We are so very thankful. We introduced J to church today. He was welcomed by everyone. His arrival was also mentioned 3 times during the service! Once in the introductions, once in the sermon, and once in the prayer time. It is so wonderful to be part of such a loving community. We are blessed.
Category: Family Expansion
And what a Thanksgiving Sunday it was
Posted by ahechtenns On F j, Y
I’ve put off writing this post
Posted by ahechtenns On F j, Y
I put a cute picture here, as things were going well for most of the day. This is R’s friend G, they take dance together, and we hung out afterwards eating rasisns, goldfish and cheerios. (the girls that is!) Gloomy news came later on.
So, this is a bad news adoption update. It seems that despite the fact that Zambia is sending referrals to us (The agency), The Ontario Ministry of Youth and Family Services will not let our Agency give them to us. Their reasoning is that if there is any sort of suspension in Zambian adoptions, they will not let us proceed (despite the fact that our Agency is exempt from these suspensions in Zambia’s eyes). So this sucks. We are waiting then for the ‘Official” suspension to be lifted in Zambia, at which point Ontario will allow KidLink (our Agency) to release referrals. (which we think they have, or are getting in the next week or so).
We are worried, as the 90 day fostering period can only start once we have accepted the referral. Which means we are just getting delayed longer. The agency is hoping to start the foster period ticking while we are waiting, but that’s a big IF. So, keep us in your thoughts and prayers, we need it.
AN ADOPTION UPDATE!!!
Posted by ahechtenns On F j, Y
Yes, it’s true. We finally have an update to pass along regarding our family expansion. The director of our agency, Imagine Adoption (formerly known as Kids Link), recently returned from Zambia and had informaiton to pass along. The new foster home in Lusaka has been set up, and is now ready to receive kids. The first few infants have moved in already. The compound is able to hold around 50 children. The next steps are that the children in the home will be PCR DNA tested for HIV, then given a medical. Then the kids will be ready to be matched to famliies!
Once we accept the referral, our 90 day fostering period will start. This time will be served in the Imagine Adoption transition/foster home. We will be able to travel a bit before the 90 days are up, at which point we will go to court to officialize (is that a word?) the adoption. We are excited, as it does look like we’ll be receiving a referral in the next few weeks. I’ll be even more delighted when we can show you all our referral!
Waiting…it’s no fun
Posted by ahechtenns On F j, Y
Day 42. Still waiting for a referral. We are trying to be patient, but we really want our referral!  Every night we included “and be with R’s sister in Zambia” in our prayers. Tonight R asked “When is my sister coming home?”. We told her we don’t know, and she broke into tears, crying “when is she coming home??”. It breaks my heart. Hope for a referral soon!
Update!
Posted by ahechtenns On F j, Y
Another adoption update!  We received news that our file has gone to the Zambian consulate in Ottawa for authentication.  Here’s hoping it doesn’t take too long there!
Small Miracles
Posted by ahechtenns On F j, Y
Yesterday the weather was awful. The wind was around 50km/hr, the sky was very dark and it snowed/hailed/drizzled all day long.  In the afternoon Grandpa took R out, and I decided to whip over to Chapters to get some magazines to send to family (I’m sure you know who you are!).  Our spirits have been really really low lately, wondering when or even if our second adoption was going to happen. It has been hard to keep up a postivie attitude.  As I left Chapters, I noticed that the sky ahead was a very dark shade of grey, extremely striking against some white street lights in front of it. I couldn’t help comparing my dark mood with the sky.  As I got into the car, I looked out at the clouds again then turned away and went to start the car, Something had caught my eye and I looked back at the clouds, there was a very faint, but very distinct rainbow on the stormy grey background.  It seemed like a good sign to me.
Later that evening, our Social worker did call, and say our Homestudy file would be going to the Ministry (Ministry of Children and Family Services) tomorrow.  Wow. We’ve been waiting for this for about 5 months. We are very happy things now are in progress, although we still have this underlying feeling of dis-belief. Â
Anyways, we got an email from our Agency confirming that our file has been sent on today. One small step forward!
Stains, news and such…
Posted by ahechtenns On F j, Y
Ok, so it’s not the greatest picture, but it’s what we had on hand. R ate frozen blueberries at grandma & grandpa’s house. She was delighted to find out her tongue was stained blue.  Daddy took the picture from his new device, a “Curve”  He was thrilled to get it, not only because it had a camera, but because it is red. Â
The news on our adoption is that there is no news.  We are getting very tired of waiting, and our spirits are pretty low.  So to distract ourselves, and to keep our spirits up, we’ve booked a vacation. We are going cruising again with Holland America to the Eastern Carribean.  We will be stopping at 4 island, non of which we’ve been to, so it looks exiciting. Â
Meeting…
Posted by ahechtenns On F j, Y
Well, we had our big meeting with our Agency today. It was a great meeting. We learned all sorts of things about the order of things that will happen just before and once we get to Zambia.  It felt really good to hand off our homestudy, we had picked it up from M in the morning.  Things are slowly moving!!!
Update on adoption number 2
Posted by ahechtenns On F j, Y
Well, our paperwork is in China. We have a LID (Log in date) of August 9, 2006.  I don’t imagine we’ll hear anything until January 2008. We are hoping to travel to China and be back home before the Summer 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Keep us in your thoughts!
