Received this in our adoption email account today from Dillon:
"Congratulations! Your Application Part 1 has been approved. The Application Part 2 packet will be mailed to you today. We are excited for you and look forward to working with you during your adoption journey...."
Plus yesterday all our DCFS/Initial Home Study & Fingerprints were approved by our social worker & sent off... Our first date for the Home Study in our home is coming up in a little over 2 weeks on Monday, July 16th!
And on this hot date in Illinois, my sonshine said, "I bet my brother is so hot because he doesn't even have a pool to go to!" I love that my kids always remember him too because I know he is rarely far from Ryan & I's minds! So every step is one step closer to Ghanian soil - We're coming little one!!!
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Who is he?
I'm not sure if there is a day that goes by that I don't wonder about this... "Who is he?" which of course goes further into - How old is? What is personality like? What is his name? What is his Ghanian family like? Is he tall or short? Is his skin on the darker side (like those in Ghana tend to be) or on the lighter side of the African spectrum?
So here's the little that we DO know (& it's not much!!):
..... we know we are asking for a boy age 0-36 months. Currently our agency is placing kids age 2 & older (with a couple younger here or there), so we anticipate he will be around 2, but we don't know for sure... This is what we preferred as truthfully, the newborn stage isn't our favorites. (Which is what lead us to international adoption in the first place; options were either that or foster care which we ended up deciding to forego after many months of searching & a lot of prayer).
.....we know that he will be from Ghana. This took awhile to figure out, but after narrowing down to Africa we debated between Uganda & Ghana, finally deciding on Ghana for a number of reasons. First, it is a fairly stable country politically (as opposed to Uganda, where Ryan has spent a lot of time - a lot of progress there, but between Museveni's desire to keep control & the LRA persecution in the north, a lot of unrest still remains). In fact, Ghana is currently ranked the friendliest & most peaceful country in Africa. (They call themselves the Land of Sunshine!) Second, things are moving in Ghana - boys age 2 & up are the most commonly placed children from Ghana & average length that we saw is anywhere from 6-18 months (as opposed to Ethiopia which, as many people probably know, is experiencing a "growing pains" of sorts within all the bureaucratic red-tape). Ghana's first language is English (whew!), plus we found out there are 1.1 million orphans in this small country located in West Africa between the Ivory Coast & Togo. Also, to be very honest, getting to experience a new country & culture is very appealing to us!!
.....we know that we are working with Dillon International. We were very committed to a well-established agency with a high reputation for ethical adoption & orphan care, as well as an established program in Ghana before international adoptions began. Dillon Adoption Agency met all of those requirements and were highly recommended for their ethical adoptions from a number of other agencies (plus the Ghana program coordinator & I just clicked! Her name is Jynger with a "J" & if you know my "J" family, then you know that just got me excited!!).
Despite all those kind-of "knowns", as we fill out all the paperwork, take all the recommended education hours, & get ready for our home study sometime in July.... we just keep asking God what He wants for our family. We imagine a boy - most likely we will be "twinning" (in adoption terms this means he would be within a year give or take from our littlest)... We imagine he's active enough to keep up with our Sonshine who is ready to teach him all the ropes of baseball, soccer & basketball... We imagine he's sturdy enough to withstand our Precious's enormous hugs & "in your face" kind-of love (& to hug her back tightly in return!)...We imagine he's tough enough to hold on to his toys from when our Little One tries to pry them from his hands (she'll most likely be right in that oh-so-enjoyable "Mine, Mine, Mine" stage when he gets here!), but still adore her for all the fun & smiles she's sure to bring to his life!
And as a side note, we've already been praying for his name & we invite you to do the same with us... All our children have the same initials (first names all begin with a T). Normally we would probably just allow him to keep his African name, but we want him to have a sense of belonging & identity with our family, after all he will be our son!! So, truthfully, we have been praying that he will already have a name starting with the letter T (sometimes it feels like a little much to ask for, but we know God is in the "more than you can ask or imagine" business!). And in the meantime, we will keep exploring options that will honor his African heritage but give him a firm sense of being "ours"... We are always open to suggestions!!!
So here's the little that we DO know (& it's not much!!):
..... we know we are asking for a boy age 0-36 months. Currently our agency is placing kids age 2 & older (with a couple younger here or there), so we anticipate he will be around 2, but we don't know for sure... This is what we preferred as truthfully, the newborn stage isn't our favorites. (Which is what lead us to international adoption in the first place; options were either that or foster care which we ended up deciding to forego after many months of searching & a lot of prayer).
.....we know that he will be from Ghana. This took awhile to figure out, but after narrowing down to Africa we debated between Uganda & Ghana, finally deciding on Ghana for a number of reasons. First, it is a fairly stable country politically (as opposed to Uganda, where Ryan has spent a lot of time - a lot of progress there, but between Museveni's desire to keep control & the LRA persecution in the north, a lot of unrest still remains). In fact, Ghana is currently ranked the friendliest & most peaceful country in Africa. (They call themselves the Land of Sunshine!) Second, things are moving in Ghana - boys age 2 & up are the most commonly placed children from Ghana & average length that we saw is anywhere from 6-18 months (as opposed to Ethiopia which, as many people probably know, is experiencing a "growing pains" of sorts within all the bureaucratic red-tape). Ghana's first language is English (whew!), plus we found out there are 1.1 million orphans in this small country located in West Africa between the Ivory Coast & Togo. Also, to be very honest, getting to experience a new country & culture is very appealing to us!!
.....we know that we are working with Dillon International. We were very committed to a well-established agency with a high reputation for ethical adoption & orphan care, as well as an established program in Ghana before international adoptions began. Dillon Adoption Agency met all of those requirements and were highly recommended for their ethical adoptions from a number of other agencies (plus the Ghana program coordinator & I just clicked! Her name is Jynger with a "J" & if you know my "J" family, then you know that just got me excited!!).
Despite all those kind-of "knowns", as we fill out all the paperwork, take all the recommended education hours, & get ready for our home study sometime in July.... we just keep asking God what He wants for our family. We imagine a boy - most likely we will be "twinning" (in adoption terms this means he would be within a year give or take from our littlest)... We imagine he's active enough to keep up with our Sonshine who is ready to teach him all the ropes of baseball, soccer & basketball... We imagine he's sturdy enough to withstand our Precious's enormous hugs & "in your face" kind-of love (& to hug her back tightly in return!)...We imagine he's tough enough to hold on to his toys from when our Little One tries to pry them from his hands (she'll most likely be right in that oh-so-enjoyable "Mine, Mine, Mine" stage when he gets here!), but still adore her for all the fun & smiles she's sure to bring to his life!
And as a side note, we've already been praying for his name & we invite you to do the same with us... All our children have the same initials (first names all begin with a T). Normally we would probably just allow him to keep his African name, but we want him to have a sense of belonging & identity with our family, after all he will be our son!! So, truthfully, we have been praying that he will already have a name starting with the letter T (sometimes it feels like a little much to ask for, but we know God is in the "more than you can ask or imagine" business!). And in the meantime, we will keep exploring options that will honor his African heritage but give him a firm sense of being "ours"... We are always open to suggestions!!!
Monday, June 11, 2012
Trying hard not to laugh...
So, anyone that knows our Precious Number 2, knows that you can't anticipate what she will say next... let's just say she lives up to the blond in her hair!!
Every night as we pray together she faithfully prays for her little brother who is coming "in like 3 days or something like that" (right, something like that...)
So, for your reading enjoyment, here's a snippet of her prayers put into one... She usually prays for a bit then gets to her main topic of prayer lately which goes something like this...
Precious One: "Dear God, we thank you that we are getting a new brother who will be younger than me but will be a boy like Tobias and probably sleep in his room in a bed, but maybe a crib, and who will fit in somewhere by our baby sister and who is coming from Ghana which is in Africa..."
Me or Ryan: "okay, pretty sure God's got that now, you can move on..."
Precious One: "And we just thank you he is going to come and just be with him as he is in Africa, keep him safe, and make sure he has good teeth..."
Me or Ryan: (Raising of eyebrows)
Precious One: "And thank you that he will have dark skin because he's from Africa. And we pray that he wouldn't love God..."
Me or Ryan: "Wait, wait, wait... you mean love God."
Precious One: "No, Mom, there are just some people who don't love God."
Me or Ryan: "Okay right, but we are going to tell him about God & how much God loves him, so we are praying that he would learn to love God..."
Precious One: (sigh...) "Okay, so we pray that we teach him how You love him & that he will learn to love you. And we thank you that we will teach him not to fight so that he won't fight like Tobias & I sometimes fight. And we thank you.."
Me or Ryan: "Okay, you know what? I think that's good for today... let's just wrap it up..."
Precious One: "And God, please just bring him here really soon. Amen."
AMEN!! SO BE IT!!
Every night as we pray together she faithfully prays for her little brother who is coming "in like 3 days or something like that" (right, something like that...)
So, for your reading enjoyment, here's a snippet of her prayers put into one... She usually prays for a bit then gets to her main topic of prayer lately which goes something like this...
Precious One: "Dear God, we thank you that we are getting a new brother who will be younger than me but will be a boy like Tobias and probably sleep in his room in a bed, but maybe a crib, and who will fit in somewhere by our baby sister and who is coming from Ghana which is in Africa..."
Me or Ryan: "okay, pretty sure God's got that now, you can move on..."
Precious One: "And we just thank you he is going to come and just be with him as he is in Africa, keep him safe, and make sure he has good teeth..."
Me or Ryan: (Raising of eyebrows)
Precious One: "And thank you that he will have dark skin because he's from Africa. And we pray that he wouldn't love God..."
Me or Ryan: "Wait, wait, wait... you mean love God."
Precious One: "No, Mom, there are just some people who don't love God."
Me or Ryan: "Okay right, but we are going to tell him about God & how much God loves him, so we are praying that he would learn to love God..."
Precious One: (sigh...) "Okay, so we pray that we teach him how You love him & that he will learn to love you. And we thank you that we will teach him not to fight so that he won't fight like Tobias & I sometimes fight. And we thank you.."
Me or Ryan: "Okay, you know what? I think that's good for today... let's just wrap it up..."
Precious One: "And God, please just bring him here really soon. Amen."
AMEN!! SO BE IT!!
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