thoughts from a few weeks ago

From April 6th…

Last night we dropped our first big chunk of change on this adoption. Watching that money leave our bank account made this whole adoption thing much more of a reality and left me more excited than ever!

We had a great phone orientation with someone from Gladney last night. She laid out everything that lies ahead of us as well as our expected timeline. As I frantically jotted down notes about I600-A forms, fingerprinting, and our homestudy, I started to feel slightly overwhelmed. But then I quickly remembered that God has led us to do this and is in complete control of everything surrounding this adoption.

We agreed that we would request one infant younger than 12 months of age. She said that this paperwork stage tends to take four to five months. After our huge stack of paperwork (i.e. the “dossier”) is sent to Rwanda, it will then be translated. Once translated, it will then hopefully be approved by the government’s Ministry of Family and Gender, after which we will get our referral (a picture of and info about our little guy). Interestingly, this is all a government process. Whereas referrals in Ethiopia are completed by Gladney representatives, our child in Rwanda will be chosen for us by the nuns of the orphanage. Initially, we were struck with how odd this whole process seems, but we realize that ultimately God is choosing our child for us and is orchestrating everything in a manner far more flawless than I can even imagine.

Oh and the most exciting part- after our power of attorney in Rwanda appears in court for us and the adoption is finalized, we will then travel to pick up our little boy four to five weeks later! We will first travel to Rwanda for about one week and must then head to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (or possibly to Nairobi, Kenya… I am secretly hoping for this option !!) to get his visa. I cannot believe I get to return to Africa next year… to pick up our son!! This is all too exciting for words.