Schedule of events

I realized today that I have neglected something very obvious…I haven’t given a good overall picture of how the process will go over the next year. Sparing you some of the incredibly boring details I will outline the basics of the overall process for you so that you can have a better picture of what we are looking ahead to. The following is a schedule of how things are expected to go with a timeline of 12 months from start to finish:

· Family applies to Holt International – DONE!
· First packet of paperwork to complete – in process of doing this right now.
· First round of required adoption classes to be completed before home study is done. (March 14th, 15th in Omaha)
· Home study done in March or April
· File 1600A immigration form
· Second session of classes in Omaha (I’m not sure of exact timing of this)
· Prepare Dossier to be sent to Ethiopian gov’t (more paperwork)
· Holt approves Dossier and sends to Ethiopia for authentication
· Child is referred to family (estimated 2-6 months from dossier being sent)
· Fly to pick up our child in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia approximately 8 weeks after referral!

Welcome to the blog : )

I just want to welcome all you McCook National Bankers to the blog! Craig made the big announcement at the bank of our plans to adopt today. I can see the site has had a bunch more hits, so though you are anonymous I know you are out there (ha ha!). Tom, remember that 10 minute rule of personal internet use at work :) We are so blessed to have Craig working at such a great place. What an awesome thing it will be to bring this new little one home to such a caring community!

A nice surprise

We had an electrician come over this afternoon to fix a troublesome switch in our house, It had given Craig quite a shock when he tried to fix it himself...it seems that the porchlight switch wasn't wired through the breaker box of the house! How does this relate to adoption you wonder? Well, the electrician was talking with Juliana about his own little boy who is 2 years old and just happened to mention that he was adopted from Korea. He and his wife went through Holt International for their adoption also! I wrote his wife's name down and will probably be calling her one of these days to get together to chat about their experience. Although the Korea program and the Ethiopia program are vastly different in their requirements I know that their experience would still be valuable for me to hear. Who knows? Maybe we will become good friends!

In other news, Juliana recently informed us that Mommy will be getting a girl, Juliana will be getting a girl, Daddy will be getting a boy, and Evan will be getting a boy. (hee hee!) Evan has so far kept his thoughts on the adoption to himself, but in recent developments he now has "four wheel drive" as Craig calls it. He has finally figured out that picking his tummy up when crawling makes him go much faster and prevents him from getting high-centered so much!

No pain, No gain!

It was my turn to go to the clinic this week for the first part of my health check - the TB test and HIV test. I swear that tiny needle for the TB test hurts way worse than the blood draw! This week was also spent making phone calls and reviewing where we had left off on paperwork last. We have one question left on our super-mega-personal questionnaire that asks about community resources that are available to help support us in the adoption. I need to make some more phone calls to see if there are any support group type meetings in the area or other resources that I haven't found yet. Thankfully the Lord has surrounded us with two families that we know well who have adopted multiple children. I honestly can't think of a better resource than them :) I scheduled us for our first round of classes required by Holt. I will write more later about what they will be covering in those classes. We will travel to Omaha to attend them in mid-March. Also, I called the State Patrol in North Platte regarding getting fingerprinted for (i think) the background checks. Please keep our health in your prayers as we are still battling some of those pesky "we don't know what to call you" bugs. It feels good to start moving ahead again, albeit slowly. How sweet it is to know that the Lord's timing is perfect!

"Biological" kids?

I found this quote that has made me think a little deeper than labels...and smile!

Like many adoptive parents, I chafe at the term “biological” to designate only my birth children. First because all children, of course, are the products of biology. Second because aren’t my children by adoption also mine biologically? We breathe each other’s air, prepare and share each other’s food, borrow each other’s combs and socks and pencils; Helen sometimes falls asleep on my bed twirling her fingers through my hair. Aren’t these somehow biological processes? Aren’t our cells intermixing? Haven’t the years of Berenstain Bears books I’ve inflicted on these children been immortalized as brain cells? --Melissa Fay Greene

Slow going

Things have been very slow going on the adoption homefront these days. Our family seems to have been afflicted with various ills ranging from a facial rash (juliana) to stomach flus (all of us)to a nasty "don't wanna eat or drink, just wanna sleep and cuddle all day" virus (evan) to a myriad of symptoms that doctors can not seem to diagnose (me). Needless to say we are catching up on sleep and will be hitting paperwork hard soon hopefully. Craig did check one thing off his list this week as he went to the clinic and passed his tuberculosis test with flying colors! Way to go Craig! We also started getting updates from Holt International, our adoption agency, on their Ethiopia program and the families they have involved. It is fun to be considered one of their "Ethiopia families". Please pray with us that we will regain our energy, health, and some momentum in this process :)

Why Ethiopia?

Again, we will defer to our family adoption representative Juliana who looks oh-so-busy in her "office" at home. "From the decision to go international we began looking at different countries and were again overwhelmed! Mommy read somewhere that most prospective parents begin their journey thinking that they were going to pick the country to pursue, however, in the end it turns out that the country picks them. This has certainly been the case for us and we are so thankful and comforted that the Lord has worked it out this way. Ethiopia turns out to be one of the only countries that we meet requirements for. Some countries have very specific requirements for age and income that we do not/could not meet. Others do not adopt out babies. Still others had very rigorous travel requirements that would not be possible with two little ones at home. Ethiopia has an age requirement of 25, no income requirement, usual age of children referred is 6-12 months and an estimated travel time of one week to pick up your child. As my friend Jonan would say, 'Kachow!' Ethiopia has picked us!"