Lost in translation.

A funny thing happened at our Home Study interview last Friday. Actually, a HILARIOUS thing happened. We're sitting there almost to the end of the Adoptive Parent Training portion, and our caseworker says she'd like to read a paragraph to us and get our responses.

So, she reads it, and when she's done she looks up, teary-eyed with a look of expectancy on her face. I look over and Ben and he has kind of a shocked/confused look on his face (oh how I wish this had been caught on video). She finally breaks the silence and says, "So, what do you think?" I immediately answered with a genuine, "It makes me want to cry!" The paragraph had really moved me and caused me to think about our child and what he/she will be feeling and thinking. Ben looks at me, then looks at her as she's waiting for his response and says, "What do you want me to do with that?" So...here's the paragraph, and then I'll explain further what happened.

So, as she's reading the paragraph I'm of course identifying with our child - which w

as the intention. Ben, on the other hand (insert a heartfelt "Bless his heart..." here), thought this paragraph was about US. Pahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now would be a good time to read it again and get a GOOD laugh!

Finally, after a couple of seconds he bursts out with, "OH! OOOOHHH! This is about our child!" We all busted out laughing! It took us a few minutes to regain composure and then as we tried to move on, one of the three of us would start up again. It was so hilarious! Our caseworker said she's never had that happen before, and she'll never be able to read that paragraph again without thinking of Ben.

We laughed for about 10 minutes straight on the way home. And then of course, we had to share it with friends and family. Ben's dad said he really got it right - he wasn't projecting his feelings onto some child, he was literally feeling what they will be feeling! HA. Whatever makes you feel better, Ben. ;) Wow, we made some pretty great memories that day. This story is definitely going in our Baby Book.

God in a Fortune Cookie

We ordered Chinese Takeout over the weekend, and this was the fortune inside my Fortune Cookie . . .
God speaks to us in many ways!

Home Study: check!

Well, we're through the first part of the adoption process! We've completed the requirements for our Home Study. We had our last interview/training session on Friday in Waco. Our caseworker will compile the Home Study and send it to us and to our Adoption Agency for edits. Within a month, it should be finalized. It's very exciting to know that the first big step of this process is almost complete!

So, what's next? We get that question a lot. :) We're currently continuing to work on our dossier (pronounced "dos-ee-ey" - you'd be surprised at the number of pronunciations we hear). This is basically a collection of all kinds of paperwork ranging from medical records to financial reports to an autobiography of our lives, photos, etc. We will send this to our agency and once it's finalized it will go to Ethiopia along with our Home Study to be translated and approved there. So, this is the next big step for our adoption. Once the dossier is approved, we'll receive a Referral (also called a "match") - which is a child to say "yes" or "no" to. (Pretty sure we'll say yes!!!) Then we'll be assigned a court date and we'll make our first trip to Ethiopia.

We could still be waiting 3-6 months for our Referral, and then possibly another 3-6 months after that to actually bring our child home. We're hoping for the shorter time frame on both! :)

We have been learning so many things through our online training, Home Study training, and the books we're required to read. I'm hoping to blog a little bit more about that soon. We appreciate everyone who has been checking in on us and praying for us! We are still raising support through our 2 Fundraisers. Please feel free to check them out and spread the word!