Waiting List!

So I've learned that I'm not a very good at keeping up with this blog! We've had a lot happen with our adoption in the past few months. In January, we sent in our I600A and after having our fingerprinting appointment, we received our approval on March 15th. We sent in our dossier to our agency and we are now officially on the waiting list! We've been told we are 11th on the list and should expect around a 3-6 month wait for a referral. We are so excited and I have to admit I've felt a little bit of panic set in for me. God has been so faithful through all of this journey and I know He will continue to see us through.

Why the Congo?

One question that I've heard several times is why we would choose to adopt somewhere else in the world when there are so many children here in the U.S. that need to be adopted? So I thought this would be a good place to voice our heart.

I believe that all orphans no matter where they are from should have a family that loves them and cares for them. I don't think it is a domestic vs. international adoption debate. It isn't "either/or" it is "both/and" (to quote my big brother)! Children here in the U.S. need to be adopted just as much as those around the world. However, I think God directs each of us and places different issues on our hearts so that we can use that passion to bring attention to others and ultimately bring glory to our Saviour.

I have learned so much through this journey and my eyes have been opened so much more to things that I had no idea even existed in our world. When I started reading about the Congo, I came across this information about the DRC:

• At war from 1999-2003
• 1500 people die per day in the DRC due to the conflict
• 5.4 million people have died since 1998 due to conflict, hunger and disease
• Deadliest conflict since WWII
• Malaria kills 400 children a day
• The sexual violence against women and female children is the worst anywhere in the world
• Children are stolen from families; boys are forced to serve as child soldiers, and girls are forced to be sex slaves
• There are over 5 million orphans in the DRC

We decided to adopt from the Congo because we believe that is the direction God is leading us. We see the opportunity we have to make a difference in a child's life who otherwise could possibly be forced into sex slavery or forced to become a child soldier. We hope to bring the number of orphans in the DRC down to 5 million -1 and one less orphan in this world!

Hannah

Update!

It's been a while since my last update! A lot has happened and God continues to guide us through this journey we are on. We finally received our final notarized homestudy approval on December 18th! Just in time for Christmas! We've had so many blessings and doors open and we are so excited to see what and WHO God has for us this year! We are so blessed to have the support of our family and friends. You have been so encouraging to us and we are thankful to have you in our lives!

A lot of you may wonder about how we chose to adopt from the Congo. So I thought this might be a good time to explain how Josh and I came to the decision to adopt there. Late 2009, we decided that we would truly start pursuing adoption in 2010. In late Jan./early Feb. last year we attended an orientation meeting with an adoption agency. It was right after the earthquake in Haiti. This agency had been contacted by the government to start preparing temporary housing for Haitian orphans should they come to the US. In the meeting, we were given the chance to go through a process to become one of those families. Josh and I decided we would love to do this and we signed up. It took a couple months of basically going through a "mini homestudy" to become one of these families. Ultimately, they did not bring Haitian orphans here, so nothing really came of that except an even stronger desire to really pursue adoption.

It was during this time however, that I was constantly researching different countries for international adoption, and domestic adoption. I had seen the Congo on a few different websites, but hadn't paid much attention to it. After a few different situations of friends and family telling me about someone they knew who had or was adopting from there, I decided to start looking into it. The more research I did, the more my heart was feeling a tugging towards Africa and specifically Congo. When Josh and I started talking seriously about it, we knew this was the direction God was leading us. It's hard to understand the love I feel for a place and people that I have never been or met. But I know God is preparing my heart for our baby to come and to be a voice for those who don't have one.

Well that is it for now!

Love,
Hannah

Waiting....

Since it's been several weeks since my last post, I thought I should give a little update! We are patiently (do you catch the sarcasm?) waiting on one piece of paperwork to come in to complete our homestudy. Once we receive that, we will schedule our last homestudy meeting. I am hoping that we will be able to finish this in the next couple weeks!

In the mean time, I've completed 8 hours of required online training and Josh is currently working on his training. (It takes him a little longer... :) I'm also reading a few books on adoption parenting. I have learned so much through the training and books, and I'm so thankful to have a little more knowledge! Hopefully it will help us be better prepared for parenthood!

Also, check out this blog. I love her posts and wish I could write and capture my thoughts the way she does. It's another great adoption blog. Follow them on their journey at www.meghmiller.com.

Tootles for now!

Hannah

2nd Homestudy Meeting Complete!

So we finally had our 2nd homestudy meeting on Friday. I was so nervous because this was supposed to be the meeting that we would be interviewed individually. When we started our meeting, our caseworker said she didn't really have a lot of questions for us and said we could both stay if we wanted. So, she asked us a few questions about our personalities and our parents personalities and we talked about our paperwork and that was pretty much it! It was very painless! And, Josh behaved himself! (for once!) I think I'll look at it as a good thing that she doesn't have a lot to question us about.

We are probably very close to finishing our homestudy, just waiting on a few more pieces of paperwork to come in and one more meeting with our caseworker before it will be complete!

Oh, and..Josh's renewed passport came in the mail yesterday! Woo hoo! Hopefully mine is on the way!

So there's the big update :)

Also, I found this video online and thought it was such a neat video documenting this couple's adoption experience. Thought I'd share it with you! Enjoy!

http://vimeo.com/11402102

later!

Hannah

Catch Up

Here's a quick catch up as to where we are in the adoption process. (For a quicker synopsis, check out the adoption timeline on the right.)

At the end of June we sent in our adoption application and it was accepted. We then started the home study process. We had our first meeting with our home study case worker on July 9th. It really was a pretty low-key, uneventful meeting. We just went over all the LOADS of paperwork that we needed to prepare. Since the meeting that is what we have been working on....paperwork!

We will have at least 3 meetings with our case worker. The next meeting we will have one on one meetings with her. I have to admit this does scare me a bit. I'm a little nervous about leaving Josh alone with her and not being able to "buffer" his jokes or comments. If you know Josh you know what I'm talking about! Everyone has asked me how our first home study meeting went and since it was pretty uneventful, I always say "good". I guess because I'm so used to it, I forget to mention the fact that Josh made a joke in front of our case worker about me being an alcoholic! I've tried to explain to him that he shouldn't joke like that in front of people he doesn't know, because they don't know he's joking! Oh boy! Guess that is part of why I love him, you never know what is going to come out of his mouth next!

Hannah

Background

Let's start with a little background! Adoption is something that I believe God put in my heart at a very young age. I can remember being a little girl talking to my best friend about adopting a baby from China when I grew up. It's something I've just always wanted to do. Josh has also always been open and supportive of adopting. We've talked about it since the beginning of our marriage. It's always been in the back of our minds that someday we would adopt.

After going through different circumstances and years of issues with infertility, we felt like this was the year to really start pursuing adoption. So, I started researching, and we started taking steps. It's pretty amazing to see how what we thought our lives would be isn't always the plan God has for us. We always thought we would have "belly" babies first then adopt...nope, not what God had planned. We always talked about adopting from China or South Korea.... as of today we will be adopting from Africa first! God may give us an idea, or plant a seed in our heart, but he doesn't always lay out the details as to how His plan is going to be accomplished.

This isn't always easy, but we couldn't be more excited to see where this journey is going to take us. We know that the day we hold our baby in our arms is going to be that much sweeter because of the path we've taken to get there!! So hold on baby bickford! Wait for us, we're on our way!

Hannah