Hi,

Wow…haven’t posted since October 26th. 

Since the October, we’ve heard some disheartening news, which I’m asked not to publish over the internet, but suffice to say:  There’ve been some very sad things which happened on others’ Ethiopian adoption front in the last few months, which grieve them (and the rest of us), and put us further down on the list. 

Yesterday, D and I spoke with our social worker in charge of our adoption, and she indicated that though she couldn’t give a firm answer (when can they?), she felt like things might be loosening up in the referral process over in Ethiopia.  Meaning, that more children might be referred soon.  Then again, they might not.  The phone call took about 20 minutes for her to say this.  Why?  Well, I believe that it’s hard for folks to say and other folks to hear, “I don’t know.” 

And so…I shall leave you dear friends and family with this update, which could’ve taken one sentence, rather than these 10 or so…

We don’t know.  We hope to hear that things move soon, but alas…our wee one waits for at least a little longer for her big brother’s bear hugs, big sister’s hairdos, and her forever family home.  If you pray, please pray for her safety, and her little heart. 

We do know this.  God’s timing is perfect.  And so we wait.

 

xxxooo

It seems these updates are feast or famine. This week, we spoke to our new case manager, Patty, and chatted about where we are on the list for a match, as well as how long the process might take, etc.

There are approximately 100 families in our program for Ethiopia. Most of these want newborn girls. Typically, there are many wishes for very young infants/toddlers–especially if the adopting family has not experienced parenthood, yet. We are actually in a group which is considered fairly rare b/c we would be open to a 0-5 year old age range. Believe it or not, a child who is 3 years old is considered an “older” child.

Given the parameters that we’re looking for and our date placement in the list, our case worker says that we’re about family #15 in line for a match. On the one hand, that’s a WOOHOOOOO! Because being in the top 15 of a group of 100 is nothing to sneeze at.

However…There are variables which keep us from doing the complete and utter happy dance. Variable one: Ethiopia is slowing its referrals for international adoption because they are having a hard time proving orphan status for the children who are without parents. The communication process is slow, and orphanages aren’t taking new children until they can be sure the ones they have are either safely adopted, or reunited with family members. The referrals are, evidently, down to a c.r.a.w.l. Last year, if we had been 15th at the middle of October, I would imagine that we’d be matched by now. WACAP was getting between one and several matches a month, then. This year…who knows? Our case worker is not optimistic that we’ll have her within a year. BUT…she also tells us that the process could pick up as quickly as it dropped off. They simply do not know. Variable two: There are parents on the list waiting for an infant. Perhaps they’re ahead of us on the list and wish to adopt an infant. Well…as the wait gets longer and longer–perhaps 2-3 years for an infant–they may choose to widen the age range of the child that they would prefer to adopt. This would leapfrog them over us b/c of they’ve been on the list longer than we have. I hope that makes sense.

So…it is with open hands, slight discouragement, and an open heart that we accept “15″ as where we’re to be for now. I know God has a plan and is sovereign in this process. I do. Trusting Him to be with our wee one until we can smother her with cuddles, hugs, kisses, and love. Kills me that she may be hungry, lonely, or scared. But…He is able.

Woohoo!!!!! Today we received a letter from Homeland Security which states, “It has been determined that you are able to furnish proper care to an orphan(s) as defined in Section 101(B)(1)(F) of the immigration and Nationality Act.”  Another WOOHOO!

For those of you who’ve been following along, we had a hiccup in this process.  Evidently, the hold up with the whole biometric fingerprinting thing is that they were misfiled (ahem, seriously?) and so we had to go down and repeat the process. But all’s well that ends well.

What does this mean?  Well, we fax this little hummer over to our agency asap, and then we are on the list to be matched.  YAY!  It also means that we’re slowly shifting from working soley with the US Government to working with the Ethiopian government.

However…We are getting reports that Ethiopia is slowing (possibly even more than they were just recently) in their referrals due to issues with proving true orphan status with some of the children.  While we want this to be investigated fully and done with all t’s crossed and i’s dotted, it means an uncertain delay for us.  It is wonderful that we are now not only in program, but officially waiting to be matched.  But the “gestation” is unknown.  I’m praying to have our wee one in the family by next Christmas.  Tomorrow would be better, but I’m trying to be patient.

Love to all.  Thank you for your support and encouragement as we wait.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Hi,

Nothing terribly new or exciting to report, except that we need to redo our fingerprinting down at Homeland Security.  Oh, bother…  Evidently, this happens quite often, which might indicate a need to CHANGE something in the biometric technology, so we wait a few more weeks for a re-screen appointment to prove that we’re not trying to slide our nefarious selves past anyone to make this adoption happen.

BUT…I labeled this post “Cawfee Tawk” because of 2 good reasons.  One, I used to love watching Mike Myers doing “Cawfee Tawk” on Saturday Night Live…gee…about 20 years ago.  And two,  because I met a really cool lady who lives in my computer.  Actually she’s a friend of a friend, now new friend to me, who is in about the same spot of her family’s adoption process in Ethiopia as we are.  At this point, fundraising is not a part of our adoption story, but it is for so many, because…let’s face it just flying to Ethiopia twice is horrendously expensive, let alone any of the other adoption agency expenses (totally worth it–don’t get me wrong).  Laura and her family are doing a fundraiser for their adoption which is terribly close to my addicted little heart:  selling fair trade coffee.   Before we began this process, I had no idea that Ethiopia was the birthplace of coffee.  Another reason I’m excited to get there.

I won’t be plastering this blog with commercials for friends, but I drink coffee, and I’m adopting from Ethiopia, and this is one way for me to not only slightly help another, but also a way to feel closer to the little one who is waiting for us.  If you are interested in purchasing coffee (very reasonably priced for us coffee snobs–a little pricier than Folgers), please go to her blog and scroll to the lower right side bar.  There, you’ll see a blue and white button which will take you to the link to purchase coffee, if you so desire to do so.  Click here to get started.

BTW, Laura has no idea I’m doing this.  ‘T’was just a quick thought of mine.

Much love, and SDG!

 

 

Our social worker, Rachel, told us that we should receive our “Notice of Favorable Determination” (immigration approval) within the next couple of weeks.  As soon as we fax/scan and email a copy of that to her, we’ll be added to the list as of the date of our approval.  She’ll then talk to us about our place on the list, wait times, etc.

Please, Mister Postman…Please!

Happy Dance with Baby Steps.

Hi,

I’m back.   On such a tragic day in our history, I’m so grateful to be writing about something so hopeful.

So yeah, we followed up with one of the social workers at WACAP, our adoption agency, and said–Yes. We’d love to hear about the Ethiopia program.  News for me:  each country is different in how it’s program runs.  In China, for example, I believe they match much earlier in the overall process, but in Ethiopia, we’re matched after all of the paperwork’s paperwork paperwork has been signed, sealed, and delivered, in triplicate.  So she gave us the scoop, and then we applied to be accepted into the program.

Applying included: 

• going to a 12 hour class re: parenting both a younger and an “older” (older = 3 and up) child.   T’was actually a novel way to celebrate our 21st anniversary, together.
• submitting a 28 page parenting program, which included a lot of “What would you do if_________?” –worst case scenario/how will you make sure your child honors his/her birth culture questions
• reference letters, stating that Doug and I had a decent marriage and were able to parent well (THANK YOU, friends)
• doctors’ notes
• financial nakedness (here’s what we make, what we’ve saved, what we spend)
• a home study–a three hour visit w/a social worker who interviews parents together, separately, and casually chats with the children (my house has never been cleaner).  She also looked for obvious safety risks and decorating ideas whether our home could support another child.  She also discussed our parenting plan, and asked the nitty-gritty questions about the child we were hoping to adopt (e.g. gender, age)
• the first of many fees.

We started the application process in May, and found out that we were accepted into the program on August 2nd.  HAPPY DANCE NUMBER ONE!

We officially will take a child of either gender, ages 0-5, with any mild/correctible physical issues.  Since WACAP’s professionals actually do the matching, we suggested that our family would be best suited to a little girl, and that we would prefer ages 1.5-5.  But truly, we are open to our official parameters.

Next, we were told to start working on our dossier.  For those of you who haven’t adopted internationally (me), a dossier is the paperwork’s paperwork in triplicate AND NOTARIZED, VERIFIED, AND STAND-ON-YOUR-HEAD-AS-YOU-JUMP-THROUGH-HOOPS-AND-HOPE-AND-PRAY paperwork.  Essentially, it’s a repeat of the documents in the application to the adoption agency, with the added fun and adventure of working with the U.S. local, state and national and Ethiopian governments.   We’re saying to them:  Hi, we’re Mr. and Mrs. Hanna.  We would like to enlarge our family, and want to do this so much that we’d like to submit all these pieces of paper stating that we are, in fact married.  We are, in fact, Americans.  We are not axe murderers. And we are not trying to buy a baby.

I know I write with a bit of tongue-in-cheek about the process because I don’t generally like processes that take a long time and ask me to prove who I am.  Brat.

BUT:  I respect the process.  One of the reasons that it takes so much red tape to adopt is that both the US and Ethiopia want to make sure we’re not buying/incenting anyone to give us a child.  Evil comes in all forms in this fallen world, and one of the evils in adoption is folks either selling/buying children. This turns my stomach; so I’ll take a headache or 500 to ensure the process goes well.  But that doesn’t mean I won’t poke fun.

Also, at this time, we were told to get our immigration paperwork in and high-tail it down to Homeland Security to be fingerprinted.  After our immigration paperwork was accepted, the official wait of 12-18 months (give or take 6-12 months) would begin.

So…the clock is now ticking.  We think.  And we have the gestation of an elephant.  Or a dinosaur.  Or something like that.

I’ll update more as I know more, but this basically gets everyone caught up.  We’re holding this with open hands.  It’s a huge lesson in letting go of control and being gracious even when you don’t want to.  But we’re SO EXCITED!!!!!

BTW, I haven’t mentioned the kids much.  We wouldn’t have moved forward w/o their blessing.  And they have both risen to the occasion.  David is ready to teach her to read and to help Santa.  And Jenny is probably going to fight me to do her hair (we have an African hair and skincare class this October) and is already shoving Doug and me out the door for date nights.  I could cry at their response.  Just another affirmation that this is where we need to be.  Thank You, God.

Soli Deo Gloria

Yep.  We are.  Or trying to, at least.  For some of you this is very new information; others have known for a bit.  Now that we’ve told all who need to know “first”, we have enlarged the “circle of trust” (thank you, Meet the Parents).  I plan to share the information regarding our adoption on this blog, rather than in email posts (unless we have an urgent prayer request).  This way, we can share pictures, you can comment, if desired, and I can respond to questions.

Here’s a brief summary of where we are thus far.  Please ask questions if you have any.   And if you are interested in knowing when I post, simply click the “sign me up” button on my sidebar to subscribe to this blog.

In mid-April, we were watching China’s Lost Girls, a documentary hosted by Lisa Ling (National Geographic Ultimate Explorer series).  As the four of us watched in the family room, together, it occurred to me (again) that we have so much, and our little girls are beloved and treated so well in this country, compared to China and many other countries.  It’s not an overstatement to say that many young girls across the globe are treated as property, or worse–as trash.   Following the show, all of us discussed our feelings, and later, Doug and I talked about adopting from China.  Since it’s not terribly safe for me to be pregnant (get pregnant easily, then spend the rest of the pregnancy trying to deliver them early), and since I’m of “advanced maternal age” we knew that, should our family increase in number, it would be through adoption.  That is IF we wanted another child.  We’ve been pretty busy content with our two, and while the thought had fleetingly occured to me to have Doug bring home Faith Joy Hanna from China on one of his business trips , he’d been resistant.  He’s also wise. He knew that my hands were full and my eyes were essentially bigger than my stomach.

But God has a funny way of taking the seed of a thought or burden for an idea and running with it in His perfect time.

This time, when I asked about adopting from China, he said, “Yes.  I think it’s the right thing to do.”.  (Whatchu talkin’ about, Willis?!)

The next day, I went about finding an adoption agency, and even called one several days later.  Evidently, the wait for a healthy daughter from China is now 5+ years, and because of some government standards on China’s end, it was fairly clear to us that the door was shutting rather quickly and soundly.  I won’t lie.  China made so much sense!  Doug travels there every few months or more, and has done so for nearly 5 years.  Through him, we have a bead on the culture–at least a little bit–and the people.

As I was about to hang up on the dream crusher social worker, she said, “Have you thought about Ethiopia?”

Why no.  No, we hadn’t.  So…we let that thought stew in our stewers for a bit, and thought…Sure.  Why not?

Tune in tomorrow for more,  if you’re interested.  The story is still unfolding, and even so, it’s a large blog post–thought better to break it up.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Gretchen

Dear Friends and Family,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We’re trying something new by posting a virtual Christmas letter, rather than a paper letter. We can upload more pictures this way, and you are welcome to comment, as well.

Praying all is well with you as we usher in the 2010 holiday season. It’s a season I cherish and look forward to each year–so much so that I wish the days would slow down just.a.little.bit. But they don’t, so we cope and enjoy them as best as we can.

This year has us in the throes of adolescence, including all of the HIGHs and LOWs that come along with it.  In fact, we take turns sharing our highs and lows of the day (or roses and thorns, if you prefer–but then I start hearing the Poison song in my head, and can’t focus on listening as well) Without further ado, our year in a nutshell:

Jenny is in 7th (oh, my Lord, how is that possible?) grade at Brighton School in Lynnwood. She remains BFFs with Samantha, and has also seemed to gel a bit with some other girls at school, so while the middle school part is not new this year, it’s nice that some friendships are new. She began 2010 by participating in ski school Fridays at her school. I’m told this January, she’d like to try snow boarding. Be still my nervous heart. She took a bit of a sports break in the early spring, before re-joining the track team in April. Great news! This year, no broken heel in track, and she set a school record in discus. Please discuss. This fall she played volleyball, and though the team had a losing season, she really enjoyed her coach and greatly improved her serve. Go lefties. She is doing well in school despite the fact that they still teach math, and as I compose this post, she’s on her way to King 5 News with her TV news elective class to see how a news station is really run. She is active in her youth group at church, and is doing a great job in our Christmas Dessert Theatre play (which I’ll discuss soon).

Ski School

David is now just about 6’2 and 1/2″. He now sleeps in a queen sized bed. I don’t like to say that he’s in high school because that makes him sound too old, so I’ll note that he’s in 9th grade at Chrysalis School in Woodinville. When you call our home, please remember to ask for Doug, if indeed you’d like to speak with him, because David sounds EXACTLY like him on the phone. Surely, a highlight for David was getting his braces off in August. He has also thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the people in his Star Wars Role Playing Group, and is now playing Warhammer 40,000 with a senior from school. His favorite subject remains history, and he has become fast friends with Rick, his history/biology instructor. Another highlight for David would likely be taking an 8th grade “graduation” trip with his dad to Washington DC and Gettysburg, last June. Jenny and I held down the fort while David and Doug traipsed through museum after museum, unencumbered by others who might like to hang out in the gift shops. Ahem…I heard that it was HOT and HUMID, but amazing.

Birthday Boy at British Museum

Braces Off!

Doug continues on as CIO with WPMI, and with that comes regular trips to Shanghai. We don’t like it when he’s gone, but his culture shock/food stories are almost worth the fact that he must leave us. Typically, he travels to China about every six weeks; however, we’ve had the privilege of having him home since August this year. He maintains that the challenges of doing business in the US and China are what excite him, despite the travel. And…when it’s really hot, humid, and smoggy, it helps that there is a Cold Stone Creamery very near where he stays.  This year, he was volunteered by his wife agreed to be the volleyball coach for Jenny’s team, giving him the opportunity to drive a short bus full of screaming/singing pubescent girls on the way to away games and practices.  Unfortunately, he now knows way too many Justin Bieber songs, but I think he did a fab job.

Hanging Around in China

VIP at the Pearl Store

My job description this year, perhaps more than any other is…wait for it…driver. Between running to each school and to church and to sporting events, our little minivan, RHonda is used and abused. The fact that I get some real quality time to chat individually with my children makes up for the fossil fuels we’re depleting. Speaking of fossil fuels, I might be known to have to rewash a load of forgotten clothes or…ahem…refluff, as well. I promise to go green when the kids are gone. I’m the resident cheerleader (even when it embarrasses), laundry do-er, and privacy/”is your homework finished?” invader, so sometimes I’m not as popular as I once was. But I am loved well by a fabulous husband and great kids.  Though not as active as I once was (due to producing a play), I’m still a part of our worship team and choir at church.

Gretchen as Lily St. Regis, with Rooster and Hannigan

Family Highlights:

February 2010 – Gretchen went to Raleigh and Durham to visit bloggy (and now real life) friends, Susan and Kellie.  They had both come to Whidbey the previous August, and now I got to see NC for the first time.

May 2010 - Gretchen’s Dad came for a visit, and took them out for their anniversary.

June 2nd, 2010 - our 20th anniversary. Doug and I went to Whidbey together, and had a relaxing weekend. And, he surprised me by telling me I needed a new ring, and getting me one.

June 19th: Jenny turned 12.
July 13th: David turned 14.

July: Family Trip to the UK and Ireland. This was an amazing adventure.   Doug has now had the pleasure of changing a tire in England’s Lake District. However, he and David also had the pleasure of celebrating their birthdays on our trip. For David’s, they hung out at the Imperial War Museum and the British Museum (Jenny and I went to Harrod’s).  For Doug’s, he got to go see The Open at St. Andrews.  Jenny’s favorite was London.  We all loved seeing the musical “Wicked”.  David’s faves were the museums.  I’d venture to say Doug’s fave was the Open, and getting to see some places he hadn’t seen on previous visits.  My favorite?  Well…York and the Lake District are right up there.  But it was ALL a thrill.  Date night with Doug in Dublin was right up there, too.  We were spoiled, indeed.

Whitby Castle, North Yorkshire, UK

 

Sunset walk in St. James' Park - Buckingham Palace in background

 

 

The boys at Hadrian's Wall

 

Summer/Fall/December: Jenny and I acted and I produced the Broadway version of “Annie” in our Christmas Dessert Theatre Production at our church. Jenny was cast as the orphan, Duffy, and I was cast as Lily St. Regis. I know I’m probably a little biased, but my daughter rocked it.

Jenny as Duffy

Finale

 

Thanksgiving: Was spent enjoying RJ and Virginia (Doug’s parents), and Kathy, David, and Justin (Doug’s sister, her husband, and our nephew).

Thanksgiving with Grandma and Grandpa

We have been blessed by amazing friends and family in our lives, and wish you an amazing 2011, filled with good health, joy and wonder.