When we mailed our Christmas cards this year, I was excited to include a letter letting many of our friends and family know about our good news! In case you read our blog and you haven't heard the latest from the Harpers.....here it is! We are adding to our family through an international adoption! We are adopting a son from Ethiopia! I have not blogged about the process until now because there really hasn't been a lot to tell. I could have bored you with the ins and outs of paper-chasing: homestudy interviews, doctor visits, adoption education courses, fingerprints, criminal background checks, notarizing documents, state-certifying documents and so on, but that isn't very exciting. HOWEVER...I am so happy to let you all know that our homestudy has FINALLY been approved (after 3 weeks of "issues" with our case manager) and our dossier (international paperwork) has finally been mailed to our adoption agency in Oregon! If all goes well, we will be on the official "waiting list" for our son within the next 5 to 7 days! Here is a picture of the dossier paperwork that has taken us 3 months to compile!
This is a picture of the check-list for all of the documents and one file folder full of the original documents as well as two more file folders with copies of everything! I went over that checklist SO MANY times! I'm just praying that it has all been done correctly and that there will be no mistakes!
On Thursday afternoon, Beckett, Helen and I went to UPS to mail those three file folders to AGCI (All God's Children International) which is our adoption agency in Oregon! I'm tracking the package and expect it to arrive in Oregon on Monday morning! We have been talking to Beckett and Helen about all of this from the beginning and when I gave them the package of paperwork to pose for a picture, Helen said, "We are holding our baby brother!" And in a way, she is right! That package of paperwork represents a lot of work that was necessary for us to begin this journey to bring him home to his forever family!
We are so glad to have this part of the process behind us! I'm excited to begin to share with you all how God has been moving in our lives and in our hearts about adoption and His love for orphans! I won't make this a mega-post, but I did want to go ahead and share this huge step in our journey! I'll share more soon! Thanks for all of your prayers and support! 
5 comments:
Yay!! I could just imagine Beckett & Helen holding their baby brother, instead of the UPS package, here in a few months!! We are so excited for you all and can't wait to keep up with the progress. Our prayers are with you guys and please let us know if you need anything else.
Crying here, of course. I am so happy for your family and know how excited you all are. I feel blessed to be able to follow your journey through your blog and through our friendship and can't wait until you have your angel in your arms. I am also glad you are uber organized so you can share your notebooks with us when we are ready! :)
Congrats!! I'm so excited for you guys!! I also wanted to share some blogs with you that you might enjoy. My friend from Brentwood, Gwen, has adopted 2 little girls from China, and is fundraising to bring home brother/sister siblings from Ethiopia! Her blog is www.oatsvallteam.blogspot.com
Our former pastor at 1st Baptist Smyrna and his wife have adopted a little girl from China and are in the process of adopting a little girl from Ethiopia! Their blog is www.amyrhood.blogspot.com
A guy that I went to college with is in the process of adopting from China, and has recently adopted a little girl from Ethiopia. His blog is http://aroundtheworldand2kids.wordpress.com/
Congratulations again!!! I look forward to hearing more updates now that your paperwork is done!!!
Congratulations!!
We are so excited for you all! We know what a journey this is and will be praying for you each step of the way. We are excited to keep up through the blog!
Congratulations!
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