Homestudy? check!

Well our homestudy has been approved and we are now what is called "homestudy ready!" Quite exciting- now things can really roll along :)

Again the homestudy has nothing to do w/ the actual adoption agency. It's the state okaying us. Our adoption agency reveiwed it today and said it looks great and to send it on over!

So whats next:
* Our 1st set of Immigration papers can now be mailed out and in a 2-3 months the we get a paper from the gov't Okaying us to adopt internationaly.

* We also are finished gathering our paperwork for ethiopia called the 'dossier.' We are notarizing tons of papers this week and hopefully next week I will go to the secretary of the states office- drop off the dossier- and then she 'Apostiles' those documents...basicaly she is notarizing the notaries! I think that I can get those back in a couple days. Then I make copies of the dossier and send it off to our agency. Once our agency recieves our 1st set of fee's they will send that dossier off to ethiopia and we can begin the waiting game.

What's the waiting Game?
Sova was considered an older child and was what they call a 'waiting child' so we never waited for a child refferal...every thing happened so fast!
Because my brain will not funtion properly if we take in a "talking" child  ;)  we are adopting a baby anywhere from 0-12 months. To even things out around here and to make Sova-Grace stop complaining about NOT being able to share a room w/ someone we are adopting another girl. (every gal needs a sister right?)

So once those inital fee's make it in they say the expected wait for a 'child refferal' is between 4-12 mos. I have been monitoring my agencys stats though and I have never seen a refferal take 12 months yet...our guestimate is that we would be traveling by the end of next summer?


What we are waiting for
* The 1st set of fee's is $5,700. Breathe people- yes, it's alot...and yes I know that's not what tagsales normally make  :)
So no...we dont know how that will get paid BUT we DO know this:
God told us to start this adoption...we did.
God has all the silver and gold...and He Will provide for us.
Please keep out tagsale/ adoption finances in prayer!

Also, now that we have a homestudy we can apply for adoption grants. (just when I thought the paperwork was over...these grants are almost worse!)
We are also trying to set up a matching grant fund- where whatever a donor gives toward the adoption, the company will match!
Very Cool...

So there you have it :)
Babystep #2 is checked off...and we are that much closer to holding our daughter!
 Lot's of work ahead of us but that's what keeps life exciting right?!

My Albertine

(see song list- 'Albertine')  This song is about the artist's visit to Africa and her connection she made to an orphan named Albertine who survived the genocides in Rwanda.
Her lyrics (mostly scripture) resonate in me:

"Now that I have seen, I am responsible, Faith w/out deeds is dead; now that I have held you in my arms, I cannot let go till you are;
I am on a plane across a distant sea, but I carry you in me; I will tell the world, I will tell them where I've been, I will keep my word, I will tell them Albetine."

India is my Albertine.

This little girl in the red dress is my Albetine.
This day that I anticipated for a whole year- I could not wait to spend the day at Sova's orpahnage and see where she grew up. I am embarresed to say- once we got Sova I couldnt wait to get out of there. It wasnt even the conditions, the heat, or the over crowdedness- it was the Other Children. I was so focused on getting Sova that I guess I wasnt prepared to spend the day w/ orphans that were Not going home ...it was a horrible feeling.

This little girl (red dress) wandered in our room right as we met Sova. She stood in the doorway and watched us.





Even though I was fully in the moment and thrilled to be holding my daughter- I could not get over the fact that there was this little orphan who stood near by watching Mike and I love on her little friend. Sova was getting the hugs and love she has been longing for but then...what about this other girl...why was she not being held and doted upon...it really hurt. You can see in the pics- she was trying so hard to get in our family moment and feel wanted too.






Here the same girl is 20 minutes later... in a small, loud playroom with 20 other preschoolers...passed out from either exhaustion or possibly sadness


Looking back I know we were in process overload and shock- our senses where being ambushed, but I still regret not loving on the other children more...that is one mistake we will not make in Ethiopia!






At the orphanage, children were craving our attention calling out "mommy" "mommy" to me. Once I answered a little boy's 'mommy' call and he froze- beamed and then held up a picure he was drawing for me to compliment him on.
The children love visitors but we could not help not to feel horrible for coming for only one child. Over and over again Mike and I would repeat to eachother, 'I wish we can take more home.'



You cant experience something like this and then go home and forget.
I dont want to forget either.
Sova has not forgotten...it is so ingrained her her memory I dont think she ever will, nor will she let us forget. Tonight she once again told me that she was crying for me in India...2 years home and still wondering what took us so long...

"Now that I have seen, I am responsible, faith without deeds is dead."

T-Shirt time!

Well the link itself is pretty self expainitory.
We found another cool company that helps out w/ adoption expenses.
(Where were these 2 years ago?)

It's really simple...if you purchase a t-shirt from www.adoptionbug.com/turner (or just use the side link on blog) that company handles the shirt purchases, we get notified of the purchaser (just like the coffee) and then a portion of the proceeds go into our adoption account. For the proceeds to get to our account you would have to purchase one of the 6 shirts on our Turner family page.

Adoption is expensive and we dont expect to fund this through t-shirts and coffee BUT we think it's a fun way for people to get involved in this adoption and at the same time get some cool stuff :)

We for one cant wait to sport these shirts to advocate adoption BUT for those of you who arent 't-shirt' people...they can make cozy jammys or gym clothes!
We will also be bringing clothes to donate to the orphange- and what's cool about one of theses shirts is that it is in their language...I definatly want to bring some of these w/ us to doante.

I'm also glad to see that they have a woman's 'fitted' shirt option.
There are 6 different designs...enjoy!

And just like the coffee (link on side)
please help spread the word to your friends & family...Thanks for being part of this!