We received wonderful news today!!!!!! We are officially DTE (dossier to Ethiopia) for a girl (0-2) or sibling group (0-4) including one girl. Those three words mean soooo much in the adoption world! Today's date means we are officially "waiting" and will determine when we receive our referral.
Right now there are a lot of changes going on in Ethiopia. When we first started this process we were told we were expected to wait 9-12 months for a referral...today the wait times are stated as 12-18 months....and that number is projected to increase....possibly A LOT! Just yesterday a lady from our adoption "community" shared what the wait time trends are looking like. For us, it was not good news. To be honest, I was quite discouraged to hear that news. Thinking we were going to be DTE today and seeing those wait times was very hard and frustrating.
Bobby came home from work, could tell I was discouraged, and after sharing my feelings wish him he says, "Courtney, there is nothing we can do about it. God is in control, we both know we were called to Ethiopia and so we wait."
Right now there are a lot of changes going on in Ethiopia. When we first started this process we were told we were expected to wait 9-12 months for a referral...today the wait times are stated as 12-18 months....and that number is projected to increase....possibly A LOT! Just yesterday a lady from our adoption "community" shared what the wait time trends are looking like. For us, it was not good news. To be honest, I was quite discouraged to hear that news. Thinking we were going to be DTE today and seeing those wait times was very hard and frustrating.
Bobby came home from work, could tell I was discouraged, and after sharing my feelings wish him he says, "Courtney, there is nothing we can do about it. God is in control, we both know we were called to Ethiopia and so we wait."
I can honestly say that it will be hard, tough, and discouraging at times...but I know that the Lord has a plan for us and I am at peace knowing this is where we are supposed to be....so today we will rejoice knowing we are finally DTE and will wait for the plans which He has made for us!
A little glimpse of the paperwork involved with adoption:
Mailing our dossier last week
(we woke up on a Saturday morning knowing we had to get one document notarized before we could send our dossier in...I made a post on FB looking for a notary, thinking we were out of luck for a Saturday. I had a friend reply that she could meet us in 10 minutes...I had just jumped out of the shower, kids weren't dressed, and we were by no means "ready." We scrambled as fast as we could, jumped in the car, got the document notarized, ran to make copies, and ran to the post office to over-night our dossier package....if we would have missed her that day our DTE date would have been a week later--which is a lot when you're talking DTE dates!)
At the post office nervous to send this baby off!!!!
So, tonight we celebrate!! We are taking my parents to a nice restaurant in Medora to enjoy the three beautiful blessings we already have and to celebrate the children (because we all know that I will not stop at just one!) who WILL BE joining our family one day...hopefully not too long from now!
Eli (5)
Ayla (3)
Owen (1)
Love from our family to yours!
(P.S. this Sunday is national Orphan Sunday....we are so ecstatic that we will be able to share our hearts with others and to charge others to get involved....will share more on Monday!)
(P.S. this Sunday is national Orphan Sunday....we are so ecstatic that we will be able to share our hearts with others and to charge others to get involved....will share more on Monday!)
Congrats!!! And when it comes to the wait, yes it's hard and yes the length of time is unknown but with a support system of family and friends, and most importantly your ability to lean HARD on God, you will make it through this wild ride we call adoption!!! This is a huge step towards growing your family!!! Definitely time to celebrate!!!! :)
ReplyDelete-Marcy Cummings DTE 10-01-10
Congratulations on being DTE! It's a beautiful feeling!! So you're the second person that has said something about crazy long wait times and I'm thinking I'm missing something. Because I didn't see anything on the Yahoo group about it. Was it in the post section or was it like a link or something? I'm gonna have to go search again.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, SO happy for you guys and we will be praying for you on your journey!!!!! :)
Congrats! Enjoy this portion of the wait! In our experience it was the easiest (still hard though). At this phase I had done all I could do and could rest fairly peacefully in that. Once we had a name and a face, then the wait became exponentially harder! God speed to your family.
ReplyDeleteYay! Congratulations :) I was thinking of you all week, hoping that email would come!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on being DTE!
ReplyDelete(the bank person in me though just has to ask you to crop your picture so your bank account number and signature aren't out there on the internet for anyone to find)
Such wonderful news!! How exciting! Your kiddos are so adorable!
ReplyDelete