy enough. I just went online and paid $10 for a search for each of us and that was that! In case your wondering, nothing came up on a criminal background check for either Jeremy nor I :) So our agency will email our dossier to Lesotho!! Our caseworker from Small World is taking a trip to Africa in the next couple of weeks and will be taking our dossier with him to hand deliver it to the Lesotho government! Woo Hoo!
There is so much unknown with this because Small World has never done a complete adoption case for Lesotho. They don't have much to go on as far as answering questions for us in reference to time lines. They have no point of reference. It's a little frustrating not to have any sort of idea how long this could take. But then, I just keep remembering that the Lord knows the perfect time for "Ruby" to come to our family and it won't happen until then! He said not to expect to get a referral from the meeting that is taking place shortly because there are 15 families with dossiers in ahead of us. How many families they match depends upon how many kids they have ready to be adopted. And by ready to be adopted, I mean this. In order for a child to be deemed adoptable the country has to make sure that there are no other people in the child's life that want to take care of the him/her. They also have to make sure that the parents sign off their rights, if the parents are still alive and can be found. While there are millions of orphans around the world it's not as easy as it sounds to have them all adopted. All the red tape really is meant for the best interest of the child.
Our family is doing well. Noah is playing indoor soccer with his cousin Parker. They are having a great time! So glad Noah is getting to know so many new kids. They are all from a different school than him. We are finally going to have a full week of school since before Christmas break, i think. We have had snow day after snow day! All this snow is getting a little out of hand. I'm ready for spring!
I am excited for my weekend. I am attending a live web cast of a conference that is taking place in Austin, TX. It will have speakers like Ann Voskamp, Jen Hatmaker, Jennie Allen and a few other women in ministry. It will be a very Spirit filled weekend and I cannot wait for how the Lord is going to speak to me through these women.
Thanks for keeping our family in your prayers! We can feel them. This next step is going to be the hardest, as I have said before. Now all we do is wait.
God Bless
Friday, January 17, 2014
Hurry up and WAIT!
WOW. I feel like so much has happened in the last month. We had some wonderful Holidays! Christmas was wonderful! Very blessed to have time to spend with family and friends.
With Christmas and New Years being in the middle of the week we didn't get to do a few things we had on the list for Christmas break but the kids still managed to have a good time for 2+ weeks.
We received some good news from our agency. We were told that we do not have to wait for our approval from immigration in order to get on the list for a child in Lesotho. We can send our dossier in and they will accept it without that piece of paper. When we get it then we will send it in. That changed the game a little. So, we had to hurry up and get a few last minute things done but it wasn't too bad. We sent all our documents to Small World on January 2, 2014. They have to review it and make sure everything is in order and then they will scan it and electronically send it in, with the originals following in the mail. Once Lesotho gets it they will do whatever they have to do with it and hopefully put us on the list for our baby girl.
Lesotho does things a little different than most countries, I think. They have "match days" approximately each quarter. So, the next match day should be coming up in the next couple of months. We could get matched then, if our file gets picked. If we don't, then we wait until the next match meeting. So, it will be a lot of waiting from here on out!! So, I will just have to keep busy somehow from now until we hear something. To be frank, the unknown, I don't do well with that! So pray for that for me. I need to give it up to God and let Him.....It's all up to him at this point. His timing is perfect and "Ruby" will join our family at just the right time.
We are in the process of getting our T-shirt fundraiser finalized. We will be selling t-shirts to raise money for our adoption. It should be ready to go in the very near future. I will keep you posted on the details.
God Bless
With Christmas and New Years being in the middle of the week we didn't get to do a few things we had on the list for Christmas break but the kids still managed to have a good time for 2+ weeks.
We received some good news from our agency. We were told that we do not have to wait for our approval from immigration in order to get on the list for a child in Lesotho. We can send our dossier in and they will accept it without that piece of paper. When we get it then we will send it in. That changed the game a little. So, we had to hurry up and get a few last minute things done but it wasn't too bad. We sent all our documents to Small World on January 2, 2014. They have to review it and make sure everything is in order and then they will scan it and electronically send it in, with the originals following in the mail. Once Lesotho gets it they will do whatever they have to do with it and hopefully put us on the list for our baby girl.
Lesotho does things a little different than most countries, I think. They have "match days" approximately each quarter. So, the next match day should be coming up in the next couple of months. We could get matched then, if our file gets picked. If we don't, then we wait until the next match meeting. So, it will be a lot of waiting from here on out!! So, I will just have to keep busy somehow from now until we hear something. To be frank, the unknown, I don't do well with that! So pray for that for me. I need to give it up to God and let Him.....It's all up to him at this point. His timing is perfect and "Ruby" will join our family at just the right time.
We are in the process of getting our T-shirt fundraiser finalized. We will be selling t-shirts to raise money for our adoption. It should be ready to go in the very near future. I will keep you posted on the details.
God Bless
Friday, December 20, 2013
Timeline
I added the timeline of our adoption journey to the blog. People have asked for it so I though this would be a good place to put it.
Kids had asnowday rain-day today. They were bummed. This is the one day of the WHOLE school year you do NOT want a snow day. Not totally convinced it was necessary today. They all missed Christmas parties and a chance to give teachers gifts and have that last hurrah before the end of the year. I hope they get to do some celebrating when they get back in two weeks. That brings me to my next thought. The kids have 2 weeks off!!! This is both good and bad. Just as it is with summer break. The idea is nice, but the reality is a little less than. They get bored, and I don't always know what to do with them!! We can't go all over the place because everything costs money! Any ideas on CHEAP entertainment would be great. I do enjoy the more relaxed pace though.
I had a wonderful couple of days. Wednesday was our fingerprint day. It went fabulous! No problem.
Ran a couple of errands after that and then headed to the gym to blow off some steam. Thursday was filled with wonderful things as well. I went to the ZCS Christmas Chapel in the morning. I don't know how they do it but every time I go to one of those things I stand in awe of the Holy Spirit working in that place. There is NOTHING better than 850 kids singing "Go Tell it On The Mountain" at the top of their lungs!! I then headed to coffee with a dear friend who works for Beautiful Gate. She is leaving to go back to Lesotho in 2 weeks to do the work God has asked her to do. I could not be more blessed by her. If the Lord allows, she will have a part in raising our daughter at Beautiful Gate before we get there to take her home, for that, we are grateful! MWAA!!
Until next time........Merry Christmas!!!
Kids had a
I had a wonderful couple of days. Wednesday was our fingerprint day. It went fabulous! No problem.
Ran a couple of errands after that and then headed to the gym to blow off some steam. Thursday was filled with wonderful things as well. I went to the ZCS Christmas Chapel in the morning. I don't know how they do it but every time I go to one of those things I stand in awe of the Holy Spirit working in that place. There is NOTHING better than 850 kids singing "Go Tell it On The Mountain" at the top of their lungs!! I then headed to coffee with a dear friend who works for Beautiful Gate. She is leaving to go back to Lesotho in 2 weeks to do the work God has asked her to do. I could not be more blessed by her. If the Lord allows, she will have a part in raising our daughter at Beautiful Gate before we get there to take her home, for that, we are grateful! MWAA!!
Until next time........Merry Christmas!!!
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Fingerprints!
Tomorrow Jeremy and I will go to Grand Rapids for our fingerprints! Another step closer to our little girl. All this waiting!!! Wait Wait Wait!! And we are not even to the longest wait yet! That wait comes when our paperwork all gets to Africa and we wait for them to match us with our daughter! That will be excruciating!!
All this waiting hits home this time of year. The reason for this advent season is the waiting for the baby Jesus to come! We wait for Him, we wait for her! We wait for the paperwork, they waited for the Savior! We even wait for the mail truck!!
We have had a great Christmas season so far. Knock on wood, no one has gotten sick, yet. Last year Haylie and I had to miss our Freriks Christmas due to Haylie having a migraine. Then at that party, Noah decided to get sick. So, he was sick on Christmas day. Good thing we had no plans for that day because we had done my side of the family Christmas the week earlier. So, pray we all stay healthy this year so we can make it to all the family get togethers.
Thank you to all of you who have prayed us through to this point. We can feel them. We could NOT do this without it. Thank you to all of you who have so generously given to our adoption fund, given us your pop cans, or sent an email at JUST the right time! It means more than you know! Keep it up, we have a long way to go.
We pray you have the Merriest of Chirstmas' and are Blessed in this new year!
All this waiting hits home this time of year. The reason for this advent season is the waiting for the baby Jesus to come! We wait for Him, we wait for her! We wait for the paperwork, they waited for the Savior! We even wait for the mail truck!!
We have had a great Christmas season so far. Knock on wood, no one has gotten sick, yet. Last year Haylie and I had to miss our Freriks Christmas due to Haylie having a migraine. Then at that party, Noah decided to get sick. So, he was sick on Christmas day. Good thing we had no plans for that day because we had done my side of the family Christmas the week earlier. So, pray we all stay healthy this year so we can make it to all the family get togethers.
Thank you to all of you who have prayed us through to this point. We can feel them. We could NOT do this without it. Thank you to all of you who have so generously given to our adoption fund, given us your pop cans, or sent an email at JUST the right time! It means more than you know! Keep it up, we have a long way to go.
We pray you have the Merriest of Chirstmas' and are Blessed in this new year!
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