Foster Journey

Hello,
Just thought I would fill you in on our Foster Parent journey.  Things are moving pretty fast.  The agency is a little taken aback by my drive to get through the paperwork and training.  They have no idea what a year of waiting can do to somebody.  We are done with our paperwork and have CPR and 6 classes to go.  Hopefully will have the classes done by July 8th.  Although this path looks a lot different than the one to Ethiopia we are embracing it and finding out the things that scared us the most about it, aren't so bad after all.  The great thing that we are learning is that there is tons of support for the foster families.  There is a social worker on call 24/7 to help with anything that comes up.  That is huge!  Although we hope to adopt a child that we foster we are preparing ourselves for the possibility of a short term(1 year) stay in our home.  We have just come to realize that any time in a loving home will be the gift that we can offer.  Please keep us in your prayers as we navigate this bumpy road.

Love,
DMM

It's been a while!

I was surprised to look at the date of my last post 4/23.  We have had a lot of contemplating going on since then.  The April referrals never came and haven't yet in May either.  Things have slowed down so much that we needed concrete answers from our agency and then time to step back and figure out what to do.  After speaking with our agency they said that we could easily continue to wait another 12 to 24 months.  The realization hit us pretty hard but we finally felt like we knew the truth.  I definitely had been in denial.  I kept hoping somehow all of the changes in the Ethiopia Adoption program wouldn't apply to us.   As you may know from reading past posts we have felt some urgency with our wait time due to the fact that our twins are going to be Juniors in high school next year and because we aren't spring chickens anymore.  We weighed that concern in our decision about how to proceed.  We looked at all of our options: changing agencies, changing countries, or domestic foster/adoption.  Our final decision is to remain on the waiting list for a child from Ethiopia while we proceed to take training to become foster parents.  We are not closing any doors just opening a new one.  So we will see where this journey takes us.  I can't begin to explain how relieved and relaxed we feel about this decision.  It has definitely taken some pressure off and I am not sure why.   I think for the first time I truly feel I am letting our future child be in God's hands.  My obsession with checking in with emails and facebook is completely gone.  What a relief!  We begin our Foster Care training on June 9th and have already begun paperwork etc.

We will keep you posted!
Love,
DMM

Referrals-come out wherever you are!

Come out come out wherever you are!  The referrals are definitely in hiding.  Our agency had 0 in March and only 2 so far this year.  April has got to be the month!  Last year it was one of the biggest referral months of the year.  Does that mean anything?   I have no idea, but it sounds good.  We have been told that there are children of all ages waiting for paperwork to be collected for referral.

Patience!  Prayers!  Perseverance!
Love,
Deena

She is my Ordinary Hero!

I feel so blessed to be able to tell this story of how the wonderful founder of Ordinary Hero absolutely walks the walk of her company every day....
 The families that are also using our agency communicate with one another on a daily basis about all things related to adoption from the time you begin the process to the time you bring your child home.  There was a family that was having an extremely difficult time with the adjustment of bringing their child home.  I won't go into detail to protect the family and child.  I was devastated with them through their struggles, but felt helpless being so far away from them.  When I learned that they lived in the neighborhood of Ordinary Hero's headquarters I thought I might give them a call and see if any of their Ethiopian travels, outreach, and advocacy could be of help to this family.  I sent an email to the founder of Ordinary Hero- Kelly Putty asking her for urgent help for this family.  She responded right away and said that she had an idea.  She contacted an Ethiopian family that was willing to travel to them to help them out.  The connection made was of great service to the family.

When I thought about what I was asking Kelly to do I thought it would be easy for her to find an excuse to walk away from the problem.  Instead she and the wonderful Ethiopian family decided to help out total strangers in their time of great need.  I am honored to get to be an affiliate of this company through our Ethiopian Adoption.  The company sells items to serve the Ethiopian community and at the same time helps adopting families raise the funds for their adoption expenses.  There are few people you meet in this world who actually live by their principles every moment of their lives but she certainly seems to be one of them.

Thank you Kelly for all you do!  You inspire me!
Peace!
DMM

9 Months waiting!

It is funny to think about how it also took this amount of time for us to have the twins.  It took a year to get pregnant (1 year of paperwork and decision making) then 9 months of pregnancy (nine months on the waiting list).  I only wish we had reached the end of this road but no end in sight!
I remember dreaming about the twins all of the time and feeling like the time was going so slowly.  This time I pray all of the time and daydream about her but feel like time is going so fast.  I want so badly to stop the clock so that my children aren't any older when she comes.  I don't know why this is so important to me but it is.  We are feeling stronger about the wait knowing that only good has come from the time we have had so far.  We are bound and determined to see it through to bringing our daughter home!

Have a great Day!
DMM 

Throwing away the doubts!

I realize now that I have been lost in doubt.  I let the road blocks and obstacles on this journey cloud what I know to be true in my heart.  There are so many challenges to international adoption that you begin to think, "How will this ever happen?"  The doubts started to take over my thoughts and make me fear the worst (never bringing our daughter home).  I started looking for alternative paths, but none of them felt right.  I looked into fostering/adoption in the U.S., other international adoption programs, and other international adoption agencies.  I assumed that there is a problem with our agency or the Ethiopia Adoption program that was causing the road blocks.  What I realize now is that my doubts are the biggest road block and I need to get my head on straight and trust that what I know in my heart is inevitable!  Since I have come to this realization, my heart is light again and I feel at peace.  For that I am so grateful!

I am happy to be writing some of the great parts of this adoption journey as well as the struggles.  It stretches you in ways that you never imagined.  Thank you for reading and sharing in our journey as well as your continued prayers.  Many of you have told me about your prayers for our family and I can't begin to put in words how much that means to my family and I.

Thank you!
Peace,
DMM

Renew!

Sometimes we just have to have those bad days  so that we can renew ourselves to continue on the journey!Better days ahead!

Timing

I have written before about the difficulty of waiting for God's timing, but today it is hitting me hard.  At the grocery store this morning I see a white woman with two small African American children.  I hope she didn't notice me staring at her because all I could think of is that will be me soon.  Then I got in the car and proceeded to cry because I want to know when soon is.  I headed for home and cried and prayed as I drove  and asked God to please help us get THE phone call today.  And.... just then the phone rang.  No, it was not my adoption agency it was Verizon wireless offering me a new phone.  Isn't that nice!  I wanted to hang up on her but instead I cried my answers to her and she got off the phone quickly.  How is that for timing?

I am so very frustrated today.  I want to reconcile in my mind why it is that there are millions of children needing homes in Ethiopia today and we have a home to give so what's the hold up?  We have prepared in every way we know how and left our hearts open for this child and we want to bring her home.

Please pray that we are united with our daughter soon!
Love,
DMM

P.S.  We are no longer #41 we moved back to #42 and I just haven't been able to change it.  

Kony 2012

Watch this video! 

If you love Ordinary Hero....

Please help us win the contest by purchasing merchandise from their store! If you find something you want to purchase please click on our name in the affiliate drop-down box (Deena Maley) and we will get credit towards our adoption! YEAH!

:)Thanks