And our NUMBER is....

83!!!!


They are currently working on #40!


This is AWESOME news!

1/2 a Year...6 Months and Counting...

Well, it’s now been six months since our dossier was submitted. In the last post, we thought that all of the dossiers would be processed by the end of the year. Unless God is planning to have the dossier reviewers work at warp speed, it will more than likely be mid next year before we hear word about our child(ren). I know that there are many other families that have been waiting much longer than us, but it is still a little bit of a bummer.

When you are pregnant, you have an end date. It may vary one week earlier or later, heck even two, but at least you have a light at the end of the tunnel. Our tunnel just keeps growing and the light keeps getting a little fainter. I know in my heart that our child is over there; the perfect match for our family and the child that God wants in our family. I just wish the timing were mine! That’s not too much to ask, right?

I have been slightly more emotional around babies. I am happy for all of my friends and family that have little ones. I LOVE kids! I think it just gets a little harder to handle when you want something so much, and you are getting it, just not fast enough. I know that God’s timing is perfect. Maybe it’s taking longer because the mother of our baby hasn’t decided what to do yet, or he’s not born. The list could go on and on, I just wish it was now!

I know that God’s hand has been in our journey up to this point and I know that He is still running the show – not the workers at the Ministry, processing the dossiers, not our POA, not the government and certainly not me. I look at other timelines of potential adoptive families. Some of them took over 1 year to get their dossiers done. We started in February 2010 and it was in Rwanda June 2010. 4 months! That’s unheard of! God was there, pushing our paperwork through, and putting the right people in our path to lead us in the right direction. Everything went soo fast, so I figured this would too. It may still go fast as some people wait over a year for their referral, I just was hoping we were still on God’s super fast track.

We do know that this was our last Christmas as a family of 4. There will be 5 (or 6!) stockings hung on the mantel next year. We will have cookies for Santa, read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, and we won’t get to sleep in! I am so looking forward to that, I can’t even describe it! I want to thank all of my family and friends for going on this journey with us and keeping my spirits high.

Thank you for your prayers and thoughts. I love each of you very very much!

Four!

We had our 4 month anniversary on Saturday the 23^rd. We are still patiently waiting and have been told by the US Embassy in Kigali that the dossiers should all be processed by the end of the year. This is fabulous news! The Rwandan Government has decided to become Hague compliant with their adoption process, so they stopped accepting new dossiers on August 31^st. Ours is somewhere in the middle of the stack, but we don’t know what our number is for sure.

It’s exciting to think that our baby has been born and is just waiting for us to come get him (or her). It’s hard to believe that this time next year, we will be planning a Halloween costume, getting ready to celebrate the holidays as a family of 5 instead of 4 and just having a blast with our new little one.

We are just so thrilled to be sharing this experience with all of our family and friends, and appreciate all of your unending support! We will keep you posted on our progress!

Still Waiting...

just not so patiently! I know that it's only been 3 months (3 Months on September 23rd...) since our dossier was submitted, but it seems like forever! I wish we knew where we were in the line of applications, not that it would be any better, but some part of me thinks it would be easier if we knew how long. 


We are planning another Garage Sale Fundraiser in the near future, we just need to gather enough items to have a full-fledged sale. 


Have a wonderful week!

New Orleans Trip

We recently took a whirlwind trip to New Orleans for Alex and Lauren’s (sometimes spelled Lauryn). We were able to celebrate their day with them, but we also visited a few other places while we were there.

Alex & Lauren were married on Thursday, September 16^th and our whole family was able to go out there and share their special day with them! Joe was even a groomsmen and he got to walk 2 bridesmaids down the aisle!

Alex is like a brother to all of us, so it was an emotional and happy time for our family! We are looking forward to getting to know Lauren better and making some great memories with them!

Here’s a few pictures of my family before the wedding in New Orleans!

We took some pictures in the Lower Ninth Ward during out stay. It was a good experience for us all to see the devastation and the rebuilding process. It was also good for Jeff to see where the people he helped with the Red Cross after Katrina came from.

We also got to experience the swamp. Alex’s friend Jason went with us since his flight left around the same time as ours. It was great to have him along for the ride! Now, we thought that the swamp was going to be smelly, dirty and full of bugs. We couldn’t have been more wrong! It was beautifully serene, the bugs only come out at night and we got to see alligators! It was awesome. Here are a few pictures of that.

We ended our time in Louisiana by visiting a few Plantations. We didn’t have enough time to do the full tour, but we were able to take some pictures.

All in all we had a wonderful time! We hope our next family adventure is to AFRICA!

Waiting...

Well, our Dossier has been in for almost 2 months! Staying busy this summer has helped with our impatience when it comes to wanting to meet our new baby so desperately. It’s hard to imagine that he or she is over there (probably born by now) and is just waiting for us to come get them! I know the reason behind the dossier (to stop human trafficking, making sure that we are not crazies, etc), but it’s hard to believe that the key to our baby is sitting on someone’s desk and is just waiting to be reviewed.

We were so excited to hear of some airlines offering adoption fares! We even worked it out so that Andrea & Joe would be able to come with us to get their brother or sister. Well don’t get excited too fast…the adoption fare is around 65% off (awesome!) BUT, you have to buy the most expensive ticket to get the discount. So, you end up actually paying more for the ticket than if you just purchased a regular one without the discount.

Now Phase 236 of this process starts: FUNDRAISING! We are trying to raise enough money to get at least Jeff & I over there and an absolute bonus and opportunity of a lifetime, would be to get Andrea & Joe there too! We are going to hold our first Adoption Garage Sale at the end of the month. We have some amazing friends who have already donated items for us to sell, but still need more. If you live relatively close to Ventura and have some items that you would like to donate, please email me! Our family would be forever grateful for your generosity!

Also, if you know of any great airline deals or special code words we could use to get the best deal around or maybe you own a international airline company and would love to help us get to AFRICA, please let me know!

Thank you to everyone who has been praying and will continue to pray for our journey. We love and appreciate each and every one of you!

It's In!

Our dossier was formally submitted to the Minister of Gender and Family Protection on Wednesday, June 23rd! This is an amazing step. It only took us 4 ½ months to get to this point! It’s becoming so real, that we could get the email with our child’s picture and history at anytime now.

What’s next? We wait…and wait…and wait a little more! We also need to save, save and save!

Thank you to all of our family and friends who have helped us along the way! You are all going to be Uncles and Aunties very soon!

Much love,

Jeff, Maddie, Andrea, Joe and Baby Hendrych