June 17, 2018


We have a lot to update, so here we go! 

Name:
You will see us refer to our son as Dieudonne or Jameson. His given French name is Dieudonne meaning "Gift of God." To ease transition and his life in America, we'll be naming him Jameson meaning "Son of James." We'll legally change his name during the re-adoption process (We'll explain later) to Jameson Dieudonne Whittaker.


Next Steps in the Adoption:
We sent our application for Dieudonne's Visa which is being delivered to the US Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya as I type. Next, we're waiting for our Article 5. An Article 5 is basically the US Embassy in Nairobi giving us permission to bring Dieudonne to the United States. That approve will be sent to Burundi, we'll be waiting for our court date, typically about 4 weeks from Article 5 approval. During the court date, we'll receive our official adoption decree and Dieudonne will be ours! Next we'll wait about 3-4 months to get an invitation to travel. The final step for now, will be going to Africa to pick up our little man! Our estimated time for travel is between October - December.


Matching Grant- for travel via Life Mission Church:
There are expenses along this journey all the time and honestly at times it feels never ending! The last big expense is our trip to Africa. We recently discovered our church offers matching grants for families that are adopting. Jim and I applied and were blown away when we found out they approved a $4,000 matching grant through a not-for-profit organization called Lifesong for Orphans. We are working to get our account set up. We've unfortunately encountered some technical issues and hope to get them resolved this week! More details on this amazing opportunity to come!!!!!

Facebook Group:
If you're a Facebook user, we've created a closed group. This group will mainly be utilized to post updates when we travel. We will also post pictures and videos of Jameson as they become available. We'll still utilize our Blog for updates as well. If you'd like to follow our journey on Facebook search Whittaker Adoption Journey and request to be a member!

You can try this link too......

Whittaker Adooption Journey Via Facebook 




Pictures:
Another family we've gotten to know traveled to get their two precious little boys from the same orphange Jameson's located this past week. We were blessed to receive some updated videos and pictures of Jameson from them! Can't believe we've known about him for about three months now! We also found out his favorite color is Yellow, see he was meant for our family. We plan to incorporate yellow in his room as much as possible! (It was Jim's idea to find out, he definitely earned bonus points for this one!)

               Looks like he's drew a basketball court!

          Look at those feet! We certainly hope they are over-sized!

Thank you from the bottom or our hearts for supporting us through this journey. Words can't express how much we appreciate each of you!

                                                   Love,
                                          Jim and Kelly