Under Contract

Last week we received our signed contracts and our Adoption Planner from AGCI which included our dossier information. Between that and the home study, we've mostly been stuck in the "wow, we've got a lot of stuff to do" mode. We have a call scheduled for tomorrow afternoon with our case manager from AGCI to review the dossier and get our questions answered. After that it will be time to buckle down and start picking things off of the list.

Some of you may already know, but in case you don't, some of our best friends, JB & Carla Hochstetler, are joining us on the adoption journey. They're also planning to adopt from Ethiopia through AGCI. We're looking forward to going through the process together. Since our home study agency is from Louisville, KY and we have to pay travel costs, we're going to coordinate with JB & Carla so that they can get our interviews in at the same time. Because JB is so busy with Bible Memory camps for a few more weeks, I've been using that to justify some of my procrastination. Thanks guys! I better build a little cushion though because Carla doesn't usually mess around.

I'll get a laundry room update posted later this week. (Sneak peek - It may involve some demolition).

Laundry Room & Adoption Update

I was able to make another dent in the laundry room project today. I started off my morning (ok, forenoon) by getting the dirty work out of the way and made a trip into the attic.

I had to crawl into this part of the attic to run a new electrical wire to the light in the laundry room. Previously this light was switched with the garage lights. I was pretty sure Monica wouldn't think it was very cool to need to go to the garage to turn on the laundry room light. It might take away some of the convenience of the main level laundry. Being in the attic brought back some good memories of working on JB & Carla's house.













Brennan wanted to get in the attic with me. I decided I didn't need any holes in our ceiling so I just let him peek in.













After I got back out of the attic, I spent some time framing up a soffit. The main purpose of this soffit is to hide the heat pump lines running between the unit in the bonus room and the outdoor unit.













My next big challenge is to re-frame this wall to allow for the opening into the house. Because it's a bearing wall, that makes it a little more interesting. Also, you can see that it's not just one big wall. Nope, there's a 6' wall and then another 3' wall sitting on top of it. I'm thinking of calling in a pro for this task (paging Jon Swartz, paging Jon Swartz, would Jon Swartz please report to Beachyville?).

















Tentatively the plumber is supposed to be out on Wednesday to rough in the water and drain lines for the washer and the laundry tub. The cabinet man was out last Monday to get our cabinet layout going. This week I want to start tearing out the closet in the mud room so that's done when we're ready to cut through this wall.

Adoption Update

We should get the word on Monday or Tuesday that we're official clients of AGCI. We sent in all our contracts and a chunk of cash last Monday, they arrived in Portland on Wednesday, and they take 3 business days to process them. After that we'll be assigned our case manager and sent our dossier packet to start working on.

We got our information from the home study agency this past week. Oh yeah, it was an 86 page pdf document. When I opened it and saw the number of pages, I felt a little overwhelmed. Fortunately a big chunk at the end is just educational stuff, but there is still plenty of things to do to get everything they need. The biggest stuff for Monica and I is that we each need to write an autobiography addressing the following main topics: Childhood, Family, Education, Military Service (that should be brief), Criminal History (we won't discuss the length of this section:), Courtship & Marriage, Career, Self Evaluation, Physical & Emotional, and Child (adoption and parenting stuff). They are "interested in your impressions and feelings, not a list of events." Good times! That's right up an accountant's ally.

Alright, enough for now.

Laundry room update

I was able to work on the laundry room some more yesterday. I've got most of the main framing done, that is until I have to hack a hole in the wall between the garage and the house. That may require some outside consultation.




























The end wall was a far cry from being level and it was a combination of framed walls and trusses. So, I shimmed it out to get everything even and then overlaid the whole thing with 3/4" OSB. This should make life much easier when it comes time to hang cabinets on this wall. I did the same thing on the little angled section up top.

I think I'm ready to get my cabinet man out to get the cabinet layout finalized and I need to call my plumber to get on the list to get stuff roughed in. Hopefully I can keep things moving along.

Orientation Call

We had our orientation call with AGCI on Wednesday. There wasn't much new information that we learned. It was mostly reviewing their procedures that they outlined in the stuff they had already sent us and making sure we reviewed the contracts that we're about to sign. So, the next step is for us to sign a bunch of documents (contracts, fee schedules, etc.), get them notarized, and then send them off to AGCI along with the first big chunk of money. After that they'll send us the information to get started with our home study and dossier (DAH-see-ay). Estimated time to complete, 2 - 3 months. For starters, I need to apply for my passport, and we need to get a will (the legal document kind).

Random note for any NFL fans, while Muhsin Muhammad was with da Bears he adopted two kids from Ethiopia through AGCI. There was a video linking to the Bears site that showed the kids arriving in the US but it doesn't seem to be working now. I think the Bears may have taken it down since he's back with the Carolina Panthers now.

While we're on the topic of sports, I noted that Dan Wilson (former Seattle Mariners catcher) is on AGCI's board of directors.

The Journey Begins

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had something good coming in the future to post about that would be even better than the laundry room project. I think it's time to put my cards on the table. After several years of discussing this idea and a few weeks of really serious consideration, Monica and I have decided we'd like to add a third child to our family. We've even started the process and I've got the picture to prove it. Right now you're thinking, seriously we don't need to see that. Well don't worry, it's not what you think, or at least not what I've tried to get you to think.

We've decided to go the import route for our next child and adopt a little boy or girl from Ethiopia. We've applied and been accepted by an agency called All God's Children International ("AGCI"). There's a lot of good information on their site if you're interested. If you go to their Media page there are several videos and photo galleries that you may enjoy.

So, why adopt? Well, we'd like to add another child to our family and there is already a tremendous number of kids out there who need a family to love them. The need is great. As I mentioned, this is something we've talked about for years and we've decided to stop talking and start doing. So here we go.

Why Ethiopia and why AGCI? In the process of checking out numerous adoption agencies websites I would look at the various country programs that they offered. When I found AGCI's site and began to learn more about them, I was really impressed by their story and how God led them into the work they are doing. Looking at the pictures of the children in Ethiopia, we were just drawn to them. AGCI has their own orphanage in Ethiopia called Hannah's Hope. Knowing that we'll be working with people from AGCI here in the US and when we eventually travel to Ethiopia means a lot to us. It's also good to know that our son or daughter will be staying at the Hannah's Hope orphanage until everything can be processed.

What age and gender are you looking for? We're going to let God make the call on a boy or girl. At this point we're saying we'd like to adopt a child who is between Brennan (4 years) and Sawyer (9 months) in age, but we'd like to stay on the lower end of that range. We've been fortunate enough to have two babies biologically, we don't need to get the youngest child possible. We'll let others experience that. I like the idea of adopting a slightly older child who may not have quite as great a chance of being adopted because I think most people want a baby. I personally will be just fine if we skip the baby phase, but I also recognize that there will be unique challenges to bringing a toddler into the family.

How long is this going to take? We're not exactly sure but AGCI's website states a time frame of 12 - 16 months from application through finalization of the adoption. However, things could go more quickly for us because we're going to be open to a toddler. At this point, we've got lots of paperwork ahead of us. We need to get going on completing a home study and getting our Dossier (fancy French word for a whole bunch of documents). There is more information on AGCI's site regarding the adoption process.

Anyway, that's a lot of info for one post. We're excited to begin this journey. I'll try to keep the blog updated along the way regarding where things are at in the adoption process.

As promised, here's the picture of our efforts.

Slowly but Surely (emphasis on SLOWLY)

I finally spent some more time working on the laundry room this past Friday and Saturday. Thanks to the blog, I feel guilty when I don't work on the project because that means I can't post any progress. At my snails pace I managed to get down almost all of the subflooring. Brennan wanted to be part of the action so I kept him occupied by having him hammer short screws into some pre-drilled holes in a few scrap pieces of wood. He was enjoying himself so it was worth the loss of a few screws. Sadly the freezer is still hanging out under the laundry room floor. We'll get it out someday. Monica will probably force me to move it soon. It is fairly annoying if you need anything in the freezer these days.