FBI clearance

This morning while waiting on a package I get a phone call and it is from...the FBI! They called to tell me that even though I had sent our information in three different packages all on different days, and even though they receive over 100,000 pieces of mail a day, and it could take up to 6-8 weeks to process the request...we will have our clearance in 7-10 days!! WOW. Now if only the immigration department could be as fast as the FBI!! Wishful thinking!

Another one bites the dust

Well, yesterday was fun. It was my nephew's kindergarten graduation. I guess I showed up a little late because when I got there it was over and he was GONE! LOL, oh well, at least I got to leave work for a few minutes. I also FedEx-ed our Gladney application in yesterday!! WOO HOO!! When the FedEx man showed up it hit me that I had not made copies of the application. So, he waited while I copied the most important documents. Oh well, at least with the dossier I have to have copies of everything! LOL I'm so excited about the dossier. All we have left to get is proof of my life insurance, a recent letter from the bank (waiting until the balance is a little larger!), and Cortney's corrected employment letter. Then we wait, for the FBI clearance and I171H. Those two things we have no control over so we must just pray for speedy approvals. We are still getting all positive comments about the adoption. We have had a few "what color will he be"s or "why are you going to that country"s. But overall everyone thinks that it is a wonderful thing. I think the people who know us are just happy that we are finally getting our baby so we can stop asking them to pray for that!! Now we will ask them to pray for other things but at least it will be a change of pace for them!!!! LOL

the day of running

So, basically every single day that I have off has turned into gathering dossier paperwork day. Today we spent the whole day getting dossier statements of health, passport photos, new driver's license...The list continues but I am to mentally fatigued to continue it=( LOL Cortney told me today that he can't wait for this dossier and application to be finished because I turn into a crazy person when I am working on it. Everyone makes me crazy though! I wish that every notary knew that their commission cannot expire within the year and having the notary stamp is a MUST, or that every doctor knew to write legibly and spell our names correctly. Or how about an original copy? More than once today I have to fight for the original even though they wanted me to take the copy and hush. AHH. I AM ADOPTING A BABY HERE PEOPLE..work with me! I am trying to enjoy this time since after all it is part of my "pregnancy time". I guess the dossier and application are the equivalent to morning sickness and heartburn.

How It all Started

We are Lindsey and Cortney Clevinger from KY and we are in the process of adopting a baby from Ethiopia! Many of you who know us may know how tough the past 2 years have been. We set out to add to our family through the traditional way and soon learned that God had something wonderful in store for us. We weren't able to conceive a child however during those months of trying God taught us patience and understanding that will be necessary to bring home baby Ian from Ethiopia.

I think the hardest part so far (I can say this because we aren't waiting for the referral yet!) has been picking a country. When we started looking at the 25 or so countries we decided that we would love to have a baby from EVERY country! We narrowed it down to Korea and Guatemala. Due to conflict with Guatemala's program we decided that we were definitely going with Korea. Then, one night I was looking around on the internet and God must have guided my searches because I found the story of baby Enoch. An African American boy who captured the hearts of his adoptive parents as well as my heart. I read all of the information about the country and the need for adoptive parents and I think I knew right away that this was something that we would be doing. The next few days were about Cortney and me realizing that we could do this. We had to ask each other all of the hard questions and pray that God would equip us with the tools to do this.

Since that day about a month ago we have finished our homestudy, submitted our I-600A form, gotten fingerprinted at the immigration office, and started our dossier and Gladney application. As we work diligently on the mountain of paperwork to bring home our precious baby we have the joy of sharing this paper pregnancy with our family and friends. We are thankful for the supportive words we have received so far and pray that they will continue throughout this process and for the duration of our attempts to parent this wonderful little person. Please follow us throughout this process and pray that God blesses us with one of his greatest gifts.