June 21, 2018


More Exiting News, Plus information regarding Matching Grant from our church! 

Exciting News:
We received word, our Article 5 was sent to Burundi!
 What is an Article 5?
 An Article 5 is a document stating  in accordance to The Hague Convention and based on information currently available, the US authorities  from the US Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya have determined us eligible and suited to adopt Dieudonne (Jameson)!!!!!!! It also give Dieudonne permission to enter and reside permanently in the US following his adoption!!!

Next step?  We wait for word of our court date in Burundi. Pierre, our social worker, will represent us during the hearing. After this hearing, Dieudonne (Jameson) will officially be ours! 

It's honestly surreal at times to say we have a son. Jim and I have prayed long and hard for many years for this day to arrive. God is good and he knows what he's doing! 


Matching Grant From Our Church, Life Mission:

There are two ways you can give:

1. Give By Check:
Please have family and friends make checks payable to Lifesong for Orphans. In the memo, you should write the following:  Preference #7693 Whittaker

Please mail checks to:
Lifesong for Orphans
PO Box 40
Gridley, IL 61744


2. Give Online:
Click this  link to donate online.

Then complete the online form and fill in our family name and family account number.
Family Name= Whittaker
Family Account Number= 7693

If you have any questions, please reach our to one of us! 

*** Please note, all donations of $50 or more will automatically receive a tax-deductible receipt from Lifesong for Orphans. Receipts for donations under $50 will gladly be sent upon request. 


"How blessed is he who considers the helpless...."
       Psalm 41:1


Love,
Jim and Kelly 

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

March 19, 2018

On February 22nd, Jim and I received the phone call that would forever change our lives! We're honored to introduce six year old Dieudonne, our son! 

        *** Please do not share these pictures on any form of social media!***

Dieudonne is a French name meaning "Gift of God." We plan to make Dieudonne his middle name and give him the name Jameson meaning "Son of James." 

We appreciate all the LOVE and SUPPORT you've showed us over the past three years! We have a remaining $10,000 to pull together for our trip to pick this little handsome man up! Be looking for an opportunity to match your support through a tax deductible donation via our church! Details coming soon! 

                        LOVE,
                  Jim and Kelly 

                                                       

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 

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 

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 

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....

Prayercast- Burundi 

                                          Love, 

                                   Jim and Kelly