In Summary

In case you are new to the blog, or just haven't visited in a while, welcome! To all you regulars, thanks for coming back!

Here's where we stand, in a nutshell (feel free to click on underlined words, which indicate links to other blog posts).

In early October 2008 we made the decision to adopt a baby, and decided to create a blog as a journal of events. We decided to use the LDS Family Services Agency and were finally approved for adoption on Feb 4, 2009, which basically meant that they deemed us worthy to be adoptive parents and that a birthmother could choose us any time.

At the end of May 2009, we began thinking a little more globally and decided to adopt internationally through Adoption Advocates International (AAI). We had to choose a country, so in Mid-June we decided that we wanted to adopt from Ethiopia. The "approved" date for international adoption is determined by the date your dossier is sent to the country, which happened on Sep 11, 2009. We will hopefully find out next Spring that we have a referral. Then we'd hope to be able to go pick him up in Ethiopia towards the end of Summer or Fall of 2010.

Over the past year we had a few times where we were selected by a birthmother, or gave our information to a birthmother for consideration. There has been a lot of thought, prayers, tears, and joys throughout the process. We recognize that we've been pretty blessed in many ways, and though some times have been difficult, we're grateful that we were led down the current path.

Most recently (early Oct, 2009) we submitted our information to another adoption agency (A Act of Love) for a baby boy in Florida. On Oct 13th we found out that we had been chosen for him! Since he is in State custody there has been a lot of legal red tape to get through. You'd think Carrie and I would be better at being patient by now, but we apparently haven't learned that lesson yet. We thought the last possible delay would end yesterday, but we found out today that it will be 2 or more weeks before we even find out when we can go pick him up. We were sure we'd have him by Halloween, then by my birthday, then for SURE by Thanksgiving. Now we're just praying to have him home by Christmas. We'll keep the door open for him though, no matter when he comes :o).