This past weekend we finished the 24 hours of CO state-required adoption education/parenting classes. We took the 3-day class in Denver with 9 other couples who are all adopting internationally. These wonderful people are adopting from India, China, Vietnam, Poland, Peru, and Thailand. We were the only people adopting from Ethiopia. The class was sponsored by Lutheran Family Services, and the instructors were awesome!! We learned a lot and were able to share little nuggets of parenting information that we've gained through the almost 18 years of raising 5 children.  Now, with our adoption education completed, we only have a few more papers to fill out, and our homestudy should be finalized by next week. .  God's grace is sufficient, and this will all happen in His perfect timing.

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Last week we had our last homestudy visit!! Now, we just have tons of paperwork to complete, and the social worker wants it all done by mid-March. Hopefully, the homestudy will be complete by the end of March. I know to some this seems like we are taking things slowly....well, we are. Life has been quite hectic since Gary returned from deployment, and we just don't seem to be completing the adoption steps quickly. We are at peace with everything; God will bring the perfect child/children to our family in His perfect timing.

Another note of change...we are no longer using Commonwealth Adoptions as our local agency. They had some restructuring go on in the Colorado office, and we chose to follow our social worker to another agency. So, we are now with St. Philomena Adoptions out of Aurora, CO. It is so exciting to see things come together...even if it is very slowly!!

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Our first homestudy visit was today! Our social worker, Linda, was very nice and  very easy to talk to. She toured the house but didn't inspect every little corner and closet like I was afraid of. The kids did an awesome of helping me clean up!! She asked basic questions about the children, personalities, etc. and reviewed the adoption process. We've decided to submit our paperwork to adopt a single boy about 3-4 years old. However, if he comes with a little sister, we won't complain .

This is getting exciting!! Our homestudy should be complete in about a month. Then, our dossier is compiled and sent to Ethiopia. We hope to have the referral of our son by summer!

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We are so excited to finally be making decisions and moving forward with our adoption journey. Our local agency is Commonwealth Adoption out of Denver, and we have applied to WACAP for their Ethiopia waiting child program. All of the representatives from these agencies have been wonderfully professional, and our social worker is awesome! We have our first homestudy appointment set for February 4th; there is so much paperwork to complete even before then!

The emotional ups and downs of international adoption have already begun.  A few weeks ago we were getting excited about the possibility of adopting a special needs child from China. We were starting to fall in love with a little 4yo hard-of-hearing boy and had even submitted paperwork registering interest in him. However, we found out that with China's new 2007 requirements, our family does not qualify to adopt a child from China. With debts incurred over the last few years with Gary's college, our net worth is not high enough . It's disappointing to know that we COULD care for this boy but on paper we don't "qualify".

So...we are again focusing our efforts toward Ethiopia. We have a loving home to share, and everyone is trusting that the Lord will bring His divinely-chosen children to join our family!

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Thank you so much to ButterFly4Him for creating my new blog design!! We love it!! Thank you fellow Air Force family!

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The Waiting Child
by Debbie Bodie

I saw you meet your child today.
You kissed your baby joyfully
And as you walked away with her,
I played pretend you'd chosen me.

I'm happy for the baby,
yet inside I'm aching miserably.
I want to plead as you go by,
"Does no-one want a child of three?"

I saw you meet your child today
In love with her before you met
And as I watched you take her out
I knew it wasn't my turn yet.

I recognize you from last year!
I knew I'd seen your face before!
But you came for a second babe.
Does no-one want a child of four?

I saw you meet your child today
But this time there was
something new.
A nurse came in and took MY hand
And then she gave my hand to you.

Can this be true?
I'm almost six!
And there are infants here you see?
But then you kissed me and I knew
The child you chose this time was ME.

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For years I have thought of compiling a cookbook with recipes from family and friends. As we go through our adoption journey, this made perfect sense! We are in the process now of collecting recipes; our goal is 800 recipes . Currently, we have 116 entered. The final product will be a 3-ring padded binder with illustrated covers and dividers. It is a quality product published by Morris Press. Once the cookbook is finished, we are trusting the Lord that people from around the country will be interested in purchasing them. This is so exciting!

So.............if anyone has any favorite, uncopyrighted recipes to submit, please send them via email to us with your full name and city & state of residence. All contributions are greatly appreciated!

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I've created this blog to provide a way for family and friends to keep up with our journey through adoption. Just so everyone is aware, we are beginning the process in February to adopt a boy (age 2-4) and a girl (under 2) to complete our family. The other children are very excited and can't wait to meet their new brother and sister!

Currently, we are still in the "searching for an agency" stage of our journey. Lately, as adoption from Ethiopia has become quite popular, the number of licensed (and unlicensed) agencies has greatly increased. This makes the choosing of an agency quite difficult . Some agencies choose not to adopt out 2 unrelated children at the same time, so we can eliminate those, but the remaining still provide quite a challenge in deciding. In Colorado, we must have a licensed agency here to represent us in the adoption (and provide the homestudy). So, if the international agency we choose is not licensed in CO, we must then choose a local agency, as well. Oh, the decisions! At this point, we are truly trusting for the Lord's direction.

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