USCIS Approval!

Our door bell rang at 11:30 Am this morning. I hesitated to answer it, as I was just about to put Emma down for a nap, but decided to go for it. It was our mail man. He had a huge package and a stack of mail. We normally don't see him because we have a post office box at the end of the street, but the package wouldn't fit in there. The package was for Brendan, so I tossed it aside, and immediately began rifling through the pile of mail, like I do every day for the past two weeks. And there was THE LETTER...our USCIS I-171H form that clears us to adopt internationally. Two hours later, we the we had been to the bank to have our dossier cover letter notarized, and to UPS, where we had shipped off the dossier to the MT secretary of state to be authenticated (they check to see that all notaries are legitimate. We have probably 23 different pages that were notarized during the process). They will hopefully overnight that back to us early next week, and then we'll send our completed dossier to America World in Virginia. If all goes well, our dossier will be on its way to Ethiopia in the next two weeks. Praise God!

The neat thing about all this is that yesterday, we asked several friends to pray for this form to come. I woke up this morning with a sense of peace that today was the day. When the form came and I called Brendan, he was, at that very moment, praying with a student for this particular form to come. Pretty cool. Guess Emma will have a little sister after all!

Emma announced to Brendan and I this last week that her name was “Gobbie.” She even answered to Gobbie when I would ask her something. I’m not sure where she got this strange idea, but we got a kick out of it! Also this past week, when I was putting Emma to sleep, we had an interesting conversation. We were laying in her bed, snuggling, and she sleepily said to me, “Mama, I was proud of you.” This sparked my interest so I asked her, “When were you proud of me sweetheart?” Her answer? “When I was born.” Now if that is not what every mom who has gone through childbirth wants their children to tell them, I don’t know what is! I’ll hold onto that memory for sure! We love our little gal, she is such a joy to be around (most of the time!) and it is so fun to see she begin to express all these thoughts she is having.

On the adoption front, we were successfully fingerprinted last Monday. Did you know they don’t use ink anymore? They have a machine that you stick you fingers onto glass and then they digitally take a print. Who knew? I thought I’d take some fun inky finger photos but no luck there. We did have a great family day driving to Helena, visiting the park, seeing the cathedral there, and having lunch. Now I’ve been anxiously checking the mailbox waiting for that coveted I-171H form to come! It could be weeks, but it doesn’t hurt to check.

Last weekend Emma and I (Brendan was out of town) had the privilege of joining the local group of families that have adopted from Ethiopia for their bi-annual get together. It was so wonderful to be with other people who had gone through this process ahead of us and to see these beautiful children. They are SO beautiful! It made my heart ache to hold our little girl. All I can say was they just seemed to be thriving as a part of families. God truly puts the orphans in homes! I am so thankful that there is a group of people who live here! Five of the families were actually from Missoula. We hope to be getting to know them more!

Enjoy some pics of the last few weeks! Have a great weekend.

Easter Sunday

One of the lastest favorite things to do, paint!

Our trip to the river on a sort of warm day

Apparently, Emma was feeling tired!



The musician training continues

Peanut butter balls

Good news!

I received a phone call this morning from the USCIS office in Helena, Mt. They called to schedule our fingerprinting appointments. We scheduled them for next Monday! I saw our social worker today and mentioned we had heard from them and her comment was, "Already? That's quick!" Thank you Jesus! We have to have our fingerprints taken in order to receive the approved I-171 form. So this is our last step before getting approval from the government to adopt. We have all of our paperwork sitting in a file box, organized, ready to go! This has been a long haul but we're getting there. Our agency gave out over 20 referrals last month, and gave out four more in the last two days. I love seeing these children matched with families and I am so thankful that it will, someday soon, be our turn. Yay for a day of good news!

Check this out

USCIS

Yay! Good news on the adoption front today. Our social worker contacted me yesterday to let me know that America World (our agency) had approved our homestudy write up. The magic line in the homestudy "Brendan and Katie Jamieson are approved to adopt one female child from Ethiopia, from 0-18 months old" is what we've been waiting for! The homestudy was done by the local Catholic Social Services office. It's been a long road folks- and we have a lot longer one ahead. We had the hold up with our paperwork going to the wrong office and not being forwarded on to the right office back in December. We were about a month behind where we hoped to be at that point and almost four long months later, here we are. To think that we really began this process last May, is crazy. It was last May that God really began to speak to us that this was the time for adoption in our family. We have known since we got married that we really wanted to adopt a child from Africa, but last May God confirmed that calling and this timing! To think it will be another year is hard, but we are so thankful to have jumped through this loophole.

At this point, the homestudy has been sent into USCIS today. We are waiting for a fingerprinting appointment and then the I-171 form that clears us to classify an orphan as our immediate relative. The timeline on their website says the wait can be 3 months for this form which we need to have to submit our paperwork to Ethiopia. It's been known to be less in other cases, but not normal. If you feel led, please pray for us, that this government office would have favor on us- our application has been sitting in their office for 4 months now- and that by God's mercy, we would move more rapidly through this process. We know that in all this God has the perfect child at the perfect time for us, but honestly, we are so ready to hold her in our arms and be her family.

Thanks for the encouragement and the prayers. We'll keep you updated as we know more!

We love you sista!

My sweet sister Rachel is leaving this afternoon to fly to England for a week of training and then on to India. She will be living there for six months working in a home for women and children who have been diagnosed with AIDS. I am so proud of my sister. God has gifted her in such beautiful ways. She is a woman of mercy and compassion (not to mention healing as she is a nurse!) I know that she will be a blessing to those who come in contact her. I pray that she will be the arms and feet of Christ as she goes to serve these women and children. We love you Rachel, way to go!

Pictures!

Here's a few of the promised picture of the past month!

Our sweet girl turns 2!!

Opening a few presents

Emma's bowling birthday party!


Emma and her Francie

Opening a present

Before the cake....

After the cake!




Learning to play the mandolin with Daddy

Girls night at home

In the pool in Kaua'i with Grandpa

She loved that pool!

(We spent a good amount of every day in the pool, the ocean

was a little too intimidating)

Dressed up for dinner out

With Gran on the beach

Katie and Brendan have a day off to sit on the beach, swim, and have space to

catch up- Thanks Bruce and Ann!

That's all for now...I'll have a homestudy update soon (we're almost finished and it's going great!)

January

I hoped to post a ton of pictures of the month of January in the Jamieson household, however, somewhere in all the travel, we have misplaced our camera cord. So stay tuned for pictures!

We celebrated Emma's 2nd birthday last Saturday, the 24th. It's hard to believe it's been two years since that early morning Brendan drove me to the hospital and breathed through contractions with me at the red lights, and then just a couple hours later, we were holding Emma for the first time. I'll never forget when the Dr. McCoy handed her to me and I thought, "What do I do? How do I hold her?" Then I gazed on her tiny face and fell head over heels in love with our daughter. She is such a big girl now. She tells me repeatedly, "I don't need you to hold me Mama, I'm a big girl, I'm two!" She is able to say now about everything she thinks. She speaks so clearly and asked me today, "Could you come over here and help me cutie?" (I call her that all the time). We celebrated the day of her birthday quietly, with the family, and then had a bowling birthday party the day after. It was Emma's idea and she bowled a 98! (With the bumpers) Watch for pictures soon.

We spend 9 glorious days in Hawaii with Brendan's parents. Being warm, seeing the sun, having four people to play with Emma, and a beach day just Brendan and I were such a gift. It's hard to be back in gray, cold Montana. I keep threatening to stay in Kaua'i when ever we are there.

On the adoption front, we've had a month of waiting. There was a mix up with our home study paperwork and we were basically stuck for awhile. We had hoped to complete the home visits before February. But I did speak with our social worker today and we are scheduled to have our first two home study visits on February 17th and 19th. Praise God for something tangible. Almost all of our dossier paperwork is together and we are waiting for our fingerprinting appointments. I think a lot of this whole process is waiting and praying and waiting somemore. I guess we'll have to get comfortable with it, or at least learn to trust God in the midst of it. I do know that all of this waiting and delays and work will eventually lead us to our daughter.

That's all for now, be on the look out for January photos and the home study visit update!

Snow, Snow, Snow!

We've had unbelievable amounts of snow this winter. Snow almost every day and ice and wind besides. Apparently, it's the worst winter in 11 years. I guess it's the worse winter of this Virginia girl's life! Anyways, we've kept busy! Happy new year to all!

Cross-Country skiing with Daddy

Shoveling and sweeping our walkway (every couple hours it seems!)

Christmas morning

Updates

The first snow of the year falling gently from the sky tonight prompted me to stop and be thankful for this season and for what it really means. Emma and I went to the "Tiny Tales" reading time for toddlers today at the library. Most of it, in reality, is kids running and jumping all over a big open room while a sometimes frazzled librarian tries to read them books and lead them in singing songs. Emma loves going, especially to do the "hokey pokey." We sang some Christmas songs- "Where is Santa" to the tune of "Where is Thumbkin" and "The lights on the Tree" to the tune of "The wheels on the bus." I know I am not the only person wondering why Christmas is all presents and trees and Santa. The world around us tell us nothing different. It is so good to stop this Christmas season and remember He who came to us, the Maker of heaven and earth, born as one of us, so that we might be His for all eternity. I want Emma to know this Christmas season of the Jesus who came down from heaven and was made man for her, that is the real meaning of this season.

That said, we are so thankful to be at the end of a long semester. It has been a long and fruitful one, but one that has had Brendan juggling almost more than he can handle with work. We are needing time as a family and time to rest. We just returned from Charlottesville, VA, having spent a week with my family for Thanksgiving. Emma had a great time being with her Mimi, Grandpa, Auntie Rachel, Uncle Nate, and the three dogs living with my parents. We were grateful for family to share life with and to be away for a week. It's always rough coming back because Emma goes from about 6 admirers all the time to just being with me during the days. I have to get creative! Another reason to be thankful for the snow- fun times outside lie ahead! The adoption process has been going well. We are hoping to send in the last of our homestudy paperwork early next week (that includes medical forms, education forms, house safety checks, personal history sheets, autobiographies for Brendan and I (both are over 15 pages long!), copies of birth and marriage certificates, background checks, and of course, a huge chunk of change!) and we are hoping to have our first homestudy visit scheduled before January. That might be overly hopeful, but we'll see. That is one part of completing our dossier- paperwork for the Ethiopian government- which makes the homestudy paperwork look like a breeze. We definitely have our hands full. It is hard in the midst of all this to have perspective that this is about a child. I have to pray to remember that! We will work hard to get all this paperwork together and then there will be months and months of waiting! It's been good to connect with others who are in the same place. The doctor who did our medical exams last week gave me the phone number of another family in town who has adopted a child from Ethiopia and we know of another family who just adopted from there as well. Our agency, America World, has connected us with a Yahoo Group of others adopting from Ethiopia through them. It's been great and very connecting to be a part of that community. Keep us in your prayers as we keep plugging away at all this paperwork. I am hoping to have our dossier sent off to our agency (and then on to Ethiopia) by late February or early March. From that point we wait for a referral and the wait time for baby girls is about 7-11 months right now. We are thankful for you all this Christmas season. Blessings on you and we'll leave you with a few recent pictures.

Emma with Auntie Rachel during her visit in October

Two former IV students got hitched (Emma was the flower girl)
Way to go Josh and Hannah!

We think she's pretty cute!

Thanksgiving photo with my family

Emma and Mama

Emma and Daddy bonding time
(she's a daddy's girl!)

#2

So here it is folks...#2 is on the way. Not in the traditional sense of the way, but in a non-traditional, equally beautiful way. We have begun the "paper pregnancy" phase of adopting a little girl from Ethiopia. Why, you may ask? Well, there are many reasons. First and foremost, we know the orphans in the world are near and dear to God's heart. I know that not everyone is called to adopt, but as followers of Christ, we are called to care for the orphans and widows in the world. We feel called by God, very specifically, to enter into this endeavor. For us, care for orphans has translated into adoption. Secondly, we have room! We want a larger family and this is one way to enlarge our tent so to speak. Thirdly, because of orphans like Clinton.

Clinton was a boy we met in Kenya in 2005. His mother had died of AIDS, his father was not in the picture. He had an uncle who had been "sponsoring" him (paying for food, clothing in order so others could afford the cost of caring for him). His uncle came down with AIDS and was unable to continue to sponsor him. So Clinton was sent to an orphanage in Kakamega very shortly before Brendan and I came and stayed there. It was a wonderful orphanage, run by an amazing pastor and his wife. There were wonderful women who worked there. Clinton's basic needs were met- clothing, food, shelter. However, Clinton was younger than the other 20 or so orphans living there. He was too young to go to school. He didn't speak their language because he was from a different tribe. Clinton spent most of the day wandering around the orphanage property, playing by himself, shyly smiling at us, but afraid to get too close. Many could argue that this was the best thing that could happen to Clinton. I mostly agree but Clinton needed a mom and a dad. He needed people who would pursue him, love him, swing him into the air and catch him laughing. He needed hugs and kisses and bedtime stories. He is one of millions. And he is better cared for than most. That trip really solidified for Brendan and I our desire to adopt. Clinton is one face I can hold onto in the overwhemingly numbing statistics. It is because a little girl will be born in Ethiopia that desperately needs a family.

We have talked, prayed, waited, asked, and listened all summer. We have debated the issues of a white family raising a black child, of what special needs we may really be dealing with. We know that this decision will change our lives- like any child does- but will be far more reaching than a biological child. We are excited. This has been God's thing from the beginning. I have been excited to share it. Pray for us! We will keep you updated on the process as it goes along. We are looking at at least 1 year, maybe two, before our Ethiopian princess comes home to us.

An Evening at the Playground

We've had some gorgeous 80 degree weather days in Missoula the past week. A last hurrah of summer for us before the long winter sets in. We spent about every night this summer at the park just down the hill from us. As you can see, it's a glorious view! We are thinking a lot, praying a lot in the midst of a lot of decisions we've had to make as a family. We'll keep you all updated as we figure things out! Have a great weekend!

Meal Time

Where have we been?

It's almost midnight on a Friday night. I have too much rolling around in my brain tonight to sleep at the moment- strange for a tired parent, you'd think I'd be getting all the seconds I could! It' s been a long few weeks for us, Brendan has had one day off in the last three weeks. We have all of Saturday and Sunday together as a family! Oh joy. So, I thought I'd get back to the old blog and update you all with some picture from the last month and a half. Enjoy!

The place where we spent most of the summer...our patio and backyard



The yummy tomatoes grown (we are so thankful to have a yard of our own!)


Emma in Colorado thinking about riding a "horsie"
(yes, she is wearing a coat- it was cold at 9,000 feet in August!)



"Emma ride horsie...Emma ride horsie...Emma ride horsie..."


"Wow, that horsie's really big, never mind!"



Hiking around Yellowstone Park- we were there for a wedding-
Congrats Andrew and Laura!

Family Pic

Our little cutie with her buddy Jack

Yellowstone