Here We Are!

YES. We are adopting our fifth child. Believe me, I am as stumped and bewildered as anyone who may know me. But as wild as we may be, we're even more inspired by the idea of bringing a beautiful Ethiopian child into the mix of our diverse and lively family. This blog is created separately from our main family blog so we can devote specific attention to our 3rd, and likely final adoption journey. For those who don't know, our main blog address is http://www.yogini-christine.blogspot.com/. Here we will record our journey to our daughter, from beginning to the day that we hold her in our arms.

At my age I never imagined I would have another child, and I certainly have my hands full with the four who grace our lives now. For some odd reason, Daniel and I have been toying with the idea of a daughter off and on until finally it became an intense tug at my heart. I am not one of those adoptive moms who has been trying fertility treatments, trying desperately to have a child, in mid-life crisis, or have a hole to fill. I am a devoted, fulfilled woman who feels called to raise these amazing children I have now. They have been my passion, and I surprisingly feel another soul calling me.... Every attempt to supress or eliminate the drive to bring her home only brings it more strongly into view. Unless someone has adopted a child it may be difficult to understand this, but it's a very real, intuitive sense that someone is near you, needing you, somewhere.

Anyway, like another adoptive parent said after adopting a set of three from Russia, then three from Ethiopia, and are awaiting their next three "My life is not my own." She is a stay at home mom, and her husband is a school teacher. They have inspired me to loosen up about numbers, quantities, money worries, etc. and focus upon the quality of my life and what I can do to truly serve and make a difference in whatever ways I feel nudged to. My life really doesn't belong to me, and nothing in this life does. There is always something greater guiding me, and I have never regretted following that little inner voice even though at times I think it's completely nuts (I'm usually wrong about that). I feel so much joy upon waking every day, knowing that I can bring smiles to my children's faces and transmit love that will shine from them long after I'm gone. I'm wildly, madly in love with my life and it just keeps getting better.

As for our process, we received approval from our agency, Children's Hope International, to adopt a female child 0-2 years old from Ethiopia. The next steps involve our homestudy, dossier preparation (lots of paperwork!), and USCIS immigration petition to adopt a foreign orphan. All this will take 2-3 months, then our dossier gets sent over to Ethiopia and we await a referral. This can take 1-6 months, and after acceptance of a referral we travel in 1-2 months. Ethiopia is fairly streamlined in its process, and the fees are less than most countries. We investigated India and hit walls at every turn this time, and Guatemala is still closed to international adoptions. So, here we are!

The most interesting aspect of this process so far has been the timing of our approval date. We received the happy phone call on the very day that the first African American President was voted into office. It was beautifully eerie that day to be so euphoric for Obama, our country, AND our approval to adopt and African little girl. Aaaah, the subtle coincidences that many of us take for granted...