Growing Our Family

Thank you all for wanting to be a part of this newest adventure for our family- we are so appreciative of how even already so many of you have offered help and support to us.

You may not know much of the background on our decision to adopt, so I’ll try to give you the brief overview. Basically, adoption has always been the plan, goal, part of the conversation in our marriage. We have been on the same page in that sense 🙂 for a long time. Following the birth of Asher in Sept. of ‘08 we started the early process of researching all of the various options in growing our family through adoption. We looked at domestic vs. international, newborn/birth mother, vs. older child, on and on. And we always came back around to Africa, specifically Ethiopia, as the right choice for us.

So here is what we know:

• We are adopting a girl, somewhere between 9 and 18 months old from Ethiopia, Africa.
• We have applied, been approved to adopt, and assigned a case worker.
• We completed our final requirement just yesterday for our home study, and our social worker there is now writing that up for us. We have to have our home study completed before our application with CIS (U.S, Citizen & Immigration Services) can be fully processed and approved. We are hoping to have our approved home study to CIS by the end of July.
• From there the next large task is putting together our “Dossier.” A dossier is basically a ton of background information, forms, statements, reference letters, etc. that goes to the Ethiopian Embassy for their review and approval. Only after all that has taken place can we be placed on the “waiting families” list.
• Our prayers right now are for smooth, quick, accurate processing of every piece of paper required to bring our daughter home. We pray for favor with the US Immigration, the Ethiopian Embassy and courts, and the agencies working on our behalf. We are also praying for our daughter’s health and well-being emotionally and physically. My prayers have also been focused on our daughter’s birth mother and family and for them to know grace and peace in what has to be the hardest decision and/or time in their lives.

That is a very basic overview of where we are in the process. We have done a lot of work already, but are still early in the journey. A lot of this early business has allowed us to drive the process somewhat, but now we are getting to the stage where we are at the mercy of others to review, approve, etc.

We are also starting, with the help of a couple amazing friends to put together a couple fundraising events to help offset the costs of the adoption. We will be using this web page to let everyone know about those events as they get closer, but I do know one friend is organizing a large yard sale event and taking donation items to sell there. So if you are doing any garage clean outs this summer and don’t want to mess with trying to sell your stuff or haul large items away let us know! Our hope is to not only raise funds for the adoption, but also awareness to the 140+ million orphans in the world today. Not everyone is called or able to adopt, but we believe we are all called to care for the orphaned. You all are already a part of that mandate by being a part of our daughter’s journey home- so thank you!

I think I’ve bombarded you with enough info. for one update so I’ll leave you with this snapshot of our meeting yesterday with the social worker. She was here at our house to meet the kids and see our home, etc. At one point the dear woman had Emma handing her drawing after drawing that had apparently been stashed away all week in anticipation for the visit, of course whilst talking non-stop; all while Asher was literally crawling on top of our guest brushing her hair with a doll comb. She was kind and took it all in stride, but did stop once to say, “Wow, y’all have a busy house – what time is bedtime?” Yep, that pretty much sums up life around here – and we can’t wait to add another one to our organized chaos!

Thank you friends – Love to you all!

Rob and Sarah Richmond