Where in the world is...our dossier? In ETHIOPIA!

It made it! Our dossier has made it to Ethiopia and was picked up by the AWAA staff there on Friday. I managed to only check the Fedex tracking site twice a day through the process... I think that's pretty good. Here's the route it took.
March 20th: Herndon, VA
March 21st: Newark, NJ
March 25th: Paris, France
March 26th: Dubai, Arab Emirates
March 27th: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

So we continue to wait and pray. Please join us in prayer that the paperwork goes through the proper channels without any problems or hangups. Pray for the children who are currently in the orphanages, waiting for their forever families to come get them and for those that haven't arrived yet. Pray for their health, peace and comfort and that they know they are loved.Pray for the birth parents of our little one, whether he's/she's been born yet or not. Pray for their physical health and that they can know the love of Christ and find comfort in Him through the difficultly of placing that sweet baby in an orphanage because they just can't give him/her the life he/she deserves.Pray they understand that the family chosen by God to parent that child will love him with all that they have and raise him to know the love of Christ and never let him go without knowing about his birth parents, country and culture. Pray for us as we prepare spiritually, mentally, physically to be parents of this special little baby chosen by God.

In Memory of Molly

Thursday we had to say goodbye to our sweet, happy Molly. She had a stoke and was no longer going to be able to stand, walk, eat or drink. She was 14. Our hearts are broken but we are thankful she doesn't have to suffer. We were supposed to go camping this weekend but it started raining at the beginning of the week and by Wednesday we decided it was too wet and cold to go so we stayed home. We now realize that this was God's way of keeping us around to be there for Molly when this happened.
Molly was such a joy to us, she was always happy and smiling. I adopted her from the local shelter when she was just a baby and she's been such a good dog since the very start. So playful and carefree. She was very vocal and would let you know if she wanted something! She tore up her knee, had surgery, tore it again, but she just keep on going. She was so strong. Oh how I loved her. She will be terribly missed and never forgotten.

Where in the world is...our dossier?

Our dossier is offically on it's way to Ethiopia today! Our agency emailed us the tracking number so we can follow it's progress! I wonder how many stops it will make along the way and where it will go.

I can already see that I'm going to have to set a limit for myself on how many times a day I can check the FedEx website or else I could very easily become obsessed.

5 times? Okay that's probably a bit much. Maybe giving me the tracking number wasn't such a good idea... :-)

Dossier is Complete!

Our Completed Dossier










Friday we mailed our dossier to our agency! Our family coordinator will receive it on Monday and she said that it should be on it's way to the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs in Ethiopia on Friday of next week! All glory goes to God for getting us through the paperwork process without any major issues and with our sanity intact. Please continue to pray that everything goes smoothly and there aren't any hold ups with the paperwork.

We feel so blessed and thankful to be chosen by God to adopt a child who so desperately needs a family to love them and take care of them. We bow at the feet of our Saviour in awe of His sovereignty and love.

Let the name of the Lord be praised,
both now and forevermore.
From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets,
the name of the Lord is to be praised.
The Lord is exalted over all the nations,
His glory above the heavens.
Who is like the Lord our God,
the One who sits enthroned on high?
Psalms 113: 2 - 5

Tip of the Week

As we're going through this adoption process our family coordinator sends out weekly encouragement emails with Scripture verses and helpful tips for where we are in the process. The one we received this week was very encouraging and gives a bit more detail into the time frame we are looking at so I thought I'd share what she said.

Tip of the Week:
It is important for families to call or email their family coordinator
before planning to send their dossier to America World. Family
coordinators can ensure that families are sending all necessary
documents, copies, agreements, and payments with their dossier. As a
reminder,all pieces of a family’s dossier, including payments, must arrive at the America World office no later than 12 p.m. each Tuesday to be sent to Ethiopia with that Friday’s shipment. If a dossier lacks an item and/or a payment has not been made, the dossier will be held until the item arrives and/or the payment has been made. For this reason, families are advised to touch base with their family coordinator before sending their dossier package.

Dossiers are sent each week providing at least 2 completed dossiers are
ready to be sent. Otherwise,a dossier will be held until the next available shipment. Please keep in mind completed dossiers are moved to the “waiting” portion of the process, receive a family number, and have been placed on the list to receive a referral. Due to confidentiality families are not given their “waiting number” but instead use their DTE date as an approximation of the timing of the referral.

This means that as soon as we send our dossier to Terra we're officially on the waiting list - even before it gets to Ethiopia. I know this doesn't change the wait time but it just feels really great knowing that we'll be moving on to the waiting stage a little bit sooner than we thought. :-)

For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at
all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
Romans 8:24-25