How is the adoption coming?

We have been hearing the same question a lot.  "How is the adoption coming?"  Depending on who asks, they are looking for certain answers.  Eventually everyone wants the same answer.  When will your kids be here?
Oh how I wish I had a simple, easy answer for that question.  There are a few tangible dates I can give you.  Things for you to keep in mind, pray about, etc.  July 26th is our next (and hopefully final) homestudy meeting.  We will update any paperwork that is outdated from previous meetings.  We will go over the house, finances, and personal notes again.  We will make sure we have dotted all our i-s and crossed all our t-s.  Thankfully we have some incredible adoption specialists at Bethany Christian Services to walk through this with us.
The next big date is our anniversary!  August 28th, we will be celebrating our second anniversary!  Ahhh!  Seriously, though God has taught us so much about each other and ourselves in the past 2 years.  We have grown together and walking through this process together has made us stronger.  The other really exciting thing about August 28th, is Colombia requires 2 years of marriage for their adoptions.  This year our anniversary falls on a Sunday, but the following week our homestudy will be considered complete.  Then off for approval.
Over the next few months, we will apply for grants, do fundraising (because every little bit helps), make payments, submit paperwork, and everything else we can possibly do to prepare.  Hopefully we will be matched in the fall.  This will tell us a little more about the children we know God has already chosen for our family...pictures, stories, medical diagnosis, etc.  I am so excited for that day!
We will then go through some more paperwork, be assigned travel and court dates, arrange travel, and GO TO COLOMBIA.  Our prayer is that this will happen in early 2017.  Since both of us work in food service, winter is the easiest time for us to be away from our jobs.

As we inch closer here are specific things you can pray about:
July 26th - homestudy meeting
Grant applications (I - Kerri - am writing many of these currently)
Finances - Our next payment due will be $5000.  We currently have about 65% of that put away.
Our children - despite not knowing who they are yet, I know God is working in them and us to write this part of our story.
Travel dates

Again, thank you for being a part of our support system.  Y'all are awesome.  We love you and can't imagine doing this without you.

Homestudy: Take 1

Today was our first homestudy meeting.  I saw first because contrary to popular belief, those don't happen all at one time. I intended to write earlier this week regarding our upcoming homestudy but a few things prevented that.  #1 was getting ready for the homestudy.  I'm pretty sure our house is the cleanest it has been since we moved in.  It also now has child locks, appliance locks, outlet covers, and lots of other child-proofing type things.  This took a lot of time and work for a variety of people.  I am so glad that we are surrounded by people who love us and support us in this journey.  Reason #2 was I could not quite figure out how to put into words how I was feeling.  I was excited, nervous, anxious, stressed, happy...sometimes all at the same time.  I don't know how my husband survived the week...or the day for that matter.  I am so thankful for him and how God matched us.
Of course the day did not go as planned (welcome to the world of adoption, right?).  Last night, I went to clean out under our sink and found that we had a leak.  After locating the source I called our landlord.  He said he would be here sometime Monday or Tuesday.  He arrived 30 minutes before our caseworker.  Its been raining for 2 days straight so muddy footprints were all over my kitchen.  When our caseworker arrived, the landlord's son was laying on our kitchen floor, half in our cabinet...this was not at all how I imagined the day.
However, she was gracious and happy to meet everyone.  We went through lots of paperwork.  Some was finished already.  Some we worked through together.  Some she left for us to work on.  We walked through the house together.  We passed all our safety checks!  And to no surprise, I stressed out about this step way more than I needed to.  We set our next interview meeting for next week.
We also discussed countries.  We have said for quite some time that we were adopting from Ethiopia.  When we first got involved we were encouraged to consider South Africa because it shares so many qualities with Ethiopia.  We had discussed it and were open but we have still felt like Ethiopia was a much stronger option for us.  Today, we were asked to consider a country that was not even an option when we first began this process...Colombia.  It shares many similarities with Ethiopia as well.  Our agency is also getting a lot of referrals from Colombia right now and it may speed up our process.  It is so hard for me to think about a country outside of Africa because it has been the picture in my head for so long.  Again, we are asking God to make it abundantly clear if this is the direction we are to be heading.  Please pray along with us for this and our homestudy process as a whole.  At the end of the process we will have to declare a country.
We know God has been taking care of our children and weaving their story until it joins ours.  We are excited to see and be a part of what He is doing.

Now what?

I have been sitting here for at least 30 minutes trying to decide what exactly to write here.  In the end I've decided to just be open and honest.

Yesterday afternoon after sharing coffee with a dear friend, I decided to stop at Bethany Christian Services local office.  Tyler and I have been pretty sure we want to use Bethany for our adoption, however I had a few things I needed clarified first.  What better way to do that than just stop in, right? (This is one of the things I love about Bethany having an office right here in Knoxville!)
I came into the office, waited a few minutes and then was able to sit down with the international adoption specialist.  She was warm and friendly and ready to answer my questions.

So here is what I learned:
1. We can start most of the process and paperwork now!  Woohoo...this means less time between right now and when our children will be here with us!
2. We need to fundraise immediately (more details coming soon on our first major plan)
3.  We may need to make some changes to our plan.

In reference to number 3 - God laid Ethiopia on our hearts a while ago.  It has sort of been the plan since Tyler and I first confirmed that this was the path we would go.  We had also felt that we did not want children any older than 7 solely because so much can happen developmentally before that point.  However, due to referrals coming out of Ethiopia, Bethany is not accepting new families to adopt from Ethiopia unless they are willing to adopt over the age of 7.
This initial statement rocked my world.  Now what?  What about this plan we had?  So our options are to choose a different country or extend our age range.  So I'm asking you to pray.  Let it be abundantly clear what our path should be.  Also pray as we prepare to take our next steps - formal application, homestudy, and fundraising!  We are excited about this journey and excited to have you continue to partner with us.

Spirit lead me where your trust is without borders...