our adoption

(photo credit: The Boston Globe)

Chris and I have began our journey in adoption from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This journey really started toward the beginning of the year. While we felt called to adopt, we were unsure from where our family should pursue at first, as we believe every child without a family is tragic. While we continued looking further into the details/requirements of different areas and searching the desires of our heart we’ve been led to the DRC. Why the DRC? The need is so great: hundreds of thousands of children have been orphaned because of the civil war (the deadliest war since World War II, claiming an estimated 5 million lives, half of which are children under the age of 5), the Congo is the second highest country in the world where sexual violence to women occurs and the death rate of Congolese children ages 0-5 is one of the highest on the planet. Our hearts are set on a baby girl as we hope to prevent the terrible possibilities of what can happen there to even one of them.

We would definitely appreciate your thoughts and prayers in the coming months as we continue the pursuit. Financially, its quite a bit to raise in the next 8-12 months (approximately $30,000). We have gathered together some savings and are very thankful for the money we were able to make moving ourselves this year. I also set up a shop on Etsy and will be selling shirts specifically for raising support for our little girl. They are adorable hand dyed, linoleum carved, stamped t-shirts. Imentioned before, Chris and I are huge coffee fans; so we set up a shop with a wonderful company called Just Love Coffee to help out a bit. Our shop is opened here.

“A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows … God sets the lonely in families.” Psalm 68: 5-6

We are looking forward to sharing each step of our journey, and also documenting it for the future to share with our little one.

TIMELINE:

Late July 2011: decide to adopt from the Congo and apply to Children of All Nations.
Late July-Late August 2011: Chris back in San Diego underway with his ship while I identify a local Home Study Agency in Virginia.
Late August 2011: First Home study interview.
Beginning of September 2011: Second homestudy interviews (done separately with Chris and I).
Late October 2011: After receiving seven (that’s right seven different states we’ve lived in within the past 10 years) background checks, we completed with our final home study interview with Cami and Noah.
Beginning of November 2011: Our local homestudy agency sent the completed homestudy paperwork to CAN.
Beginning of December 2011: Mailed all Dossier paperwork to CAN for final review.
Middle of December 2011: Biometrics complete.
Mid January: Dossier sent to USCIS
January  27th: Dossier sent to Congo, waiting for our referral!!! (and on Police Clearance Letter from San Diego)
February 13th: All clearance letters in and sent to USCIS
February 20th: Notice for Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition arrived with wrong dates of expiration
March 1st: Correct Advance Processing Letter in with correct dates, we are still waiting.

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A few people have asked to donate to the cost of our adoption. Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts. I’m had a button here, but it looked absolutely crazy big and I didn’t like it to overtake what I’m sharing, so if you would like to donate: check out my shop, buy some coffee or email me! Thanks!!