The Waiting Game Continues (Aren't games supposed to be fun?)

Well, it has been about 5 months since my last blog post. Some exciting things have happened over the past months, along with a really scary thing, and more waiting... Our PAIR paperwork was submitted in November and we had approval by late December. So, in that regard, our case moved crazy fast (normal is 3-5 months)!! We actually received news that our i604 investigation was complete while we were sitting in the ER on December 30th. So yeah, there's that...

Most of you know the story of Ben getting sick just before Christmas. He actually started feeling bad on Monday, December 22nd (the day after I was bit by an English Mastiff - don't be jealous). He was in bed with severe flu symptoms through Friday. On Friday we made it in to the doctor and Ben was very weak, no tests were done and we were told, "you have the flu. It will likely go through your entire family." We went home. Ben stopped throwing up that day with the help of anti-nausea medication, but his fevers continued and he was getting weaker and weaker. Sunday we drove to Urgent Care. Tuesday we were back at the doctor and then straight to the local ER. At this point, Ben could hardly walk unassisted and was wheel-chaired in and out of the hospital. Unfortunately, we were misdiagnosed and sent home again. Thankfully we made it to the ER at a larger hospital in Tacoma on January 1st. Ben was admitted for 9 days because of abnormal spinal fluid. A myriad of tests were done over that time, some that if were positive, would mean something very, very scary for our family. We praise God that Ben gradually improved and was sent home with a diagnosis of aseptic meningoencephalitis. We are so thankful to all of you who prayed us through such a difficult time. The outpouring of love, prayers, support, dinners and other kind actions was incredibly, incredibly moving. There are no words...

Since then, we have been waiting for approval from Ethiopia and a court date. We had initially thought we would be traveling late February or March. We are beyond thankful that Ben is back to virtually 100%, he was able to get the recommended vaccinations and he is approved to travel to Ethiopia. I have stepped back at work, cutting my hours greatly because of Ben being in the hospital. This has allowed me to spend more time with the boys and prepare more for E's arrival. We have a lot to be grateful for, we know that, #1 being Ben's health!! Nonetheless, the waiting for our daughter is still incredibly difficult.

I wish we had more to report but trust me, once we have approval and travel information, you will know!! Because the approving body in Ethiopia has been so unpredictable, we don't know if we will hear next week, next month or in (many) months to come. Baby E is in a good place, she is being loved on and well cared for and we continue to receive monthly photo updates from our agency. She turned 1 year old in January, weighs about 20 lbs and has been crawling for a few months. We just long for her to be in our arms, where she belongs. She is 14 months old and it has been about 7 months (minus a week) since we received the first photos of our beautiful daughter.

xo

October Update

Oh goodness, I am sorry it has been so long since I’ve blogged. I was going to blog a few weeks ago that we had nothing new to share and that we were hoping for an update soon. Well, we received our update on our sweet baby girl last Thursday, October 2nd!!! Hooray!!! You will see us refer to her as E or baby E, as that is the first letter of her given name. 

We are so excited to see how much baby E has grown! It’s amazing how much of a difference 6 weeks can make. She has gained about two pounds and in a couple of the photos, she is leaning forward and holding herself up on her arms. She is about 8 1/2 months old now and looking so much older!! We are incredibly grateful for this update and that we should continue to receive photo and growth updates each month. So many adoptive parents see their child only at the time of referral and then wait months to see them again in country. To think we have these photos of her to document this time in her life. I just don’t even have the words, thankful isn’t enough.

As far as the process is concerned, our agency is still preparing paperwork and will be submitting our application to start the PAIR process in the next couple of months. PAIR is a Pre-Adoption Immigration Review that Ethiopia implemented, together with the US, about a year ago. According to USCIS, this process helps by “ensuring that prospective adoptive parents and courts have all available information when considering whether intercountry adoption is in the child’s best interest.” This used to be done between the first and second visits to Ethiopia (between court and embassy) but it is now done prior to both and PAIR approval must be submitted with dossier. So, once baby E is approved by the USCIS, we will receive an approval letter and send it to Ethiopia along with our dossier. In the meantime, Ethiopia will do its own investigation. After approval by MOWA (Ministry of Women’s Affairs), we will await a court date. At least this is how I understand it anyways. I know PAIR is more complicated than that one approval letter and I know every case is different. But this is generally the order of how things will happen. Our court date will determine when we travel for the first time.

In other words, we really don’t have a clear timeline as of yet and do not expect to have one for months. We have our hopes but as with all things, we leave this in our Father’s hands. We are prayerfully awaiting the meeting of our sweet daughter, baby E, and dreaming of Ethiopia! Please join us in prayer for her, for the process and for all adoptive parents and children, as we wait.

Blessings,

Morgan

Cornhole Tourney and Adoption Fundraiser

Yesterday morning was a bit rough with my sweet middle boy. He was overly tired which made him angry and unkind words were spoken from his mouth. But he is a loving boy and a loved boy. And even though this was the hardest morning he has had in a very long time, it is a good day and we are rejoicing at the Craighead home. 

On Sunday, we had our first adoption fundraiser to help bring our daughter home from Ethiopia. We decided to do a corn hole tournament which also included a BBQ and Bake Sale. The fundraiser was a success and we are just overwhelmed with the amount of support we have received from our friends and family! God is good! We weren’t sure if this was going to be a great idea for a fundraiser but it seems that a wonderful time was had by all. And now we are selling corn hole boards, also to help fundraise. We already have a list of orders and most of the boards we made for the tournament sold as well, yay!

We could not have done it with out our family, who were a huge help! They came early and helped set-up. They made sure food was ready to go, baked goods were replenished and donation jars were emptied. They brought over their mini-horse and mini-donkey for the kiddos to dress up. Our friends made the yummiest baked goods and provided side dishes for our BBQ. Even though I had my normal anxiety, worrying that everyone was “good” and didn’t need anything, that they knew where to get a drink or find the bathroom, I was repeatedly reassured that everything was great. I am so, so, thankful. Best of all, they came, people showed up once again - in all different ways - just as they always do.

We are praising God today (and every day) for His answer to prayer regarding our fundraiser! And we are praying for a good night’s sleep and better mornings to come.

You can find a link to our fundraiser page to the right.

Happy Birthday to Me

On August 29th, the day after my birthday, I received the best birthday present of my life! We were shocked to receive a referral for a 7 month old baby girl. We are madly, madly in love with her and cannot wait to get her home!!! Eeek!!!! How do we speed up the process?!! We know we cannot and that only God can, so we are praying that the time goes quickly and perhaps moves at lightning speed!

Ben called me on Friday morning, he had gone into work that day. He said to me, “ I just spoke with our caseworker. “ She normally calls my cell phone so I didn’t think much of it. Perhaps he had called her with questions about our paperwork. So I was like, “Yeah, ok. What did she say?” He said, “Guess what. We have a referral…for a baby girl. She is 7 months old.” I could hear the excitement and shock in his voice and at that moment, the butterflies in my stomach were flying non-stop and I could not stop grinning. My face lit up with extreme excitement! He told me that photos were on there way shortly. I opened up my email and was giddy like a little girl!!! I could not contain myself and in seconds, our 3 boys were by my side looking at photos of their little sister. They too were very excited and couldn’t believe it, asking “Is that our referral? Is that our sister?” I told them yes and they didn’t stop oohing and ahhing over her beauty and cuteness. Ben was looking at the photos with us, from his office. He was overwhelmed and I could hear it in his voice. He couldn’t stop saying how beautiful she is. And she is, the most beautiful baby I have ever seen.

We received the complete referral later that day, containing social and medical history. We then met, on the phone, with a pediatrician who only does adoption medicine. She was amazing and confirmed our daughters good health and measurements. We didn’t think it could get better than that first day, but this really topped it off, we were just so thankful. Her good health makes us feel so much more at ease about the time she will spend in Ethiopia before we get to meet her and bring her home.

So that’s it!!! We have a referral!!! And she’s a baby!!! We were open to 0-5 years old and never expecting we would be having a BABY!!! We are overjoyed!

Welcome!

Hi guys! We have decided to start a blog to document our adoption journey, hence the title: Ethiopia to Enumclaw. 

Many of you know that we have been talking about adoption for well over 4 years now. We are excited to announce that we started the process for international adoption late last Fall. We finished our home study (loads of paperwork, meetings with social worker, home inspection, etc) in May and are nearly through the dossier process (a large gathering of even more paperwork that must be notarized or authenticated). The best news is that we are on the wait list for a little girl from Ethiopia! Timelines are never predictable so we are trying not to have expectations as to when we will receive a referral, travel, or bring our little girl home. For now we are just patiently waiting, trusting in God's perfect timing.