We heard from our Agency this week....It's Official! We are officially on their waiting list.....we are expecting.....we are in process.....this is really happening! We are THRILLED!!!!
Now, we wait for a phone call from them when they have our referral ready - this may be the hardest part of this journey.
Please pray for patience, preparation of hearts, minds and home, for the child we have yet to meet and for some great family time as we currently remain a family of six. We want to cherish these days as we continue to look to the future.
Thank You!
Friday, January 28, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Pinch me!
I (Vicki) have been trying to write this post for almost 24 hours.....but I have had a hard time wrapping my head around all that I'd like to say. Yesterday was a very, very big day in the journey of the Jansen Expansion - so big, that I'm still in awe that it has actually happened - and yesterday told Dave that I thought he should pinch me, because I needed to know this was real!
Yesterday, we stood in the Pak Mail store, looking at the Dossier checklist for the hundredth time, making sure the checks and money orders were made out correctly, putting papers in the right order and triple checking addresses and tracking numbers......then, at almost 4:30 p.m., we sent our Dossier to the Assistant Stork in Virginia!
Now, you may ask, what in the world does that mean? That means we have just taken a HUGE step closer to having our child come home! This bundle of very important documents ( which has taken a long time to put together due to all sorts of bumps and hurdles) arrived at the Assistant Stork today (I know because I have been tracking the package). :-) The Assistant Stork will look over our very important documents and will take them to the U.S. Department of State and then the Ethiopian Embassy. They will then be mailed back to Adoption Associates (our very wonderful adoption agency) and will be on their way to Ethiopia soon.
The next part of this journey will be the referral of our child.......when we find out who God has chosen for us. We are so excited, that it is hard to express and explain!
Over the last few days we really wrestled with the fact that this is the last point where we can give more indicators about our child.....we pondered picking a boy or a girl and giving more specifics about this child (the only specific we have given is a 4-6 year old). But, what we kept coming back to was that God has ordained and chosen this child before they were even born to be a part of our family and we are going to wait and see who He has chosen. On Sunday morning, we sang a song in church called "He Knows My Name"......and it talks about how God Knows our names, He knows each tear that falls......and I was overwhelmed by the fact that on the other side of the world, He knows who our family member is. Isn't that amazing and so fantastic and cool?
Now, I am sure you are asking when we will know who our child is and when we'll travel.......we're not really sure. We have hope that we will be home (after 2 trips to Ethiopia) with our child sometime this summer. But, we keep learning that this is all in God's hands and timeline, not ours......so, we will try to wait patiently - a lesson that is so hard to learn.
During this waiting time, please pray:
*For our child to be healthy, loved and protected, as well as prepared for coming to our family
*For our family to be prepared for the changes in store in our future, and for us to celebrate the family that we currently are as we wait
*For God's provision in all areas of this adoption
*For others to open their hearts to the call of adoption
*For others to hear about our journey and know that Jesus has adopted all of us into His family by His pure grace and love
Thanks for your prayers and support.....we have been overwhelmed by those who are sharing in our joy!
Oh - I need to give a special Thank You to my wonderful husband - he has been so patient and encouraging these past few weeks....I think it must feel like he's really living with an emotional, pregnant woman again - the poor man! You're awesome David - I love you!
Yesterday, we stood in the Pak Mail store, looking at the Dossier checklist for the hundredth time, making sure the checks and money orders were made out correctly, putting papers in the right order and triple checking addresses and tracking numbers......then, at almost 4:30 p.m., we sent our Dossier to the Assistant Stork in Virginia!
Now, you may ask, what in the world does that mean? That means we have just taken a HUGE step closer to having our child come home! This bundle of very important documents ( which has taken a long time to put together due to all sorts of bumps and hurdles) arrived at the Assistant Stork today (I know because I have been tracking the package). :-) The Assistant Stork will look over our very important documents and will take them to the U.S. Department of State and then the Ethiopian Embassy. They will then be mailed back to Adoption Associates (our very wonderful adoption agency) and will be on their way to Ethiopia soon.
The next part of this journey will be the referral of our child.......when we find out who God has chosen for us. We are so excited, that it is hard to express and explain!
Over the last few days we really wrestled with the fact that this is the last point where we can give more indicators about our child.....we pondered picking a boy or a girl and giving more specifics about this child (the only specific we have given is a 4-6 year old). But, what we kept coming back to was that God has ordained and chosen this child before they were even born to be a part of our family and we are going to wait and see who He has chosen. On Sunday morning, we sang a song in church called "He Knows My Name"......and it talks about how God Knows our names, He knows each tear that falls......and I was overwhelmed by the fact that on the other side of the world, He knows who our family member is. Isn't that amazing and so fantastic and cool?
Now, I am sure you are asking when we will know who our child is and when we'll travel.......we're not really sure. We have hope that we will be home (after 2 trips to Ethiopia) with our child sometime this summer. But, we keep learning that this is all in God's hands and timeline, not ours......so, we will try to wait patiently - a lesson that is so hard to learn.
During this waiting time, please pray:
*For our child to be healthy, loved and protected, as well as prepared for coming to our family
*For our family to be prepared for the changes in store in our future, and for us to celebrate the family that we currently are as we wait
*For God's provision in all areas of this adoption
*For others to open their hearts to the call of adoption
*For others to hear about our journey and know that Jesus has adopted all of us into His family by His pure grace and love
Thanks for your prayers and support.....we have been overwhelmed by those who are sharing in our joy!
Oh - I need to give a special Thank You to my wonderful husband - he has been so patient and encouraging these past few weeks....I think it must feel like he's really living with an emotional, pregnant woman again - the poor man! You're awesome David - I love you!
Thursday, November 25, 2010
With Thanksgiving in our Hearts
As we reflected today on our blessings this Thanksgiving, it seems that our list is much longer than last year. We are so blessed! Do we have everything we want - No. Is that okay? YES, it sure is!! We have clean water, enough food to have leftovers some nights, medical care & insurance, a roof over our heads, good schools and so much more! As we continue to learn more about Ethiopia, our hearts break for the needs of most people there. The feast we enjoyed today seemed almost wrong in relation to the needs of so many around the world. Please continue to join us in prayer......that next Thanksgiving our child will be home with us enjoying a feast like they've never imagined. Please also continue to pray for the country of Ethiopia, especially its children. Thank you!
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
USCIS
We are excited to share that the package we sent out yesterday has been rec'd at the USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) and that hopefully, very soon they will process our "Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition". One more step to bringing our child to their Forever Home. Praise God!
Next.....checking off the 27 items needed for our International Dossier. :-) Please pray that all of this paperwork comes together without any complications in the next few weeks or so. Thank you!
Next.....checking off the 27 items needed for our International Dossier. :-) Please pray that all of this paperwork comes together without any complications in the next few weeks or so. Thank you!
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Baby Steps
We wish we had breaking news....but we continue to just keep plugging along. We were so excited to recieve our Notarized Home Studies in the mail yesterday, but as we reviewed them, we found a couple of errors. So - now we need those to be fixed and must wait again. Hopefully, they will be corrected this week and by the end of the week we can send in everything needed to the United States Center for Immigration Services (USCIS). We are learning to take it all with a grain of salt, because when we think something is going to happen, it doesn't.....but that doesn't mean we are learning this lesson very quickly or patiently. :-)
As we move along in the process, we find it very easy to start worrying about the time table of all this......at this point it looks like we will still need to make two trips to Ethiopia and we start to "what if" those trips.....what if we are gone over one of the kids birthdays? what if the timing is difficult with our jobs? what if we don't have the funds for the tickets? what if Vicki has a panic attack on the plane? (did you know Vicki has a HUGE fear of flying?) what if we don't have our immunizations done when we get "the call"? And we can get so caught in this pattern of wondering about all these possibilities....but, we have to remember how we came to this decision in the first place.....God has called us to do this and He has called us to TRUST HIM. And, on a daily basis we will continue to do just that.
Please continue to keep the "Jansen Expansion" in your prayers.....for freedom from worries, for our child waiting to come home and for our family to be prepared for all the changes ahead. Please pray especially for a particular paper we need for our Dossier that has been difficult to get so far...we'd love for this piece of paper to be completed this week!
Thanks for your continued support in so many ways - we remain grateful!
As we move along in the process, we find it very easy to start worrying about the time table of all this......at this point it looks like we will still need to make two trips to Ethiopia and we start to "what if" those trips.....what if we are gone over one of the kids birthdays? what if the timing is difficult with our jobs? what if we don't have the funds for the tickets? what if Vicki has a panic attack on the plane? (did you know Vicki has a HUGE fear of flying?) what if we don't have our immunizations done when we get "the call"? And we can get so caught in this pattern of wondering about all these possibilities....but, we have to remember how we came to this decision in the first place.....God has called us to do this and He has called us to TRUST HIM. And, on a daily basis we will continue to do just that.
Please continue to keep the "Jansen Expansion" in your prayers.....for freedom from worries, for our child waiting to come home and for our family to be prepared for all the changes ahead. Please pray especially for a particular paper we need for our Dossier that has been difficult to get so far...we'd love for this piece of paper to be completed this week!
Thanks for your continued support in so many ways - we remain grateful!
Saturday, October 2, 2010
The latest...
We've had a few adoption happenings this week - nothing major, but still worth rejoicing about. We recieved word from our Ohio Social Worker that our Ohio Child Abuse Clearances finally come back and so she has been able to send our Home Study on to her supervisor for final approval - we are thrilled and can't wait to have the Home Study here soon!
Once we recieve the Home Study, we can continue our USCIS paperwork, as well as our Ethiopian Dossier. The USCIS is where the U.S. Government clears us for our adoption, and the Ethiopian Dosser is what gets sent to their government to start the process in country there. These are both HUGE parts of this adoption journey
Having the Home Study also means that we can start applying for grants for the adoption costs - which we are eager to do, as we are still quite in need of funding.
If you haven't bought coffee yet - would you consider buying a bag a month until our process is complete? We know that $5.00 a bag doesn't sound like much, but if only 20 of you did that for the next 6 months - that would help us raise $600!! Every bag of coffee helps!
Here are a few prayer requests:
*For our Child in Ethiopia to be kept safe - physically & emotionally, comfortable and well fed, and that their heart & soul is already starting to be prepared for life as a Jansen :-)
*For the continual paperwork process to go smoothly
*For the present Jansen's to be in the process of preparation for the new member of the family
*For continued funding of this adoption
As always - we are grateful that you just spent a couple of minutes reading this - we thank you!
Once we recieve the Home Study, we can continue our USCIS paperwork, as well as our Ethiopian Dossier. The USCIS is where the U.S. Government clears us for our adoption, and the Ethiopian Dosser is what gets sent to their government to start the process in country there. These are both HUGE parts of this adoption journey
Having the Home Study also means that we can start applying for grants for the adoption costs - which we are eager to do, as we are still quite in need of funding.
If you haven't bought coffee yet - would you consider buying a bag a month until our process is complete? We know that $5.00 a bag doesn't sound like much, but if only 20 of you did that for the next 6 months - that would help us raise $600!! Every bag of coffee helps!
Here are a few prayer requests:
*For our Child in Ethiopia to be kept safe - physically & emotionally, comfortable and well fed, and that their heart & soul is already starting to be prepared for life as a Jansen :-)
*For the continual paperwork process to go smoothly
*For the present Jansen's to be in the process of preparation for the new member of the family
*For continued funding of this adoption
As always - we are grateful that you just spent a couple of minutes reading this - we thank you!
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Hope
We've had another busy week here! Friday was Dave's 40th Birthday and he was blessed in many ways....including waking up to signs in the front yard from a friend of his, who wanted to make sure Dave didn't forget how old he is. :-)
As part of Dave's Birthday celebration, on Thursday night, our family went to a concert together. We have long been fans of Steven Curtis Chapman and love his music. Steven sang lots of songs and we had a great time worshipping and celebrating. We also enjoyed some music from his son's group "Caleb" and were blessed by that. Mary Beth Chapman, Steven's wife, also spoke at this concert. If you don't know much about the Chapman family....years ago, their daughter, Emily, went on a Mission Trip and came home on fire for orphans around the world and felt her family should adopt. Her parents weren't ready - so Emily prayed (sounds a bit like what the Jansen girls did for their Dad!) :-) and the Chapman's ended up adopting three beautiful girls from China. About 2 1/2 years ago, through a tragic accident in their own front yard, their youngest daughter, Maria, was killed. This past Thursday evening, the Chapman family shared through music and spoken word, of how everything about their God and faith was questioned as they dealt with this deep grief. They gave testimony about how real God is to them now more than ever before and how they continue to live each day in the hope that they will SEE Jesus face to face, they will see Maria again and there will be no more tears. It is so wonderful to live in that Hope!
You would think that after losing a daughter you've adopted, you might lose a bit of your passion for adoption and orphans. But, the Chapman's haven't lost that passion at all - they have done even more for orphans around the world. Their organization "Show Hope" has increased the work it does for those children who so often fall through the cracks. Our request for today......please go to their website at http://www.showhope.org/ and see what wonderful work is taking place. Take a look at Maria's Big House of Hope....consider having an Orphan Sunday....ponder if you could give up something you really don't need each month to be a "Show Hope Partner". Did you know that every 18 seconds another child becomes an orphan? Or that every 14 seconds a child loses a parents due to AIDS? (so how many does that make during the simple reading of this blog?) Or 16.2 million children worldwide have lost both their parents? As a "Show Hope Partner" your money helps in two ways.....The first half of your gift provides care for an orphan as they wait to go home to their forever family and the second half of your gift goes into a fund to help provide adoption grants to adoptive families (Show Hope provides 30-40 grants a month, but sometimes have to decline twice that many a month!).
As a family, we volunteered at the Concert to help Show Hope's Mission - and as a family, we ask you to consider what you can do. We know that not all families are called to adoption - but we are all called to care for orphans. How can you do that?
Today, we were able to attend the Ethiopian New Year's Festival put on by the local Ethiopian Group in Columbus. We were able to eat some Ethiopian food, experience some of their music and dancing, see Ethiopian clothing and see many, many beautiful Ethiopian children. It made us even more eager to make our trip over there! We continue to trust God's timing and provision in this entire process - we know He is in control!
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