March Waitlist Numbers!!!

Despite all that has happened with new delays with our adoption process in Ethiopia, we still received pretty good numbers for the month of March! 

~Sibling Boys~

 

~Baby Boy~ 

 What do the numbers mean?

Well, we moved up 6 spots on the boy list (from 35 to 29), and 2 spots on the sibling list (from 24 to 22)! Yay we are in the twenties for both now!

Joint Council Emergency Campaign for Ethiopian Children

Please Go to this link and sign this petition! THANK YOU!

 http://www.gopetition.com/petition/43714.html

Petition:

The Ministry’s plan to reduce intercountry adoption by 90% is a tragic, unnecessary and a disproportionate reaction to concerns of isolated abuses in the intercountry adoption process.

We support the Ministry’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families.

We respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adoption. Rather than eliminate the right of Ethiopian children to a permanent family, we encourage the Ministry to accept the partnerships offered by governments, NGOs, and foundations.

Such partnerships could increase the Ministry’s capacity to regulate service providers, further ensure ethical adoptions and expand services to more families and children.

We, respectfully urge the Ministry of Women’s, Children's and Youth Affairs to reconsider its plan and to partner with governments, NGOs and foundations to achieve their goals and avoid the coming tragedy for children and families.

 

A test of our faith...

Rom 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Please pray for us and our future children as we are really struggling with an overwhelming amount of discouragement right now. We want so badly to start our family and everyday that goes by gets more and more difficult for us. The waiting is almost more than we can bare at times. We know in our hearts that God has a plan for our future family and that our child/children are out there somewhere but it does not make the wait and struggles that come along with this process any less trying.

Please pray that this current decrease in the number of approved adoptions would be resolved and that our adoption agency as well as other agencies, can continue in their work of placing children with their forever families!

Please Pray!!!

Please pray as you read this update with the current adoption process in Ethiopia.

Statement on the Pending Reduction of Intercountry Adoption in Ethiopia
Last week the Ethiopian Ministry of Women’s, Children’s and Youth Affairs announced their intention to reduce intercountry adoptions by 90% beginning March 10, 2011. The Ministry’s plan for a dramatic reduction is apparently based on two primary issues; 1) the assumption that corruption in intercountry adoption is systemic and rampant and 2) the Ministry’s resources should be focused on the children for whom intercountry adoption is not an option. Without further announcements by the Government of Ethiopia, it is our understanding that the Ministry’s plan will be initiated this week.
The Ministry’s plan is a tragic, unnecessary and disproportionate reaction to concerns of isolated abuses in the adoption process and fails to reflect the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adoption. Rather than eliminate the right of Ethiopian children to a permanent family, we encourage the Ministry to accept the partnerships offered by governments, NGOs, and foundations. Such partnerships could increase the Ministry’s capacity to regulate service providers and further ensure ethical adoptions.

The Ministry’s plan, which calls for the processing of only five adoption cases per work day, will result not only in systemic and lasting damage to a large sector of social services, but will have an immediate impact on the lives and futures of children. Moving from over 4,000 adoptions per year to less than 500 will result in thousands of children languishing in under-regulated and poorly resourced institutions for years. For those children who are currently institutionalized and legally available for adoption, the Ministry’s plan will increase their time languishing in institutions for up to 7-years.

Joint Council respectfully urges the Ministry of Women’s, Children’s and Youth Affairs to reconsider their plan and to partner with governments, NGOs and foundations to achieve their goals and avoid the coming tragedy for children and families. 

A Little Adoption Humor

You Know You're Adopting When...

• You keep an extra copy of your dossier in your car just in case the house burns down.
• You stalk the mail person on a regular basis.
• You feel more connected to other adoption bloggers than you do to some members of your extended family.
• You’ve had more yard sales this year than you have had in your entire life.
• You are now on a first name basis with the employees at USCIS.
• You worry about, dream about, and are completely in love with a child you have never met.
• Your heart skips a beat when the phone rings.You have given your Case Manager a special ringtone on your cell phone (AGCI loves this one!).                                ~Provided by AGCI

Our New Year Wait List Numbers!

Baby Boy Siblings (3 months-3 yrs old)

*We jumped 5 spots this month!
And yes, that is the 24 TV show logo :-) 

Baby Boy (3 months-12 months)
* We jumped 3 spots this month!

God is in Control!!!

Our Merry Christmas December Wait List Numbers!

Baby Boy Siblings (3 months-3 yrs old)
Yay! We have officially entered the 20's!

 

  Baby Boy (3 months-12 months)
We jumped so many spots on the boy list last month and only 1 spot this month! The wait list is very unpredictable at times but we take hope knowing that our God is in control of this list and we will bring home our baby(s) at the exact time He has chosen!

Our November Waitlist Numbers!

           Baby Boy Siblings (3 months-3 yrs old)

 

Baby Boy (3-12months old)

Firetruck quilts for our babies!!!

Grandma Bennett made two beautiful firetruck quilts for her soon-to-be great grandbaby boy(s)! She presented them to Andrew and I during our Thanksgiving celebration today!

THANK YOU GRANDMA! 

We love them!

Thank you for helping "change" a child's life!

We wanted to give a BIG thanks to all of you who donated your spare change to our baby bottle fundraiser! We finally took all the change to the bank today to get deposited. After counting thousands of coins (with over 3,000 in pennies), the grand total came to:

$725.43!!!

With this money we were able to pay for the U.S immigration fees for our child  to come home!

Waiting...

Our journey continues and the lessons in patience seem to grow. We are excited to be done with our dossier and waiting for a referral! Our waiting list numbers can't get small enough fast enough! We knew this process would take time but it seem so much longer and slower as we get closer to bringing our baby(ies) home. We are thankful for all the prayers and support we have received through the process. Megan is getting ready to finish her RN and I am continuing my studies while we wait. I am thankful for the distractions to help us pass the time. I know that we will be on a plane headed to Ethiopia before we know it!

As a soon to be Father I can’t help but be a little anxious but mostly excited! I know that there will be challenges and many more lessons for me as this is all new to me. I am thankful for an amazing wife who is more than ready for a baby! I know we will be able to handle the challenges and I can’t wait to share the joys that will come with being a parent! 

We will continue to keep everyone updated as we hear more. We are grateful for your continued prayers for the right baby(ies) in the right time!

Andrew

NOTE: Megan has decorated the baby room and it looks great and the only thing missing is the baby(ies)! Click here for pictures!

Seattle AIDS Walk/5k Run Sept. 25th 2010!

Everybody needs their very own Adoption T-shirt! ;-)

We have several adoption T-shirts left over from the 1/2 marathon "run for a child" fundraiser! We payed $6.50 each for them so we are just wanting to sell them for that amount or for your donation! All proceeds will of course go towards our adoption fund! We have all sizes left! Just email us at: Megandrew7@gmail.com and we will get one to you!

This is the fun part!

I have had so much fun the past few weeks going to garage sales every Friday morning and cruising Craigslist for baby stuff! It has been amazing to see the kinds of deals I have been finding! The whole nursery is full of used baby items that were either given to us by friends, family and sometimes random people, or found at garage sales and Craigslist! We have bought nothing new! God is so good and has really been blessing us through others.

It's funny how the mention of our adoption at a garage sale influences the seller to lower the price. It usually goes like this: I am looking around at the cute baby boy clothes and ask "how much for this baby sleeper?" "All the clothes are $2 a piece" says the seller in a very matter of fact tone. She then asks "how old is your baby?" I respond with a smile, "Well, I'm not quite sure." Of course my response usually is followed by a disturbed look on that mother's face as she is probably thinking of what a horrible mother I must be not to know my child's age. I then go on to explain that we are adopting a baby and do not know the age as of yet. "oh...(sigh of relief on mother's face) that is wonderful!" I say the usual thank you and yes we are excited. As I continue to look through the baby clothes the mother says "how about 3 for a $1 in instead of $2 a piece?"
I don't mind paying full price for items, especially garage sale full prices but it is so nice to see how God blesses us in even the little things!

Help "Change" a child's life!

Help “change” a child’s life by donating your spare change!

All funds will go towards helping us bring home our adopted baby from Ethiopia!

Please let us know by email if you would be willing to fill up a baby bottle with your spare coins or dollar bills!

Our goal is to collect all the bottles by August 31st! 

This is our last adoption fundraiser before we bring our baby home!

Thank you so much for your support!

Andrew & Megan Charvet

megandrew7@gmail.com

 

Hurry up and wait!

Well, I have not posted in awhile so thought it is time for an update. Things have been really busy lately. I started a new nursing job working full time nights and I also work part time at the hospital too! All the funds from the nursing job are going straight into our adoption fund! Andrew is working full time plus part time school as well!

Since the possibility of adopting two babies, we needed to add several thousand dollars to the funds we need to raise. With working overtime shifts, applying for a grant, doing the baby bottle fund raiser and PRAYER, we are confident that God will provide the necessary funds we need to bring are babies home!!!

So many people have been asking where we are in our adoption process. Well, we had a couple setbacks that were quite frustrating but we know that God has a perfect plan and timing. Our adoption case worker had to leave the state in an emergency before she finished our home study. We waited for a while and then AGCI said that they would go ahead and move the process along despite the undone home study. We sent in our dossier last week and we have a couple changes that we need to make in the next couple days then we are officially on the wait list! Our wait list will be very short due to our adoption of a special needs child so once the agency begins looking for a child for us, it shouldn't take too long before we travel to Ethiopia!

During this wait time we are working a lot, spending time together and getting our babies' room ready! We have decided to do a fire truck theme so we are adding decor as we find it at garage sales and Craigslist!

Please keep us in your prayers as we wait! It is much more difficult than I anticipated. Unlike a pregnancy, we do not have a "due date" and things are very uncertain. Are we getting one child or two? What will their ages be? What will their backgrounds be? Will they be very sick? Will we get to meet the birth mother or will she have passed from AIDS? So many questions and uncertainties. Please pray that God will give us peace and patience.
Thank you!

                                                   Our baby room under construction!

Run for a child May 30th 2010!

Well, we did it! We all ran/walked the 1/2 marathon & 10k to raise money for our adoption! The trail was a lot harder than we all anticipated with steep muddy hills, rocky terrain and small creeks to cross! We are so proud of everyone, it was not an easy feat! Thanks to all the participants and all who prayed for us, cheered for us. For our camera crew, and for all our sponsors! THANK YOU!!!

  

This is the group of runners minus a few who were not there yet!

                                    Getting all warmed up and ready!

                                                                    Yay Molly!!!

 

And Todd making it look easy with an incredible running time!

                                                Bryan & Karin! You guys are amazing!

                                               Jo and his battle wound from the trail!

                                 Jing-Ping with a "I'm so glad this is over" smile on her face!

                                                       My Amazing Mother!!!

                                             Andrew, Megan & Sara!

                                                            Peter Andrews and family!

Praying for two...and yes the rumors are true!

Andrew and I have been thinking and praying a lot in double lately! We feel like God has recently lead us to possibly adopt a sibling group instead of just one child. We spoke to our social worker about it during our last home study visit and she thought it was a great idea!

By now you may be wondering why two? Why would they want the extra hassle of buying two of everything, having two crying and screaming children riding back with them on a 36 hour travel from Ethiopia, or paying the extra fees in order to bring home a second child? We say, why not? With double cribs, highchairs and medical bills also comes double joys! Are reasons for requesting two children (besides the fact that we feel God's leading) are as follows:
     First, we know that the transition from leaving the orphanage in Ethiopia, perhaps the only home our child has ever known will certainly be easier if he or she has a sibling to share the experience with. Everything they know will be unfamiliar to them, including us, so having one familiar person in their life will aid in the transition to a life with their forever family!
      Secondly, we know that we want to adopt more than one child at a time because from a financial standpoint, it is much more cost effective to spend a few thousand for a second child now than another $30,000 a couple years down the road. Also, if we adopt a second time, we have to complete ALL the paperwork over again and that is not something I want to do again anytime soon (although it is totally worth it and I would do it again in a heartbeat :-)
      Thirdly, there is a greater need for families to adopt sibling groups. They usually fall into the 'waiting children' category along with kids with special medical needs, and older children.

We don't know if God will for sure bless us with siblings but we are excited for the possibilities! whether one or two, we know God has a perfect plan for our little family and I can't wait to see it all unfold! Please pray that we can get the last several thousand dollars we still need and that the rest of the process will continue to go smoothly!

Hannah's Hope in Addis Ababa!

                          This is where our baby/babies will be staying when we go to pick them up!