Update

I had a wonderful conversation with Bethel at BFAS and she told me that the Look Development Team believes that Gete is really 13 or 14 years of age according to information LD received from Gete's mother.

So, maybe it's another teenager for us!!!  It will be interesting to finally get her home and be able to do bone aging done to narrow the field . . . 9-14 is a pretty large spread!!

It doesn't matter how old she is ~ we are so anxious to have her home!

Update

We have heard from BFAS that their attorney has made contact with our Look Development team in Ethiopia and all is set to transfer Gete to Bethzata Orphanage in Addis!  We are praising the Lord for His grace and mercy on behalf of our dear daughter!!  Being in the orphanage means safety, security, access to regular food and medical care, if needed.

We have all of our paperwork in place for our Home Study and have 90% of our dossier finished . . . we are going as fast as we can, and Lord willing, will be able to bring our sweet girl home soon!!

Please join us in prayer and thanksgiving!!

Scriptures

These are some of our favorite Scriptures which are sustaining us while we wait!

Ps 68:6  God setteth the solitary in families


Jas 1:27  Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Mr 10:14 Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.

Col 2:7  Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

Col 2:10  And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

2Co 8:9  For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.

Ga 6:18  Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. 

2Th 1:12  That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3-12-10 II

After praying together and verifying in our spirits that God, indeed, had called us to adopt Gete, we began exploring our adoption options.


We spoke with our dear friends and Look Development Co-founders, Matt and Amanda DeSarro, who have adopted from Ethiopia 3 years ago, and are also currently awaiting a court date for their 2 new children coming from Ethiopia.  We knew they would have great insight and details we needed to know.  They have used Better Future Adoption Services (BFAS) for all three Ethiopian adoptions, so we decided to use them, as well.  BFAS is based in Minneapolis, MN.


We had contacted them after returning from Ethiopia (June, 2009) to inquire as to the process, costs, etc., and so we had all of the information we needed when we decided in January to follow the LORD's leading.


We also had contacted Catholic Social Services of Montana (CSSM) to help us with another Home Study.  We used them 16 years ago when we were preparing for Justin's adoption.  The Social Worker who did all of our follow up visits in 1994 & 1995 is still working there and, we hope, will be the one to complete an updated Home Study for us!


The first step was to get all of our important documents in order:

1. Birth certificates (both spouses)
2. Marriage certificate
3. Passports
4. 1040 Tax Forms 
5. Bank Statements/Creditor information

We didn't have a certified copies of our marriage or birth certificates, so we used VitalCheck.com to order them online.  We received our birth certificates very quickly, however, we are still waiting on our marriage certificate.

We also updated our passports and those of our children so we will be ready to travel anytime we need to.

The second step was to fill out an agency agreement and disclosure statement for BFAS.  Our first check went to them for $350.  This is their application fee and seems pretty standard among agencies.

We then were scheduled for a telephone interview with BFAS staff.  This interview took about an hour and was comprised of answering various questions about how our family would handle an adoption to how we discipline our children to how we planned to foster cultural identity in our daughter, Erin Gete.  We had a delightful conversation and were told that they had no concerns about us and were now a BFAS family.

In the mean time, we had begun to fill out both CSSM and BFAS forms. And, believe me!  There are a ton of them!!  For CSSM, we provided all of the pertinent personal and financial information they requested, signed waivers and agreements and began writing our guided autobiographies.  Here is a list of information, etc., that CSSM requires BEFORE the Home Study takes place:

1. Inquiry application
2. Formal application
3. First two pages of our most recent Federal tax form
4. Copy of Marriage Lic.
5. Birth Certificates for both spouses
6. $250 application fee
7. Signed Fee contract
8. Notarized release of information form for each person in house over 18
9. Medical Histories/Exams for both spouses
10. CSSM Personal History Sheet for each spouse
11. Personal History Sheet for each child living in home
12. Authorization for submission of Home Study to Placing Agency (BFAS)
13. Signed safety measure check
14. Written autobiography
15. Adoptive Parent Education form
16. Home Study fee ($1,350 - this varies by agency)
17. Agency lic. from placing agency (BFAS)
18. $25 checks to Montana Dept. of Justice for background checks (each spouse)
19. $35 checks to California Dept of Justice for background checks (each spouse) {you need background checks for every state you've lived in since you were 18}

So far, we've completed everything except for our autobiographies and marriage lic.  FYI, many of these documents needed to be notarized.

We are knee-deep in the BFAS requirements . . . that will need to be a blog of its own!!

3-12-10 Friday

It has been almost a year since our incredible visit to Ethiopia!! So much has happened in our lives and in the lives of our dear sponsor children since then. The Hand of God has moved in mighty ways - ways which we could not have foreseen.

In the fall, we received the devastating news that our eldest sponsor daughter, Feyene, had been married off by a relative and was no longer under the care of Look Development. She was 13 years-old. We were not the only ones totally devastated by this news ~ losing Feyene was a clarion call for all of us at Look Development to press on with the work of finding sponsors and building an orphanage for the at-risk children of Ethiopia. We don't know if we will ever be able to find out where she is. What a sad, sad tragedy.

In October, Ali's younger brother, Chris, was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had surgery to remove as much as possible. As of 3-10-10, he is still in remission and doing well. We give God the glory for continuing to heal Chris.

At the beginning of January, 2010 we received more devastating news from Ethiopia. Another sponsor daughter, Gete, had been abandoned by her mother and left to the care of Look Development. This is the sweet little girl who had been sleeping on the steps of the Orthodox church with her mother and infant brother. While in Ethiopia, we were able to find a small shelter for them so they could have a place of their own. We wanted to help them be safe, warm and dry during the rainy season. It was a relief to know that she was safe and off of the streets. Gete had found another infant on the railroad tracks and was trying to keep it and feed it. Bless her heart!! This dear, impoverished child was giving of herself and trying to care for a baby! We can't put the story completely together to know what happened, but that baby is gone.

And now our little Gete has been abandoned by her mother! This puts her in a very fragile situation. She is staying with another family who has children sponsored through LD, but it is a tenuous situation, at best. She is at-risk for a relative to come at any time and take her or marry her off like Feyene. Gete is somewhere between 9 & 12 years-old. Our hearts were broken by the news!! But God takes devastation and pain and turns it into action and love in the hearts of His people! And He called us to adopt Gete and give her a forever family!

So begins this incredible journey ~ it will be full of adventure, frustration, joy, waiting, anticipation, set-backs, miracles, and in the end, we will see His Righteous Right Hand has been at work in every aspect of it!!

We're Here!!

After a long flight from Amsterdam, we arrived at 8:30 pm local time last night. There was a HUGE line for getting Visas, but once we were through the Visa office, things moved more quickly. One thing that helped us get out of the airport so fast was that our luggage didn't make it from Amsterdam!! Matt's didn't either, so instead of going to Adama at noon today, we have stayed in Addis with a driver, Optima, so we can go back to the airport at 7:00 pm to pick up whatever has made it through.

The Lord has been working in amazing, amazing ways since we left Billings, beginning with the man sitting directly behind us on the flight to Minneapolis! The gentleman, Jelawat, is from Addis and works with Compassion International. He was so kind and we enjoyed visiting with him on the flight. He introduced us to another man, Jayme Illiat, whose mother is a foreign adoption specialist, having adopted him off of a trash heap in Calcutta. He is in his 20's, and the Lord has blessed him with trememdous talent and financial resources to begin a foundation for orphaned and disadvantaged children. It was a God-appointment and one we will not soon forget.

On the flight from Amsterdam, we sat in front of a woman whose husband is in the US Army. They are stationed in Germany (they've been there for the past 10 years), and she was on her way to Addis to adopt their 3rd and 4th children - 12 year old best friends. She has such a compassionate heart! Those girls will join their 6 year-old birth son and their 3 year-old Ethiopian daughter. One of the girls is from Nazret, so we hope to see her there. If not, we will be on the same flight back to Amsterdam on Tuesday.

We are enjoying all of the guys on the Team we came with - such varied talents and all with a heart for the Lord. We are blessed to be serving with them.

Today, we met a wonderful man, Soloman, who works at the Selam Children's Village. It is an orphanage compound which serves 450 children here in Addis. The Village is about 25 years old and is serving a large population. There are extensive gardens, green houses, a dairy herd (they use the methane gas from the herd to fuel the kitchen!!), a large school, church and clinic. We had the privilege of touring the clinic and meeting the medical director, Dr. Seifu, who helped us with lots of medical information. He is well-trained and gave us so much good pediatric info.

Our driver, Optima, took us to a traditional Ethiopian lunch . . . Brian LOVED it!!! I ate rice and green beans :-) The food is SOOOOO hot! The pictures of the restaurant are incredible! I'll post them the next time I get a chance.

We then visited CURE Ethiopia Children's Hospital. It is run by a Christian organization that helps bring the gospel to people by simultaneously treating disabled and disfigured children and adults. Dr. Erik Gocken is an American Orthopedist who is doing a tremendous work treating mostly club-feet. There is another doc there who is a plastic surgeon specializing in cleft lip/palate repair. We got a tour of the facility, which is amazing.

Dr. Erik and his wife, Corinne, made us feel so welcome and gave us a big picture of the difficulties of practicing medicine in Ethiopia. There is so much red tape when it comes to importing medicines, that it stifles their ability to perform even routine surgeries. They warned us that our suitcase of meds may be confiscated from us when we reach the airport to pick it up tonight. We are praying for God's mercy in this situation.

It is 5:15 pm local time and we are going to start heading out the airport. When we are finished there, we will head down to Adama/Nazret. It is about 60 miles - but is a two hour journey. The traffic in Addis is unbelieveable!! No traffic lights or stop signs anywhere - and no yellow lines to segregate the vehicles. It is a wonder we haven't been smashed to smithereens!! All of the taxis are side-scraped and it's easy to tell why! There is the constant sound of horns blasting, but all of the drivers are happy-go-lucky, and miraculously, we haven't been in an accident!

We will post again as soon as we can - hopefully with pictures next time!!

Love to all!!

Tsegaye - age 7 - DOB 8/21/01

Kindergarten