Friday, September 14, 2012

Conversations at Dawn



I've been awake since 4:00am, thinking about one thing... our little girl.
Wondering if she's ok.  Is she warm & tucked into bed right now, like our kiddos here.
Is she safe?  Happy?  Did someone pray over her before she fell asleep?

This whole adoption thing has wrecked me.

How is it possible to love someone so deeply... someone you've never even met?!

But, I do...

And, He does...




Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Little By Little...



We got a new number yesterday!
#73


I had a friend ask about the waiting list.  Specifically, "how it all worked."
So, here's a quick rundown...


Once your dossier is approved in Honduras, you are logged in to a master waiting list.
The Honduran council meets once a month (most of the time!) to match a child with a family.  
This process of matching is called, "receiving a referral."  
Sometimes the council will refer 6 children a month... sometimes only 3.


Generally... a few weeks after new children are matched with families, the waiting list starts to move.
Little by little...





Commit + Trust + Be Still + Wait

"Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him."    Ps. 37


Thanks for reading...
Kristin


Thursday, August 16, 2012

Finally!!!


We finally heard that our dossier has been accepted in Honduras...
& we received our first waiting list number!!!

We are officially #76!

When I read the email, I was completely overwhelmed!  It finally felt "real" that we were adopting...
I literally felt pregnant, all over again.

Sadly, our kiddos were out of town & we had to wait a whole week to tell them.  We wanted to do it in person & not over the phone.

So, I did what any normal pregnant lady would do... I got on Pinterest.

I reviewed other adoption blogs, read more about Honduras, & searched the internet for photos of Honduran children.  Wondering at each glance... "Will her hair be that long?  Will her eyes be that beautiful?  How old will she be?  Will she have dimples...??"

So many questions & feelings....

For now though... we have a number.
And that number represents a life.

Thanks be to God.


Grateful,
Kristin

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

5th Grade + Forever




I literally don’t have many memories before him.  
We’ve known each other since 5th grade.
10 years old.
The age that our daughter is now.
We were kids… babies, really.


Today we celebrate 13 years.
And, in our 27 years together… 
I’ve realized I could never live life without him.



Happy Anniversary, my love.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Keeping It Real

The waiting is getting difficult... 
I'll just go ahead & keep it real.


I have been disheartened this week to learn that when our dossier was presented to the IHNFA, they requested another letter from us.  Another! Document!


And-- if that wasn't enough to bum me out, we just received word yesterday that the IHNFA is requesting a NEW medical form (for all 4 us!) that needs to be submitted with all dossiers.


What does all this really mean??  
More time to wait....


We have to make separate appointments to generate all the needed documents.  Take those to be notarized.  Take them to be certified in their respective counties (different than a notary).  Then, take all those back down to the State to be apostilled.
Once all that is completed, we overnight them to our agency in DC... & then they send the package on to Honduras.
And, when that happens... we pray that our dossier will be reviewed & accepted QUICKLY!


As a gentle nudge from the Lord, I read this today:


Galatians 5:22

 22-23 But what happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.


Thanks for reading & for caring.  I really hate being a Debbie Downer.
Committed,
Kristin



Tuesday, March 27, 2012

DTH

Just a quick little update to say that we have an official DTH!  

If you're illiterate to adoption lingo (like myself) let me fill you in... 

Once your dossier arrives in country, you're given a special abbreviation (depending on which country you're actually adopting from).  
Ours is called a DTH, which stands for Dossier To Honduras.  
However, there is also the DTE (Ethiopia) and a DTC (China) & so on...  

Why is this significant??  Because it's basically the "time-stamp" that begins logging your wait time.

So, with that little bit of education... our DTH is officially 3/16/2012.
Everything is now being translated to EspaƱol.

So, we wait...

Friday, March 2, 2012

One Giant Exhale

We mailed off our dossier!!!  
Over 500 pages of personal documents, tests, & evaluations are now traveling to our agency (AWAA) in D.C.
Bless that FedEx driver!  :)


I'm breathing a little easier since yesterday.
Here are some photos...







Photo taken by a kind (& camera phobic) FedEx man.  :)






Future Timeline:


Our dossier will be sent from our agency to our attorney in Honduras.  It will then be translated into Spanish and authenticated by the Honduran government. After that, it will be presented and approved by INHFA.  Once approved, we will be officially placed on the waiting list for our little girl.  
Timeline for all of this:  Absolutely No Clue.


Here's what we will be doing next:  Fundraising, applying for grants, & trying to wait patiently.





Friday, February 24, 2012

Progress & Paperwork

Lots of great progress happening around here lately!

On February 9th (my own adopted father's birthday... I love that "coincidence") we had an appointment at Immigration Services (USCIS) to have our fingerprints taken.

One week later, I opened up our mailbox to a sweet surprise... Our I-600 APPROVAL!!!  Yay!
This document states that we have legal approval from the US government to adopt.

The day after that, February 16th, Darrell and I had our psychiatric evaluation and testing completed... looks like we are not too crazy, afterall.

And... over the past two days I have been running around like a mad woman getting forms notarized & re-notarized, typing letters, scanning, emailing, and organizing our mountain of paperwork!

Next on the agenda is to have everything apostilled (that little gold sticker the government sticks on legal papers)... it's basically a notary-to-the-notary.
We do this at the Secretary of State office (thankfully we live in Nashville).

Then, we will travel to Atlanta to get the Honduran Consulate letter... (and, maybe a celebratory stop at Ikea while we're there).

I am hopeful that we will be able to mail our dossier next week... where it will then be reviewed, translated to Spanish, and sent off to Honduras.

Oh friends... what a JOYFUL day that will be!!!

I am definitely ready to have this part out.of.my.life.
Paperwork is the pits!



And you know I love to take some photos... so, here you go.  

My handsome husband's reflection in the USCIS office window.
Apparently, they are pretty serious about their rules.  
Including photography.
Rats.


Happy Friday!
Kristin

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

A little adoption update...

Happy New Year!


Thank you to all our sweet friends who have asked, encouraged, and prayed for our adoption.
Here's a quick little adoption update to catch everyone up to speed:


1.  I mailed our I-600 application last week!  Yay!


Basically, this is a document that declares that an orphan that has been adopted (or will be adopted) by a US citizen is an immediate relative to that citizen.  


Now, we wait (an average of 75 days) to get the approved document back from USCIS... before we can mail our dossier.  
We still have plenty of work to accomplish during the wait time... things like our psychiatric evaluations & additional references written.




2.  The Honduras government is a hot mess right now.  They recently opened investigations into IHNFA, workers went on strike and then a couple of top officials were fired.  Now adoptions are on "hold."


Obviously, this feels all too familiar with Guatemala right next door.
At this point, we are not switching countries... we are preparing our dossier, listening to the Lord and praying like crazy!!
We are praying for the country, for the government, and for the thousands of desperate children that are without families.  


We will continue update you as we know more...