Our journey to our Third Gem begins

When Steven was born I asked Tommy if he would find a necklace for me that I could wear to keep my babies close to me when I was away from them. He didn't find one for me, he had one made. I call it our three gems but only two with us so far.


When we got engaged we discussed how we would form our family and adoption was always our intention. After Lyla was born, I had a dream. It was the sign for me that our desire to adopt was the right thing and that we needed to seriously start considering what we were going to do. Then Tommy had a dream; he hates admitting it but he did. Call it kismet, call it coincidence, call it what you will, those dreams were the confirmation that our plans were exactly what was meant for our family.


Today we started the journey to fill the spot reserved for our third gem. We made our application for international adoption. We are excited that it is finally time for us to say "we're expecting" again but only in a different way!



So, the details ... we have applied to adopt through Children's Hope International. I learned about this agency several months ago when a staff member was interviewed on NPR. It still seems silly to me that I pushed for this agency because of a radio program but I think that there are reasons certain things stick in your head or stay with you.


We have chosen to adopt from Ethiopia. It's okay to be shocked. Ethiopia is not somewhere that most Americans think of when learning of adoption but the need is so great. We also have one of those nagging "signs" associated with Ethiopia. This was one of a handful of countries that Tommy really pushed for as our honeymoon destination. No, it is not touristy but there is such great history to the country and sites there are just as amazing as what we saw in Egypt but not as well known. I guess Tommy will get his trip to Ethiopia afterall, actually two.


The process is long and detailed. We expect to be busy with our homestudy and dossier for the next 3-4 months. We will have to assemble more paperwork about ourselves than I knew even existed! Then we will send everything to the U.S. Department of State and then on to Ethiopia for approvals. Then we wait and the time for that is unknown, anywhere from 4 months to 12 months. After we are matched with our child then we are assigned a court date and travel to meet with the Ethiopian judge. Then we come home without our child, we think this will be the hardest part. Our second trip will be about a month later where we will meet with the U.S. Embassy and receive our child's passport. The whole process is expected to take 12-18 months.


I am sure there will be lots of questions and we are happy to answer them. We are so very excited to begin this journey!