Our Dossier is In!!!

Yesterday was a busy day for our family but was a day where we reached a big milestone in our adoption. We all piled in the car, went to Salem and had our home study certified, piled back in the car, drove down to Eugene, and turned in our dossier. The dossier is a compilation of documents we have gathered that lets Ethiopia know about our family and our desire to adopt. It is such a good feeling to have this done. This means that we are now on the wait list for a referral! One of the most amazing things about all of this is that we will most likely only have to wait 3-6 months for a referral. That seems like nothing compared to the 3 years we waited for Eliza. It's surreal to think that somewhere in Ethiopia is a baby either born or soon to be born that will join our family. We are praying daily for "baby Africa" (a nickname given by Eliza), baby's health, and the transitions to come.


The kids posing in front of Governor Straub's portrait. My parents live in one of his old houses.


One of the cutest things growing in the garden at the capital.






The next thing we are waiting on is our fingerprint appointments for immigration. Once that is approved we will have everything we need to schedule a court date after our referral is received. Once that court day is scheduled we will be off on our first trip to Ethiopia.

In other news, we are finishing up our curriculum this week! I don't know who is more excited, me or the kids. Finishing our second year of home schooling all three of our older kids is a huge accomplishment. Not only did we finish, we had fun, and we actually want to do it again next year. Granted, bringing home the baby will keep it from being dull, but we are up for the challenge.

It's the Little Things.......

Last week we had the chance to take the kids to Seattle for the day. We rode Amtrak up, spent 5 hours in the city, and then rode the train back home. It was a fun trip. Pike Street Market was a hit for me. I think that is where I fell in love with Seattle. They had vegan chocolate chip cookies!!!! Three of the six of us have found we are allergic to dairy so buying a cookie from a bakery has been one luxury we have had to go without. Eliza really enjoyed the street band outside the Space Needle. I gave her a few dollars to put in their donation case. It's a good thing she is so cute because she tried to take some of the coins with her when she was done. Of all the things we did while there, the older kids enjoyed the bumper cars at the Space Needle the most. Little things can mean so much.





We are VERY close to having our dossier off to Ethiopia. It's amazing how quickly things are progressing this time around. As of now we have seen the draft of our home study and are expecting the approved home study any day. Once we receive that we can have it state certified and send off our dossier. At that point we will be on the wait list for a referral. We have no idea how long we will have to wait for a referral but we do know it will not be three years like our first adoption. Just for the record, though, I would wait that long again just for the chance to parent our sweet baby.

Today God reminded me once again that he pays attention to the details. Sometimes you need those reminders. When we started the adoption I knew I wanted to buy the baby crib bedding with African animals on it but everything I saw was pretty spendy. Today I took the kids to a sale of used kid items and found an African animal bedding set! I was so excited! On the way home I called one of my closest friends to share my excitement and she informed me that she had bought us a crib sheet with African animals on it. The sheet matched! I took it as a sweet reminder of God's care about the details.

Garage Sale!!

Things are moving along with the home study. We had our first interview this week, which went very well. Our social worker is great! Next week we will have our home visit and the kids will get to meet her.

We are having a garage sale on June 25-26 to help raise the some of the money needed to travel to Ethiopia twice. The Lord has graciously provided for all of our expenses up until then. If you are interested in donating to the sale, we would appreciate it. We are even willing to pick it up.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. Of all the things you could do to show your support, your prayers are what we need the most.

Sorry for the short posts lately, I promise to highlight more of the happenings in our family next time =).

Quick Update

We are pretty excited to have heard from our social worker and scheduled our home study visits. The first one is next Tuesday and the second one is the Tuesday after. It's so exciting to be one step closer to meeting our newest blessing! The home study is the last thing we need to complete our dossier, then our paperwork will be off to Ethiopia. Hopefully by this time next month we will be waiting for our referral.

Little Steps

It has been almost two weeks since my last post. I am trying to update the blog at least once a week but, alas, it is harder than you may think to take an ordinary life and make it interesting for others to peek in on. Not to say that anything I write on here is all that interesting. I do have some great things to write about when you consider that most of my posts are about my family.

We did make a little progress on the adoption over the weekend. We were able to attend two classes required for our home study. Every little step gets us that much closer! Also, our background checks came back and we were billed for our home study. This is something we had been waiting for. Now we are waiting to be assigned a social worker and for our home visits to commence. We met both of the social workers for our agency at the training and both were very down to earth and sweet ladies.

Here are some other highlights from the past week:

1. Faith got her braces on and much to our dismay she is still adorable. We were hoping that her cuteness factor would go down a bit considering all the interest she already generates from boys. At least Toby has the scary dad look down pat!

2. Toby came home safely from South Korea. He was only there a week but we really miss him when he is gone.

3. Eliza informed us that she is planning on helping the new baby with water, juice, and bath toys. This was the first time she has responded to our talk about the baby. So sweet!

4. We found ourselves doing a lot of laughing during school. It's amazing how sometimes the quietest of our children can be the silliest. I'll let you guess which one of our blessings that is =).

5. Ethan found himself the recipient of a very intense kiss from Eliza. I think it made his day and mine too. It happened after they had been apart for a few hours while the kids were taking SAT tests. When we started home schooling part of the reason was so that Eliza would have special time to bond with her siblings. It's great to see that prayer answered in the form of shameless affection!

Have a great week and remember, "This is the kind of love we are talking about--not that we once upon a time loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God." 1 John 4:10 (taken from The Message)

Celebrations

Today marks two years with our sweet girl, Eliza. I can't help but think about our first night together. We had the hotel crib up against my side of the bed and had snuggled her up for the night. I don't remember how many times this happened but I do remember sweet moments when she and I would wake up and gaze at each other through the crib bars. A few times I reached out my hand and held hers. She was so quiet and curious. Two years later and I am in awe of how perfectly God has formed our family. She is such a little Zimmerman!

Taken on Gotcha Day, April 7, 2008


Eliza Today--Such a silly girl

This post would not be complete without pictures from Easter. We had a great weekend. On Saturday we braved the cold and wind and met my parents at a tulip farm nearby. It was beautiful. Sunday we remembered Christ's resurrection at church and then hung out at home. The weather was iffy so we had an indoor egg hunt.

Two Trips

We just got the official word today from our agency that as of May 9, two trips to Ethiopia will be required for adoption. We are trying to stay positive. This does mean we get to meet our little one sooner--we just have to rely on God's grace to get on the plane without them after the first trip. We also will be able to bring them home on a visa that will make them a US citizen as soon as we get them home. I admit, we are concerned about the additional travel expenses. It will be exciting to see how God will provide.

Psalm 146

"Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul! I will praise the Lord while I live;

I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

Do not trust in princes, in mortal man, in whom there is no salvation.

His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.

How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, who made the heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them;

who keeps faith forever; who executes justice for the oppressed;

who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free.

The Lord opens the eyes of the blind;

the Lord raises up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous;

the Lord protects the strangers;

He supports the fatherless and the widow, but He thwarts the way of the wicked.

The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord!"