A few updates...

Here's a quick update on the happenings recently with Zaine...

A wonderful fellow DRC adoptive family decided to make a visual countdown of the adoption process to help their children at home understand.  I thought this was a fantastic idea so we started our own for Addison, Xavier and ourselves.  If you are adopting from Africa and want to do this - I'm linking their instructions here. They had a great tutorial/pattern which saved me TONS of time!

Here is the page before we began 

covering up sections we've completed.

Here's Addison putting up the pieces that 

we've completed on the journey thus far.

Here's our up-to-date map...

We have completed:

Home Study, I600a, Dossier, Referral, PV and Consent.

We were informed we were supposed to go to court last week - 

hoping this happened and we'll hear good news soon!

Addison keeps asking when Todd and I will get our shots (because that's a piece of our Africa puzzle) and she simply cannot wait to help Zaine put on the heart piece of the puzzle which says "home".  

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We were able to take a quick overnight trip to Louisville to have dinner with a bunch of other DRC adoptive families who are also adopting independently with DRC Adoption Services.  What a blessing to meet and chat with other families who completely "get" this journey!  We were also able to give one family a few gifts for Zaine - they are headed over in the next week or so to bring their son home so they will be able to deliver our gift for us.  I'm slightly giddy about Zaine being able to see pictures of his family.  I was able to translate "Mommy loves you", etc and write those on the pages with the correlating picture.

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We've also painted his room and working on getting 

things in order to decorate/organize it.  

I had a little helper along the way...

Hoping I get to update soon with news that we passed court 

and we're in our 30 day wait called CONA.  

Addison is also hoping this happens because 

it means another piece of Africa we get to cover up! 

We cannot wait to get this little guy home to us!

What's in a name?

What's in a name?

 

We named our children 

Addison Mackenzie and Xavier Thomas

because we liked those names.  

We didn't (and still don't) have a clue what they mean.  

"Thomas" is the only name that came with a purpose - 

Xavier's middle name is my Dad's first name.

Todd and I both decided when we chose a name for our son from Africa, we wanted a rich meaning.  Africans choose names based on meanings, not likes.  This was a way we could honor his heritage.

Our son was abandoned so he didn't have a name (or age).  

The orphanage director named him when 

he was brought to the orphanage. 

He was named "Safari", a Congolese name.

I was mainly worried that people would look at us and think "Really?  They adopted a cute little boy from 

Africa and couldn't come up with anything better?"

When we researched the name Safari we found it means "journey".

How appropriate.  

He is on a journey...  to our family.

We liked it! 

We decided to keep it as his middle name.  

Next was deciding his first name. 

We didn't really have any "set-aside" names 

we had thought about and liked; 

nothing we had been saving for that moment.

After really looking over possible names online, 

I ran across a name I liked 

and then I saw the meaning 

and instantly knew I had found our son's name.

 

Zaine Safari 

Zaine means "God's gracious".  

Safari means "journey".

Our son's name means "God's gracious journey".

It makes me smile just thinking about 

how God is going to use Zaine.  

God has been gracious to Zaine.  

He's been gracious to each of us.  

And He continues to be gracious with each 

      of us on our journeys through life.      

 

The process... kinda boring, but people have asked.

Thank you to everyone for your excitement for us!  

Please continue to pray for our little guy and us while we're in the waiting phase.

After sharing our exciting news - lots of people have wanted more details about the process...

Where are we in the process?

When will we travel?

How long till we meet him?

Etc, etc etc.

Let me outline the process for you and explain why we can't jump on a plane and go get him 

(like we so badly want to do).

__x__  Step 1:  Home Study

__x__  Step 2:  File I-600a (immigration form for the US) and get approval

__x__  Step 3:  Prepare dossier (bazillions of papers and signatures)

__x__  Step 4:  Sign on with an attorney in the DRC.

__x__  Step 5:  Receive referral!!!!  

____  Step 6:  Obtain Abandonment Certificate and Commune Consent:  

These papers will hold his "story" of abandonment.  They will go to the commune where to child resided (or was found) to receive consent that we can go to court.

***  This is the step we're waiting on currently.

____  Step 7:  Court Hearing:  After getting consent, a hearing is requested.  After the hearing, the court conducts an investigation to determine the adoption is legitimate and legal.

____  Step 8:  Judgement:  Once the investigation from court is complete, we will get judgement.

____  Step 9:  We have a 30 day wait period and then the adoption is FINAL!

____  Step 10:  CONA:  The certificate of non-appeal is issued which makes the adoption legal and final. 

____  Step 11:  We will get his birth certificate.

____  Step 12:  We will apply for his passport.

____  Step 13:  We will file I-600 with US immigration and await approval for our specific child.

____  Step 14:  Request embassy appointments (our lawyer will complete these for us in country).

____  Step 15:  Orphan Investigation:  The US Embassy will conduct an investigation in the DRC to make sure everything is legal and correct.

____  Step 16:  We will get his Visa.

____  Step 17:  TRAVEL to get our son!!!!!!!!

____  Step 18:  We wait for our exit letter from the country (meanwhile we will get to know our son and explore his country).

Step 19:  Travel home to begin life as a family of 5!

As you can see, we have a ways to go.  

Some steps will go quick and others will go slow.  

I will definitely keep you updated.  

Please pray through the list with us as we progress. 

Watch for a post later this week about his name...  

What a special little dude he is to us already!

Our Christmas Gift

We got the greatest Christmas gift this year...

We received our referral!!!

What does this mean?  

This means, we have an adorable little boy living in the DRC that we are pursuing (via all the paperwork) to become our son.  

We had talked with our attorney and knew things were close and we would be receiving an email with details any day...  Todd was at work and I was at church with our kids when I received the email.  I stared at my phone for a few minutes trying to decide what to do.  I SO badly wanted Todd and I to open the email and see our son's sweet face together but I also was DYING to see his face right then!  I worked on my "surprised" face for a few minutes and decided I couldn't pull off peaking and then acting like I hadn't seen the pictures later.  I called Todd and told him he needed to get home ASAP!  2 very.long.hours.later - he was finally home.  It worked out well because my mom and brother were at our house and able to take video and pictures for us.  (The video probably won't be posted because a certain gross adorable 4 year old girl was picking her nose and eating the seemingly yummy boogers during the entire video.  We obviously were a little preoccupied to notice.)

Anyways...  

Did I mention that he is just precious???  

We received 4 pictures of him (which are all a little blurry).  

I wish so badly we could share the pictures of our sweet boy with you on the blog, but for safety and security reasons, we are not able to do that.

He is just adorable though!

He is said to be around 4 months old but his pictures definitely make him look much closer to 7-8 months old.  Age discrepancy is common to see in DRC adoptions and something we expected.  

Looks like we're going to have 2 crazy boys close in age!  Xavier just turned 10 months old so we're guessing they are about 2-3 months apart.  Our little guy was placed in an orphanage when he was found but has already been moved to a foster home which is a huge blessing. 

What's next???

We wait.  

We're waiting on 2 initial documents and then our attorney can take our case to court.  We've hit the "hurry up and wait" phase of the adoption.  

Please pray with us as we walk through these next few months of waiting.  

We couldn't wait to see his face and know who our son was...  

but let me tell you.. Wow!  It's hard to wait now!!!

We look at his pictures throughout the day and share them with everyone we run into, we think and talk about him all day and our arms ache to hold him.  

My devotion book (Jesus Calling by Sarah Young) for today said this:

"Trust Me by relinquishing control into My hands.  Let go, and recognize that I am God....  When you bring Me prayer requests, lay out your concerns before Me.  Then thank Me for the answers that I have set into motion long before you can discern results." 

Please join us in praying for our little boy and while you're at it -

thank God for placing him in our family and for bringing him home to us.