Friday, March 6, 2009

The Adoption


I promised details about the next adoption:

I've decided to adopt an infant boy from Ethiopia. That was the easy part. I then had to find an adoption agency and a homestudy agency. I (my friend Kelly) did a lot of research on all the different agencies that work with Ethiopia. I prayed about it a lot. It's a difficult decision and will literally change Andrew's and my life. I was able to narrow down my search quite a bit because many of them had already met their quota of singles adopting for the year. There are also several very bad agencies out there so they were crossed off immediately. In the end, I decided to use International Adoption Network (IAN) in Colorado. There were several very good agencies that I could have chosen but I really felt led toward IAN. I am already very happy with the decision and love the level of communication with the agency people and with the other families adopting through them.

I have also found a homestudy agency--thanks to a great reference from another Guatemama (thanks, Megan!). I have to fill out paperwork for them and attend a class the first day of Spring Break and then I will be on my way.

I've been working on the necessary paperwork for both agencies and starting to look at what will be needed for the dossier. It's an easier dossier than what was required for Guatemala and having been through it once already helps a lot. I'm anxious to just get all the paperwork done so I can sit back and wait. The referral process will probably take about 6 months--I'm calculating sometime in the fall. However, those are my humble calculations and I know that God already has a much larger plan....I can't wait to find out what it is because I LOVE the way His last one turned out. :)

I'm looking forward to a fun summer with Andrew...he'll be at such a great age and will be able to do so much more than he could last summer. I think it will make the wait for a referral a lot easier because we will be busy having fun. Next summer, there will be an infant around again (and that will be FANTASTIC) but I haven't experienced life with a somewhat independent, able to walk to the park, stable-on-his-feet, little boy yet and I'm excited about it.

(I totally realize that this is all fantasy and I will be going crazy waiting for a referral but it's my blog and I can tell the story anyway I choose to.)

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4 comments:

  1. Wishing you a smooth paperchase!!!

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  2. My heart is truly smiling for you! I can't wait to meet the future Focht member. Life is pretty cool right now, huh? :)

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  3. Congratulations! What an exciting journey... wishing you all the best!

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  4. Happy paper pregnancy! Congratulations! Save all your info for me... hopefully we'll be able to follow not too far behind you.

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