Adoption update #2

Well, a lot has happened in the last few weeks. We initially decided that we would like to pursue domestic adoption with Buckner. Then we dove into a lot of research about international adoption. Many countries and agencies later, we became very excited about pursuing international adoption from Ethopia through Buckner. There are many good things about adopting from Ethopia. Buckner has worked with a children's home in Addis Ababa (capital city of Ethopia) called Bright Hope Ministries for about 10 years. They have taken over running this orphanage since early 2007. It is small right now, about 15 children, as they want to do things well and ensure the quality of home they run. Some Ethopia stats: more than 4.5 million children are orphaned...which is over 1 in 10 kids. The maternity mortality rate is 1 in 14 women. Ethiopia is prone to famine. Children are often given to the orphanages because the parents cannot afford to feed them.

We went to Dallas two weeks ago to meet the folks at Buckner and take our first classes about adoption. We took an international and domestic class so that we could learn more about both methods of adoption and choose which method we would pursue. The international class was first and we had the counselor all to ourselves. She is the liason for Ethopia so we were able to ask many country-specific questions. It was informative and helpful but there was not a lot of new info for us in the int'l class. The domestic class was full of new info to us and very reassuring. We hung on the edge of our seats as the Buckner staff explained open adoption and what that looks like. We are very interested in learning about that since the research shows that open adoption is best for the child (and in theory, all parties involved). We also learned that at the moment Buckner only has 5 adoptive families in their book of profiles (the book that the birthmoms pick the families from). That is an unusually low number for them so they are in need of adoptive families. There are families further along in the paper work stage than us that should be in the book soon. But this is still very good news for us regarding the wait times.

So, we have decided to pursue domestic adoption with Buckner first. I say first because we are still very interested in international adoption from Ethiopia through Buckner. The decision of which avenue was extremely hard for us to make. We truly would like to do both methods at this point. We realize that God is in control of this entire journey. We're praying for Him to guide our steps and lead us to the child/children He has for us. All we can do is trust Him, which is of course what He desires.

In light of our decision to pursue domestic, we have poured ourselves into our current paper work stage of the formal application. We have worked very intensely for the past two weeks to finish this first mountain of paperwork. We are happy to be mailing this formal app this week. We only lack 3 physicals for Cam and the boys (yes, the 3 yr. old boys!) Now Buckner can get starting on approving us to the next step (first they read our mountain of paperwork and do our criminal background checks). From here the process goes like this:
1. Interview for Cameron and I in Dallas.
2. 2 day seminar in Dallas mid-December (we really want to take this one b/c the next one is in March).
3. Home Study.

Once the home study is complete, we are "in the book," which means we are put in the profile books and wait for a birthmom to choose us. We are hopeful that we might could be in the book by March or so. From there the matching process could be very fast or slow. That is up to the Lord and His plans for us.

Thanks for reading and being interested. We will continue to post our progress in this adoption process on this blog if you'd like to keep up. We would appreciate your prayers for God to guide our steps and give us patience and strength to endure the process.