145 Million Orphans

"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves." Proverbs 31:8

145 Million orphans in this world. I can't even begin to wrap my head around that number. Not all of those orphans are available for adoption. Some live with extended family - but some are starving. Some don't have clean water. Some are sick and unable to get medication. Some live so far away from a doctor they can't get to a doctor. Children roam the streets of villages - they don't go to school - education costs money and they don't even know when or where their next meal will come from. We are blessed and humbled to be able to respond to God's call by saying YES, we will go, we will make a difference and be part of the solution. So the journey continues...

Today we met with our case worker and got into the details of our adoption. We started with Will praying. We went through the entire home study packet and the Ethiopia Dossier. Talk about paperwork! The home study is very similar to the home study that we did for E's adoption....similar background questions in the personal evaluation - and then add a lot more to that. We went through the pages one by one, took notes, and asked questions along the way. Some of the questions and paperwork for the Dossier and the Home Study we will complete at the same time - other things we will wait until the last minute to do since they are time sensitive. By time sensitive, I mean that we have a 6 month window to complete the paper work and have it submitted.

We learned a lot today about the process and differences between a domestic adoption and an intercountry adoption - and there are a lot of similarities. The personal evaluation home study questions are similar, the forms are similar, etc...etc... You may ask do we have an "in" because we have already adopted? Well, yes and no. We have to start the whole process from the beginning just as anyone would - but there is an advantage to having adopted - we have passed some of the "tests" already, the State and SOMEONE thinks we are ok to adopt but they stiill have to make sure you are ok to adopt again. But let me tell you - when you adopt, you feel like your whole life becomes a People Magazine. You're whole life is brought to life - your childhood, parents, siblings, your personality, goals, faith, beliefs, parenting principals, your family relationships, etc...etc... having been through the process once, we understand the depth to which you are examined - I would worry if that didn't happen. So we are happy to open ourselves up again.

There was one bonus - we got to take care of one of the home visits today! I was not 100% ready for that!! It was rather funny - after just returning from California after a week, being sick most of the week this week, and just not having the "hands-free" time to do a really good cleaning job - I was only able to really clean the downstairs - and the upstairs (our bedroom specifically) became a dumping ground for laundry, suitcases, etc... So, when our case worker announced she would complete the first home visit - saying that she knew we were not aware of that - I about crawled under the table and immediately began the whole "the house isn't cleaned upstairs, I didn't get to put away the things...blah, blah, blah... I was thinking to myself - please let all the dirty undies be on the BOTTOM of the dirty clothes pile!! I must have turned pale - she said, there isn't anything on my check list that says "clean house". She said I am not looking at how clean your house is! So I got over it - until the actual walk through happened.

We continued to go over the paperwork and talk about each piece. We learned about immigration, I-600A forms, most of the paperwork has to be both notarized and go to Tallahassee to get the Great Seal then the packet will go to immigration. Then we get to do finger printing - twice - once for the home study and the second for the dossier - the dossier finger printing we will go to Jacksonville for as that is the closest immigration office. So we were really excited and trying not to get overwhelmed by the paperwork and just take once piece at a time.

So we finished our discussion and questions and then the home visit walk through started. We sat and went over the checklist first - then the walk through. It wasn't all that bad. She wasn't looking at anything other than the where the smoke detectors are and the windows in the bedrooms. I was still apologizing all the way up the stairs for the condition of the "holiday dump". For an OCD person, yes, the dump drives me NUTS and will be all put away by the end of the weekend! We all laughed about it - which was good and I just said, we are real people, who live real lives and yes, we have crap that needs to be put away.

After almost 2-1/2 hours we said our good byes and got busy on the paperwork and prayed more. Our time frame is not God's timing - He will lead us and direct us on this journey and we will move at His speed.

Thank you Jesus for adopting us - through our adoption in Christ we were taken out of Satan's orphanage and brought into our abba Father's loving family. We are His blessed children!