The Paperwork Elephant

This past week we were assigned to our adoption coordinator and home study coordinator. We are excited to work with Amy and Teresse. We received several emails from each with all the forms we need to start filling out. It was a little overwhelming when I started printing them out and reading everything. Thankfully Noel has the gift of paper organization and filing, and has agreed to get it together, and put it in order of what needs to be done. In addition to all these forms, we have grant forms to fill out as well. Noel's goal is to set a land speed record of forms completed. Some of these forms require 2-4 pages typed out of like our life story.

So if you do not hear from us, we have drowned in paperwork. It is so worth it.

Our daughter is constantly on our minds, and we are looking forward to seeing her. We have given her a name for now, since we do not know who she is yet. The name we will lift up in prayer is "Allison".

Keep praying and pray for "Allison".

Donna

Why a girl?

Several have ask - why a girl? Why not? I know we have 2 girls - 3's a crowd.  We have prayed about it, and we feel God is calling us to adopt another girl.  Girls that are not adopted often have a great chance of being sold into a slave industry that is very prevalent in our society today in America and worldwide. Here is just one example of what can happen - http://nataliegrant.com/category/news/.  In following Natalie Grant and her mission to end human trafficking is another reason why it is important to help girls from ending up in situations as these. It is even happening in Ohio - http://www.gracehavenhouse.org/.

Keep Praying!!

Donna

WE'RE APPROVED!

We have just received word that our application has been approved! Next step - more paperwork and homestudy. 

Our adoption agency is America World Adoption - http://www.awaa.org/.

Keep Praying!!

Application is Sent

Last night we completed our first set of paper work - the application.  It was exciting hitting the submit button.  We checked and double checked all of our info.  We survived taking our family picture.  Now we wait for them to approve our application, and then we start the home study.  We did find out that there is an International Adoption Clinic at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus.  It was one of the first kind started in the U.S.  When you get your referral, they will set up an appointment with a doctor where they will go over the information you have received about the child.  After you bring your child home they will also help you with all the tests and other things your child will need to bring all immunizations up to date.  I did find out that our pediatrician requires this before she will see them.

Keep praying!

Donna

Decision - Finally

After talking to a couple of agencies and adoption coordinators, we decided on which direction we would like to go. It is where we feel God is leading us, and we are very excited about it. We are going with America World Adoption out of Virginia. We have friends that has used them for their adoption from Ethiopia. When we talked with Mike Stone and Melissa from their agency, we felt comfortable with them and felt they would be the best fit for our family. It does also help that they give ministers a discount off their program fees. The country program we feel led to is the China Child Waiting Program. We also looked at Brazil, but feel better about the China program. The China Child Program is for children that may be healthy but older and children with special needs. Special needs in China is different than in the USA. We are able to also specify to which level of special needs we can handle. It can be anything from small, minor correctable to a major disability. So, it is a wide spectrum of needs. The ages we are going for is a 4-7 year old girl, and I would love to find twins if possible.

Our first step is to fill out the application, which is several pages. Noel is not excited that we have to take a picture for it. We have alot of paper work to fill out. Hannah is worried we will not be able to say their name and that China is communist. Emily is excited to have someone to boss around.

Please keep us in your prayers as we pray and prepare through all the steps we have complete. Pray for us in making decisions on how we are going to fund the adoption. Pray for the future child God has in store for us.

Donna

Overwhelmed

There are so many agencies to choose from. I joined a couple of yahoo groups to gain more information on agencies I had been looking at. WOW - information overload!! Noel and I had an unexpected trip last week, so we were able to talk a little more about the direction we would like to go. I think we have decided to go international which would allow for mission trips and so forth. Domestic adoption in Ohio may be more hoops than we want to jump through. We are meeting with one agency this week to gain a little more info. There are so many decisions to make in family in addition to this - school, church, piano, extra curricular activities, etc...

We were going to take classes offered by the state and potentially use the state for our home study to save a little money. We realized how far we had to go for these classes, the time away from home and our girls, and paying baby sitters - it doesn't pay to take them and the agency may not take the home study either. We just keep praying for wisdom and guidance we need.

Donna

Which Direction?

Domestic or International? That is the question. Which one? So far we have found out in Ohio, you pretty much have to be a foster parent in order to adopt. When a parental rights have been terminated, the foster parents are given first choice of the child. For the age group we are looking for, many others are as well. So we are questioning is there really a need? We have signed up the the classes here that they require before they can start the home study.

On the international front, I have been requesting info from other international adoption organizations. We are just trying to find where the Lord leads.