Children Without Parents

I have been thinking a lot lately about how it must feel to be a child without parents. Bella and I were talking about it today and she said that I, "have made her who she is". I thought that was pretty profound coming from a 9 year old.

My earliest memory was when I was 4 years old and had to be put in the hospital for dehydration from a stomach virus. I was so scared when my mom left my side. I can still remember how horrible it felt to not have her there, almost like I was no one without her.

That memory makes me think of all of the children around the world without parents, my identity was tied to my mother, what would I have been without her? Very, very lonely and scared.

Maybe I am thinking more about this because of baby Nicky, every couple of weeks one of us (Simon, myself, or Bella) will say, "I can't imagine our life without him." As he grows and develops more of his own personality...with our influence, it makes me want to be that influence for more children.


Maybe I am thinking more about this because of Bella, she is maturing and becoming her own person, but her identity is still tied to me. Who's identity is children without parents tied to?

My parents gave me a childhood where I felt loved and safe. Following that example, I want to give that childhood to as many children as I can.

Finances

We estimate it will cost us around $25,000 to bring our son home. This includes the adoption and travel costs. We have been praying and talking a lot about when we should start the process. We have agreed we need to wait to start until we have $10,000 saved. Simon will finish school in June and start working full time then, that will increase our savings ability drastically. After the baby comes home, we will also need to buy a bigger car and will be paying for full time daycare for an infant. All of these things considered, we feel most comfortable if we have that much money up front. Although there are many resources to finance adoption, we would prefer to do this with little or no debt. We will also get the adoption credit (about $11,000) over 5 years, but this will help with other costs of raising another child. With that said, I have added a saving counter to our page to track our progress. This is a huge challenge in our journey!

The Adoption Process

A lot of you have been asking what the process involves and how long it will take. I will outline the steps and estimated time lines below. This is a pretty basic list and I am sure I will add to it as we go.

• Choose Adoption Agency - International Adoption Network, March 2008
• Complete Agency Application - Est. July 2008
• Start Home Study - Est. July 2008, this will take 3 months
• Submitt Dossier (complete adoption package) to Ethiopia- Est. October, 2008
• Wait for a Referral - this can take 3 months
• Wait for a Court Date in Ethiopia - about 1-2 months after referral
• Travel to Ethiopia to pick up our baby - about 9-12 months after start of process

This process will involve mountains and mountains of paperwork. Colorado law also requires 24 hours of adoption related training. We will be taking this through our agency.

Sunday evening

I took this last Sunday evening, I was trying to take a picture of Bella and I, and Nicky climbed on my lap wanting to get in the picture. He is so funny!

Every Child Deserves a Family

This is a touching video of another family's adoption from Ethiopia.

The Story of the Starfish

The Story of the Starfish

Two friends were walking along the beach shortly after the tide had receded. The beach was littered with thousands of starfish that were drying in the afternoon sun. As the two strolled along, one of them bent down and picked up a starfish and carefully tossed it back into the ocean. He did this continuously as the two conversed.
The stretch of beach was long. They could hardly walk without the man bending down, every other step, and rescuing a poor starfish.
As they continued, the one observing this finally asked “Why are you throwing these starfish back into the water? You can’t really hope to save them all?” The other friend smiled and bent down to gather another starfish into his hand. He looked at his close friend and held up the little starfish and replied (as he tossed it back into the ocean)………..“It matters to this one.”