Hi!

I know, I know, it's been a while since we've posted anything on here. I guess I've realized blogging isn't one of my strong suits. To be honest, it's sometimes hard knowing what to say, but we really will try to post more often!

Anyway, enough excuses. :)

So, the past few weeks have been good. It's hard to believe that it's almost been a month already since our paperwork got to SA. It's gone by fast which is great! Yesterday we met with some other families who have/are adopting from SA. That's the second time we've met with some families and it's been really good to meet their kids and talk about the process. We found out that one of the families just got their referral on Thursday and they've been waiting less than 2 months, so that was encouraging to hear! (For those of you who don't know what a referral is, it's when you get the call that they have a child for you)

We've been trying to do a lot of reading lately, but at times it's overwhelming. We've mostly been reading about transracial adoption and although there is some helpful information, sometimes it's too much to think about all at once. I think we'll really continue to learn as we go.

We've also been trying to learn more about our baby's country and recently bought a book called "A Rainbow in the Night." It's about the history and birth of South Africa which I think will be really interesting. Along with learning about the country, we've tried a few SA wines and listened to more of the cultural music. We really look forward to having the African culture a part of our lives and family! I was trying to upload a video of some SA music, but couldn't get it to work so I'll have to try again later. If I get pictures from our gathering with the other families, I'll post those too.

We continue to try and be patient in our waiting. There are days when it seems easier and days when it's definitely tough and I feel like I'm going crazy. We pray for our baby every day and can't wait to meet them and bring them home!

Well, I don't have much else to say right now, but I promise to try to post more! Who knows what the next couple weeks will hold...maybe we'll have some exciting news to share!

Thanks for reading...

Heidi

And The Waiting Begins...

Well, we have some exciting news! Our dossier was mailed to S.A. yesterday and should be there by Tuesday!!! This is SO awesome for us! At the beginning of the week we got in touch with our agency and they said that it should be mailed in a couple of days. I wasn't holding my breath, but was hoping that it would at least be Friday...and it was!

So now, all we can really do is wait. The social worker in S.A. will get our dossier and we can start to be considered as adoptive parents when she has a child that can be adopted. Our agency said that a referral could happen at any time. They also said that the social worker is working hard at getting through files in the next couple of months, so that could be good news for us! It's really hard not to get our hopes up that a referral will happen soon but I'm also trying to be realistic because it could be 12 months.

I am looking forward to this part of the journey because there's nothing more for us to do. I'm trusting that at the right time, God will place the right child in our family and that will be a great day! For now we continue to prepare...reading, buying luggage for the trip, getting baby stuff, getting immunized, picking names and just enjoying the time we have together.

Thanks for reading and praying for us through this. We really appreciate all the support we've had from family and friends. It means a lot!

Have a great day!!

A few pictures

Hi! I know it's been a while, but there hasn't been much to write about.

We did have a chance to meet with some families last weekend and it was so great to visit and share with them. We'll be having another "get together" at the end of March with more families who have finished their SA adoption and I'm looking forward to meeting the kids! We're also part of a Families from S.A. group online and it's already been a great resource.

I thought I'd post a few pictures of our first baby "stuff." They have all been gifts and I usually start crying every time I open something. It feels so good to have things for the baby in the house! I have them sitting in the baby's room and I love walking past there each morning. Anyway, they might not be that interesting to you, but that's about all I have for now!

We'll keep you posted...

The first few items -

one boy and one girl sleeper since we don't know who our little baby will be

Soon these little feet will be filled...

Our Chariot stroller

News

Okay, so we have some new news now!

Our dossier was just reviewed yesterday at Mission of Tears and our contact there said that all our documents are there, which is great! We do have a couple of things that need to be fixed a bit in our home study before it can officially be sent off, but it's better to catch those things now rather than later.

We were hoping that our file would be sent immediately to S.A., but we found out that the social worker there has an adequate amount of files right now so ours won't be sent for a few weeks. There is a small possibility that it could be sooner, but for now we're kind of waiting. We know our file is in capable hands.

With the ups and downs we've already felt through this process and with the nerves of making sure we have everything "right", we can only sit back and be comforted in knowing that our incredible God is orchestrating everything. I don't know what I would do without Him! I have sanity and patience through all of this because I know that our baby will eventually be with us. Some days I can hardly think about it because my excitement drives me crazy! Ian said to me the other night that he's just ready for all the adventure to start of travelling to meet our baby, being in Africa and bringing he/she home. I agree!

One thing we're looking forward to is getting together with some families who have/will be adopting from S.A. We're meeting for lunch this coming weekend. It's great to have that support!

Anyway, just keep praying that our home study gets all the last few bumps smoothed out and praise God that our dossier is getting through the final checks on the Canadian side. I'll keep you posted as to when it gets sent to S.A.!

Patience & a stroller

Well, no news yet. We've been waiting since last Tues. to hear if our dossier has been reviewed by our agency, but haven't heard anything. They said they would try to have it reviewed by Friday (a week ago) but we're not sure what's going on. This has been quite hard for me because I like to know what's happening. Even if they said they won't be able to get to it for a week...at least we would know where things are at. I don't like this not knowing. I tried so hard to contact someone today, but no luck!

I'm trying to see this as another way that the Lord is teaching us to wait on Him. God knows me and knows that I start to put aside my incredible dependence on Him when things are rolling along smoothly. I really don't like that I do that. Of course I realize that I can't live without Him, but I always find that I am walking with Him closest when my life hits some bumps. So...as frustrating as it has been, this will be another opportunity for growth.

One exciting thing (well, for us) is we bought a stroller!! Last weekend we were in Edmonton for Breakforth and found a Chariot in great condition there. It's what we've been wanting and now all we have to get are a few other attachments for it. It was so fun to buy our first big thing for the baby! Hopefully we'll have a little one in there soon.

As far as prayer requests go, here's a few:

- patience, as waiting is a big part of all of this and there are no definite timelines
- our baby in Africa (whether they are born or not) and his/her family
- that God would continue to provide financially (He's been so faithful!)
- our preparedness as parents and that we would enjoy the last few months we have just "us"

Thanks again for reading!
Heidi

It's about time...

Welcome to our blog! We have been wanting to get this going for a while so it's great to finally join the blogging world and keep people updated on our journey. As many of you know, Ian and I have decided to adopt from South Africa. This is something that we have always known we wanted to do, but never thought it would happen this soon! Now it can't happen soon enough!

If I explained everything that has happened up until this point you'd be reading all day, so I'll give you a quick look at what has led us to where we are now...

Aug./09 - We first started thinking more about adoption and what our options would be. We've always wanted to adopt from South Africa, but didn't know for sure if that was possible in Canada. I started making some calls and found out that there is only one adoption agency in Canada who does S.A. adoptions. They're called Mission of TEARS in Ontario and they happened to be having a S.A. adoption seminar in Regina in Sept.

Sept./09 - We went to Regina for the seminar and came away feeling very encouraged and excited about the possibility of adoption. Although we still weren't totally sure, we started thinking it might be the direction for us to take right now. For the next couple of months we spent time praying about it and trying to understand what we should do.

Nov./09 - The big decision! Through lots of prayer & discernment we decided to go ahead with adopting! We felt so strongly that the Lord was saying that He had a baby in Africa for us. It was a whirlwind of a week as we got our initial application filled out, sent off and made an appointment for our home study to start. We also started telling family and friends and were very encouraged! We felt confirmed again that this was the direction God had for us right now. It was so exciting to start thinking that there was a baby out there just for us. The reality hadn't totally set in yet that this was actually happening!

Dec./09 - We had almost weekly meetings with our Independent Practitioner (IP) to have our home study completed. She would come to our house most of the time and would ask questions to get to know us better. She also helped prepare us a little better for what is ahead. We also had to fill out a 30 page application each!! Let me tell you, we were SO glad to have that done! Just before Christmas we had our last meeting and she started getting her report written up as we got our other paperwork together...doctor's reports, fingerprints, criminal checks, reference letters and a personal profile.

Jan./09 - On Jan. 15 our IP came for one last meeting to have us sign off and put everything together for our dossier. What a great feeling! It really felt good to have it out of our hands and not worry about all the paperwork anymore. Our dossier was sent off that night and by Jan. 26 (Tues.) it had been approved in Regina and was at our agency in Ont. waiting to be reviewed. Yeah!

So, now we are waiting for our file to be reviewed and within the next few weeks (assuming everything goes as it should) our dossier should be sent to South Africa. From there, we don't know a lot about the details of the process; only that they will be looking for a baby for us which I still can hardly believe.

That's it in a nut shell. It feels like things have been going so smoothly and we feel very blessed.

We think about our baby all the time - Where are they now? Are they even born? Are they safe? What will they look like? We can hardly wait to meet him or her and bring them home!

Anyway, I could ramble for a while, but I'll leave it at this for now. Thanks for reading!