Category Archives: Adoption

Adoption

Adoption Case Goes to Court

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Tomorrow our adoption case heads to court in Ethiopia. A judge will review the case, make sure everything is above board and, hopefully, grant us official guardianship of our baby boy. Once that happens things start moving quickly and we’ll likely head to Ethiopia 5-6 weeks later.

Assuming we make it through court. Just about anything can hold things up, from a serious problem to a technicality. Even something as mundane as a power outage can end our day in court. And if we don’t make it, our court case will be rescheduled, possibly as much as 7 weeks later. Yeah, ouch (last month that happened to a whole group of families).

So we’re hoping and praying that we make it through court. This has been a long process and we want to bring our baby home. I hope you’ll pray for us as well (I posted some specifics to pray for in our Facebook group).

To tide us over a bit, we did receive a social report on our baby yesterday, full of details of his development and pictures. Our kid is amazing. And cuter than yours.

Oh, that’s the other fun detail. If we make it through court and receive official guardianship, then we can share pictures online. Score.

Adoption

You Can Change the World: “I Have a Family”

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Back in November I blogged about the Palmer family. They just moved to Uganda—all six of them—to finalize the adoption of their son, 4-year-old Francis. When they arrived at the airport Francis was there to meet them as a surprise:

“As we came out of customs, we all rushed him, gave him a big hug, and all he did was laugh, and laugh, and laugh”

But the best part has to be what Francis said on the phone with his aunt: “Auntie! I have a family and they saved me!”

That’s awesome. I have to fight back tears every time I read that. In the face of the world’s brokeness and pain, adoption offers such a glimmer of hope and grace. Kids who are alone and abandoned need families of their own. There may not be a blood connection, but we’re all humans. That should be connection enough.

We have a court date one week from today in our own adoption process.

Adoption

Adoption Court Date: Feb. 20, 2009

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It’s about time for an adoption update around here. Not much has happened since we got our court date and referral. We do receive monthly updates, but they only consist of height and weight measurements. It’s kind of hard looking at the photo of my boy and the sheet of paper telling me how much he weighs. All I know is he’s growing, and that’s a good thing (duh).

Our court date is coming up on February 20. This happens in Ethiopia and we don’t have to be present. We’ve signed over power of attorney and someone else will be present for us as a judge reviews the case and, if everything goes smoothly, transfers guardianship of our boy to us. This paves the way for a birth certificate that lists us as parents. Once we get a correct copy of that birth certificate things start moving. We can start filing more paperwork to get a visa, we’re given a travel date and we’re given permission to book our tickets. It’s a flurry of activity. We’ve been told that travel dates generally come 5-6 weeks after a successful court date, which means late March or early April.

Continue reading Adoption Court Date: Feb. 20, 2009 →

Adoption, Society

Choose Adoption

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I don’t like talking about abortion. Today’s the 36th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, and it’s hard to avoid those discussions today. I don’t like those discussions because it’s such divisive issue and I see both sides of it. I can’t stand the bitterness and anger and hatred that inevitably floods the conversation.

I’d rather focus on something we can all agree is good, like lowering the number of abortions. One way to make that happen is to encourage and support pregnant women as they choose adoption.

With that in mind I love this comment from Ruth Graham, daughter of Billy Graham, who helped her daughter navigate two unplanned pregnancies:

“No life is a mistake. God has plans for each life. And there are no illegitimate children—there are only illegitimate acts. And I believe that birth mothers are very courageous. They are living in a society that tells them they don’t have to carry to life. It’s legal in this country to have abortion, but they choose life. They lay down their lives; literally, their reputations, their figures, their school careers, sometimes their families kick them out. And the Lord said that there’s no greater love but that a man lay down his life for his friends, and these young women lay down their lives for their children. And I applaud them.”

The brave women who place their children for adoption instead of choosing abortion need to be celebrated.

Adoption, U2

Adoption & U2=Awesome

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So the economy is in the toilet and work has been incredibly slow. No matter: The spring of 2009 has decided to be awesome.

Adoption
Most importantly, our adoption will finally happen. We got the referral a few weeks ago (it’s a boy!) and we found out yesterday that the court date will be Feb. 20, 2009. It’s a tentative court date and it could change, but the court date is what determines everything else. This is the legal process in Ethiopia where guardianship is transferred to us. If everything goes through OK they send us a birth certificate. If the birth certificate comes through OK then we’re able to get a visa and all that jazz and they can give us a travel date. Then we can book plane tickets and be on our way. They tell us travel usually happens 5-6 weeks after a court date, and in general we get 2-3 weeks notice before traveling.

Five to six weeks after Feb. 20 is March 27 to April 3. Not that I’m counting.

New U2
The spring of 2009 is also shaping up to be awesome because U2 will be releasing their first album in nearly four and a half years. OK, it’s not nearly as awesome as our adoption, but I’m still excited. The album, No Line on the Horizon, is due March 3. This means I can spend those final remaining weeks before we travel rocking out and I’ll have a ready-made soundtrack for those first months with our new kiddo.

Go 2009!

Adoption

It’s a Boy!

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We got the call today. We’re adopting a baby boy from Ethiopia!

He’s five weeks old, weighs about six pounds and is incredibly cute. Woo!

A flurry of activity begins now, but the major next step is the court date when we receive guardianship. That gets us a birth certificate, which means a visa, and then we can travel. They estimate roughly two to four months from referral to travel, so hopefully we’ll bring him home early next year.

We’re pretty excited right now and flying high. This finally means some answers have slid into place, but it only opens up a whole slew of new questions and challenges. We’re happy to answer questions, but we also have to be careful to protect our child’s privacy and his story. We can’t share his picture yet (don’t worry, as soon as we can, we will!) and we won’t be sharing details about his story (his family, his background, the circumstances of his birth and placement for adoption). That’s his story to share if and when he’s ready to do so.

Big thanks to everyone who has helped us out along the way. We’re not there yet, but we’re so much closer!

Adoption, Society

You Can Change the World: Moving to Uganda to Adopt

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Francis holding a picture of his family.In 2005 the Palmer family of Tulsa, Okla. started the process to adopt Francis, an orphaned child in Uganda. In January the Palmers—all six of them—will be moving to Jinja, Uganda to unite their family under one roof and finalize their adoption of Francis.

It’s a crazy story, and it keeps getting crazier. In a nutshell, the Palmers were granted guardianship of Francis but fine print stipulated that they had to come back to Uganda in three years to finalize the adoption, essentially fostering him for three years. Since the U.S. won’t grant a visa under those circumstances, Francis is stuck in Uganda. So his family is coming to him.

How amazing. Stories like this bring tears to my eyes. Adam Palmer, the dad of the family, is a friend of mine (I interviewed him back in 2005 about his book Taming a Liger: Unexpected Spiritual Lessons from Napoleon Dynamite) and I’m so excited to watch their story continue. You can read a newspaper article about their story and follow the journey on their blog.

Adoption

More Waiting While Ethiopians Go Hungry

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It’s been a while since I’ve talked about adoption, and even then I didn’t have any news. Well, we have news, but it’s not exciting.

Last week we got an e-mail from our agency informing us that all the expected wait times are going to be longer. What was a 6-9 month wait is now a 12 month wait. The end of September would have been 9 months of waiting for us, but now we’ll likely be waiting until the end of December or later. It’s frustrating, to say the least.

Continue reading More Waiting While Ethiopians Go Hungry →

Adoption

What Happens When We Get a Referral?

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I haven’t talked about our adoption in a while, mainly because things haven’t changed. We’re still waiting for a referral. Though it occurs to me that a lot of people don’t know what that means. A referral is basically when our agency matches us with a child to adopt from Ethiopia. The entire rest of our adoption process is waiting for that referral. Here’s what the referral process looks like:

  • Our agency receives a profile of a child by e-mail.
  • They review the information and look to the next family on the waiting list open to that child’s age, gender, background and medical condition (we’re open to a child or siblings under 12 months old of either gender).
  • Our social worker will contact us by phone with the referral information (which is why we’re a little jumpy when the phone rings).
  • Referral information is forwarded by e-mail (this includes the name, photo, age, gender, background and medical history).
  • Families are strongly encouraged to have the referral information reviewed by an international adoption clinic or pediatrician with experience reviewing child referrals from Ethiopia. A review by at least a pediatrician is actually required before we can accept the referral.
  • We need to report back to our agency regarding acceptance within one week of receiving the referral; this timeframe is flexible if there are pending medical questions.
  • Family notifies their specialist of acceptance and completes acceptance paperwork.
  • Specialist notifies Ethiopia of acceptance.
  • Ethiopia pairs the family’s translated dossier with the child’s referral information and submits to court.

Continue reading What Happens When We Get a Referral? →

Adoption, Internet, Politics

McCain vs. Obama: Getting Answers on the Adoption Tax Credit

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About a week ago I was talking to a friend about the adoption tax credit that offers a $10,000 credit when you adopt. This friend claimed the credit was George W. Bush’s idea and lamented that if Barack Obama gets elected the credit will vanish. So I decided to sort out some facts. Which is harder than I thought.

To start with the basics, the adoption tax credit started in 1997 as a $5,000 credit and was raised to $10,000 in 2001 as a part of Bush’s tax cuts. Bush didn’t start the tax credit, though he did raise it. It’s also not clear if this is something Bush pushed for or if it was just part of the package. It’s also slated to expire in 2010 if it’s not renewed.

And this is where it gets tricky. Where do the current presidential candidates stand on renewing the adoption tax credit?
Continue reading McCain vs. Obama: Getting Answers on the Adoption Tax Credit →