...I am not pregnant!
We are embarking on a beautiful journey to adopt a child. We have always wanted a large family, and at this point feel that God is calling us to love a child who needs a family! We are not exactly how things will work out, but that is okay, because God takes care of the details. I am not worried. Many of you may be wondering why...and part of me simply wants to say why not? ...we are blessed beyond belief and have love to share, so why not share it. Our child will come from Ethiopia, as we feel led to East Africa..."Nowhere on this planet do more helpless orphans exist then on the continent of Africa." (http://www.choicesadoption.ca/) A place where 1/10 children die before they are one, where 1/6 children will die before their 5th birthday...simply put we've been led.
We have begun the very lengthy process...I will post a list in the future about all they require, but man is it LONG. We've had medicals, fingerprinting, intervention checks, and are collecting a bible sized book of documents (Dossier)...we've been asked questions that we haven't even asked ourselves before, and a social worker is writing a report about us that will take her between 10-14 hours to write. I couldn't even write that much about me!! We have applied to the agency in AB- Adoption by Choice, and our coordinating agency is Imagine Adoption.
While I am not completely sure how long all of this will take- I've been told it can be anywhere from 9-24 months and basically involves a lot of waiting! So our home study is almost complete, and we hope to have it translated and sent to Ethiopia by mid-March with our Dossier. We then wait for a match proposal of a child, which is a picture, and maybe 1 page of 'sketchy' information that is looked at by a special doctor in Calgary to help us evaluate what they may or may not be telling us. We can choose to accept or decline the child depending on what info we have- what a difficult decision when that day comes. J ...Then if we accept, it then must go to court in Ethiopia- which may take up to three court days-basically waiting. Then there is more waiting for citizenship stuff, and travel dates. I think it will be a lesson in patience.
Now I know many of you are wondering what type of child this will be...well, we are putting in a request to have a child, any gender between 0-15 months...and I guess we will see!
Well that is it in a very short nutshell. If you are a praying person, please join us in prayer for this journey. I find myself torn at times at how to pray for our future child, and his or her family...because someone is going to be giving up a beautiful child for us...we don't know circumstance but there is an obvious loss. My heart breaks just thinking about it...but God is in control, and I am sooo thankful for that!
It is only fitting that we post this 'around' Annbelle's first birthday- because we announced our pregnancy with her at Adam's first birthday. Our precious little girl is one!!!! She is crawling up a storm, and I just love watching her little tush wiggle as she crawls away. She has started pulling herself up to standing, and took a nasty fall 10 minutes before our first meeting with the social worker two weeks ago. I have never seen such a large goose egg before. Thankfully the SW looked pass the goose egg.
Thanks everyone! Feel free to email us if you have questions! Love Rick and Sonya...Adam and Annabelle
