The Best Friends in the World

Hey! We met our goal! Through the support of friends and family, our final fundraiser has been a success – thanks be to God!

A little background...When we began praying for wisdom and clarity at the beginning of this process, we knew we would need to do some fundraising. Our goal at the outset was to raise 1/3 of the total cost on our own, and fundraise 2/3 of the cost. So many people have generously purchased puzzle pieces and been a part of this journey up to this point – we have the best support system in the world.

In case you are curious about the financial commitment for adoption, here is a brief overview. When we began educating ourselves about the process, the estimated total cost was between $30-35K for an adoption from Ethiopia. This total is comprised of home study costs, domestic agency fees, referral fees, and travel costs.

But due to some new steps in the Ethiopian bureaucratic process – all designed to protect the children – the wait time between being paired with a child and bringing them home has been extended. Extended time means the cost for caring for the child increases, which means the referral fee required by the adoption agency is now higher. While these increases were not anticipated, we are in full agreement in these new developments that are intended to promote the well being of orphaned children.

And, because our friends and family are generally awesome, these changes have not been an impediment to our process. We have met our puzzle fundraiser goal. Below is the image that was assembled piece by piece, each a unique expression of love, that will hang in our little girl’s room as she is growing up:

Pretty cool, huh? Of course, the back of the puzzle shows the names of everyone who was a part of pulling it together. It will be framed with glass on two sides so we can read them and be reminded of this amazing journey. To think that she will be reminded each day she sees it of all the love that helped bring her home, coming from people who had yet to meet her…well, that’s just beautiful.

So what’s next?

We will share more information as we are allowed to, but the short of it is that we still have 3-4 bureaucratic steps to take (mostly waiting on paperwork to process), before we can make our first trip over. We are looking at a window of 6-9 months from now until that time. That seems like an eternity – we want to go get her now!

But we will wait, full of gratitude and longing, a very complimentary set of feelings, until that day comes.

We are so grateful for all your interest, prayers, financial support, and celebration. Our hearts are very full.

Please continue pray for all five us during this journey.

In God’s Grace,

Kameron, Nathan, J. Henry, Amelia and our New Little Girl!

A Phone Call

I will never forget last Wednesday, September 3^rd, 2015. At 11:45a that morning my phone rang simultaneously with Nathan’s phone. I was in Smiths Station, AL evaluating a child and Nathan was at work in Birmingham. It was Elyse, our adoption case worker calling from Oregon. After her usual cheerful greeting, Elyse said, “Kameron, Nathan, this is your referral phone call.”

Oh!

My!

Goodness!

I am not even going to try to employ enough adjectives to tell you how we felt when Elyse told us about our child. Despite my flair for the dramatic, I still can’t do it justice. She emailed us paperwork on the child so that we could have a few moments to ourselves – we were both getting emotional. I commandeered an office computer to open up my email and, with Nathan in Birmingham, we simultaneously stared in wonder at our child for the first time. By the way, it’s a little girl!!! (Amelia called it months ago!)

The feeling of seeing her for the first time was the exact same feeling I had when I saw Henry and Amelia for the first time. We had been preparing and hoping for this call for 2.5 years, but it didn’t diminish our wonder and joy . I think our hearts grew a size that day. I can’t stop looking at her picture and checking the time in Ethiopia and wondering what our new child is doing at that very moment.

Of course, waiting up to this point has been challenging, but there is a real difference between waiting and WAITING ON SOMEONE TO ARRIVE!

While we are grateful and excited and celebrating about receiving our referral, we are ever mindful that our joy has been brought about by someone else’s pain, and we hope that you will join us in praying not only for the children in orphanages around the world, but for their birth mamas and daddies, too. I wouldn’t presume to imagine their stories…

According to Dove, we are not allowed to share any specific information about our child until later in the process, but will share updates as we are able. Believe us when we say that we would be shouting it from the rooftops if we could!

We still have quite a bit of waiting on various governmental parties stateside and in Ethiopia before our first trip to Addis Ababa can be scheduled. This could be anywhere from 6-9 months away. After a week there for the first visit, we will return home for six to eight weeks before we take our second trip and bring her home!

In the meantime…

Today we are mailing our final and most sizeable payment to date - $15,200 - and with that comes our final fundraising endeavor. When we started this process 2.5 years ago, we bought a 1,000 piece puzzle in anticipation of our final fundraiser, with a special image to hang in our new child’s room.

For each $10 donation we receive, we will put a puzzle piece in place with your name, or name of your choice, written on the back. For example, if you donate $10, one puzzle piece will have your name on it. If you donate $20, two pieces will have your name on it, etc. We will be taking pictures of the back of the puzzle as it is assembled (the names side), and when it is completed we will turn it over and show you what we made together!

I bought the first puzzle piece yesterday wrote “Mommy” on the back of it :0)

When the puzzle is finished, we will frame it in glass on both sides and hang it in our child’s bedroom as a permanent reminder of all the love and support that helped bring her to us.

In order to buy a puzzle piece, please click on the yellow “Donate” button on the right side of our blog. Under the donation amount, you should see “Special Instructions for the Seller.” Click on that, and a text box will come up. Please write the name that would like for us to write on the back of your puzzle piece, and we will receive that information when we receive your donation.

Thank you from the bottom of our now-larger hearts for all of your love, prayers and support. We can’t wait to share more information with you as the process unfolds!

Please continue pray for all five us during this journey.

In God’s Grace,

Kameron, Nathan, J. Henry, Amelia and our New Little Girl!