Where we are...

Since my last post:

- Darren and I finished the Brian Post training - it was really good, and I think it will definitely be helpful in the future. I mean, we have had the normal challenges with our children, but we have never dealt with kids who have had serious trauma and difficulty in their lives; so it was good to get some insight about children like that, and some good tools to deal with them.

- Darren, Justin and I went to the local U.S. Customs & Immigration office to be fingerprinted (everyone over the age of 18 living in your house has to do this for an adoption). It was a pretty quick process, but goodness, they are serious about their rules and security there! Stand exactly here, sit exactly there, and heaven forbid if you try to take out a cell phone while waiting in the security line - they almost tackled some poor guy who did that. I can understand their concern, but it still seemed a bit over the top. I guess I showed my ignorance of the 21st century when I asked the fingerprint guy, "You mean you don't do fingerprints with ink any more?" (Apparently they haven't for quite a while.) They do it right on a computer screen, no inky fingertips necessary, which is nice.

- We got a card in the mail today from AAI saying that our dossier has been sent to Ethiopia! So as soon as we identify the children we want to adopt, the process can begin over there.

- We have been looking at files of several sibling groups, and right now are waiting to get some more information about them. The agency here in the U.S. has basic info, but if you have more detailed questions, they send them to the social worker at the orphanage, and wait to hear back. Please continue to pray for us for wisdom and clear discernment about who to adopt.

- We said goodbye to Lindsay today - she was here for a quick visit, and is heading back to New York, and then will leave for Tanzania in a week!... which is both :) and :(. Hopefully, we will be heading over to Ethiopia while she's there, so we can "drop by" for a visit, or she can meet us in Ethiopia. There's only one country, Kenya, between the two - that's not so far, right? :)

Choosing

I got my previous to-do list done - applied for two adoption loans (waiting to hear right now) - but then we found out that we actually had to get some additional training finished before our dossier could be sent to Ethiopia. AAI had sent us a training seminar on dvd by Brian Post called "Healing for the Attachment Challenged Child," and we are almost finished with it. It has been really helpful, actually - a lot of great information and techniques - and I'm sure we'll come back to it in the future.

Mainly right now we are in the "choosing" phase. So far we have received two dvds of waiting children in Ethiopia, and have been looking through them, praying about various sibling groups, getting more information about them, etc. To me it is actually the most difficult part.

Previously I was focused on getting documents together, training, things like that, which took time but were fairly straightforward. Now, we have to decide which children will become part of our family, forever. It can be overwhelming, looking at so many children who all need homes and families, trying to discern which ones God is leading us to.

Please pray for us, for wisdom, discernment, and clear direction from God.