Thursday, February 17, 2011

One step closer and a reminder...


I have been wanting to put up since mid-January. I heard this radio broadcast on my way to work one mid-January morning. I listen to Focus On the Family each morning while on the road to my job about 15 minutes away, and I heard a program of Haiti Earthquake survivor Dan Wooley. If you'd like to hear it yourself, you can visit the Focus On the Family website (www.focusonthefamily.com), and search for the January 12 broadcast episode called "Rising from the Rubble of Haiti". This survivor speaks of his hours and days of waiting in the rubble of his 6 story hotel following the earthquake, and how it felt to be found and rescued. He speaks of a French rescue team who tells Dan (and those trapped with him) that they know that they are there and that they would be coming for them. I continued to listen as he talked about how it felt to know that he wasn't just lost, that he had been found and his name had been placed on a list to be rescued...that he was not just stuck somewhere without anyone having knowledge he was there waiting and what a wonderful feeling that was.

Wow. It struck me like a ton of bricks...is this how the orphaned child feel when there is someone to claim them or long to feel when they are waiting for someone to come? Do they wonder if they are just "stuck" where life has them...that no one knows they are even there to come for? Do they know that there name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life? That they are not lost to God? Oh Lord, thank you for continually breaking my heart and reminding me of the orphaned and unclaimed children in our world...and reminding me of how it felt to be claimed by you. Help me to change the world for at least one of them.

On another note, our home study (after moving and some other what-nots) has finally been approved! So we can now begin the next process of applying to the United States Citizenship & Immigration Services Dept...then on to the dossier! Yee Ha!

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About this blog

Welcome to our blog! Thanks for dropping by and visiting us! This blog was created for those of you who wish to follow along with us in our journey as we answer God's call to adoption. Ultimately it is our opportunity to rise up and do what we can to fulfill and make known to others the mandate of James 1:27 - "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after the orphans and widows in their distress and to keep onself from being polluted by the world."

About Us

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We are a mid-west married couple of 9 years, striving to care for the 147 million orphans around the world!

Our Adoption Timeline

11/28/11 - We are back to waiting for a new referral
11/22/11 - We receive word from our caseworker that we have lost our referral
9/21/11 - Referral paperwork and international ped review completed and sent!
9/4/11 - We receive our referral! A precious 6 yr old boy!
6/27/11 - We have finally arrived to the waitlist!
6/17/11 - re-doing some documents for the dossier
6/8/11 - Sent dossier off to our agency for review
6/4/11 - Our FDL FINALLY ARRIVES! Yahoo!
5/24/11 - We get word from our Case Manager that we may submit our dossier without our FDL! Yea!
3/30/11 - USCIS fingerprint appointments for Dept. of Homeland Security

2/9/11 - Notarized homestudy rec'd and re-mailed to AGCI!
1/7/11 - We close on the sale of our house in NW Iowa
11/30/10 - 3rd and final homestudy visit, dossier paperwork completed
11/24/10 - house back in NW Iowa finally goes on the market for sale
10/26/10 - 2nd homestudy visit
10/15/10 - Eric is finally able to secure his company transfer and relocate himself as well
9/30/10 - After securing living arrangements post-relocation, we have our first homestudy visit
8/17/10 - We receive notification that some paperwork families will be transferring caseworkers...we are transferred to Toni!
8/17/10 - Nic relocates to central Iowa to begin new teaching position the following day...a move is in the works...adoption paperwork, education and homestudy arrangements put on hold
8/13/10 - Nic rec'd call from a friend to interview for a last-minute teacher opening in central Iowa
6/7/10 - First paperwork call with our caseworker, Brandi; we begin the adoption education and dossier paperwork process
5/15/10 - Mailed orientation packet documents and first payment
4/13/10 - AGCI adoption orientation packet rec'd in mail
4/8/10 - AGCI international adoption application as part of the Ethiopia program approved!
3/16/10 - Official adoption application submitted to AGCI with initial fee
11/01/09 - Pre-application submitted to AGCI
10/27/09 - Request for more information on international adoption received by our (now) agency, All God's Children International

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