Short & Sweet

Hello to those who continue to check-in on us from time to time!  Not much new to relay but I wanted to just do a quick update with what's up with our process.  Things are currently in a stable but slow pattern in regards to the Ethiopian adoption world.  There hasn't been any real progress but we haven't gone backward either so for now we are guardedly optimistic and hopeful we are headed in the right direction.  Our agency is looking into building a partnership with two additional facilities in Ethiopia but even if that does formulate it will not change things overnight by any means.  We have also at this time decided to let our home study expire.  This was a very difficult decision.  Financially it makes the most sense as the reality is we have no idea what/when/if we will ever complete our process.  Logistically this is a stresser due to the fact that if/when the time comes for us to accept a referral we will have to start the process over from the beginning.  For those of you who have completed a home study I know you understand what a headache this is!  Now that it has officially expired and the decision has been made I have peace with it but once again it was one of those things that I lost sleep over.  Mentally it made me feel like we were giving up, even like we failed and along with that the guilt of wondering if we made the wrong decision.  I hate guilt.  It's so hard for me to distinguish logical feelings from seeds of doubt I know the enemy wants to burden me with.  I'm starting to see adoption kind of like a marathon and God's my coach.  I've come to the realization that whether or not I cross this "finish-line" doesn't matter to him, maybe it wasn't even ever in his plan.  Maybe his goal all along was to test me enough to see if I'd be willing to even sign up for the race?  All I know is He's got this and I vow to be ready and willing when the time comes.  

A few prayer requests if you don't mind...

1.  For us and other waiting families who try to balance the knowns and unknowns into daily life.  

2.  For wisdom about what to keep updated and what to let expire within our remaining paperwork (Dossier). 

3.  For birthmom's that face decisions immeasurably harder than our own. 

Can We Have a Moment of Your Time?

Hello friends and family!  Writing today with a specific request, besides will you come help Rock Valley sandbag!?! We have received the following letter from our agency and would love to see the support for this come from all of you!  At this time, this is the most "hands-on" action we can do that could directly affect the possibility that some day, God willing, we will welcome another Saeger into our home.  There is alot of info surrounding this act-CHIFF-so I have included some links along with a video for those who may want more info, it's slightly overwhelming but please know that we appreciate any and all support you might be able to give!  If we are ever going to welcome Baby J into our home, it's going to take a village of people willing to step out in faith with us!  Oh how the angels will rejoice when that day comes!

You can watch the video by clicking this link...it's the easiest/quickest way for me to explain the possibilities getting this act passed could bring.
http://vimeo.com/99062464 



Below is the letter we received...

Hi Ethiopia families,
I am writing to you today with an urgent appeal.  The window for getting the Children in Families First Act (CHIFF) passed this year is quickly closing.  Congress will soon be in summer recess and the mid-term elections will ramp up upon their return (or sooner).  That leaves us a precious few weeks to make a final push to move CHIFF out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and onto the floor for a vote – and to create a new future for the children and families we serve. 

Our government is doing some great work for children but needs to more and do it in a different way.  In a way that changes the status quo and says ‘family is important’.  Please go to http://childreninfamiliesfirst.org/chiff-faqs/.  If passed,  this bill would change the current outcomes that institutionalism, abandonment and neglect bring countless orphans worldwide.  This bill would utilize existing resources in our foreign aid budget to help create avenues for children to find families. First by strengthening their biological families and then looking at kinship, domestic and international adoption as viable options for children living outside of family care. Unfortunately, large NGO’s that have huge reach are actively working to ensure this bill never leaves the Senate. Their outcome based approach, while good work, fails to deal with the core issue that stems from children living outside of family care.

Due to the elections coming up in the fall, we are in need of a mass grass roots campaign to push this bill through the senate and onto the house floor before the end of August. 

The campaign is set to launch next Monday the 23rd  through Friday the 27th. The idea behind the campaign is to get all of us moving at the same time in the same direction. You can specifically help by doing the following:
1. Go to the CHIFF website and send campaign documents to your mailing list next Monday morning
2. Remind your constituents throughout the week to get involved
3. Post to multiple social media sites throughout the week
4. Contact personally 5-10 influential friends, family or partners this week and ask them to take part in this effort.
Together, I truly believe we can make the change needed for the children we serve.
God Bless,
Julieann Webb

Helpful links:
What is CHIFF?-  http://www.awaa.org/downloads/PR/WhatisCHIFF.pdf

How can you help? HERE IS WHERE  YOU CAN HELP!  http://www.awaa.org/downloads/PR/CHIFFActionPlan.pdf

CHIFF website-  http://childreninfamiliesfirst.org/

From the bottom of our heart we are so blessed to have you walking through these unknowns with us.  Tomorrow will be exactly 9 months since we became a waiting family!  

Scott, Christy, Ross, Katie & Kelsi

All Dressed Up With No Where To Go...

Greetings to those who continue to check in to see what's up with our family and the status in Ethiopia regarding adoptions.  I'm going to do my best to make a summary of countless hours spent on our part gathering information that's complicated and honestly has no real answers so bear with me...

Some of you may or may not be aware that recently there has been significant increase in the instability of the adoption atmosphere within Ethiopia due to corruption and unethical behavior that runs rampant by people abusing the process for financial gain both within Ethiopia and within countries in which children may be adopted into (including the US).  Just this week 4 individuals from a US agency were federally indicted (you can read more about that here) on charges of child trafficking, this is just an example of the seriousness of the behaviors of people we as "waiting" families are supposed to trust.  As you can image, all of this drama affects our status greatly.  Previously we mentioned that during the 6 months it took us to complete our paperwork our waiting times doubled from 2 years (approximately) to 3.5-4 years.  This week our case worker advised that we would be looking at closer to a 6 year wait, best case scenario, if international adoptions within Ethiopia would even continue to exist.  There is also a large possibility that within this "best case scenario" we would not be able to request an infant referral and would need to be open to an older child or a child with special needs.  In addition, while the entire country has not stopped adoption processes the southern region has, and the northern region is only dismissing children within the older and special need ranges.  All of this information (this is just the tip of the iceberg but I don't want to bore you) is hard to process for us.  Honestly we feel a little lost.  It's hard to understand why our agency is giving us these daunting numbers when I can read about other families (via their blogs) throughout the US who are using a separate agency and getting referrals within our parameters within 6 months of waiting.  Obviously I realize that some of these quick referrals have a bigger story to tell than what I can see and that some of them, more than likely, are being done unethically behind the scenes.  The worst part about this is that it leaves innocent families like our own who stepped out in faith intending to be Christ's hands and feet faced with a story that is lined with greed, corruption, and crime they had no intention to be a part of.  Without a doubt the last thing we as a family want is a child to come into our home that had a "first" family that dearly loves and wants them but it doesn't make the hurt in this mama's heart go away right now.   Our agency has refused to work with any secondary orphanages or systems that have any part of being involved in the corruption and thus the consequences of our recent predicament.

So now what....
This week we were given a list of ultimatums, if you will...

• Continue in AGCI Ethiopia program, understanding timelines are unknown and could continue to expand
• Transfer to another AGCI adoption program
• Participate in a simultaneous AGCI adoption
• Participate in a simultaneous adoption outside of AGCI
• Terminate AGCI adoption journey

After many questions, conversations, tears, and prayers we have concluded that due to different requirements our agency has (such as maintaining birth order in our family, specific country qualifications etc.) we really don't have any options besides continuing to ride this whole thing out and let God take the reigns.  Our concern is that we will keep pouring significant finances into a process that has no end.  We will not have to make many decisions for a good 6-9 months when our first paperwork updates need to be made and we are hoping that by then we might have some better news to work with.  For the most part I am relieved we are this far.  The last 6-8 weeks of trying to get a better understanding about the situation has been physically, emotionally and spiritually draining.  It's times like this I am thankful for a God who hears my prayers even when I'm not able to verbalize them.

Lastly, so we don't give you the wrong impression, we LOVE the people at our agency and are THANKFUL for their honesty with us.  We are thankful they have taken a stand that coincides with one we would take.  While we are heart-broken that Baby J may never come to live in our home, we refuse to allow our Western privilege to dominate over beautiful mamas born into different circumstances half a world away, there will be a better way for us to walk along side of them.  We do not regret the financial commitment we have made, regardless if there is nothing we can physically show you for it.  We have grown and will continue to grow because of this entire process and that is priceless...

Goodness & Light

A Christmas Greeting from our family to yours!  This has been a year full of blessings for us as a family.  I dare to even say it was a year of the extremes!  I think we have experienced immense joy & frustration, worry & relief, anger & excitement, loneliness & the feeling of being surrounded by multitudes of prayer warriors.  As a community of friends, family, and some of you even strangers, you have come along side us through each experience and I am so very grateful, humbled, and honored you are part of our life.  Where ever life may find you during this Christmas season, I pray in return for God's richest blessing for YOU as a new year begins!  He WILL bring us goodness & light....

 A giant "THANK YOU" to Jennifer V. Photography for these beautiful pictures!  She donated her time to us and we LOVE the way they turned out!  She makes it look so easy too!  It was a chilly, windy day but I'm pretty certain I was still sweating!  Pictures with 3 kids = 1 stressed mama!  Thank you Jennifer!!!

Checking in!

It's been a bit since we've checked in here so I thought I would give a little update.  There is not much to report (in some ways that's a good thing!) but lots of you  have been asking so I want to do my best to let you know what's up and what you can be in prayer for.  As of now we are just waiting!  It's something that according to our agency we need to get good at.  Unfortunately for me, I kinda of stink in the patience department.  When we began the process the average wait time was 26 months and by the time we submitted our final paperwork it was about 33 months.  The last email I got said 40-48 months.  I cannot tell you how disheartening being told these numbers is.  I know it's in ours and our adopted child's best interest for things to be done ethically and carefully but my heart breaks knowing there are so many children waiting for a forever home and so many families waiting and wanting on the other side of the process too.  In the adoption world we phrase this as being "stuck" and stuck is a challenging place to be.  It's here where I need to go back to my Creator and trust in his timing.  

There are things that part of me is mourning knowing that our wait time has nearly doubled.  My kids won't be as close in age as I had thought and we will be that much closer to the "over the hill' marker of our life by the time we are all under one roof,sigh.  These things sound kind of silly but when you were born as an American "type-A" that's just how your brain works!  For every negative, there is a positive too (I often feel fortunate that we have the opportunity to pray for Baby J's birth-family for years before our families become one!) and that is the direction we need to look!  

Prayer Requests:

1.  Patience, patience, patience.  

2.  Protection for a special set of birth-parents of which whom only God knows by name.  Prayers for health, warmth, safety and that they may know the truth of God's great big love for them.

3.  For the government processes (both on the Ethiopian and US side) to speed up while maintaining safe ethical adoptions.

4.  For other families who are waiting along with ours.  It's a juggling act to have your heart in two different parts of the world at the same time.

We're Officially a "Waiting" Family!

Hey everyone!  Just wanted to make a quick post to let everyone know that we are officially on the waiting list!!!  Our dossier arrived in Portland on Wednesday and by Thursday afternoon we were given the message that it was "impressive" and needed absolutely no corrections (Our case manager Toni said this is rare and we should be proud.  Being type A has finally gotten us somewhere)!  This is awesome news and we are thrilled! We also received an appointment time for our USCIS-I600A fingerprints and that is going to be this coming Friday.  Clearly everyone's prayers were heard because this was a successful and swift week where things went our way for a change!  At some point over the next week or two we will be scheduling a conference call with our agency to find our more specifics on wait times and different scenarios but for now we rejoice in being able to relax just a bit and not worry about notaries, typos, or postal tracking numbers:-)

I-600A Check!...Dossier-Check!

It's a satisfying feeling to have all of the necessary paperwork that is required of us thus far completed!  Last week we sent off our I-600A off to Texas and this week our dossier is making it's way to Portland.  This is a wonderful thing and a big step forward to being an official waiting family.

• The I-600A is an immigration application we can submit now that our home study is finished and approved.   We  file this application with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services/Department of Homeland Security and it's purpose is to allow our child permission to enter the U.S. once we come home.   (This will require more fingerprints from Scott and I, again, sigh...hopefully these go better and won't hold us up another 2 months!)
• A dossier is a fancy word for a collection of documents that provide specific information about your family, stuff like proof you have a job, insurance, financial information, criminal checks, reference letters, passport information, pictures etc.

(Ross helped me with the I-600A)

(Daddy and the kids sent out the dossier to Ms. Toni at All God's Children)

When I look back over the last 6 months I can see in detail how much the enemy has been trying to prevent us from submitting these documents.  There has been a battle raging here on Fairway Drive and it hasn't been pleasant.  I knew when we agreed to this process that there would be spiritual warfare involved, I had read about it numerous times from other adoptive families and felt prepared we would be able to handle whatever came our way.  Well, more than I could have imagine came our way, broken appliances, vehicles, lawn mowers, sickness, surgeries, threats of cancer to name a few.  All of this has tried to distract us from God's will, many times we questioned if we were doing the right thing.  Countless nights I pictured us stopping the process because of fear of what may be next, the notion of backing out and putting an end to these trials has been tempting.  But God is so much bigger than any of these battles and when we needed him near, we could always find him.  In the end we have kept our eyes on the goal and we have conquered every last distraction and hurdle that has been thrown at us and IT FEELS GOOD!   We have cried tears of joy, sorrow, anger, confusion, and physical pain.  We have sent out text messages to friends commanding the enemy to leave our home. We have screamed out in rage at a God who we felt was giving us more than we could bear.  We have been brought to our knees in moments of gratitude when our worst fears were taken away.  So much has happened in a short amount of time and at the end of the day the.enemy.has.not.won. Period.  

Psalm 91 has kind of become our family battle cry.  Two special ladies in my life had been coincidentally (or not, God does crazy stuff like this!) praying these verses over our family at the same time and I am so so glad they chose to share that with me.  (you can read the whole passage here>PSALM 91.)

(Psalm 91:14-16 by andrearhowey, via Flickr)

So what's next?

1.  We wait on an appointment to be fingerprinted for the I-600A process.  (Thinking this will have to be done in Sioux City or Sioux Falls).  We have received confirmation they got our application so hopefully an appointment letter will soon come our way.

2.  Once the dossier reaches Portland (hoping for the middle of next week) they will proof it to make sure it meets all the requirements.  (We are praying nothing needs to be redone!)  After approval, we will be placed on the wait list and the dossier will be prepared for authentication by the U.S. Dept. of State as well as the Ethiopian Embassy.  Once authenticated, it will be sent to Ethiopia for translation.  Wow, that's a mouthful!

What can you pray for?

1.  Pray that we have submitted a dossier that will need few if any revisions!  Each time we have to redo something it pushes our time line back and we are anxious to bring Baby J home!  

2.  For the fingerprint appointment to come quickly.

3.  For the enemy to leave us alone!

4.  For Baby J's birth-mom and birth-dad.  We pray for them daily in our home and ask you to join us for protection of their health and well being.  Wherever they sleep tonight, we just ask Jesus to be near.  Our prayer is that one day we may get to meet at least one of them.