The Adoption Process Begins

Pam and I are now considered PAPs (Prospective Adoptive Parents).

When Pam & I chose this group of 2 brothers and 1 sister, (3-2-B ours) we rely on God speaking to our hearts. I'm not sure how to describe it other than when we looked at the long, long list of pictures our hearts tugged at certain children and didn't at others. It may seem shallow at first blush, but I'm not sure how else to say it. We essentially did the same for all 4 of our others. We truly believe that God blesses us in any way He chooses so we leave it up to Him to choose the children for us. Since all we have to start with are pictures, we pray over the pictures and let our hearts be our guides. Since He lives there, we trust His judgement to be true.

The 3-2-B ages are (approximately) 8 (Boy), 9 (Girl), 12 (B0y). So we will have with us at home: 7, 8, 9, 9, 12, 13, & 15! I've tried out saying all the names in succession by age; it's hilarious. We intend to change their names to give them American first names and retain their Ethiopian first & last names as middle names. We're still working out what names we want. Pam and I haven't gotten totally on the same page yet on them.

We've started the paperwork with Christian World Adoption (CWA). When we started this with DJ, they called it the "Paper Dragon". It is aptly named, let me tell you. Now it's called "The Paper Chase". We have to get our birth certificates, background checks (Pam and I have lived in 3 states in the past 10 years), State fingerprints, financial status, personal references, medical exams, mental/emotional evaluations, etc., etc., etc. It all of it has to be notified, verified, certified, vilified, heck-if-I'd... :o) We have to take adoptive parenting classes, as well. After that, it's all approved by a social worker, then CWA. Then it's all sent to Ethiopia, translated into Amharic and sent on through the government system there. We are expecting about a 9 month process (how apropos). All along the way, we are paying for this stamp, that signature, this process, that class/book, this fee that fee, etc., etc.

We need/want/have to have/treasure your prayers for us through this process. We need wisdom, peace, strength, and resources. Our 3-2-B need prayers for peace, strength, health an safety.

God Bless each of you for reading this and praying along with us.