Our Challenges

I am going to try and explain where we are at and what is happening.

One of the preliminary tests done before embassy is a report done by the embassy doctor. When she saw Obsi and examined him, she determined he was 16 and ordered a bone scan. This is new for the embassy doctor to be doing this. After reading the bone scan, the embassy doctor said he was 18. The US only allows children under 16 to be adopted.

I spent time on the phone with our agency director, Sue, yesterday. Sue explained to me how Obsi cannot be 18. Five years ago, Mr. Strawn from MI, was starting up an orphanage in K, which is in western Ethiopia, and went about looking for boys that were 7-8 years old that needed a place to live. He took all these boys to the K orphanage. Now, five years later, Sue is trying to find them a family to call their own. 7/8 plus 5 equals 12/13. If he is 18, he was brought into the orphanage at the age of 13. I doubt Mr. Strawn confused a 13 yr old for a 7/8 yr old!

Obsi is tall and lanky with no muscle definition. If he were 18, he would have muscle definition.

So, yesterday, our paperwork was all submitted to embassy. Paperwork can only be submitted two weeks before a potential embassy date. Our agency's adoptive parents are seen on Thursdays, at 3:30 every other week. This month those dates are July 1st, 15th, and 30th. Our date is July 15th.

In that pack of paperwork are various documents that include things like the birth certificate which shows him to be 13, the court document of the adoption, our I600 (petition to classify orphan as immediate relative) and DS 230 (application for visa). Before the embassy gets these papers, they don't know anything about us. They sift through all the paperwork and either give us an appointment or deny us an appointment, OR, we may be able to rectify what is missing or inaccurate. For instance, if our homestudy shows we are approved for a child between the ages of 10 and 14, and Obsi's birth certificate shows he is 15, then we need to get an addendum for our homestudy.

Our paperwork is in their hands. We are praying for the Lord's favor on us! Because of the holiday, the embassy has a half day today, Friday, and is closed on Monday. They may have looked at our paperwork yesterday or maybe Friday morning. If not, it won't get looked at until Tuesday.

I will be watching my emails very closely! My hope is that I do not hear from Sue. Sue thinks we will slide through with no problems. There is another boy and another family in this same situation. This is all beyond human intervention at this point. We serve a huge God!

We have also been working with our Congressman's office. I am still not clear on their role in this but Sue says they have an ability to help us if we get into a pickle. Linda, at Congressman Petri's office is doing much work to investigate adoptions and the US embassy's job. They were very reluctant to call our agency so Sue called them. Sue has done this before in other countries when there were problems. Linda, knows nothing about what they can do, thus all her work trying to figure it out.

God's role:

11 months ago, when I booked our campsite, for our annual trek to Door County's Peninsula State Park, there happened to be a site open in Weborg. We always looked at Weborg and had a huge desire to camp there but it was never available. I tried for a few days to get an electric site, but to no avail. Finally, one day, all that was open was a site in Weborg. I booked it.

With all this adoption stuff going on, and it being 2/3 weeks away from our trip to Ethiopia, I had to bring my computer to stay connected. I need cell phone coverage. All the years we have camped at this park, we have always had a site in another area of the park, Tennison Bay. There is no cell phone coverage and definitely no free/public wi-fi. So, on Tuesday night, when we got here, I opened up my computer, and to my surprise, there was wi-fi available from the local marina in town. And, there was cell phone coverage! That is not just coincidence!!! Weborg is a camping are that is closest to the park entrance and closest to town. The Lord knew just where we needed to be.

My cell phone is only ringing when the Congressman's office calls. It just amazes me!!!

Our trust is in the Lord at this point. We all understand this. Our whole family is lifting it up to the Lord. My boys continue to ask if we will get Obsi. Even though we have never met him in person, he is part of our family. We love him as our son.

We Are Ready to GO!

We have our flight booked, guest house booked, shots done, and 4 donation bags packed.

We leave July 12th out of Chicago at 10:20pm. We arrive in Addis on July 14th, at 12:15am. Our flight is through Istanbul Turkey. One layover.

This is the latest picture of Obsi, taken last week:


What a handsome boy! The question is: Is he 13, 14, 16, or 18?

Results of Bone Scan

The bone scan shows that Obsi is 18. We are going to get him anyway. Our agency director thinks embassy will let us slide through because his birth certificate says he is 13. He is most likely 14, going on 15. Bone scans are not reliable.

We were also advised to contact our Congressman for help in getting a back-up Visa. If the US embassy rejects us, we need a back-up plan. We will also fly out later, arriving in time for embassy on Thursday and staying a bit later than the weekend to handle problems if they should arise.

I am in the process of booking tickets. I scheduled our shots yesterday. I need to get us a room or two at the New Flower. Need to get donations packed in bags weighing less than 50 lbs. We are out of town most of the two weeks before we leave so I need to use this week to get things done.

I got this email this week:

Hi! We are home! We had a chance to meet your sweet Obsi. What a precious young man! I will email you a picture when I have a chance to go thru all of our stuff. He asked us if we could wait long enough for him to write a letter to you. So, I have a beautiful letter from your beautiful son. What is your address and I will mail it to you. It was an overwhelming experience picking her up, so I didn't get to get any info from him at all...just the picture and the letter. He is very kind and handsome!!! Talk soon!

We can't let a boy like this stay in Ethiopia!

Tamirat's Goal

This is from Coach:

Coaches Notes: Hope everyone had a great day of soccer on Saturday. The first game got off to a rough start but after the first 5 minutes we played really well overall. I would have loved to play that team again. The second game really showed how far we have come this year. The defense and our goalies pitched a shutout while our offense played a solid game. Awesome goal by Tamirat. You don't see many goals unassisted from a corner kick. It also was nice to be able to move our players around more on Thursday and Saturday (2nd game) since we had comfortable leads. Our players that are usually on defense did a fine job in offensive positions. I want to thank all the parents that were at the tournament Saturday for their support. It was a fun day had by all. Thanks Coach Pratt

Bone Scan

next week.

A Bump in the Road

I received an email yesterday from our director:

The embassy MD has decided that Obsi is 16. but he is NOT 16 and you cannot adopt a 16 year old. I don't know what can be done.... he has a b.c. that shows he is 14 but it seems that the embassy believes that the MD can override this.

She is in the hospital after an appendectomy. Yet, she still works for the children!

The only thing that can fix this is prayer. I have seen our Lord come through again and again and I trust this is all in His plan. He is in control. I know He is in control because a number of things haven't been working. I haven't been able to book a flight because nothing is working out. We were going to go down to Soddo to visit Sophie, a medical missionary whose blog I have been reading for some time. I was looking forward to visiting her clinic. They help the locals. The one day we could come, happened to be the weekend Dr. Mary's husband is flying into Addis and clinic was closed. I trust this is the Lord's way of working things out.

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.
The world and all its people belong to him.
For he laid the earth’s foundation on the seas
and built it on the ocean depths.
Psalm 24:1,2

The Lord frustrates the plans of the nations
and thwarts all their schemes.
But the Lord’s plans stand firm forever;
his intentions can never be shaken.
Psalm 33: 10,11

I will rest in His intentions!

Questions

Does anyone have any questions they would like me to answer regarding Ethiopian adoptions. If you aren't able to comment, please email me.

immarykay@lakefield.net