No more dossier!

We are very excited to announce that we mailed our dossier to Ethiopia and were considered DTE (Dossier to Ethiopia) on May 18, 2012!

This is a tremendous weight from our shoulders as preparing the dossier has been the most difficult part of the process so far.

For those who don't know, the dossier is a large collection of papers giving detailed information about our family that practically contains our entire life history. Here's what AWAA says about it:

Each adoption process begins with assembling a collection of 13-15 documents called a dossier. The dossier mainly consists of a financial statement, employment verification, medical and health information, background checks, and a home study. The home study is a report submitted by a social worker, after meeting at the family’s home, outlining the family’s background and details of the household. All of these documents must go through several levels of certification so that they can ultimately be used as the legal framework for your adoption process. This stage is often referred to as the “paper chase,” and should take, on average, 3-6 months to complete. The finished dossier is forwarded to America World where our staff carefully reviews it to ensure accuracy. Once approved, your dossier is forwarded to the country which you have chosen to adopt from, and is then translated and processed.

Of course our family was a minor exception to the completion time table (insert sarcasm); it took us about one year to complete this portion of the adoption - it is not for the faint of heart! But alas, our work here is finished.

We are now in the waiting period, which is said to be the hardest for many adoptive families as the waiting times are growing longer by each month. We will utilize this time to become further educated on our children's cultural heritage, transcultural parenting, and other topics regarding adoption. But most importantly, we are spending this time in prayer for our children, and all the orphans of the world.

Following the waiting period comes the referral and travel. AWAA defines the referral as our children's most "basic profile, medical information, and first picture of them." We will still need to complete some additional work online as well as the acceptance paperwork, and then AWAA will help us make all the necessary travel arrangements for the two trips we will have to make. Of course on the first trip we will meet the children that God has purposefully chosen for us, and then will spend some time in-country bonding and applying for U.S. visas. We will return home while waiting for everything to process through, and will return again to bring our children home!

But it still won't be over yet! There will still be some steps that will need to be taken including post-placement reports which are designed to be a checkup on our children to see how they are adjusting to their new home and environment, as well as how the family is progressing.

Isn't this all exciting? We are very excited! And while this Friday, June 8, 2012 will only mark the three weeks from our DTE, we still have much to do. We will begin to apply for some grants from various adoption support programs as well as work to raise more money to finance the rest of our adoption.

Thank you all so much for the love and support that you have shown to our family, and please remember to continue praying for us as we continue on in this journey that God has called us to.

With great love,
Zehra, Michael & Morgan

Chili Supper!

The Waits family will be having their first major fundraiser since our yard sale last summer, to be held this Saturday, October 29th, from 5:30 - 8:00 p.m., at First Assembly of God Church, Taylorsville.

We're hosting a chili supper to raise money for our international adoption. Supper includes chili, hot dog, drink and dessert - all for only $7 for adults, and $4 for children 10 and under. There is also a $25 price maximum for immediate families of any size.

Music will be provided by David Stevens and Gary Vidito from 5:00 - 7:00 p.m., and the silent auction will be held until 7:00 p.m. with many nice items. You won't want to miss this! We will also be selling t-shirts at the event, sizes ranging from Youth Medium to Adult XL, in 2 different color choices, blue and/or brown. All shirts are $15 and all sales are final.

Please pray for us and with us that God would bless this event. We are hopeful that many will turn out for this event. Please invite your friends to come and join us as we work together for adoption!

God bless,
The Waits Bunch

When life gives you lemons...

...YOU MAKE LEMONADE!

And that is exactly what this guy did!

We wish to express a special THANK YOU to Wilhelm Eargle (Alan & Winona) for working so hard in the hot summer sun to sell lemonade in support of our family's adoption. He raised $125 and there are reports that donations were still coming in by mail after the event.

We also want to thank Lizzie Loo Photography for donating her sidewalk space in Shelbyville so Wilhelm could be so successful. You can visit her website here: Lizzie Loo Photography

We are blessed by this little guy's efforts, and thankful for the generous donations by many.

Love,
The Waits Bunch

Lemonade with LOVE!

Our wonderful friends the Eargles, particularly their son Wilhelm, are having a lemonade stand with proceeds to benefit our adoption on Thursday August 4th from 2pm-4pm at Lizzie Loo Photography in Shelbyville, KY.  The address is 408 Sixth Street.

Check out Lizzie Loo Photography on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lizzie-Loo-Photography/112390178801528?ref=ts

 

Look at this cutie!!!!  Who wouldn't buy lemonade from this sweet face??   

Which leads me to say that we are blessed as a family to have so many wonderful and loving friends who have and are continuing to support us on our adoption journey.  Our hearts are overjoyed with the thoughts of bringing our children home.  The prayers of our family, our friends, strangers even are felt continually.  

If you are in the neighborhood on Thursday please stop by to see Wilhelm, grab some cold lemonade and a little treat! 
       

A secret fundraiser

We just want to take a moment and say thanks to some friends who decided to hold a yard sale to help us raise money for our adoption. They raised over $400 on one Saturday morning, and all without us knowing about it.

We have never been too concerned about how we would come up with the necessary funding to afford this adoption because we believed God called us into it and that He would provide everything we need to see it through. So far we have not been in need of anything, there has always been enough money to pay for whatever it is we needed at the time.

These friends weren't put up to doing this yard sale, they were never asked to do it - they just decided they would do it! Wow, that's what kindness really looks like.

I was reminded recently that humble servitude says, "Sure, I'll do it." It's with that attitude that people accomplish great things, and the same attitude that desires no credit for the services rendered. This is why we'll refrain from mentioning their names. While some might know who they are, I'm sure they'd prefer to remain as anonymous as possible.

But they know who they are. And we thank them.

"Greater love has none than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13

July 2011 Update

Once again we have fallen short of the original plan to keep our family and friends updated on our adoption through the use of this blog. All we can do is apologize for our lack of communication (for those of you who periodically check here to find new information) and ask for more grace and mercy from you. The root of the problem is organization and time management - two major factors we have been struggling to balance recently; however, we are still moving along in the process, it is just moving at a slower rate for the time being.

We have nearly completed the home study process! We are more than 75% of the way through finishing all that is required of it and are hopeful to wrap it up very soon. The paperwork has been absolutely daunting because of all the information we have to compile. We have to produce official documents for our entire life history, from birth until now. These documents include, but are not limited to, complete medical history as well as detailed medical exams, vaccinations and preventatives. Other information pertains to employment, financial standing, autobiographies, and so much more! Suffice it to say that there really is a lot of work that goes into this and we are taking it one day at a time.

Thank you for those of you who have continued to support us through prayer and encouragement. We really would struggle much more than we have been without this love that you have shown us. How can we say thanks for all that you have done and continue to do?

Although we have been hit with speed bumps and hard turns, we are not giving in. We have the end goal in sight before us and will not be giving up. We are reminded of the Apostle's words in Philippians 3:13, "...forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead." Although we have been called to a greater purpose: adoption into God's family through Christ, we have also been called to adopt children into our own family, and it is that purpose that we continually seek.

Please continue to be in prayer for us; that we would not be hindered by time management or disorganization, and that we will continue to move along by God's grace and timing.

We thank the Lord for you always.

In Christ,
The Waits Bunch!

Thanks for your help!

After much hard work on Saturday, our first major work day was completed.  We just want to publicly say THANKS to those who came out to help us work on some much needed house repairs. 

Special THANKS! to:

Gary and Mallory Bilger

Josh and Candice Rose

Chris and Hope McDonald

Amanda Hall

Michelle Brown

The jobs that we completed were: stripping wallpaper, sanding, puttying, painting the first coat of white over top of some really ugly 70ss green color in our hallway, and lots of woodwork cleaning.  Extra special thanks to Mr. Bilger who helped Michael pull up what was left of our orange 70s carpet!  That was one of the roughest jobs. 

The Waits' family is truly blessed to have some really great friends who desire to help us despite what the tasks are.  We were humbled at the turn out of support and help from each of you.  Know that you have a had a large part in helping bring our children home.  We love you all!