A little piece of Ethiopia in Austin :)

November 19th, 2007

Today we all went to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church for lunch. It was such a blessing to meet so many people from Ethiopia and have them love and care for us. They touched our hearts with their kinds words and appreciation for us adopting those in need from their country. They shared our joy and excitement as we told them the details about Joshua and Josiah. The young people that were there reached out to Jessica and Christopher and included them in their group.

What a beautiful picture of heaven to see people from distant lands sharing and loving each other worshiping the Lord of Lords and King of Kings.

New Friends

November 11th, 2007

Matthew had the most amazing experience today. He was recently introduced to a native of Ethiopia, Mesfin Bekele, who invited Matthew to lunch today after church. They met at the Ethiopian Orthodox church, which Mesfin helped to start about a year ago.

The church is in a house on about five acres in Pflugerville, a suburb of Austin. While Matthew was sitting in the parking lot waiting for church to end, the door of the church opened and out came about fifty Ethiopian people, mostly families, dressed in traditional Ethiopian clothes. The men wear mostly American looking clothes, but the women wore lovely white linen dresses with white shawls over their heads. They asked Matthew to stay for a little bread and tea and were extremely warm and welcoming.

I have a feeling we'll be spending a lot of time at church, getting to know our new friends :)

Joshua Emanuel and Josiah Abenezer

November 6th, 2007

We settled on names for the twins! We feel very strongly that the boys should retain their connection to their wonderful culture and Ethiopian heritage, so we decided to give them American firstnames and use their birthname as their middle name.

So they will be called...Joshua Emanuel, Joshua being a biblical name that means "God saves" and Josiah Abenezer, Josiah also being a biblical name that means "God heals" or "Healed by God"We're continuing to wait for space to open up for the boys to be transferred to the transition home in Addis. Time seems to be dragging!!

Good News!

October 12th, 2007

The twins passed their additional medical test and we accepted their referral to begin the final stages of the process to bring them into our family.

We are now waiting for space to open up at the CWA transition home in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. They have to move to Addis to be able to complete the process through the courts.We are so thankful they are healthy in spite of all they have experienced. We pray for them daily and ask for prayers for them, their caregivers and their other family members.

Looking good...

September 27th, 2007

Today we received the paperwork on Abenezer and Emanuel, the twin six month old boys from the Soddo orphanage in the southwest part of Ethiopia. It was so exciting to read about them, their background and a little information about their family.

We were overwhelmed with joy and tears filled our eyes as we read all about them. We feel so humbled and blessed to be part of this plan that God has laid out before us. We don't deserve God's love nor could we ever earn it through our actions, but He has chosen to love us. He must feel the same excitement and joy that we feel now when another one of His children makes the decision to be adopted into God's family.W

e are still praying for wisdom, but are growing more and more confident that these two little boys should be part of our family. Their paperwork is good and they are very healthy.

REFERRAL DAY!!

September 26th, 2007

We have a referral!! Oh my goodness...I can hardly sit still :)

Our case worker emailed us today and asked about a note on our form. She wanted to know if we were or were not interested in twins. Of course we immediately asked if she had twins available and she said she thought they might be getting some information on twin boys today. Matthew laughed out loud about this. He knew I had put twins or siblings under the age of 3 on the form and, in his heart, suspected God would grant me my desire to adopt twin babies. He jokes now about how God answers my prayers more than his. (Which is so NOT true!)

We are so excited about the possibility of having twin boys. Jessica and Christopher were equally excited and asked all kinds of questions about what this might mean to our family. Please pray for wisdom in this decision. We can either accept this referral or wait for another. We need God to reveal His will for us and clearly show us if these are the boys He wants us to adopt.

A little information

Friday, July 7, 2007

Our case manager is back from vacation and sent us an email letting us know about some exciting things taking place in Addis.

First, we learned that CWA has 20 court cases scheduled for the month of July. This is a record number and the staff in Ethiopia has made it their goal to keep the numbers at this level, if possible. The most exciting news…Until recently there was only one judge on the bench approving adoptions, now there are two. Please pray that this number of judges remains or increases to help the children get home quicker.

We also learned a few details about the court system in Addis. Embassy dates are always the same for CWA families; on Tuesdays at 3:00 pm. And…CWA also has a traditional dinner night on Wednesday where the staff takes the adoptive families to a local restaurant for a fun night out for dinner.

Lastly, we learned that we won’t be put on the list for a referral until our dossier is received in Addis. That’s disappointing, but we continue to rest in the knowledge that God is in control and not surprised by any of this. We have peace that everything is in His hands.

That being said, we just had a bit of a surprise. We were planning on using frequent flyer miles to purchase our airfare to Addis. However, after talking to a travel agency and American express rewards, we just realized that we won’t be able to use the miles after all, mostly due to the fact that we have to purchase “refundable” tickets and the fact that the cheapest airline into Addis (Ethiopian Airlines) doesn’t take frequent flyer miles. So…we now have to raise the full $10,000-$12,000 in travel money.

Remember our Ethiopian children in your prayers.

Matthew & Heather

Dossier received by CWA

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

First, our dossier was received this morning, but we also received word that our Case Manager, Sue, is going on vacation today and won’t return until July 5th. Frustrating! She gave us a contact for the person who will be handling things in Sue’s absence, but it’s taking a bit longer to get answers to our questions because this isn’t the substitute’s regular area of expertise.

Hopefully, the week will go by quickly!In the meantime, CWA is looking over our dossier to make sure that we haven’t forgotten something. If everything is there, then it will be taken by courier to Washington D.C. to be authenticated before being sent to Addis.

Dossier is off to CWA!

Monday, June 25, 2007

As of 3:30pm today, the dossier is officially on its way along with a check for $14,700 and 2 cashiers checks made out to the U.S. State Dept. and to the Embassy of Ethiopia. Yay!!!!

As it was pouring down rain outside and I was getting ready to be drenched running into the Fed Ex facility, I really felt that I needed to pray over the dossier. As I was praying with Jessica and Christopher in the car, with the torrential rain in the background, I asked for several things:
1. that the dossier would not be lost in route (both in America and Africa)
2. that every official involved in the process would be given wisdom and discern-ment needed to process the documents
3. that the dossier would be accurately and precisely translated
4. lastly, that my diabetes would not be a roadblock to the process.

I strongly felt led to ask that their eyes would be closed to that particular fact. Now that we’ve mailed the dossier, we begin to wait for our referrals.

Last week was Reunion Week for Christian World Adoption, held in Myrtle Beach. I learned that one of the top officials for the Ministry of Women’s Affairs was attending the Reunion and that there may be some news about future adoptions to announce.

Heather

Provision

Friday, June 22, 2007

Today was another exciting day for us as we received the additional funds of $5,000 to complete the amount needed to overnight our dossier!When I look back at all that God has provided, it’s overwhelming. His provision has definitely strengthened our faith and humbled us at the same time. I am constantly reminded of his faithfulness to provide if we are willing to submit to His authority and will for our lives. Why is it so hard for us to do that?

I remember very early in this process (2 years ago even), asking myself if we were pursuing this because He truly was calling us or if I was confusing that with my selfish desire to have more children. I began to pray, asking for this adoption to be accomplished by Him alone and that we would not stand in His way. I can truly say that God has brought us to a place where I can undoubtedly say that He alone has shown His will for us and that this is only happening because He wants it to. He has opened every door for us and provided every single amount that we have needed at the exact time we needed it. He’s provided in a way that leaves no room for doubt and I’m praying that our experience will open the doors for us to reach people for Jesus.

We’ll be mailing our dossier on Monday …

Additional Funds Received :)

Saturday, June 17, 2007

God is so good. Today was an amazing day! We found out that we are being given a very large sum of money to help us move forward. This additional amount, combined with other donations, will leave us with only $5,000 of the $14,900 needed to mail in our dossier. I was completely overwhelmed with emotion when I learned of the donation.

I really felt the presence of the Lord, as if He was saying “I’m right here with you and I’m showing myself to you.” A few days ago, I was wondering how in the world we were going to be able to submit a check for $15,000 and today, we’re celebrating God’s faithfulness once again. Praise God!!

Home Study is completed

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

As of today, our Home Study is officially complete. We received a copy of it in the mail and were very happy to see that they consider us to be a family who will be able to serve the needs of additional children. As we were going through our rough draft, I told our social worker that it would be really awful to go through this process after parenting 2 children for 12 years, then find out that the state doesn’t think you’re doing a good job. Thankfully, our Home Study provider thinks we’re doing a good job.

We took all of our dossier documents in to be notarized this afternoon. We have 2 documents that we’re waiting to arrive and then we’ll be ready to officially send everything to Christian World Adoption along with a $15,000 check. We’re seeking God’s will in this area and asking Him to make things VERY clear to us as we consider additional ways to fund the upcoming adoption fees.

USCIS Here we come!

Today we received notification from the San Antonio office of USCIS that our documents were received. As soon as our Home Study is forwarded to them, which we’re expecting any day, then we’ll travel to San Antonio for our fingerprint appointment. I just looked at the timeline and realized that we’re halfway through the process, which is so exciting. Matthew is fond of saying “Now we have to hurry up and wait…” wait for the documents to be translated, wait for our children to be referred to us, wait for the court system to come back from vacation, wait…wait…wait…

Please continue to join us in prayer for the additional funds that we’ll need to acquire in order to submit our dossier. God is SO faithful, so we rest in the peace that He is in control. To those who have helped us in so many ways, we’re unbelievably humbled and grateful. Some have chosen to donate anonymously, so we’ll never know the amount contributed. Others have offered their notary services and many others are faithfully praying for every part of this journey. We praise God for every person joining us in prayer and financial support and other ways that we may never know about. Never underestimate the power of prayer. We’ve seen firsthand God’s grace and faithfulness.

UH-OH!!

We decided to check our iPlanner (online planner to help with the instructions on our dossier) to make sure that we were correctly calculating the fees that would be due when we submit our dossier. A few weeks ago, we listed the financial need to be submitted with the dossier at $13,500. After re-calculating the fees and finalizing some details, that number has changed a bit. The breakdown of the costs is:

• $2500 second agency fee

• $600 doc translation fee(+$50 per each child added)

• $550 Post Adoption fee• $7000 intl fee (age 0-24 mo)

• $4000 intl fee (age 25+ mo)Additional international fees for additional children, based on age and number of children adopting are due at this time too. Fees are non-refundable.

• $189.60 cashier’s check or money order for Embassy of Ethiopia

• $14 cashier’s check or money order for U.S. Dept of State

This brings the total need to $14,900 - $17,900 (extra $3,000 if both children are under 2 years old).

Surprise

Matthew checked the balance of the adoption fund this morning and discovered that we’d had an unexpected deposit show up last night. Praise God!

This allowed us to send in our documents to the local Immigration Office (now known as USCIS-U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) to secure our I-600A. This document will allow us to secure a visa for our children in Ethiopia once we arrive to pick them up.

Every Little Detail About Our Lives

Today was an exciting day for the Flippen’s! We had our Home Study Interviews this afternoon with Lutheran Social Services. Our social worker was great and we were very much at ease with her conducting the interviews. She asked all kinds of questions, from childhood to adulthood and everything in between and then some! She conducted individual interviews with Matthew and I that took awhile to complete. After our individual interviews, she conducted a joint interview and then interviewed the kids for a few minutes. We expect the paperwork to be completed in a couple of weeks and hope to have that ready for our dossier.

In the immediate future (1-2 weeks), we’re asking God to provide the funds that we will need to receive our completed Home Study documents to submit with our dossier, which is $2,200.

Speaking of our dossier, we’re getting closer to having everything that we need to complete it. It’s an extremely time-consuming process mostly because EVERYTHING has to be notarized. Every piece of paper requiring a signature, from a doctor to a bank teller has to be notarized AND that notary has to have a commission that doesn’t expire within the next year. Get the picture?? Very detailed and complicated work!

We expect to have all of the documents necessary to submit our dossier to CWA in the next 2-3 weeks, assuming we receive the funds needed to complete the Home Study and get that released to us. When it’s ready to be mailed, we’ll need to submit $13,500 to send it off to Ethiopia.

A breakdown of the $13,500 and where that will be distributed is as follows:$2,500 – second half of the CWA Agency fee$7,000 - International fee (Ethiopian Government)for a child age 0-24 months$4,000 – International fee (Ethiopian Government) for a child age 25+ months

These amounts are due at submission of our dossier.Keep us in your prayers as we continue to move through this process.

Heather

Orientation Phone Call

Today, we had our first phone call with Christian World Adoption. The Orientation Counselor for the Ethiopian program called to give us a general overview of the program and what we can expect. We are really impressed with CWA so far. Their motto is “We believe that God is in control of this agency AND your adoption.” Can’t say it any better than that! She gave us a clearer picture of the timeline we’re looking at and we discussed the fact that there is only one judge that oversees all potential Ethiopian adoptions. CWA was licensed in Ethiopia two years ago and, at that time, there were only 5 adoption agencies working in the country. Since that time, there are now a total of seventeen American agencies licensed to work there with a total of 50 agencies worldwide. That one judge has to oversee the paperwork for every adoption agency. Due to that fact, the court system shuts down in mid-July and the judge takes a much-needed vacation. The court system reconvenes in October. So, we have a better idea of the system that we will have to navigate.

Christian World Adoption :)

Within moments of hearing the news yesterday, Matthew was on the phone talking to different agencies licensed to adopt from Ethiopia and began asking if they had any experience representing adoptions with insulin-dependent diabetes parents. He found one, Christian World Adoption, that we were drawn to. They’ve been able to successfully place several children in families with a parent who has insulin-dependent diabetes. Also, they have the highest success rate and largest number of completed adoptions with Ethiopia that we’ve found so far with none of them being rejected due to medical reasons. So…Today, we’re back to square one… We filled out all of the paperwork and overnighted it to Christian World Adoption. Hope to hear something very soon.

A Bump In The Road...

Today was a very difficult day in our adoption process. We received word that Children’s Hope International would not represent us in our quest to adopt 2 children from Ethiopia. Due to the fact that they have only been licensed to adopt for 2 weeks, they didn’t feel like they were in a position to work around the “stated guidelines” for potential adopted parents.

While I understand that they must do what is best for their adoption agency efforts, this news devasted me for a few days. I think the hardest part was being rejected solely because I have an illness that is typically stereotyped as a life-threatening illness.

My precious husband reminded me that God created me, with my diabetes, to be exactly who He wants me to be and that this was simply a “bump in the road" that we needed to detour around.

On the Road to Adoption...

April 9, 2007

The first time that we thought about adopting a child was two years ago. At that time, God placed an eleven year old little girl on our hearts and after much prayer, we began the adoption process. That was drastically cut short when I was diagnosed with some health issues that were, potentially, life threatening. Soon after my diagnosis, God began shutting all of the doors to our adoption efforts. Truthfully, though, adoption has ALWAYS been a desire of my heart.

A couple of months ago, God really began urging me to consider adopting again, although, this time it was to be internationally. I really questioned whether or not I was seriously being asked to approach Matthew with this again. However, God wasn’t about to let this go. It just so happened that the week that adoption first entered my mind was the Sanctity of Human Life week. I always read about abortion issues in regard to this week, so I was caught off guard when everything that I heard that week dealt, instead, with adoption. Literally, every magazine, every book, even the podcasts that I downloaded to my iPod dealt with adoption.

I realized quickly that God was very serious! After much prayer, I approached Matthew with the idea and his answer was immediately; “How fast can we get this done and how many can we adopt?” and, by the way, “We should adopt from Africa”. I immediately got choked up, because I felt very strongly that we were supposed to pursue adopting orphan children from Africa. I knew that this was from God and took it as further confirmation that we’re supposed to follow through with this.

After much research, the adoption agency that we’ve decided to use is Children's Hope Adoption (http://www.childrenshopeint.org/). They are licensed to adopt children from China, Russia, Kazahkstan, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Guatemala and Ethiopia.

So, as of today, we are officially pursuing adopting two children (a brother and a sister) under the age of three from Ethiopia.

We are so excited to begin this journey and believe with all of our hearts that this is what God has called our family to do. That being said, we know that it can ONLY happen with His help and the help of our friends and family. We are committed to sacrificing all that we can to raise the money that we will need, which is estimated to be nearly $30,000 for two children (including travel). We are moving forward in faith that God will faithfully provide the resources that we need.

Thank you to those of you who are willing to help us make this happen. I know that the rewards will be great and I can’t wait to see the testimony that comes from this.

Heather