Trevor's Specialist Graduation

It is official...my amazing husband is now smarter than me.  He has the paper to prove it!

On Friday, December 17th, Trev graduated from Southwest Baptist University with his Education Specialist degree in District Level Administration.  Let's just say, I am one crazy proud wife!  He has worked so hard for this degree and even wrote a dissertation with our principal (they went through the program together) that was published!!!

It was pretty great because the kids got to watch their daddy walk across the stage to receive his hood and diploma (holder :)).  Melia thought it was cool to read her daddy's name in the program.

Camden mostly just squirmed and told me over and over again that he couldn't see.  But, he is three, and it was his bedtime.

 

Trev says he's not sure if he will get his doctorate, but he's only 18 hours and another dissertation away.  Will our next two kids get to see their daddy graduate?!  Only time will tell!

On the Way to DC!!

I wanted to share some E-mail correspondence between us and Ashley, our social worker with CHI:

This one came from Ashley yesterday, December 13th:

Dear Jennifer & Trevor Chase,



We have received your dossier and dossier fee in our office today and will be reviewing it over the next couple of days to ensure that everything is in order. If there are any adjustments that need to be made, we will contact you and/or your social worker, always keeping you informed. After we ensure that everything is accurate in the dossier, it will be sent to Washington, D.C. for authentication and bundling at the U.S. Department of State and the Ethiopia Embassy. The time frame from this point until your dossier is 100% complete could be 1 1/2 to 2 weeks.


Once your dossier is returned from Washington, DC you will be added to the referral waiting list and will become a waiting family. You will be sent an email letting you know your status at that time and the process from that point. We are no longer sending dossiers directly to Ethiopia once it is completed, as there is currently a lack of space. Instead we will be holding the dossiers in the St. Louis office until such time that it is sent to Ethiopia. Since no one reviews your dossier in country prior to you receiving a referral, there are no steps missed by having your dossier remain in our home office.


Congratulations on having this huge step behind you!! You're one step closer to bringing your child home.


Blessings,

Ashley

And then, we received this one from her today, December 14th:

Dear Chase Family-


I just got finished reviewing your completed dossier and everything looks great! I will be preparing it for authentication and it will be sent to Washington DC on Thursday. It will take 1-2 weeks to return from Washington DC and then you will be added to the official waiting list.

At this time, please confirm with me your preference for the waiting families list in regards to number of children, gender, age, and health. This will be what I use to match children with you in the future.

Congrats on being paperwork ready! This is a huge accomplishment!

So, there it is...our dossier is on its way to Washington DC to be Authenticated!  We are that much closer to bringing our babies home!!  By the way, we gave our preference for two children, either gender, 0-3 years old.

We're almost an official "waiting family"!

Christmas Light Drive-Thru

Things I learned about Christmas from my kids at the Carthage light show:

1. Jesus was in a basket in the ocean (or was that Moses?)
2. Whales, when they swallow humans, can fly
3. When the ark landed, there were four flamingos
4. Moses was proud to be American
5. Apples are not for Christmas, so maybe those were pumpkins?
6. Rudolph and Bambi both came to welcome baby Jesus
7. What does a clown bear have to do with Christmas?!

Out of Our Hands, But Still Completely in His!

To say the last forty-eightish hours have been a whirlwind is a total understatement!  If you know me at all, you know that when I get an idea in my head, there is NO STOPPING me!  So, when I came home on Thursday afternoon to our 1-171H (Fingerprinting Approval) and realized that we were ready for the next step in our adoption process, I was BESIDE myself.  No joking...I was shaking with excitement about what that one piece of paper meant for our family!!

So, I loaded the kids back in the Passport and headed to our bank, but...no notary still working.  Bank #2 had a notary, but since Trev wasn't with me (he was supervising a game), she couldn't notarize it.  I was afraid that my sense of urgency was going to be in vain, so I talked with Trev and devised the next day's plan.  He couldn't get off work, and I didn't want to go to Kansas City by myself, so on Friday morning, I asked my friend, Erin, if she and her daughter, Lydia, wanted to join Melia and myself on a quick roadtrip.  And, like the amazing friend that she is, she agreed (seriously, Erin, thank you so much for going with us!!).

I worked the first half of the day and then picked up Melia, Erin, and Lydia and off we went.  After a couple of hours on the road, we made it to this building...

 ...rode the elevator to the 5th floor...

...to this office...

...where the girls found Ethiopia on the globe while I filled out paperwork.

The sort-of kind gentleman told us it would be a couple of hours, so we went to Crown Center, where they were all set up for Christmas.  The girls found some things to climb on...

 ...a fountain to pose sit by and throw coins into...

 ...a really COOL gingerbread village...

 ...and, of course, some ice cream!

 On the way back to the SoS office (they were done with our documents within 45 minutes), we went a little random prehistoric.  *Note the Christmas spirit on this t-rex!*

 Then, this morning, Trev and I went and made copies of all 21 documents, laid them all out to double-check and make sure we had everything exactly like it needed to be...

 ...stuck it in the envelope and went to the CJ Post Office to overnight it to CHI!! :)

And so the paper chase comes to a close.  CHI will check to make sure all the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed and if it all looks perfect, they will send it to DC to be authenticated. 

It is SO CRAZY to think that we are at this point.  It is becoming so real that our babies will be home before we know it!!  Please join us in prayer for three specific things: that things go smoothly with the authentication, for patience for us as we wait, and that God would provide the nearly $12,000 we will need to accept our referral when it's time.  It's ALL in His timing, and it's all in His hands!

 

Fingerprinting Appointment

It's official...we have been fingerprinted!  So, now we are at a new level of waiting.  It went really smoothly...it's amazing how God's hand has been so evident, even down to the very small details. 

Like this...

 This is my cousin that I ALWAYS looked up to as a little girl.  She was just enough older than me that I thought she was like walk-on-water awesome.  I remember when she got her driver's license (I was 8) and I could not WAIT to ride with her.  I also remember her braiding mine and my cousin, Beth's hair when we went on a huge family vacation to our Aunt's house on the East Coast.  So, you are probably thinking "um, back to the fingerprinting, please..." 

Here's the thing.  We live in the Southwest corner of Missouri, so we planned on being fingerprinted in Kansas City.  But, two weeks ago when our appointments came in the mail, it said that we would be fingerprinted in Fort Smith, Arkansas.  WHAT?!  The appointment was at 9:00 a.m. so we thought we would probably need to stay over night and *guess who* just happens to live 10 miles south of the USCIS office in Fort Smith?  You got it, my cousin, Trisha, and her two boys.  She graciously let us stay with them last night and we had the best time going out to eat with them and her boyfriend, Jeff, and then going back to her house and hanging out and just visiting.  Thanks, Trisha, for having us and thank you, Jesus, for your hand throughout our process!

As far as the actual fingerprinting goes, there isn't much to say.  We went, we waited, we were fingerprinted, we came home.  Quite easy! 

 Here we are on our way to be fingerprinted.

The USCIS office of Fort Smith, Arkansas

At this point, we have some documents to correct, some passport photos to have taken, a couple of parenting classes to do, and hopefully we'll be ready to get our dossier State Certified when our 1-171A (Background Check) gets here.  Things are really moving....

As always, thanks for praying us through this process...they are protecting us; God's provision is evident!

Two Baby Steps in Our Adoption

Tomorrow evening we will head to Fort Smith, Arkansas to stay the night with my cousin, Trisha, so that we can wake up bright and early on Wednesday and kick December off right, Immigration office-style!  Please pray that we have safety in travel AND that I don't forget anything.  I think I have it all on post-it notes and alarms on my phone, but stranger things have happened!

Also, check out this beauty...

So, she needs a facelift (or maybe just a face :)), but I am still so excited that in 10 weeks she is going to be ours!  And, do you know why I'm so excited?  Because if we can sell our Honda Passport, we will easily be able to pay cash for our carefully rebuilt Dodge Grand Caravan!  And, that means thing #1 will be crossed off our list and all savings can be poured into the adoption fund! 

Van

Adoption Fund

Student Loans

I'm hoping this will grow our adoption fund much faster than our fundraising efforts thus far. :)

I'll post pictures of her in 10 weeks, when she is all done with her small, cosmetic upgrade. ;)  In the meantime, anyone interested in buying a 2001 Honda Passport?!

A New Friend

I'm not really sure I can call Courtney Thornton my friend.  I mean, I've never really spoken to her on the phone or even actually met her.  Yet, somehow, anyone who will send me a gift for Melia even though they have never even met me is pretty high on my list!  So, I thought I should introduce you to my new friend.

Courtney and her hubby, Brandon, are in the beginning stages of adopting from Ethiopia (just like us) and they are planning to adopt a sibling group (just like us).  Only, they are going to adopt a sibling group of 3 (one more than us, but I still consider them equally as crazy as us!;)).  Anyway, Courtney is like this SUPER amazing talented lady that has a SUPER cute ETSY store to raise money for their adoption and when I asked her about her AMAZING cloche's that she makes, she sent me one for Melia for FREE! 

Isn't it the CUTEST thing you have ever seen?!  (Think Melia will mind if I "borrow" it?!)

Anyway, I thought since she custom-made this hat for Miss M and sent it to me for free, the least I could do is show her some love on my blog and do a little advertising for her ETSY store (that you can find here).

In addition to these cutie hats, she has baby booties, coffee cozies, totes, and Africa ornaments similar to this one that she sent me:

Again for free, without me even asking...I told you she's awesome!

So, please take a moment to check out her store and help Courtney and Brandon bring their three kiddos home from Ethiopia!  You can also follow their journey on their blog: http://thorntonfamilyadoption.blogspot.com/

Thanks again, Courtney!  Oh, how I love these amazing people that God just keeps sending my way!