Timeline

Little Man's Adoption

November 2005-Started to feel the nudge to adopt, but tried to ignore it.


February 2006-Decided to look into the the possibility of adopting.

May 2006-Attended a two day seminar for families considering adoption.

June 2006-Realized that adopting was definitely what I was going to do...and Ethiopia was where I was meant to adopt from. Officially started the home study process.

Summer/Fall 2006- Gather paper work for home study and dossier to Ethiopia. 

November 2006- Home study completed. Time to wait for a referral.

Winter 2007-Learned some basic Amharic.

May 2007-Received referral for my son (age 2 1/2).


July 2008-Paperwork is walked through the courts in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia making A. (Little Man) my son!

September 2008-Met my little man in Ethiopia and brought him home forever!

Baby B's Adoption

Sometime during 2009, Little Man came to me asking for brothers and sisters. After much prayer, and number crunching I decided to bring home Baby B.

October 2010- Contacted an agency about a brother and sister that had been shown on rainbowkids.com , from the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo). 

Received verbal approval to adopt, pending update of my home study and dossier completion (they had been on a wait list for quite some time). 

December 2010-Received word just before Christmas that there had been a flu epidemic at the orphanage. Some children had died, my two had been sent away for safety sake and not returned. Chose to continue. 

 Late January 2011- Received referral for an eighteen month old baby girl! Almost done gathering all of the dossier paperwork. Home study update is completed.

February 2011-Paperwork is ready for dossier. Agency has not sent paperwork for me to sign to officially say "I am adopting this child." The agency says this is part of the process for the DRC, and I just need to be patient. 

April 2011-I receive and email from the agency saying something to the effect of "Didn't you receive my email a couple of weeks ago? Your little girl is being adopted by someone else. We will let you know when we get another referral." I am heartbroken. To add to the mix I have also been have tests done for a lump in my throat that is questionable.

May/June 2011- I receive a referral for a six month old baby girl, which I turn down. The day that I turn down the referral is the day that I find out I have cancer. It is not a good day.

In June of 2011, I am officially diagnosed with nodular sclerosing Hodgkin's Lymphoma. There is a mass completely wrapped around my trachea and esophagus, and another 'hot spot' in a lymphnode that they removed. I'm told if you are going to get cancer this is the one to get.

Little Man will NOT lose another mama. The fight starts now.

August 2011-After two months of chemo (and a lot of prayer) there are no signs of cancer! Praise God. I will continue with chemo until November to make sure there is no residual cancer cells not showing up in the scans.

September 2011-Doctors tell me they see no reason for me not to continue with the adoption process once I finish my treatments.

January 2012-I start interviewing new adoption agencies about their Haiti programs, and contact my home study agency to update dossier and home study for Haiti. Two years after Little Man asked if we could adopt from Haiti, that's where we will be going. "...and a little child will lead them."

 February 2012-Talked to every health professional that I have worked with over the past ten months about whether they feel comfortable with me moving forward adopting a second child as a cancer survivor. They all say there should be nothing stopping me-and I have the notarized sign letters to prove it.  So after hours spent on my knees in prayer I am compiling my Haiti dossier.

June 2012- Finally get the last of my Dr. letters, psychologist letter sent to my agency. Now to wait for everything to be put together at the agency.

July 2012- Up dated home study completed/Dossier paperwork completed, translated, and ready to be sent to Haiti./Pre referral phone interview completed. 

August 2012- Waiting for our referral.

September 2012- Received our referral for Baby B! She is an adorable 13 month old and we can't wait to bring her home.

October 2012- Received our IBESR number just in time! Haiti is in the process of ratifying/implementing their Hague nation status for international adoptions. Now the wait to see if our agency will be picked as one of the agencies the Haitian government will be working with inititally in the Hague process.

February 1, 2013- We are cleared through IBESR three months early! It helps that I have no biological children, so we don't need to wait for Presidential dispensation. We had not yet applied for Little Man's passport so we send in and expedited form.

February 27, 2013- We finally get word that passport is on the way, so we book tickets to head to Haiti for court.

March 8, 2013-Begin the trip to Haiti. Early morning flight, so we will be staying in a hotel overnight than begin our journey.

March 10, 2013-Meet Baby B! Court to follow in the next few days.

May 2013- Second trip to Haiti. Paperwork enters MOI. Visit Baby B for a week and complete some extra paperwork at the Embassy. She is growing so much! We both cry when I leave.

July 2013- Paperwork through MOI. The rest of the visa and passport process can finally begin!