Thursday, October 12, 2017

October 11, 2017

Wow, the past 48 hours has been a roller coaster of emotions! We knew this was the week we'd find out if God felt it was time for us to receive a referral or not this go around. Families in our agency starting finding out their status on Monday..... Around 9:30pm CST, a friend of mine messaged and stated she just got off the phone with Melissa, our social worker, her family didn't receive a referral. Then another friend messaged because she found out her family's status. We really started to wonder why we hadn't heard anything. We requested a phone call for a yes and an email for a no. We kept thinking....  How hard is it to email us... or call for that matter. Needless to say, our anxiety, especially mine was high Monday evening going into Tuesday, October 10, 2017.

I was pretty busy at work, so the day had gotten away from me. After texting with Jim, we worked up the nerve to email Melissa around 2:45pm CST.

Melissa,

Do you have any information regarding who has received referral and who will be waiting for the next meeting? A few ladies I speak with regularly mentioned they spoke with you last evening. They did not give any details. 

Jim and I are just anxiously waiting, so we can prepare appropriately. 


Jim and Kelly 

As I was leaving work around 4:30pm CST, I received a phone all from Portland, Oregon. I immediately knew it was Melissa. She stated, "You received a referral." followed by a quick BUT....

Melissa continued to explain that the Central Authority placed us with a referral match for a little boy that just recently turned 7. Since 7 is out of the age ranger we were approved for through our home study and immigration, we are not allowed to accept the referral. My fear was instantly that we'd be disrespecting Burundi and the Central Authority by turning down this referral. Melissa reassured us they will simply be transferring the referral to another family within our agency that meets the young boys parameters. She stated both Pierre, our social worker in Burundi, and herself will continue to advocate for our family at the next meeting. The next meeting date is currently unknown.

As you can imagine, I was initially heartbroken by this news. We were prepared for a Yes or a No, our emotions were not certain how to handle Yes, but..... After a lot of processing together, emotional eating (my favorite way to handle bad new! :) ) and prayer we are honestly in a good place.


Today is a new day, and we know God has a bigger plan!



Our Child is and will be.......





LOVE,
Jim and Kelly 



Monday, October 2, 2017

October 2, 2017

We've been putting off this post just simply because we don't have any updated news for everyone. We are simply still waiting. The Central Authority (CA) was gone last week. Melissa, our social worker at AGCI, confirmed he is back in the country today. Pierre, our social worker in Burundi, is hoping to connect with the CA tomorrow to get an updated status on the referrals that are ready. Remember, a referral means we'll prepare to travel in approximately 10 months and no referral means, the wait will simply continue! 

We are continually reminded by family, friends, and social media that this process is in God's hands............. 




We had a little fun while my mother-in-law was recently in Kansas as well.  Check out this amazing shirt my dear friend Rebecca Wise made for me! 





We pray our little man or lady knows how much we LOVE them! Prayers to good news during our next post! 

              Love,
                  Jim and Kelly 

Sunday, August 20, 2017

August 20, 2017

Hello everyone!

We can't express to you how humbled we are that you follow our blog and most importantly shower us with prayers as we continue our journey to add a little one to our family! We received word on August 17th that the committee was finally able to meet again to conclude their meeting that started in June! What does that mean..........


  • Now Pierre (our social worker in Burundi) and other members of the Burundi community get those children ready to be officially placed with their forever family! This means ensuring those children are truly orphans and no family members are around that could adopt them into their homes. Once this process is completed, our agency gets word regarding who received referrals and who will still be waiting. 
  • The process above typically takes 6-8 weeks. We currently have 14 families from our agency including us, waiting. 
  • We will receive an email if we do not receive a referral and a phone call if we receive one! This communication comes from our agency All God's Children International. 


We ask that you continue to pray for ALL the families waiting for their precious little ones! We also ask for prayers of acceptance no matter what form of communication we receive from All God's Children International regarding the results of this meeting. Jim is honestly handling the roller coaster of emotions much better than I am, that's just the truth. I trust in God and know this process will workout in his time, but it's a struggle on some days! Well let me just be honest, on most days! 

Today in church the theme was Because We Are Family. Pastor Clint's wife spoke about how God adopted us into his family, he chose us. We have full confidence in the fact that he is choosing the perfect little one to come into our lives! It's just hard keeping that in perspective sometimes! 


Hebrews 10:23 tells us he is faithful with his promises! 


Love and Prayers,
Jim and Kelly 



Tuesday, August 15, 2017

August 15, 2017

Jim and I adore our adoption agency, All God's Children International. They've created a Facebook community of other families adopting from Burundi. It's honestly a HUGE blessing as we navigate the roller coaster of emotions this process unintentionally causes!

This was posted recently....... We truly appreciate any and all prayers as we "wait" for our little angel!




If you want to learn a little more about Burundi and how you can pray for the country, check out the link below....



                                          Love, 
                                   Jim and Kelly 




Thursday, August 3, 2017

August 3, 2017


Update:

The committee was unable to meet yesterday as planned. Pierre told AGCI they are hopeful the meeting will happen soon. AGCI is continuing to advocate for all the waiting families.



Love, 
Jim and Kelly 

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

August 2, 2017


🙏 Calling all Prayer Warriors! 🙏 We received word the committee is supposed to meet today and finish the meeting they started in June!
🌹 Pray for the committee members and their tough decisions ahead
🌹 Pray for all the families that are anxiously waiting to hear the results of the meeting (including us) 
🌹 Pray for strength and patience and understanding it's in his time!
🌹 Most importantly, pray for the children waiting to be matched with their forever families and the orphanages keeping them safe until then!


This is truly a journey of pray and patience as well as trust in God. 






Love, 
Jim and Kelly 

Monday, July 17, 2017

July 17, 2017


Hello everyone! Jim and I have been receiving a lot of messages and questions since the last time we wrote! Here's your update...........

The committee did finally meet in mid-June. They did not complete the meeting, so they scheduled to finish on June 28th. (We're hoping the meeting took so long because they are placing more families than they have previously during these meetings.) Well the Central Authority was called away to Italy, so the conclusion of the meeting just happened last week.

Typically our agency hears from Pierre (the social worker our agency collaborates with in the adoption process) 4-6 weeks after the conclusion of the meeting.  Pierre is hoping to speed that portion of the wait up, but there is no guarantee. Once our agency, All God's Children International, hears from Pierre. We will hear from our agency either way. We requested an email if we did not receive a referral and a phone call if we receive one!


So here's to more waiting!!!!!  We will certainly keep everyone updated!!!





LOVE,
Jim and Kelly 

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

June 13, 2017

I've been meaning to sit down for the past few days to let everyone know where we are in the process, but there really isn't anything new to share...............................


STILL WAITING

Our social worker from All God's Children International called to check on us today. It was nice talking with her and simply processing the wait. Then around 7pm this evening, we received an email from Melissa, our social worker, she heard from Pierre, our social worker in Burundi, shortly after we got off the phone. The Committee is planning to meet tomorrow in order to assign the first round of referrals for 2017!!! This is exciting, but of course comes with more waiting!!!!!  

  • We need to pray the committee actually meets! 
  • Once the committee meets, All God's Children International won't know anything about how many referrals our agency received or who received them for 3-4 weeks. We need to pray we're one of the lucky families! 

Until then we will continue to pray and save money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOVE, 
Jim and Kelly 


Saturday, April 29, 2017

Anxious!

April 29, 2017

Ourselves and all the other families adopting from Burundi through All God's Children International are anxiously awaiting the next Committee meeting. We are eligible to get a referral, but it doesn't mean we will. The committee is scheduled to meet in May, fingers crossed sooner rather than later in the month!

In the meantime, families from our agency have been traveling to Burundi to meet and pick up their children. Check out this picture......... It simply melts our hearts! Cannot wait to experience this day. Jim is team girl!



We still have a lot of money to save! We truly appreciate all the support, love and prayers we've received during this process! 


LOVE,
Jim and Kelly 

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

April 11, 2017


Hello friends! We found out last evening our paperwork, in official terms our dossier, has been translated. What does this mean?


  • Our paperwork will be in the mix every quarter when the Central Authority meets to match eligible children with families! We requested a boy or girl age 2-5 (as young as possible). 
  • The real wait has begun. 
  • It could be anywhere from 1 month to 18 months before we receive a referral. 

We know and trust this process is in his time! Please continue to keep our family in your prayers if you are the praying type! Patience is our biggest prayer request at this time. 

Romans 12:12  Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer. 


As I was doing some reflecting and reading today, I came across the following quotes that Jim and I really need to keep close to our hearts during this time! 


  • Patience is not the ability to wait but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting. 
  • You can't rush something you want to last forever.
  • Just because it's not happening right now, doesn't mean it never will. 
  • Be careful about rushing God's timing. You never know who or what He is protecting you or saving you from 
  • Don't count the days make the days count 




LOVE,



Jim and Kelly 

Thursday, March 23, 2017

March 24, 2017

Yes, Jim and I are still actually adopting! Adoption is a LONG process! As most of you know our adoption was slowed when Jim took a job as a full time college coach at Ottawa University in Kansas. We recently updated our home study and gained immigration approval! After talking with our social worker at All God's Children today, we learned that our paperwork is in Pierre's hands in Burundi. That means he's working on the translation of the documents in hopes to be ready for the next committee meeting! So what are the next steps? How much longer? Here is what we found out today:

The Central Authority, committee that meets to place eligible children for adoption, meets quarterly. During that meeting, the committee looks over the paperwork of all waiting families and places them accordingly with eligible children. Not certain how many referrals are made during each meeting. Families have waited as little as 3 months, but as long as 15 months to be placed with a child. Once you are placed with a child, you are allowed to send gifts and pictures to him/her. It's currently taking 10 months from referral acceptance to travel, they are hoping to see that drop to 6 months. So basically our home study is in the hands of the Central Authority. We just have to patiently wait for them to match us with the perfect little guy or girl! The patient part is way easier said then done (ask Jim how crazy I've been driving him and the wait is really just beginning). We are hoping 2.5 years is the max amount of time we'll have to wait, but as our social worker stated today, the time frames are really just estimates. They (All God's Child) has no say in the speed of the process. They are in communication with Pierre daily receiving updates!

Pros- This gives us relief and plenty of time to continue to pay off the money we borrowed to make the 2nd payment, save for the 3rd and final payment, as well we save for our trip!

Cons- The wait!

What can you do? If you're the praying kind, please pray for our patience through this process to know that it's really in his timing. God will ensure we get placed with the most beautiful and perfect little guy or gal when the time is right!


You have no idea how much we LOVE and APPRECIATE each of you! A lot has happened in the past year and a half, but we know not only is our marriage stronger, but we're ready to be parents!


                   LOVE,
             Jim and Kelly