Our Adoption Timeline
{in God's timing, not our own}
{in God's timing, not our own}
2009: Felt God calling us to care for orphans through adoption after losing our first baby due to miscarriage @ 10 weeks
2010:
-Gave birth to our first biological son in March; planned to start the adoption process around his 1st birthday
- Raised over $1000 for Adoption fund @ our Adoption Yard Sale in the summer
2011
1/2011: Ready to "officially" start the adoption process after preparing our hearts for years!
1/6: Started gathering documents (certified birth & marriage certificates)
1/11: Talked to a couple adoption agencies, began praying about which one to use
1/13: Celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary
1/14: Contacted Adoption Assistance Home Study agency & started gathering documents for home study
1/21: Finished all of our Medical exams for home study
1/31: Mailed application to adoption agency CCI
2/1: first interviews with our Home Study worker, almost all paperwork ready
2/2: Found out we wouldn't be able to adopt 2 children, as planned; new plan: adopt 1 boy under 2
2/19: Held Adoption Fundraising Open House, where the Lord provided over $650 for our adoption!
2/22: Final Home Study meeting with our Home Study worker @ our home
2/28: Mailed our completed Agency Agreement and $1000 to our Adoption Agency
3/1: Celebrated our son's 1st birthday! Working on gathering dossier documents
3/6: Found out that MOWA is cutting 90% of adoptions in Ethiopia, began PRAYING that God would hear the cry of the orphans in Ethiopia!
3/7: Jon talked with our director about the possibility of being a "pilot family" for a new program with our adoption agency in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
3/10: Homestudy Approved & Finalized! Copy sent to our agency
3/12: Decided to be a "pilot family" for the DRC program after much prayer; Paid $100 to have Home Study changed; Got dossier for DRC together (in 2 days) & sent to CCI (our director was leaving on 3/16 & wanted to take our dossier with her)
3/16- 4/5- our director went to Africa, first Ethiopia, then the Demoratic Republic of Congo with our dossier in her hands!
4/1: Our Adoption Fundraising shirts came in!
4/7: Got a bill for the first part of our attorney fees for 2 referrals from the DRC. Our director said we may have referrals within the next month!
4/18: Paid the first part of our Attorney fees for the DRC ($3200)
4/19: Sent off our I600A to USCIS along with $890
5/10: Found out from Lifesong that we're approved for Both Hands project & $10,000 interest-free loan through our church's adoption fund
6/7: Received Referral for an adorable 6 month old boy! Rejoicing & waiting for girl to pass her medical!
6/26: Found out we may lose our referral for baby boy. PRAYING!
6/30: Final Hand in Hand Matching Grant- $5,590 donated + $5,000 matched= $10,590 total! Praise the Lord!
7/6: Lost our referral for our 6 month old boy
7/9: Our Both Hands Project
7/14: Got official referral for 8 month old girl, Leseli Joyce
8/1: Sent care package to our agency for our baby girl, Leseli
8/23: Got a call from our agency at 5:00pm that our baby girl, Leseli had died 4 days earlier
8/31: Received a referral for a 5 month old baby boy (Baby R)
9/12: Got a call from our agency telling us that Baby R is in the hospital with a serious case of malaria & a stomach bug
... Praying without ceasing for Baby R & orphans worldwide!
9/16: Call from our agency telling us that Baby R is OUT of the hospital! PRAISING THE LORD!
10/4: Got an email from a kind lady in TN who we've never met telling us she wanted to donate 10% of her Noonday collection sales to our adoption! (Which ended up being an $80 donation!) So humbled & praising the Lord by the kindness of this stranger!
11/3: Received Baby R's abandonment decree
2012
1/6: We got approval for baby R's birth certificate (which we need in order to start adoption court)
1/17: Got a REFERRAL for a BABY GIRL! She is 2 months old!
1/20: Sent our child-specific documents off to DC to be authenticated
1/27: got baby girl's abandonment decree!
2/4: Celebrated Baby R's 1st birthday
2/6: Started getting all our pre-travel shots
2/13: sent care packages to our kids (they will be hand-delivered in March by our agency)
2/22: Started first phase of ADOPTION COURT for Baby R! (Should take a week or so)
2/25: our Kids size adoption shirts came in! Praising the Lord for providing financially for our adoption through these shirts!
3/1-3/8: our agency was in DRC visiting all the children (but we found out later that they weren't able to see Baby R)
3/5: PASSED ADOPTION COURT for baby R!
5/14: Adoption Deed issued for baby R
5/15: Passed consent court for baby girl
6/1: PASSED ADOPTION COURT for baby girl!
6/14: Received I-600 approval in the mail for baby R
7/3: were told by our agency that our son is missing
7/12: Adoption Deed for baby girl
8/10: Booked a flight to DRC departing Aug. 26 to file I-600 in-country for baby girl so we can care for her & ensure she is safe.
8/24: 2 days before Jon's flight to DRC we find out that baby girl is now missing too.
Currently: both children are legally ours & both are missing. Please pray for them & for justice for each orphan in the DRC & worldwide.
final update: Broke ties with agency. Did not bring either child home, but did find out what really happened.
