We have accepted a referral for a beautiful 10-year old deaf girl! That's right, we are adopting from Ethiopia again!
"Wait, how did this happen?" you might ask. "Another adoption????"
Yup. :)
So
it has been exactly 25 days since we considered/decided/filled out
100 pieces of paper/accepted a referral/started our homestudy/started
our dossier. That's right. It only took 17 days for me to have my
HS (at least on my side) almost complete, as well as half my dossier. :)
That's AFTER reapplying to my agency, filling out that paperwork and
having a meeting with my social worker for approval, requesting my
girl's file, and accepting her file and all the paperwork that's gone
along with it, I've also recorded and edited a
fundraising video, and made up a care package for her. We are on FIRE.
:) The paperwork doesn't even scare me this time around. In fact, it's
way easier. My goal is to complete everything in record time. Like, I'd
like it done in two weeks total. Probably three is more reasonable, but
we will see.
So. I guessing you're wondering how this all came about.
A month
after we brought Levi and Zahria home, a 12-year old deaf girl showed up
on the Waiting Child List through our agency. She was in the same
situation that Levi had been in; no language, no education.....basically
no hope. I remember feeling SO bad for her and wishing someone would go
get her. We prayed for her and then we basically forgot about
everything except trying to raise our kids.
In April, she
started showing up in my life. People were messaging me about her,
tagging me in comments and posts on our agency's Facebook page, and the
families visiting Ethiopia were constantly talking about her. I started
thinking about her again and praying for her. Sometime in May, I started
crying about her. I would think about how alone she must feel, how sad
she was (getting teased and picked on), how insanely horrible it would
be to not be able to communicate or express your feelings. I would come
home from work or an errand and just cry. This was happening every two
weeks or so pretty much all summer. I was heartbroken for this little
girl.
Then, 25 days ago (Sunday, August 18th), I was at
work at 4am. Halfway through my shift, I felt this need to go online and
check her Waiting Child List profile. I almost didn't do it; after all,
I had the short paragraph that summarizes the basic facts of her life
memorized. Why read it again? But something (obviously God) was pushing
me to open the page. I clicked and scrolled down to her picture. (Her
picture that was listed looked so sad.) I read through her description
and basic information and then did a double-take. There, at the bottom
of the paragraph, were TWO VIDEO LINKS. I've been involved with this
agency for the past four years and I have NEVER seen a video link. It's
always, "For a video of this child, contact your Family Coordinator for
permission."
I sat there for a few seconds, frozen. I was scared to open the video. I think somehow I already knew. Clicking that video would change me. Nothing would be the same.
I clicked the link.
A
blurry video took over my screen and I saw the outline of a
child, struggling to sign the Amharic alphabet. Then the camera came
into focus and this precious little girl was staring directly at me. I'm
talking, RIGHT. INTO. MY. SOUL. Those beautiful eyes spoke straight to
my heart.
"Mom. I'm trying so hard. Come get me."
I started
freaking sobbing. I mean,
SOBBING. Tears streaming down my face, in the
middle of work, I lost my heart to that little girl. I was sobbing so
hard that my friend across from me started crying, and she didn't even
know what was going on. I logged off from my work and just sat there,
bawling my eyes out. There was no doubt, no hesitation, no wondering if
I was being overly-emotional. That was
my child.
My daughter. And she
was lonely and sad and trapped on the other side of the world. And I
hadn't known it. She'd been sitting there, waiting for me, and I had no
idea. I was broken.
I left work and drove home. Poor Abe
was sleeping peacefully when I barged into our bedroom crying and woke
him up. Between sobs I said, "We. Have. To. Go. Get. Her," and even in
his sleepy state, he held me and listened while I told him what
happened. I cried hysterically for about three hours, while Abe
just listened and held me. The poor kids woke up during this and after
being assured that no one had died and everything would be okay, they
went to the livingroom and watched a movie.
Around 9am (I had
to be at church by 9:30am to interpret), Abe said, "I think this is God
telling us to go." "We CAN'T," I cried, and listed four or five reasons
why it was impossible for adopting her to work out at the time. "I have
to go to church; we'll have to talk later," I added and blindly left the
room and went upstairs. The second, I mean, the SECOND I hit the top
step, my phone buzzed. I had texted a neutral party earlier asking about
their opinion on possibly starting a second adoption for this little
girl, and the text was from that person. The text said, "I say go
with the child on the waiting list." It was like God himself came down,
stood in front of me and said, "GO." I turned around, went right back to
Abe and said, "Okay. Let's go."
We went to church and strangely enough the message was about facing your
Goliath (impossible situation) and knowing that the fight isn't in your
hands. David fought and killed a lion and a bear with his BARE HANDS.
So he totally trusted God to help him again, and to take down Goliath.
David was unafraid in a scary and impossible situation. He only had to
look back at what God has already done in his life to know that the
future was secure. My ears were burning as I interpreted. Clearly, the
whole Levi and Zahria situation was our lion/bear situation. And now we
were facing a Goliath. I looked at Abe and we rolled our eyes. Obviously
God had had this message arranged just for us on this specific day.
(To listen to the message about David, click here.)
Right at the end of church another person came over to interpret the
music so I went and sat next to Abe. He reached for my hand just as I
was sliding into my chair and whispered, "I want A****." ("A****" is
another little deaf boy we found on our embassy trip last year.) I
whispered right back, "Okay," and we burst into laughter right in the
middle of church. Apparently we are just going to adopt a million
deaf tweens/teens and for some reason that was hysterically funny. But
that's a story for another day. ;)
We went home and I spent all afternoon filling out the application to
our agency. I called my old family coordinator and left a voicemail. I
emailed the intake coordinator. I emailed our social worker. I wrote out
a list of forty or so reasons why are our family should be approved to
view the file for our little girl.
And then I waited. Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday. Wednesday afternoon we
finally heard back. (Anyone who knows adoption time understands that
three days is an eternity.) We had been accepted back into the program.
Long story short (I never do tell a short story, do I?), we had to talk
with our agency and social worker regarding why we were
qualified/ready/prepared etc., to view the file and that went relatively
easily. I mean, I work with words for a living. Give me a chance to
explain something to you and I can probably convince you to see my point
of view. And my lawyer-like OCD tendencies get me compliments (I took it as a compliment anyway! ;)) like this
from my social worker, "When you go after something, you cover all your
bases." Anyway, we got her file Thursday afternoon. I called them right
back and told them we wanted to accept it. You're supposed to have two weeks to do the official review and acceptance. I had it done in two hours. They emailed me a stack of
paperwork. I signed/filled out/completed it and sent it back, along with
all the money in our bank account. Friday morning we got confirmation.
As far as referrals went, she was ours! (Not legally yet though; we have
to go through court for that.)
Saturday all day I did paperwork. Sunday morning I interpreted church
again. This time the message was about Elijah and how God led him to
Kerith Ravine and Elijah had to TOTALLY trust/depend on God. His life
was in danger and he had nothing. God sent BIRDS to feed him every
morning and every night. Elijah didn't get enough food for a week, or
even a day. He had nothing stored up. He simply had to depend on God to
care for him, one step at a time. Oddly enough, God is showing us that
He is caring for us during this crazy adventure too. Our savings account
had literally to the DOLLAR enough money for our application fee,
homestudy fee, referral acceptance fees, post placement and agency fees
and USCIS (immigration). Like, to the dollar. And in total dependence
and trust in God, we put everything we have into this little girl.
Because we know it's what we are supposed to do. And crazily enough, we
aren't worried. God's got this and we just need to follow. He has proved
Himself before to us (not that He even needed to, but it sure makes
following and doing something that seems totally crazy a LOT easier!)
and we are just GOING.
(To listen to the message about Elijah, click here.
)
So what happens now? Well, basically we need to do our homestudy and our
dossier done in two months. Usually this paperwork takes about eight
months. But because we already have a referral AND because there is a
new PAIR process being implemented at immigration (USCIS), we need to
move as fast as possible. PAIR is basically an extra investigation to
make sure that the U.S. side approves of the match BEFORE the family
goes to court in Ethiopia. It's supposed to help protect families and
children.....but it also adds up to three months of waiting before you
can get a court date. Meaning it could be 5+ months before we travel. It
all depends. Not cool. And then the wait time between our court and
embassy trip could still be three months. Again, NOT COOL. Anyway, back
to paperwork. I have spent the last three weeks moving as fast as possible
on it. Like, every day all day. As far as my end goes, my homestudy
paperwork is done. Even all the online trainings that we had to redo (12
hours each). Seriously, that was cruel and unnecessary. I'll never get
back those brain cells. And I can't justify my precious time, and much
less hundreds of dollars to hear things like, "Your child may have
emotional and/or behavioral issues," and "Try to keep your sense of
humor. Sign up for a joke of the day through email." I'll tell you where
the joke is at. Anyway, our trainings are done and so almost everything
else. I am just waiting on a few things to arrive by mail (letter of
employment, new marriage certificate, etc.) FBI fingerprinting, child
abuse clearance, financials, everything. Of course, I need my social
worker to do the actual visits and write up. But my side is DONE. First
visit is tonight, as well as our 12-month (it's a little early)
post-placement visit for Levi and Z. As far as my dossier goes, it's all
done except for the same paperwork I am waiting for in my homestudy,
plus we have to drive to Albany to get it state certified and
everything. And I need to file with USCIS for my I-171H but I can't do
that until my homestudy is done. So just waiting on my poor social
worker and then my I-171H and fingerprinting approval and THEN we can
start the long wait till court. Is your head spinning?
So let's talk about our girl. :) I wish I could share information about
her, but I can't. I CAN say that we will be naming her Natalie, and that
is how I will refer to her from now on. :) We were so blessed to get
some pictures of her already, and we are totally in love. She looks very
sassy. :) Abe says he bets her personality is a lot like mine (oh boy!
;)). We even got a video clip and although she doesn't have language,
she's going on and on about makeup, jewelry, hair, clothes, and shoes. I
started laughing my head off. That is so. my. child. THEN we got two
more pictures; one of her in a group photo where everyone is smiling
and she is making a kiss face, and one where she is rocking some
aviators. Definitely an Ethiopian carbon copy of me. I love it.
I can't wait to post a picture of Natalie and me with sunglasses and kisses! ;)
I also spent three days making a fundraising video for Natalie. You can view it on the bottom left,
here. Please share it!!!
Thanks so much for all your love and support. :) Stay tuned!
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