While pictures are certainly worth at least a thousand words, sometimes it’s just nice to have words. We’ve been home about 5 days. We had our first, full, “normal” day yesterday. This is definitely the honeymoon period. John and Kayla are quiet, polite, and helpful. While I don’t think these qualities will necessarily go away,...
By the time you read this, we’ll be on our way home, but here are some more photos from the trip. The relationships between adults and our kids amazes me all the time. They make friends everywhere we go. Choosing teams for a courtyard soccer game. Eyob is the founder of the ministry that runs...
Language. With such a large language barrier, it’s so comforting that they have each other. They get along amazingly well for being in such a potentially awkward situation. They are also translating for each other. Sometime one understands and visa versa. Fashion and bargaining. We went out shopping last night. Kayla played fashionista for John,...
It’s been a whirlwind of a 24 hours. We received a call yesterday morning that we needed to be in Ethiopia in time to appear in court Friday morning. That meant pushing our departure up by 3 days. We rushed around yesterday getting papers notarized, starting to pack, and gathering donations ministry friends. Because of...
5/14/11: Pre-app submitted 5/18/11: Application submitted 5/26/11: Acceptance into program 6/14/11: Orientation/1st home study visit 9/26/11: Assigned a home study social worker 10/8/11: 2nd home study visit 10/22/11: 3rd home study visit 11/8/11: Final home study visit 12/8/11: Home study approved 12/22/11: I600 received at processing center 1/26/11: Biometrics appointment 2/4/12: I-171H Provisional Approval 2/24/12:...
It all started when I noticed while reviewing referral paperwork that John had a cousin with whom he was raised and who was also relinquished at the same time. I immediately called our family coordinator and asked if we would ever be able to pursue her as well. The reaction was mixed. While our agency generally...
The tickets are bought and Embassy appointments made. We leave to bring Kayla and John home on Saturday, August 18th! We had a generous donor offer a matching grant of $2000 to help us financially on this final leg of our journey. If you’d like to serve us in this way, you can donate here....
Setting: In Korea, sitting down to lunch with our guide while visiting my birth city. Me (talking about one of Patrick’s past co-workers): I had never thought about Koreans being adopted into other countries besides the U.S. It was so weird to see a Korean open her mouth and speak with a Danish accent. Our...