A Very Merry Christmas Gift

PRAISE THE LORD!!! We are on the waiting list for our son from Ethiopia!!! We are number 20 on the boy list!!!! This news is official as of Wednesday, December 17th at approximately 11:30am!!!!!!!!! Obviously we are SO excited and I almost cried when this wonderful news was shared with me. The timeline from now is a maximum of 8 months until a picture, name and information are given (approx. mid August max), and then once we have that info it is a maximum of 5 months until we travel. SO, that means about one year maximum or less until we have our son at home with us!!! Yahoo!!!!! Thank you all so much for your prayers for us and this process, please continue to pray!!! Merry Christmas to you all!!!

Home Study Complete!!!

Alright, our home study is finally done!!! Thank you Lord! We are just waiting for our notarized copy to be sent to us, which should be done next week and then we can send in our packet to Ethiopia and be on the waiting list!!! We are getting SO excited! We're hoping to be able to send it in by the end of next week, and then we should be receiving a referral anytime after mid-May (or before)!!! Keep praying, and praising, because our timeline is working out so far and we're so thankful! That's all for now! Adios!

Praises!!!

Well we have finally completed "our side" of the home study, we'll be mailing in our "With Eyes Wide Open" workbook on Monday (YAHOO!!!) and we finally got an email back from the USAF stating that Evan has no record of anything at all from his time in England. This is both what we expected and needed to hear to pass on to our agency! Now we are waiting for a copy of the completed Home Study review to be forwarded to us (hopefully this coming week), we proof read it, send it back and then they send us an official copy. Once we have that little goody in our hot hands, we send it to CIS (immigration) in Portland and wait for them to tell us when they can fingerprint us and then approve us for the adoption. We have all of the rest of our paperwork ready to send to Ethiopia, once we have the CIS approval we'll send it in and be on the wait list!!! So please keep praying these last few steps will go quickly and efficiently and we'll be on the wait list by the end of the month! All the time God is good, God is good all the time!!! Love you all!
ps- Evan starts his new job at Newberg on Monday, woohoo!!!

Possible Delay of Adoption

Unfortunately, yesterday we received an email from our agency reporting to us that Ethiopia is tightening their policies for international adoptions. Basically, the time frame from paperwork completion to referral is the same, but the time from referral to travel will increase. Previously they have said 2-4 months from referral to travel, now they are vague and simply saying it will be more than this. Please, please be praying with us, that God would intervene and we would still be able to get our son in the shortest time possible. We are SO excited to bring him home! With this extended time line, we are trying to be optimistic, and we're hoping we'll have our baby before Christmas 2009. That would be THE BEST Christmas gift EVER!!! Thanks for all your prayers!
Cori

The Other New News

Okay, so I realized recently that you should probably all be in on the rest of the new Campbell household news, besides just the adoption "stuff." Recently, within the last month or two, Evan has realized, accepted and begun to pursue God's calling for his career future... Dentistry!!! He's been interested in the field since high school, but now truly feels it is what God is calling him to! We are very excited to embark on this adventure together! We both have such a peace and reassurance from the Lord about this decision! Evan will apply to OHSUs dental school next fall to start in 2010, so now he is working on finishing up a few prerequisites and job shadowing our dentist in order to be competative for the application process! He has also been hired to an evening shift M-F 3p-11:30p in the day surgery unit at Newberg Providence. He starts in November and it will be so nice to have him not commuting an hour each way to work! We both love Prov Newberg and it's so great to love where you work!!! This job will work out great for him to take the prerequisite classes he needs to complete in the AM.
Anyway, that's all for now, just wanted you all to know!
Adios,
Cori

Home Study Visit #2 Complete!!!

Well, we had our second home study meeting today with our social worker, Emily! It went great! Thanks so much for all of your prayers!!! The next step is proof reading Emily's write up of our home study, once we say "looks good, no errors" and turn in our education workbook, then it will be approved!!! Yahoo!!! Once it's approved, we get fingerprinted one more time, receive approval from Immigration Services for the adoption, send in our dossier to Ethiopia and we'll be on "the list"!!! So, with all that said, we should have no problem being on the list by the end of November, as long as no unforeseen obstacles come along. We are SO very excited!!! And, since we prepared our home for Emily's visit, it is about as clean as it has been since before we moved in, and that is a good feeling! :) Thanks so much for all your prayers and support! We'll keep updating! Love ya!
-Cori

With Eyes Wide Open

So part of our homestudy entails quite a bit of international adoption education. Some of this was a few online tutorials, and now we are working through a book entitled "With Eyes Wide Open." It is 160 pages of interactive, workbook style, education. It's a really great book, but I'm feeling a little information overloaded! We're about half way through and I have really been enjoying the previews the book provides for possible "complications" that may arise with having an internationally adopted child. The child, by being adopted, is actually going through another loss in life. I had never really put it into that perspective before. I always have just thought of providing a loving family for a child, better opportunities, etc. and had failed to realize this is at least a 3rd loss for the child. They have lost their family first, then were probably used to their orphanage, and now are losing that familiarity. So, I pray for Evan and I to be very understanding, compassionate and empathetic towards what ever ways our son will need to cope with yet another loss, that we will be able to meet all his needs in a way that he feels loved and cared for like never before! Wow, I just can't wait to hold him!
The other thing God really used to speak to me was the sermon and worship at church today. One of the songs we sang was "Mighty to Save" (go to www.christian-lyrics.net/artist/hillsong-australia/track/mighty-to-save-lyrics.html if you want to read all of the lyrics, it's such a great song!) and the words spoke right to my heart. As we work through life, and specifically this adoption process, God can "move the mountains" and I know that no matter what the obstacle is we face, God can move it! He is SO powerful! The pastor preached from Luke 10:25-35, the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Now, growing up in the church, I have heard this story several times, but I never, ever get tired of hearing it, or a sermon about it. What a great reminder of what we are called to do! We are to love God, and then our neighbor, and sacrificially!!! So, now I am praying and praying, how are we to be sacrificial in our adoption of our son? Lord, what sacrifices are we to make for him, for your glory?
We have our homestudy meeting with our social worker Tuesday morning, please be praying everything goes smoothly! I am pretty sure it will, she's really great, not one of those scary social workers ;o) We're just so excited to keep completing steps, so we can get on that waiting list!!!
Blessings,
Cori
ps- total side note, we'd love to know if you're following our blog, so please add your name to the friend list by clicking on "follow this blog" on the left column!!! Thanks!!!

How it all began

So we are starting a blog. I didn't know if we would ever get into this or not, but I was inspired tonight as I read a few postings by other families who "blogged" their journey of adoption. I know it will be a way for us to remember every little step of the way, to see God's faithfulness through and through, and to share our journey with all of our friends and family, near and far. So please join us in this journey and please pray with us and for us, I know we'll need a lot of that!

Evan and I have always planned to adopt, and we both wanted to adopt from Africa. This past May, as my sister Cami and her husband Garrett told us of their plans to adopt from Ethiopia, it sparked a desire in us to do the same! After prayerful consideration, together and with family, we decided to embark on the journey. We applied in June through All God's Children International (AGCI) adoption agency, based here in Portland, and were accepted. We have requested a boy, 12 months or younger at the age of referral. We then began the long process of a Home Study and will soon complete it. Last week we had our first of two Home Study meetings with our Social Worker, and next week we'll have the second. Once that is completed and our Home Study is approved, we'll complete our Dossier and send it to Ethiopia. Once that is received we are on the waiting list for about 6-8 months until referral; receiving a picture and information about our son. Then it is supposed to be about another 2-4 months before we go get him. That equals 12 months or less!!! So by the end of Fall 2009 we will be very proud parents!!! It feels so good to say that!
There'll be more to come as we learn more as well, but please, please pray for us as we continue on this path the Lord has before us!!!
Love you all!
Cori (and Evan)