Dossier in progress

Well sorry for the delay in the update...I have been working insane hours!

We had our phone conference with Kari from Dove and many questions were answered! We are organized and beginning to assemble our dossier.

Len and I are working on the 8-10 hour Hague class that Dove requires. Len is halfway thru and I am 6/7 modules done!

Our next plan of attack is just going down the list and getting the paperwork in order. We have much of it done but it all has to be notarized. This weekend we will be filling out and paying for the I600A. This is governmental paperwork required to bring an orphan home to the states.

We have prayed and chatted with each other...We are planning to ask the orphanage to match us with a 6-15 month old little boy at the time of referral. Thank you for your prayers in this area.

As for names...we are waiting at this point to even begin thinking of them. Our initial intent is an American first name, Ethiopia middle, and LaBonar as the last name. We will see where the Lord leads us on this.

We need to continue to breathe and get all of our duckies in a row.

It is amazing to me how emotional a process this truly is. We are so thankful for your prayers which give us strength as we power thru this journey.

Prayers go out for the Walton family at this time. Noel is a woman I have met thru my bible study at Grace Community Church. She and her husband, two biological daughters ages 7 and 4 are adopting from Ethiopia as well. They left today to bring their little one home!

God has been so good in growing the Ethiopian and adoption community around us! Amen!

Progress!!!

Well we are actually moving along! Our contract and first installment of fees have arrived at Dove. Our social worker from Glenkirk has spoken to Dove and all of the preliminary paperwork that can be time consuming was already filed! Now there is a "God thing" to be thankful for...and we are!
Len and I have both had our doubts the past month or so....this is time and financially consuming...We have trusted in the Lord thus far and continue to. I walked into church this past Sunday looking and asking for some direction. He heard my prayer. This was the verse we focused on at church!

James 1:27 (New International Version)
27Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.


Needless to say....I came home and worked on the paperwork with a new and refeshed focus! It was mailed by Len on Monday.

Currently, I am taking an 8-10 hour online class that is required by Dove. Len will take it over Thanksgiving. In the meantime, our social worker is wrapping up our homestudy and getting it Dove ready. We are almost done with this phase. We are waiting for our Dossier packet to come in the mail. Then we begin assembling it.

The next hurdle looks to be filling out paperwork for the Immigration department. It is a bit costly....can be a long wait....typically 6-8 weeks. Hopefully, that goes well. If it does we will have our golden ticket! That is what we need from the US Government to state that we are accepted to adopt.

Please continue to pray: Len and I need to make a decision on an age range that we are requesting. We have decided that we are going to ask for a little boy. We originally wanted 0-36 months. The agency wants something more precise from us. Now we must decide: a baby or a toddler or a preschooler. I am confident that the Lord will guide us towards our little one.

Blessings to you all! Thank you for your ongoing prayers!

Michelle

The clock has begun! Hurray!!!

Well we mailed in our contract yesterday. We are excited and daunted by what is to come! This week...once Len finishes his 10 page paper for his grad class...we will begin on the education component. We now wait for the dossier packet to come our way. Dove will send that in the mail and we will begin to assemble the paperwork. In the meantime...we will work on our class..finish that and hopefully recieve that packet in the mail soon!

My goal is to travel this summer 2010! If we move thru the homestudy piece, which is already done....traveling this summer is possible!

Here is a link to the orphanage we are connected with thru Dove!

http://www.sosenfantsethiopie.com/English/sosenfantsethiopie.html

We have a contract!

Well we received our contract in the mail and went over and over it. It is now sitting, notarized, waiting for our social worker. We have been playing phone and email tag for weeks now! Once we get it signed, we can begin our education component for them. Sixteen additional hours! Good Grief!

This process has been a timely one....things seem to be moving soooooo sssslllooowwlllyyy. Please pray for encouragment and endurance as we begin a new chapter with Dove adoptions.

Phone Conference Complete and we wait.

Well the phone conference is over. The times got goofy with the two hour time difference. Thank you to Kerri for picking Hannah up from school!

We went over the adoption services agreement, answered questions, received a timeline, and became really overwhelmed!

Len and I will need some time to digest all of this.

Here is where we are in the process. They will review our application and phone conference and let us know in 24 hours if we are a family that Dove wants to work with. Once that happens, we will receive two copies of the contract. Both have to be signed and notarized then returned to Dove. With the contract we will receive a dossier packet. It gives us details on all of the paperwork that Dove requires. Gee more paperwork! YIPPEE! They will schedule a conference with us to go over the paperwork in detail and then they will check in with us every month via phone.

We have 16 hours of additional education credits to start working on. They send us the classes and then call us for the class evaluation.

If my thoughts are disorganized, I apologize. We are very overwhelmed. We know this is what we want. It is alot to start over again. Thankfully we are not at square one. But, wow!

Praying for peace in our brains and the wisdom to discern what to do now.

Conference Set!

All of our letters have been received from our friends. Special thanks to Deb, Tim and Shannon, Missy, Kerri, and Michele.

They have reviewed them as well as our application. They have offered us a phone conference! Hurray! Progress!

Here is what we received yesterday!

Dear Len and Michelle,

We have finally received all 5 letters of reference and are ready to move forward with the application. We would like to schedule a conference call with you both to go over the adoption process, review the adoption services agreement and help answer questions and/or concerns you may have at this time.

We schedule the meetings Monday thru Thursday between 10am and 4pm (PST). Please let me know a good day and time for you both as we have a few openings next week or the beginning of October 12, 2009.

So we are excited and looking forward to Thursday October 8th at 12 noon. If all goes well the clock will start and we will be off on the next step of this journey!

Please pray for wisdom to make the best decision for our family as well as for patience as we enter this challenging world once again.

It is starting to become real!

Friends are beginning to email me stating that their letters are on their way to Dove. We are so excited. After Dove reviews all five letters, they will contact us to schedule an interview. If the interview goes well they will offer us a contract. Then the clock starts. Typically 10 or so months. Please continue to pray that God grants us patience and wisdom during this process.

Ooops!

I forgot to add......a large thank you to our friends who have agreed to write letters for us. Sadly, our relatives letters are not going to work with this country/agency.

Special thanks to: Missy, Shannon/Tim, Deb/Rob, Kerri, and Michele

Without your work this would not be possible!

Good news!!!

Dear Family and Friends,

We are so excited! It appears that we may be making some progress! This is the email we have been waiting for. Thank you for your prayers!

Dear Len and Michelle,
We have received your application for adoption and are currently working on processing the information. We have sent out a request for reference from the contacts you provided in the application. Your application can not move forward until Dove has received all five. At that time we will set up a conference with you to go over the adoption process, terms and conditions of the adoption services agreement and help answer any questions or concerns you may have.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions during this time.

Michelle and Len

Sarah told me tonight that we will have to get the girl stuff out of her room if it is a brother. "Unless he likes High School Musical" She is so cute! In this house you do not have any choice on the High School Musical front. Just ask Len!

The Next Phase

Hello Everyone. After some frustrating bumps in the road, we are ready to move forward again.

For a variety of reasons, we have decided to switich adoption agencies. We will now be working with Dove Adoptions and working with Ethopia.

Ethopia has a well established adoption process. Dove came highly recommended from our friends at Glenkirk. While we are certain there will be more bumps, this switch has brought a lot of positive energy back into the process.

We have already completed our application. The homestudy (which was not finalized before) will be adjusted to reflect our changed in agencies. Since we did a ton of work this summer, much of the paperwork will be easier to complete.

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers! We will have more info soon!

Happy Birthday Hannah!

Happy Birthday Hannah! She is 7 today!

I know that a number of you have been asking about the current state of the adoption. We have had a tough couple of weeks and are having to make some tough decisions.

Through communication, research, and prayer, we are about to make some big decisions and changes.

Hopefully in the next week we will have some exciting news and be moving full steam ahead!

Stay tuned and we will update everyone really soon!

Len and Michelle

Almost done..we hope

Well......

Tb test is done and all results are in our possession. :) The mixup with the IR-3 and IR-4 Visa is undercontrol after lots of emails and faxing. The education component is done. The letters are written. All that remains is Michelle's medical. Assuming all goes well on Monday....that will be on its way to Indianapolis Monday afternoon. :)

Homestudy paperwork is done and in Indianapolis, home of our adoption agency.

The challenge now is understanding the adoption process is Lesotho. It is a new and very unique program. We will see how this plays out over the next month or so.

In the meantime, we are praying for an email that states that adoptions are reopened in Lesotho. Please pray with us. Thanks!

One of our friends just received a referral for her two little ones from Ethiopia. We are so excited for them. They have two biological sons and are preparing for a 3 1/2 old little boy and his sister of 22 months. They are so blessed to be traveling in November. Assuming all goes well, they will have a family of six for the holidays. Hurray!

MORE PAPERWORK!

School starts tomorrow and we are knee deep in paperwork. It stinks, but is pretty straightforward stuff.

On the positive, Michelle and I do not have TB! In all seriousness, our home study is near completion. We are finishing some final forms and mailing them off.

Now we are waiting for things to start moving in Lesotho. Michelle and I have a good feeling about the country, but are anxious as you can imagine.

Keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Summer went way too quick!

Back From Mexico!

We are back from Mexico! Lots of Fun and Sun for the both of us (maybe a little too much Sun).

Now that we are back and the school year is around the corner, many parts of the adoption process are wrapping up. All the medical paper work is done for all four of us. The FBI has given us clearance stating that we are NOT felons. Always a good sign!

The only paperwork left for our home study is completing our education classes. Once that is done, the home study will be written and sent to the adoption agency. We are completing the paper work with the adoption agency as well. Just a couple of loose ends to tie-up there. There real hurdle has been completing the home study. We are excited that we are in the home stretch!

Unfortunately, our coordinator for the home study is moving on to better things in California. While we are sad to her leave, we hope all the best for her. Therefore, we are waiting to see who our new coordinator will be. Glenkirk has been wonderful to deal with so this is only a small bump.

We are also still waiting for adoptions to open up again in Lestho.

We will keep all you informed and thanks again for your continued support.

Len and Michelle

Mexico Here We Come

Well, we have had one of our last official meetings for the homestudy. They have determined that we would offer a good home to an adoptee. Once all the final paperwork is done, we should be one huge step closer.

There is no news on Lestho. We are hopeful that the situation will change soon. Our agency has been working very hard with the State Department to move things along.

Michelle and I are going to take a brief vacation in Mexico before the start of the school year. We should have some new tidbits then!

Off to the Mailbox and then Nebraska

No news from Lestho about the status of adoptions, but we have been making huge progress with the home study.

This morning Michelle is mailing out two more packets (with a third to follow on Friday). Yesterday, we were fingerprinted (again). It is not very often that one plans and looks forward to going to the police station and getting fingerprinted, but this whole process has been different. We also completed some financial paperwork and received local police clearance. We are mailing are fingerprints to the FBI and are then waiting for state and federal police clearance. We have scheduled our last home study visit for the first week of August.

While we are frustrated with the status of adoptions, there is nothing we can till the home study is done. All we can do is continue to get all of our paperwork organized. Hopefully, as the home study process comes to an end things will start to work out on the other end.

In the meantime, it is off to Nebraska to see Great Grandma Joy and Aunt Judy tomorrow (we will be joined by Aunt Jane, Kevin and Amanda) and then in two weeks Michelle and I will be in Mexico!

Thanks for all your continued support.

We are held up....hopefully temporarily.

Well after a lovely family adventure camping in Missouri, we arrived to an email from our agency in Indy. This is NOT what you want to hear!

The Lesotho government official told me that all adoptions have been put back on a temporary hold until there is a meeting of the Foreign Ministry. I was told a meeting was scheduled for 6/25, then not everyone who was supposed to attend, could attend, so the meeting has been rescheduled for 7/9. The government official told me that the Minister of Foreign Affairs has decided they want a review of the agencies the Department of Social Welfare chose for the four countries - US, Canada, Sweden & the Netherlands. I was told the Minister of Foreign Affairs wants to know how each agency was selected and they want to make certain that everything is on the up and up with the choices. That means that until they meet and make decisions, all Lesotho adoptions have once again been held up.

In the meantime we are continuing to press on. I received a letter from my social worker stating that I no longer am being treated for post pardum depression! That was a necessary item. We ordered and received our birth certificates, as we could not find them. We have just a couple of things left, including my silly doctor appointment. The local police clearance was done this week and we have a scheduled appointment for next Wednesday for the FBI prints. At that point we will be waiting for a review of all of the components. Hopefully we will be complete and our dossier will be sent to Lesotho.

We are trying to avoid the thought of Lesotho closing adoption. The Lord brought us to this point and we are trusting that he will bring us where we need to be. We will update the blog as soon as we know more!

Progress and a bump in the road....

Well we sent off our second package to the agency in Indianapolis. It was quite sizable and had tons of stuff in it.

Here is what is left:

• FBI fingerprints
• Local police clearance
• Medical reports.
• Copy of the homestudy
• Letter to the government of Lesotho explaining why we would like to adopt.

Once all of this paperwork is received by AFAA then they can begin processing our dossier. A dossier is the collection of paperwork all assembled. I am expecting to have all of this in Indianapolis by August first at the latest. This dossier will travel to Lesotho, Africa to be approved by them. Once they have approved us, they will match us with a child. We have put in our requests: ages 30 months or younger at the time of placement, healthy, tested and a negative results for HIV, HEP A,B,C. We are not being selective on gender. This is the part that often takes the longest. Wait time! We also have to apply to immigration once all of our paperwork is done. This is a 6-8 week wait.

Len has his doctor appointment today and we will be going to the Hoffman Estates Police Department on Monday July 6th for fingerprints and police clearance.

Now what is the bump you say.... I went to the doctor today with all of my forms to be filled out. Long and short of it....she did not want to fill them out and told me to find a doctor closer to my home. Well, that was four hours on my only day off down the drain. UGH! I went to talk to my longtime Ob/gyn down the hall from her. He referred me to a new doctor in Lombard. Hopefully this works! His staff needed to talk to him to see if he wanted a new patient with paperwork. Good grief it is just a form, well two forms!

Good news! At church this past weekend, we met a multiracial family that has three children adopted. They are convinced that the twins are from Africa. How fun to have someone at our church that has their children home and are flourishing!

Have a safe Fourth of July. Enjoy your families.

Meeting #3

We are moving ever closer! Michelle and I are working hard to get all the paperwork completed. Here is a brief list of the latest items:

1. We have both been fingerprinted (yet we have to go do it again).
2. We complete paperwork confirming that we have not been arrested. Whew!
3. DCFS approved us. Stating that we have not done any bad stuff
4. Thanks to all of your work, our letters of recommendation are complete.
5. We are printing pictures and getting another package ready to mail to AFAA (Americans for African Adoption.

Today we met for a third time with our social worker Stacy. As usual the meetings went very well. Michelle and I both met with her individually. We discusses our relationships with our family and any potential concerns we have about adoption. Since Michelle and I continue to talk and be honest about the process, there are no suprises.

Yet, there are challenges. We are working with Glenkirk and each other to prepare ourselves with the challenges that go along with being a multi-racial family. We are excited about our future and thank you all for your continued support.

Upcoming Events:

1. Paperwork! Paperwork!
2. More Fingerprints!
3. Our Bridges meeting on being a multi-racial family
4. Online education courses.

Talk to you soon!

Round Two

Well, Stacy was here again from Glenkirk. The home study process is in full swing. Lots of paper work, but the meetings and education classes are all well under way.

Today, Michelle and I talked with Stacy about our marriage and relationship. As you can imagine, we both had a lot to say. It was a fun meeting because Michelle and I get to laugh about all the fun times and stressors in the last 10 years. It is crazy how we just know what the other person is going to say. We are lucky to have each other and days like today remind us of that. We further talked about how adoption will affect our marriage. We are not blind to the challenges ahead, but confident that we can work through them as we always have.

The girls were on stage. They were very excited to have "Ms Stacy" here today. They were putting quite the show. Coloring cute signs, doing work, and just giggling. They gave "Ms Stacy" the grand tour. Even opening a few doors we were hoping would stay shut. Hannah and Sarah enjoyed being on stage and in charge of the tour.

Overall, it was a great visit. Here are a couple of things coming up:

1. Paperwork, paper work, paper work
2. Bridges - an education class on being a multi-racial family
3. Individual interviews with Stacy
4. Lots of fingerprints
5. Doctor visits
6. And much more

Again thank you for all your love and support.

Len and Michelle

Slight Error

Our meeting is Thursday! I was just hoping the school year was over and miscounted days! Please continue to keep us in your thoughts.

Lenny

Keep Us in Your Thoughts!

Our next meeting with the social worker is tomorrow. We continue to put together all of our paper work! I will have an update for you tomorrow!

Len

Welcome Everyone!

We have created this blog spot so that we can update family and friends about our adoption process. We are excited and nervous about this next step in our lives. We are grateful for all the support you have given us. Our adoption and family growth would not be possible without your support.

Here is an update about today:

1. We had our first 4 hour education class today.
2. We have our second home visit on Thursday June 11th.
3. We have completed our 40 page family report.
4. We are beginning to get our finger prints and government paper work done.

Thanks for all support and please check back!