"Sometimes I would like to ask God, why He allows poverty, famine, and injustice in the world when He could do something about it... but I'm afraid He might ask me the same question." Anonymous

Friday, March 18, 2011

A message from a Mommy in Ethiopia...

A message from a fellow adoptive Momma during her visit today at an orphanage in Ethiopia...



Greetings from Ethiopia!! I'm not feeling very good from dinner tonight and am wide awake, so I figured I'd take the time to get online while the internet was working so I could share about our visit to an orphanage yesterday. We went there with the A's and were so humbled and overwhelmed by what we saw. We walked into the tiny dark classroom where all of kids were squished inside and began introducing ourselves and asking the kids their names. They are all so gentle and sweet. We basically froze when we noticed "D and F" there from the Waiting Child List. For some reason I did not expect them to be in an orphanage -- I thought they were in the Transition Home with AWAA. For the last few months that they've been on the WCL we've had a special place in our hearts for them, and so seeing them there really caught me off guard and stirred up emotions that I wasn't expecting. Throughout the time there, we kept getting drawn to them because they have such beautiful spirits and are SO incredibly sweet. At one point the older boy came up to me and quietly told me "that's my brother." I don't know why, but that just broke my heart to see how proud and protective he was of his little brother, and it made me sad to think how quickly these kids have to grow up. When we got our picture with them, my tears started to flow, and the older one looked at me and touched my face and said "No problem." I pretty much lost it after that and gave him a hug, and he said it again. I had to walk away from the group because I was about to do a full out sob, and when I came back another little one came up to me and gave me a hug and said "Don't worry." He had just asked the boy how to say that to me in English. I was so taken aback. Orphans in Ethiopia are comforting ME???? How can that be? That moment - that whole visit - was something that left me forever changed. The A's and J and I cried all the way back to the guest house, and I sobbed for about an hour in the shower that night. I am sooo hoping and praying that these amazing boys find a family soon. From someone who's here adopting a 9-month old (and on CLOUD 9) I must say that something about the older boys have captivated me. I would just like to encourage those of you who are considering adopting older children (something we plan to do in the future) that D&F are such special and beautiful kids. Can't wait to see who God has for them...I know that family will be incredibly blessed.

Please join Tim and I as we pray these boys have a family soon... In a country like Ethiopia where there are over 4.6 million orphans many children are in this same situation. Pray with us for them also, God's children. Our God is Father to the fatherless.

Love you,
Angi & Tim


"My friends, adoption is redemption. It's costly, exhausting, expensive, and outrageous. Buying back lives costs so much. When God set out to redeem us, it killed him." -Derek Loux

1 comment:

  1. When we read this email it broke us (that happens a lot). My husband was reading it out loud and we were both in tears by the end. Though I've never met them D&F have had such a special place in my heart and it kills me that we can't be the ones to parent them. I'm praying for that other family to FLY through their paperwork so they can bring them home. Then need to be home; they've been on the WCL way, way, way too long.

    ReplyDelete

Current time in Ethiopia

Addis Ababa

Adoption Time-line

02/02/10- Ethiopia adoption application & fee sent.





02/17/10- Accepted into America Worlds Ethiopia Program!





02/20/10- Paid initial AWAA program fee.





Start paper chase...



03/02/10- Ordered our birth certificates.



03/02/10- Spoke w/and chose GLAD as Home-Study Agency.



03/03/10- Got Angi's employeement & life ins. verification.



03/04/10- Received Tim's birth cert. in mail.



03/04/10- Went to courthouse, got Marriage Cert.



03/05/10- Received Angi's birth cert. in mail.



03/05/10- Scheduled Tim's phys. letter doctor appt.for 3/8



03/08/10- Mailed GLAD application letter & fee.



03/10/10- Ethiopia made big change- 2 trips required now.



03/11/10- Rec'd GLAD/AWAA Post Placement Agreement.



03/11/10- Rec'd Tim's Health/Life Ins. letter.



03/12/10- Jack & Annie rabie shots/Home Study Requirment

03/13/10- Rosie & Sara rabie shots.



03/21/10- Began Hague on-line required training course.



03/22/10- GLAD beginning our background checks.



03/22/10- Our HIV tests and Tim's HEP B blood draw done.



03/23/10- Tim's TB Test scheduled for 3/30/10.



03/25/10- Notary notarized all paperwork we've collected.



03/26/10- Kyla, our social work came for 1st & 2nd home visi



03/26/10- Adoption Tax Credit raised to$13,100.00! Go God!



03/27/10- Kyla finished 3rd Home Study visit.



03/27/10- Finished family photo pages.



03/30/10- Tim rescheduled TB Test until 4/6/10.



03/31/10- Picked up Tim's HEP B test results.



04/02/10- Received Archie's referance letter.



04/06/10- Tim had TB test placed.



04/06/10- Angi got bloodwork records.



04/06/10- Re-did Financial Statement/faxed to AWAA.



04/09/10- Tim's TB test results- negative :)



04/10/10- Completed Hague On-line training course.



04/10/10- Dog vaccines done.



04/20/10- Faxed Florida CPS request to FL today.



05/03/10- Had our physical visits today.



05/26/10- Angi's bloodwork drawn.



05/28/10- Angi's bloodwork result- normal.



05/28/10- Tim's bloodwork drawn & normal result.



06/01/10- Our 14th Annivesary- Renee notarized physicals!



06/07/10- Picked up our physicals & faxed to GLAD/AWAA.



06/07/10- Found out GLAD rec'd FL CPS checks 6/4/10.



06/07/10- Requested Dr. letter for Angi.



06/10/10- Picked up & faxed Dr. letter to AWAA.



06/10/10- Waiting for AWAA to approve Home Study.



06/15/10- AWAA read Home Study & requested corrections.



06/23/10- GLAD corrected and sent H.S. back to AWAA.



06/24/10- AWAA approved our Home Study!



07/01/10- Got money order for final GLAD payment.



07/01/10- Met Klya/GLAD in Vincennes, got final HomeStdy



07/02/10- Mailed I-600A application & fee.



07/09/10- Renee notarized rest of Dossier paperwork.



07/09/10- Sent 2 papers to IN State Dept.for Authentication



07/12/10- Fed-Ex package received at IN State Dept.



07/13/10- We rec'd Authenticated papers in mail!



07/14/10- Rec'd Immigration Fingerprinting appt for 8/9/10



07/23/10- Went early-Immigration/Indy. for fingerprinting.



07/26/10- Called USCIS & left msg for Immigration Officer.



07/29/10- Officer Opfer called, USCIS back-logged 3 weeks.



08/05/10- Rec'd I-171H today!Thanks Officer Opfer-speedy



08/06/10- Renee notarized new MOWA letter & I-171H.



08/06/10- Got Cashier's check to go with Dossier.



Paper chase completed!





08/06/10- Shipped Dossier to AWAA by Fed-Ex.



08/10/10- AWAA received Dossier packet.



08/13/10- AWAA approved Dossier, maybe DTE next Fri?



08/13/10- Rec'd U.S.State letter stating I-600A sent to ET!



08/19/10- AWAA Fed-Ex'd our Dossier to Ethiopia!



08/25/10- Dossier arrived in Ethiopia today!









The WAIT begins...