Paper PREGNANT

So, there are a lot of side effects with pregnancy. For me when I am pregnant I am so sick. But also there is the crying at every commercial, weird cravings, and crazy dreams. With this paper pregnancy I have still been very emotional. When I see little girls on TV sometimes I start choking up. I know I'm a weirdo. Last night though I had my first adoption dream.

I dreamed I was at the orphanage to meet our baby girl. But Dan couldn't come and I had to take the boys. Sometimes they were there, sometimes they weren't. But I could only take a carry on on the plane because it was too expensive to take more luggage. Midway through the dream I started to panic because I didn't bring diapers or care packages or anything for the orphanage. I was freaking out. Then I woke up. Anyhow there is my weird dream. :)

I600A

So we are attempting to get through all this paperwork. I am learning a lot about what each of these expensive forms does. I just got our I600A filled out. Dan is making a copy of all the birth certificates and marriage liscense stuff to send with it. So, soon we will apply to make our little girl a US citizen. Pretty exciting. We don't even know who she is yet, and already we are working to make her our daughter. This is a different preparation than pregnancy, but both ways you end up with a baby.

Support letter out

Well, we have sent out our support letters. I am excited to see how God works through these to help bring home our baby girl. I think the thing I worry most about is funding. I know without a doubt that my God is bigger than any financial situation this world can bring, and yet I have moments when I just want God to show me HOW and WHEN he will provide. I know this is what he has called us to. I also know my God won't leave our family hanging. He is so good. I am blessed to be his child. I can't wait to meet our little girl.

Home study

Today Dan and I went to meet with our social worker who will be doing our home study. She is very sweet and I am excited to be working with her. We also got our medical stuff all done! So we are on our way to finishing the paper chase. Next we will start with our finger printing, police clearance, and our references.

physicals, and blood work, and Xrays, OH MY!

Well, I guess if I want to get a baby there is a lot of blood work involved pregnancy or adoption. We have been to the Doctor's office almost everyday last week. The boys had TB test. Isaac's was negative, but Asher's skin test came back positive. So, off we went to the Children's testing center for a chest X ray. Of course, he was fine. We got a call today saying Asher was all clear and all of Dan and I's blood work came back fine. Whew! Now all we have is a TB test for Dan and I and to get all the medical stuff notarized and BOOM! that small part is done. :) I think we are going to spend more on medical to get this baby home than to have a baby in ourselves. :) So worth it.

Hurry up....and wait

So we are in the paperchase stage of the adoption. Essentially we are collecting our entire life on paper. So this week is what I am calling Doctor week. Today we had to take the oldest two boys in to get TB tests. Tomorrow Dan and I will go in for our physicals and on Fri we go back to check the TB tests. YAY!

Yesterday we sent out a check to start our homestudy. Today Dan will be sending in a stack of paperwork to the social worker. Then we will start our four visits and also all the home study paperwork.

We need to get started on getting passports. Also, we need to finally make a will. There is so much to think about. On top of it all we are working on getting out support letters and starting up some serious fundraisers. We are trusting God will do big things and cover this adoption financially. My God is faithful, and I am so excited to see how he takes care of this end of things. 

Are you sure, God?

Hi, we are the Garmans. We live in Ohio. Dan and Abby have been married for 6 years (as of this weekend). We have 3 little boys ages 4, 2, and 9 months. Dan is an electrical engineer and I am a stay at home mom. Dan is a wonderful husband and amazing daddy. He is super smart and he loves soccer. I am the coupon queen. I love a deal. I love my friends so much. I am a picture addict. I love taking pictures and having updated pictures of my boys all over my house. We have a dog and a cat, they are both male. Yep, I'm surrounded.

We moved here about 5 years ago. We planned on me finishing my degree and eventually having one child in this house. Then, we planned to space our kids 3-4 years apart. We wanted a large family, but I liked the farther spacing. Well, plans change. We found out a few weeks after we moved in that I was pregnant. Then only nine months after Isaac was born Asher was on the way. We got a little cocky when we made it to a first birthday, and Levi is 22 months younger than Asher.

This time we decided to wait. We wanted to see a second birthday not pregnant. I get very sick. It was time to give my body a rest. We set a new year's resolution and let it be known 2010 is not our year to have a baby. We had talked about adoption. We knew it was something we wanted to do, but it is expensive. We are out of room in our current home. We want to wait until we are sure we are done having birth children. That was our theory. It was good theory. Maybe one more of our own. then we will look into adoption. It was a good plan. However, we notice when we make plans God laughs at us. He has a bigger plan.

Our church had a night of worship . It was the second one we had been to. Dan was late because he had a soccer game. I love to worship with the family of God in song. I was looking forward to just enjoying being with my God and praising him. He had other plans. The first thing that was played was a short video. It was just talking about how we need to see outside our little box (that was the gist of it.) From that moment I knew God was telling me it is time to start the adoption journey. I prayed the whole time I was there. Hoping it was just an emotional response to a video clip. But the feeling got stronger. On my way home  I heard at least 2 ads for adoption on the radio.

That night Dan and I sat down. We decided to start looking at agencies. It couldn't hurt. We found an agency we really loved. Looked at the programs and started narrowing it down. In the course of a week we narrowed it down to international adoption with America World. In that agency the only two countries that met our needs were Rwanda and Ethiopia. We landed on Ethiopia. We sent in our application and a week and a half later we were approved.

So, now we starting the "paper pregnancy". I'm so excited to know we are going to get a little girl. I'm so anxious to see how God will provide financially, emotionally, and otherwise. This will be a long journey. I know it will all be worth it. It is hard for me to not  know what something should look like, but I'm confident my God has this all under control. So here we go. We are seeking a sister from Ethiopia. YAY!