I just submitted our preliminary application and registration fee!!!!
We have chosen to adopt from Ethiopia. We have tentatively requested a child 0-2, no gender preference. I will be getting the BIG application via PDF shortly... and then I need to fill it out.
Location: Far Away, Far Away, I wanna go far away. To a new life on a new shoreline. Where the water is blue and the people are new. To another island, in another life.
I'm excited. I was giving myself until July to decide, so the decision was made 2 months early. I talked to dh yesterday and he said that he trusts my judgement (oh the pressure!).
So, we may have to send the application back and forth to Iraq for signatures, but this is really exciting to have a plan and be on the road to that plan.
On this day, I promise myself that I will take better care of my children's mother. I will eat healthy food, drink clean water, avoid fake foods, run, swim, climb, and stretch; I will read and I will take time to just be.
That's awesome! Do you know how long it will take? Will you travel to Ethiopia to get your new child?
Well, we have to have our homestudy completed, and that won't be able to be done until October when dh is home from Iraq for R&R. I hope to have most of it done before he gets here, so that only his stuff is left to finish. Then we have to prepare the dossier - then it needs to be translated for the Ethiopian courts. Once it's accepted (hoping that will be done by next Feb at the latest) we wait for a referral, which could happen anywhere from 1 month to 15 mos (typically within that time frame). Under a year old child usually takes longer, but we are open to up to 2 years old... so we expect it to be shorter. After the referral we will travel to Ethiopia for about a week, but that is AFTER the adoption is actually finalized! So when we go there, the baby WILL be ours. There is something that you have to do in the US consulate office before leaving Ethiopia, so that is why we have to travel. One of us must travel, so we may not both travel... but if we can figure that out, we definitely will. It's a long process and I am sure there will be glitches along the way... but we are ready.
Thanks. I feel all giddy inside. DH told the guys he works with that he is going to be a Daddy again... lol... and they were like, "Dude, you've been gone for 5 months." Then he told them it was adoption. He likes to play with people's minds.
That's so exciting, Heather!! Do tell more of the story--in the last installment I read, you were still thinking stateside, right?
yeah, we were seriously looking at a few places to work with for an AA/biracial newborn. And while that has a LOT of positives for us, some of the drawbacks were big for us. I don't think an open adoption plan is right for us. We have more than enough relationships to keep. kwim? Plus the cost... there is no set cost/fees anywhere, and that is just not something we could work with not knowing some more upfront. I also am not sure how well we would be recieved by birth parents... military family with Dad deploying, larger family, etc.
So, I narrowed some of the international choices down at the same time. We had looked into Korea, and while that has a certain appeal (dh had been there a couple of years ago) it just didn't have the right things for us. The more we researched, and prayed, the more we felt led to orphan adoption from a place where the child really would have a life that is NOT ok. We narrowed it down to Ethiopia and Rwanda... more prayer and talking with dh.
Then last week I came across Wide Horizon's for Children. I got information (again, I had gotten information from them a couple of other times in the last couple of years). The Ethiopia program is established (unlike with WACAP, it's a newer program there). They also have a video on their website that tells a LOT about the program and the facilities they have in Ethiopia. There are pictures from the last 2 years' trips to bring children home... and the pictures just got me. I really felt a stirring that I hadn't felt before. I saw those precious faces... and I know my baby is going to come from there.
You know what is really cool? We are requesting a baby under 2... so our baby could very possibly already be born. I know he or she will come to us at the perfect time... but at the same time, our baby is probably already born.
When we first started this journey, I had dreams of holding a baby... probably between 12 and 18 months old... and that baby had very dark skin and a lot of curly hair. I was rocking this baby everytime in my dream. Sometimes the baby was a girl, sometimes a boy. Most of the time I could only see this baby's face looking back at me as I rocked him/her, though.
I haven't told my Dad yet. Not sure how he will react. He makes comments about larger families all the time. Although, I am not sure how he came to that view... because he had 4 kids and he and Mom fostered when we were growing up... so we ALWAYS had lots of kids in the house. Of course... maybe that is why he can't imagine why anyone would choose a larger family in these days.
I did tell my mother, and she bit her tongue. She did ask me how I thought we would do while dh is away and I am dealing with the other kids' issues. Well... dh won't be away by the time this baby comes home... or else he'll be gone again. it's just part of our life in the military. And the other kids' issues aren't anything beyond normal - and we are dealing. yes, sometimes I am drained, but my family is not complete yet.
I guess I should start a new blog on my website for the adoption. I didn't want to start one there, because I didn't want to put energy into it until we actually were on our way. And now we are!
Oh, Adam told me tonight that I should park in the 'expecting mother's' parking spot because I am now expecting. It would be an awful long gestation! lol
Military wife of a deployed soldier. 
Wowza, how exciting! I am a bit jealous, but I will live through you vicariously. 
There is something that you have to do in the US consulate office before leaving Ethiopia, so that is why we have to travel. One of us must travel, so we may not both travel... but if we can figure that out, we definitely will. 
He likes to play with people's minds.
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