Two

That is right! We have made it two months in the process of waiting for a referral. It is so hard to believe that another month has already passed us by. We feel as if just yesterday we were happy to have passed the one month mark! It probably helps that we are entering into a very busy time of year with teaching and finishing things up at school. How wonderful would it be if they all passed by this quickly?

We Are Not Alone!!!

We had the first adoption support group meeting today and our fear of no one showing up was displaced. We had four families from the community join us!

We spent the hour sharing our hopes for the group and our desire to connect with other families in the community, not only for our sake, but for the sake of our child as well. It is so important to us that our child know other families who have adopted and understand the diversity of families.

We were moved as we listened to the stories of challenge and hope that others are encountering along the way. In the past when asked how the adoption process is going, we have very loosely described where we were at to avoid taking up too much time or to avoid further explanation. With the families that attended the group, we were able to speak candidly about the constant changes taking place, the ongoing waiting and unpredictable time line, and some of the struggles we have emotionally. We were so encouraged and felt we could breath a little deeper and feel a little lighter knowing there are other families going through some of the same challenges and WE ARE NOT ALONE!

We hope that we can continue to get together at least once a month and continue to share with other families........and to get our dose of encouragement that keeps us moving forward.

In the Works

We have thought long about our desires to be involved with a group while we move through our journey of adoption. We feel that this is such a unique journey that it is so important to connect with others who are in the process or have made it through. These connections help to provide some sense of "normalcy" and give us encouragement to keep moving forward even when we feel that we have taken twenty steps back.
So, despite our lack of knowledge or expertise in this area, we are attempting to start an Adoption support group. We contacted our agency here in Wyoming to see if something already existed. They informed us that in the past it has, but there is nothing currently going on. They are in full support of it and very willing to help in any way. We are encouraged by that and hope that we will be able to connect with some new families in the community through this group.
If you have participated in a support group before and have any thoughts or suggestions for us, please feel free to share with us. If you know anyone that might be interested in joining us, please feel free to pass this information along to them as well!

Safe Arrival

Just got back from Fort Collins. We drove down this morning because we had a check up appointment at the doctor office. When I got back to work I sat down to check our e-mail and found this:

Good Morning-

Just a note to let you know that your dossier has been received in Ethiopia!

Congratulations, you are one step closer.

Cheers,

~Jenn Dalton~
Program Assistant, Ethiopia

We are so freaking excited!

I Am Because We Are

I came across this video on YouTube, I Am Because We Are, which discusses a few of the stories found amongst the millions of orphans struggling to survive. It is over an hour in length but definitely worth the watch if you can make the time. The video shares the current stories and struggles of Malawi and the attempts that are being made to alleviate the issues caused by the extreme poverty found within the country. There are some moments within the video that are disturbing and heart wrenching but ultimately provide the reminder that we are playing a part in something that is larger than ourselves, that we are all connected, and that we are all children yearning to be loved by someone.

You can also check out the website to find more ways to get involved.

One

It has been one month since we official submitted our dossier.

The average wait for a referral is 9 months, so we only have 8 more to go.

But who is counting?

Scanned

Yesterday we made a trip to Aurora to finalize our I-600 immigration papers. We had to get fingerprinted again, you know in case we turned crazy in the last three months since our previous fingerprinting experience. It actually was an interesting experience because they don't ink your fingers, they just scan them...very high tech! The total experience lasted about 15 minutes, but was worth the two hour drive to take us one step closer!