Months have literally flown by. Someone needs to warn you about that when you have kids in school, a job, sports and everything else that mom-hood involves.
After working on our dossier for MONTHS, we finally have it finished and submitted to our agency. We are on the waiting list... sitting at about #78. Not that this means a lot, since it's not like #1 always gets the next available child. It's all dependent on what each family is looking for. We could be the next one or we could be two years out.
Some updates on Ethiopia- there is a lot more paperwork required right now to adopt a child from Ethiopia, this greatly slows down the process. The average wait time through our agency is 18 months currently. However, a orphanage that our agency works with, will no longer be working with them anymore, so they are only able to pull kids out of two orphanages currently. This will also slow down the process until CHI is able to find more orphanages to partner with.
In the mean time, we wait patiently (or not so patiently) for the call that we have a referral. In the mean time, pray for the children in Ethiopia who desperately need adopted. For our family as we wait on our baby to come home. For the children who have a waiting family, but paperwork has slowed their ability to come home.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Praying for approval from Both Hands Foundation
Two weeks ago we sent in an application to LifeSong, a Christian organization that helps with adoption costs through grants, no interest loans and a Foundation called Both Hands Foundation. The foundation works with widows across the U.S. and pairs them with families wanting to adopt. The adoptive family gets a team together, raises money to go in and work on the widow's home, yard, car... whatever is needed done and the foundation turns around and gives that money to help with adoption costs. We have about 6 more weeks to hear if our application will be approved. Please be in prayer that this process will go quickly and we have an opportunity to not only raise money for our adoption, but can turn around and give our help to a widow in our area.
James 1:27
New International Version (NIV)
27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Federal APPROVAL!
We just got word last week that we got approved on the federal level for adoption... so the next step? The Dossier!:) We have a few more papers to gather before getting it certified on state and federal level and then off it goes to Ethiopia. Our adoption agency has been averaging 7 months wait time for a referral, which is pretty exciting!
So in the mean time, we have some HUGE financial deadlines to meet, which for our family comes at a challenging time... some of you know that we have been taking our oldest daughter in for medical testing which concluded both a milk and gluten intolerance. First, since the switch she has been doing remarkably well- so much so in fact she has nearly doubled her eating! Which, as you know isn't cheap when what she has to eat is gluten and dairy free! It's been a financial juggle in the family, but another part time job on my part has helped that out a little!
So what is my new part time job? I am now our church's Early Childhood coordinator for two classrooms at church! It's a fun and rewarding job both at home and at church. At home I see my kids getting super excited about Jesus and what I am working on for church and they want to know all about what I am doing! And at church to see these kids get excited about Jesus is worth every second.
I also got promoted to Recreational Gymnastics Coordinator at the gym I work at, so that's been another fun and different avenue for us as a family.
All that to say, God is providing daily for our needs, but as we face this challenge of our next major fee, we pray that God's will be done.
If God is leads you, there are so many ways to get involved in the ability to change this little boy's life! A few are: visit our fundraising page for tons of fundraising opportunities that we are working on!
One is "Ordinary Hero" apparel- 40% of sales goes towards our adoption: www.ordinaryherostore.org choose our name under the "affiliate" drop down menu at checkout
We have plenty of our fundraising t-shirts still available, just contact me!
I have African bean necklaces still
Be in prayer about an exciting new opportunity that we just applied to through LifeSong who works with widows and orphans, and how we can raise money for our adoption by helping a widow in our area.
We are excited and nervous as this process moves on, knowing it will forever change our lives! But God is good, all the time, and is leading us on such an exciting adventure!
So in the mean time, we have some HUGE financial deadlines to meet, which for our family comes at a challenging time... some of you know that we have been taking our oldest daughter in for medical testing which concluded both a milk and gluten intolerance. First, since the switch she has been doing remarkably well- so much so in fact she has nearly doubled her eating! Which, as you know isn't cheap when what she has to eat is gluten and dairy free! It's been a financial juggle in the family, but another part time job on my part has helped that out a little!
So what is my new part time job? I am now our church's Early Childhood coordinator for two classrooms at church! It's a fun and rewarding job both at home and at church. At home I see my kids getting super excited about Jesus and what I am working on for church and they want to know all about what I am doing! And at church to see these kids get excited about Jesus is worth every second.
I also got promoted to Recreational Gymnastics Coordinator at the gym I work at, so that's been another fun and different avenue for us as a family.
All that to say, God is providing daily for our needs, but as we face this challenge of our next major fee, we pray that God's will be done.
If God is leads you, there are so many ways to get involved in the ability to change this little boy's life! A few are: visit our fundraising page for tons of fundraising opportunities that we are working on!
One is "Ordinary Hero" apparel- 40% of sales goes towards our adoption: www.ordinaryherostore.org choose our name under the "affiliate" drop down menu at checkout
We have plenty of our fundraising t-shirts still available, just contact me!
I have African bean necklaces still
Be in prayer about an exciting new opportunity that we just applied to through LifeSong who works with widows and orphans, and how we can raise money for our adoption by helping a widow in our area.
We are excited and nervous as this process moves on, knowing it will forever change our lives! But God is good, all the time, and is leading us on such an exciting adventure!
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Deployment and a Forever Family
One week can set your entire life swirling in a different direction. This week has been that week for me. On Saturday, April 23, 2011 the letter I have been praying would never come, came. An early notification with Mike's tentative date of deployment arrived an unwelcome as could be. In just 4 short days, this letter has made us question what the next 4 years of our life will look like, realistically. One of the bigger questions that has been asked of us is, does this change our adoption? The answer? No. We still feel that God has called us to be a forever family to a little boy in Ethiopia. However, this does mean that when he arrives, life will look a little different for him for a while. We truly believe he will be here before the deployment, but that means that just like his sisters, his daddy will have to leave for a year. No doubt this will be hard on him, because he only knows what it's like to be abandoned. But we are praying with God's help and a loving support, all 4 of us can thrive in the 12 months of Mike's absence.
The tentative date of Mike's deployment is March 2013 to Afghanistan for 12 months. There are many decisions to make over the next 2 years on what that year will look like for myself and the kids. Please add us to your prayers as we try to wade through the emotional mess of our heads to find what will actually be best for the family.
The tentative date of Mike's deployment is March 2013 to Afghanistan for 12 months. There are many decisions to make over the next 2 years on what that year will look like for myself and the kids. Please add us to your prayers as we try to wade through the emotional mess of our heads to find what will actually be best for the family.
Friday, March 18, 2011
They have arrived!!!
We have our t-shirts! HUGE THANK YOU to the people who have helped this be possible! Adoption Fundraising T-shirts $20 each in Men/Women fitted and Unisex. Click on the fundraising tab to view ordering options... or just e-mail me at lumbardpartyof5@gmail.com to order. Shipping is available.
 |
| Women's Fitted |
 |
| Back Closeup |
 |
| Unisex |
 |
| Men's Fitted |
Monday, March 14, 2011
16 hours
Colorado is one of the states that requires education about adoption before a parent is even approved to adopt. They actually require 24 HOURS of education for international adoptions. So this weekend, we went to a 16 hour core adoption training class at our Home Study Agency.
We went through many different issues, including medical needs, grief and loss, attachment, so on and so forth. Here is what I took away from it...
To better understand adoption in all it's aspects, first you have to examine it from the birth mothers point of view: Assignment was to write a letter to your biological child, explaining to them WHY you are giving them up for adoption. Maybe it's easy for the couple's sitting in our class who have no biological children, and have no idea what it would be like to give up a child... But for those of us who do have biological children, it was much harder, so sit and think what I would say to my wonderful daughters as a way of explaining why I can't raise them anymore.
Another point of view: The Child's. A woman, so excited and in love, wakes up after her wedding day to find a man, not her husband in her bed. He speaks to her, but she doesn't understand him. She looks frantically for her husband, her beloved, but can't find him. The strange man takes her on a plane, to a strange land, a strange house with strange people... who all want to hug her and see her, excited for her arrival. But where is her husband? She clings to the man that had brought her, because he was the only thing that was "familiar" in this strange house. She is the adopted child, she is taken away from everything that she knows, her life she loves and thrust into a place where she knows no one, trusts no one, can't understand anyone. She is scared and feels abandoned.
A child who is born and immediately placed into an adoptive parents arms will still feel abandoned, they know that their adoptive mother is not their biological mother. You can't explain to a newborn that the life they will receive with their new parents will be better, and that they can trust them. A biological child knows to trust their parents from the day they are born. An adopted child must learn to trust.
The adoptive parents: We are excited for the child, can't wait to meet him... But when he arrives, we can't predict the sleepless nights of screaming as he doesn't know us or trust us. We can't predict his inability to eat because our foods are so strange. His distance from us, because it's NOT love at first sight. He has no reason to like us, we did after all, just rip him away from the only life he knows.
Any side of the adoption process is heart breaking. I went through emotions of wanting to adopt every orphan out there, to not wanting to adopt any of them. Is it better for children to stay where they are, at least have something familiar around them? Less loss and trauma to their little developing brains? But at the same time, they have little stimulation, physical contact and not enough nutrition. So you tear them away from what they know, give them more loss and bring them to a place where they can get their real needs met.
So the question? How to make the transition easier? How to help the child learn to trust and love again? How to help them recover from their lifetime of loss, trauma, malnutrition, lack of stimulation and most times neglect?
We went through many different issues, including medical needs, grief and loss, attachment, so on and so forth. Here is what I took away from it...
To better understand adoption in all it's aspects, first you have to examine it from the birth mothers point of view: Assignment was to write a letter to your biological child, explaining to them WHY you are giving them up for adoption. Maybe it's easy for the couple's sitting in our class who have no biological children, and have no idea what it would be like to give up a child... But for those of us who do have biological children, it was much harder, so sit and think what I would say to my wonderful daughters as a way of explaining why I can't raise them anymore.
Another point of view: The Child's. A woman, so excited and in love, wakes up after her wedding day to find a man, not her husband in her bed. He speaks to her, but she doesn't understand him. She looks frantically for her husband, her beloved, but can't find him. The strange man takes her on a plane, to a strange land, a strange house with strange people... who all want to hug her and see her, excited for her arrival. But where is her husband? She clings to the man that had brought her, because he was the only thing that was "familiar" in this strange house. She is the adopted child, she is taken away from everything that she knows, her life she loves and thrust into a place where she knows no one, trusts no one, can't understand anyone. She is scared and feels abandoned.
A child who is born and immediately placed into an adoptive parents arms will still feel abandoned, they know that their adoptive mother is not their biological mother. You can't explain to a newborn that the life they will receive with their new parents will be better, and that they can trust them. A biological child knows to trust their parents from the day they are born. An adopted child must learn to trust.
The adoptive parents: We are excited for the child, can't wait to meet him... But when he arrives, we can't predict the sleepless nights of screaming as he doesn't know us or trust us. We can't predict his inability to eat because our foods are so strange. His distance from us, because it's NOT love at first sight. He has no reason to like us, we did after all, just rip him away from the only life he knows.
Any side of the adoption process is heart breaking. I went through emotions of wanting to adopt every orphan out there, to not wanting to adopt any of them. Is it better for children to stay where they are, at least have something familiar around them? Less loss and trauma to their little developing brains? But at the same time, they have little stimulation, physical contact and not enough nutrition. So you tear them away from what they know, give them more loss and bring them to a place where they can get their real needs met.
So the question? How to make the transition easier? How to help the child learn to trust and love again? How to help them recover from their lifetime of loss, trauma, malnutrition, lack of stimulation and most times neglect?
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
A call to action
Dear friends and family-
I have talked to and shared with some of you about the changes going on in Ethiopia as far as the adoption process. The number of adoption cases being processed have been reduced from around 30 or more to 5 max per day. This greatly reduces the number of children who are able to be adopted and extend wait times for children by years. This comes at a huge disadvantage to the children who are in Ethiopia who desperately need a home, food, shelter and medical attention.
A Emergency campaign has been launched to advocate on the behalf of these children of Ethiopia. Below is something practical to do to help these children. Please please send this to anyone you know and sign the petition so that Ethiopia will continue to allow adoptions through their country and we can continue to save lives of children there.
At this time, we are unable to say how the changes may effect our ability to adopt and what time frame we are looking at. Please be in prayer for the meetings that are going to take place this week in Ethiopia to try and reverse this drastic reduction in adoption processing.
Thanks
Mike and Sarah Lumbard
Joint Council: Emergency Campaign for Ethiopian Children
What You Can Do:
Sign the petition to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi – and pass it on!
http://www.gopetition.com/petition/43714.html
Have you adopted from Ethiopia? Please send us up to 3 photos and 50 words or less with what you would like the Ministry to know about your child – we’ll compile the information and send a book to the Ministry of Woman’s Affairs. Send your photos and stories to advocate@jointcouncil.orgby Sunday, March 12, 2011 to be included. Please note that sending photos and stories gives Joint Council unrestricted right to use the information you provide.
Share…Please send this Call to Action to family members, other adoptive parents, and everyone you know! Post, forward and share your adoption stories via Facebook, Twitter, and blogs.
Help ensure our advocacy can continue: Joint Council is a non-profit and receives no government funding. Please join us in ensuring more children live in safe, permanent and loving families.
I have talked to and shared with some of you about the changes going on in Ethiopia as far as the adoption process. The number of adoption cases being processed have been reduced from around 30 or more to 5 max per day. This greatly reduces the number of children who are able to be adopted and extend wait times for children by years. This comes at a huge disadvantage to the children who are in Ethiopia who desperately need a home, food, shelter and medical attention.
A Emergency campaign has been launched to advocate on the behalf of these children of Ethiopia. Below is something practical to do to help these children. Please please send this to anyone you know and sign the petition so that Ethiopia will continue to allow adoptions through their country and we can continue to save lives of children there.
At this time, we are unable to say how the changes may effect our ability to adopt and what time frame we are looking at. Please be in prayer for the meetings that are going to take place this week in Ethiopia to try and reverse this drastic reduction in adoption processing.
Thanks
Mike and Sarah Lumbard
Joint Council: Emergency Campaign for Ethiopian Children
What You Can Do:
Sign the petition to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi – and pass it on!
http://www.gopetition.com/petition/43714.html
Have you adopted from Ethiopia? Please send us up to 3 photos and 50 words or less with what you would like the Ministry to know about your child – we’ll compile the information and send a book to the Ministry of Woman’s Affairs. Send your photos and stories to advocate@jointcouncil.orgby Sunday, March 12, 2011 to be included. Please note that sending photos and stories gives Joint Council unrestricted right to use the information you provide.
Share…Please send this Call to Action to family members, other adoptive parents, and everyone you know! Post, forward and share your adoption stories via Facebook, Twitter, and blogs.
Help ensure our advocacy can continue: Joint Council is a non-profit and receives no government funding. Please join us in ensuring more children live in safe, permanent and loving families.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
