Adoption Update

I have not posted in a long time.  There is a long version of our update and a short version.  In short, we are towards the end of our home study and will be adopting from Ethiopia.  It was a long road to get to the point of being able to say that.  

My last post about our adoption was right as we left the plan of adopting from South Korea and were looking elsewhere.  We set our sights on Taiwan and felt that was the right place.  I had peace, it felt right and then we were told I misread the qualifications and we did not qualify for that country.  I was blown away and very upset with God.  I felt He had led us to Taiwan and then closed the door.  I didn't, and in many ways, still don't understand that.  We had some hard discussions and figured we would just have another biological child and then adopt down the road when we were older.  I was done with the ups and downs of the unknowns.  

Then I happened upon a blog of someone that posted some orphan statistics.  I realized that we HAD to do something.  It may not be easy, quick or comfortable but there are so many children going to bed tonight without getting hugged, kissed, rocked and loved.  It's not right.  Not everyone is up for adoption, but we are.  

We began searching all over the world and found we qualified for 4 countries (we qualified for a few more but they required extensive stay in country and we were unable to do that)  Out of those 4 we chose Ethiopia.  It didn't take long to discover that the world of Ethiopian adoption is very different from that of South Korea.  Unethical practices are a lot harder to spot and can occur at a much higher rate.  We did a lot of research and took 4 months to decide on an agency.  We have settled on Adoption Associates of Michigan.  

We are towards the end of our home study.  Trying to finish a home study while both parents are working full time is not a walk in the park.  We have started our dossier (a massive amount of paperwork for the adoptive country) but still have a long way to go on that.  Once our paperwork is done, it will be sent overseas to Ethiopia and our official wait will begin.  The projected timeline for a child 0-18 months old is a little over a year.  

Adoption is not for the faint of heart.  I think we are underestimating how hard the next year waiting will be.  Ethiopia requires 2 trips.  One trip to meet the child and attend court and the 2nd trip a couple months later to bring them home.  How on earth I am going to meet our child and then fly back to the United States with out them is beyond my comprehension.  It is also not cheap.  All said and done it will be $30,000.  We are lucky to have saved over the last year.  On top of that, I was offered a 12 weeks long-term substitute position that is going towards our adoption as well.  However, that won't be enough.  We will have a fundraiser in the next couple weeks and possibly a few more as we head down this road.  I believe fundraising can be a tricky subject because we are choosing this despite not being able to pay for it.  However, we believe that God is leading us down this road.  James 1: 27 says, "²⁷ Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you."  Maybe you don't believe in God but that doesn't make you heartless.  Humanity itself calls us to help our world, you may choose not to adopt, but instead choose to help someone else to do so.  At a Halloween party I was talking to someone that donates to a program that funds micro loans to people in third world countries.  He is looking beyond his needs to help provide for others.  You don't have to help us.   It can be any other adoptive family, I don't know many people that have $30,000 ready to go to bring home a child.  You could choose to help someone locally that is down on their luck and needs some help.  In fact, I know of someone that will be in need of some furniture and baby items in the next few months if you have any extra of that laying around.  Anyway, God may not be calling you to adopt but he does call us to love our neighbor as ourselves.  For us, right now that means loving a child halfway across this world as though they are our sweet Chloe. 

Your prayers and encouragement are welcomed. :) 

Cloud Dough

I posted some of these pictures on Facebook so they may be repeats for some.  Miss Chloe and I went outside with some cloud dough, water and spoons.  Cloud dough is flour mixed with vegetable oil and creates a moldable dough.  It is edible so I didn't have to worry about her eating it but also tastes terrible so she really didn't.  This kept her engaged for over an hour! 

It took her awhile to dive into the Cloud Dough.  She spent some time with the spoons and water first. 

Doing a little taste testing.

The spoons were a surprising hit

Always so happy :)

Feeling her top teeth coming in with her tongue.

Grabbing some with her sweet, little hand.

She was covered from head to toe!

I wonder what she is thinking sometimes. 

Chloe Doesn't Like Getting Messy

The majority of things to do with your little one on Pinterest involve getting messy.  That is great and all, if your babe likes getting messy.  I have decided that Chloe doesn't.  We have done a number of things now that involve a mess and she rarely "dives right in."  

Today I took little packets of stuff that you add to frosting to add color and flavor and mixed it into flour and water.  I made the orange very watery, the pink a little thicker and the purple very thick. She seemed most intrigued by the orange but that could have also been the bright color. 

Growing Our Family

I will start this post with sweet Chloe updates and then go into something new happening in our family. 

 We took Chloe to the library the other night.  She and I have only been twice before.  It was nice having Tim there this time so that they could sit and look at books while I went and searched cookbooks.  When it was time to leave, it started pouring.  The kind of rain that at first sounded like the air conditioning had just turned on.  We had to stick around a bit and Chloe graced the library with some loud objections as to how long we were there. 

 I feel like 50% of the time we grill out, it rains.  It hadn't rained all day and then right as it was time to put the burgers on the rain came.  At first it wasn't bad but by the time they were done Tim had to bring them in with an umbrella.  Here is Chloe trying out her new raincoat that her Great Aunt Debbie found her...it is still a little big.

 Is that not the cutest face?  She is still working on those top teeth.  It will be great when they finally pop!  While teething, she spends a lot of time with her tongue out! 

Now on to our family news.  Many of you already know that we have felt led to adopt internationally.  It started out as "someday" talk that turned into something that is going to happen.  We have each felt called to adoption throughout our lives and know this is the path God is laying out for our family.  

We have decided to do international adoption as opposed to domestic for many reasons.   I will tell you most of these are my reasons.  If you ask Tim, he will tell you simply that God has not called us to domestic adoption.  While I agree, here are a few more.  There are many children in the United States foster system that need forever homes.  However, these children tend to be older.  We would like to maintain birth order as much as possible.  We could do domestic infant adoption but feel that since we are able to have biological children, we would like those that cannot to have the opportunity to parent their children from as young an age as possible.  In international adoption it is rare to bring your child home younger than 12 months.  It does happen, just not that often. 

At Christmas we officially said yes to God and started our search through agencies and countries.  As it turns out, the adoption world is not kind to those married under 5 years and under the age of 30.  There were only a handful of places we qualified for.  We chose South Korea with Holt International because we knew people that went through them successfully.  We met with our caseworker and she was wonderful but warned us of changes occurring in the Korean program.  She also said we needed to wait until next year because Korea would not give us a referral until Chloe was at least 18 months old.  A few months passed and South Korea added a second mandatory trip, adding another week away from work for Tim, another week away from Chloe and another set of plane tickets to buy.  We had always kind of gone back and forth on Korea or Thailand.  Korea was quicker but significantly more expensive.  Thailand was much more affordable but the wait was longer.  We weren't totally settled in this path.

A few nights ago while rocking Chloe I was thinking about the adoption stuff.  An old friend from college popped into my head that is in the process of adopting from a different country that we had overlooked in our earlier search.  I did some research and found 4 agencies that seemed to work for us.  Over the next few days, my constant prayer was Psalm 5:8, "Lead me in your right path, O Lord, or my enemies will conquer me.  Make your way plain before me."  One by one, the agencies began falling through.  For 1, it appeared we qualified but really they wanted us to be married for 5 years.  2 others would work for older waiting children with severe needs.   That left 1 agency.  Could you have a more plain path then that? 

The wait for this agency is long and although cheaper than Korea, it still is not cheap.  They are an amazing ministry and I have felt a peace about this that I did not have with Holt.  I feel like this may be the path God has for us.  Tim was unsure of the wait but he looked into it more this morning and read some e-mails I had with a wonderful lady that worked with them.  He agrees this may be the way we go.  

I am intentionally leaving out the where and who until we hear back that they will accept us on their waiting list.  It could be that this is just another stop along the way to finding our child but not our destination.  We will let you know as soon as we do.  In the meantime, please be praying that God gives us undeniable reassurance that this is right.  Tim is pretty good at trusting and going along with the ride that God lays out.  I over think and over analyze EVERYTHING!  That means that unless I am 100% sure this is God's path, it won't take much to make me doubt and falter.  If you have encouragement or questions, please e-mail us or Facebook us.  We would really appreciate it.  Thanks everyone!

Chloe's Dedication

Chloe was dedicated this last Sunday, Mother's Day, at the church Tim grew up in.  We decided to do a dedication there instead of a baptism at our home church.  We want Chloe to decide if, when, where and how she is baptized when she is older.  We stood up front and she spent a lot of the time clapping.  It was like she knew what a wonderful thing it was!  

She sat like this for an entire song with that same look on her face.  If you know Chloe, you know that this is such a silly way to sit!  

Smith family

Everyone that came to celebrate Chloe's dedication

Robinett family

Daddy and Chloe

All the Smiths that were there

Aunt Julianne, Nana and Chloe

Her cupcake! 

Clapping!

She was a big fan of the cupcake

Opening her present from Grammy and Poppy.  She got a Noah's Ark play set

Looking at her book from her Great Grandma and Grandpa Smith

She loved opening and closing the music box from her Great Granny Fulford

Her CDs from Nana and Grandpa Robinett.  She loves the songs they play at puppets and these CDs have the same ones. 

Looking at her music box with her Great Granny

She was pretty distracted by the bird above the TV so Grandpa improvised! 

Playing with her Noah's Ark animals 

She was so tired and had a bit of a meltdown while opening presents. 

Looking at her book of Bible stories with Great Grandma and Grandpa 

Daddy and Chloe

I know I just put a blog of pictures up but these are just too good!  I was on the phone so Tim took Chloe outside to play.  I came out to find them playing with the hose.