On it's way...FINALLY!

We received this message today from BCS... Woo Hoo!

Nine months after beginning the adoption process, our paperwork is finally in the Philippines.  Yep, 9 months, I've given birth to a healthy stack of paperwork ;)

Dossier to Country Date Confirmed!

March 26, 2012 at 1:16 PM ~ Alison M. Adema, International Services Coordinator

Good news! On the date listed above, your Dossier has been sent to the Philippines! We will be in touch with any new or updated information as it arrives. Please don't hesitate to check in with us or let us know of any questions you have. Sincerely, Your Philippines Team

We are continuing to pray for our child, for the birth family of our child, for loving caretakers in our absence and for time to go swiftly ;)

APPROVAL NOTICE !

 Today we received our I-800A approval from the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration!  Woo Hoo!  This is hopefully the last of the paperwork but what does it mean?

It means that the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has reviewed our I-800A form, the home study, all evidence submitted and the results of our fingerprint record checks and has determined that we meet the eligibility requirements as the adoptive parents of a child or children.
** As if there was doubt (insert sarcasm)..

WE HAVE BEEN APPROVED TO ADOPT TWO CHILDREN FROM THE PHILIPPINES!

In David's words, "scary and exciting!".

Lord willing, our paperwork will soon be sent to the Philippines where it will sit and wait to be reviewed and matched up with our child/children.  It feels good to almost have this part of the process wrapped up.  But, I am anticipating a long wait for our referral,so I know the hard part of this journey is still to come.  In the meantime we are giving thanks for all of the good reports along the way (I guess we are okay people).  We will also continue to pray for HC3(and 4?),the birth family, the ICAB board who will be matching us in the Philippines and for patience, patience, patience.

Fingerprints and Freedom...

We had another appointment today.  This time it was at the immigration office.  We had to have our fingerprints taken for clearance for the adoption.  It was somewhat of a strange experience.  While the immigration worker took my fingerprints oh so carefully - one by one, I thought to myself, is this what it feels like when you get arrested and have to be fingerprinted?  Only, instead of being convicted or locked up, we were there to be cleared of any crimes or mishaps.

On the other side of the room, while we were confirming our freedom, there were about 10 people of other ethnicities, waiting and filling out paperwork in hopes to gain american citizenship and be free to live here in Grand Rapids.  It struck me of how I take my freedom for granted.  We are so blessed to be where we are!

Waiting expectantly...

This is from my devotions this morning.  It is hopeful encouragement from the book Jesus Calling.  I expect it will be one that I will repeat over and over while we wait for HC3 ;)

"Waiting , Trusting and Hoping are intricately connected, like golden strands interwoven to form a strong chain." ... "Because you are Mine, you don't just pass time in your waiting.  You can wait expectantly, in hopeful trust.  Keep your 'antennae' out to pick up even the faintest glimmer of My Presence."

"God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged.  We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure."  (Hebrews 6:18-20)

" Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord."  (Psalm 27:14)

Why HC3?

You may have noticed my sign off name on the blog is HC3 tobe.  I've been asked why, what does that stand for?  Well, it's our silly way of referring to our child to be.  The past 8 months haven't been all business and frustration.  We've had fun with the boys discussing possible names.

We learned in our adoption training seminar that it is important to give our child an american name to help him/her fit into our american life.  It is also important to keep her Filipino heritage as well, so we will be using her/his Filipino name as the middle name.  The Philippines does not let you choose the gender so we have to be prepared for a girl or a boy.  The girl name was easy.  We've loved this name since we were expecting Micah but never got a chance to use it.  Choosing a boy name has been a little more challenging, but fun as well.  We've sat at supper with the boys some nights throwing out names and have come up with things such as Jude, Herman, Jonah, Ezekiel "Zeke", and some that were just plain goofy.  It's fun to bond with the boys like this regarding the adoption but in the end, we never did come up with boy name that we are certain of.  We have our ideas but we also have time.

So why HC3? Well, as we were talking about our future child it was confusing to say "he", "his", "her", or just baby?  So, David and the boys came up with HC3, "Hoekstra Child #3".  It's not as cute and personal as an actual name would be, but at least it gives us a way to make "the baby" more of a reality by referring to him or her as HC3.

We look forward to the day that we get the call and are holding the picture of HC3 and say welcome "________________".  

Waiting..

Peder Eide ran a new post on his blog today that was exactly what I needed to hear and thought I would share.  Go to blog.pedereide.com to read his "Waiting" entry.
Thanks Peder!

Ups and downs, Highs and Lows...

We knew from the beginning that this journey would require a lot of patience.  I am not the most patient person but thought that I could handle this no problem.  I admit, I may have been a little naive.  This has  been a humbling learning experience with its' share of highs and lows. (And we are only about a third of the way through the process).

August 2011
 High... We felt the call to enter the process of adoption and as a family we were excited to get started
September 2011
Low... Home visits that were somewhat stress full and nerve racking.  LOTS of paperwork to complete, appointments to make and fulfill.
October 2011
High...Loving, supportive feedback from family and friends.  This was confirmation that we were/are following God's will in the process.
November 2011
High...Dossier FINISHED!!
Low...Waiting for approval.
December 2011
Waiting..waiting... trying to enjoy the Christmas season while we wait.  Praying that we would be approved.
January 2012
High... Our Homestudy was officially approved!
Low...Two days after hearing of approval we were told that we actually needed to change a few things in our Dossier and there were a couple of requirements added.
February 2012
This has been a rough few weeks of the journey.  Our emotions have been high,there may have been a few tears ;0 and we've had to discuss if we are in fact on the right path.  Is The Philippines where God wants us adopting from?  We have realized that we have been operating on our timeline/schedule and not necessarily His timeline.

I'm reminded that prayer is so important throughout all of this.  We're now focusing on praying for the process to pick up, our direction in the process, the birth family of our child and the child God has out there for us.

The paperwork process....

Well, I can hardly believe it but it's been almost 8 months since we began the adoption process.  Once we weighed the options of which countries we could and could not apply to and finally decided on The Philippines, we were able to begin the official paperwork.  There was ALOT of it.  There was the formal application, the dossier and the home study to complete before we could be officially approved.

The formal application was the easy part.  The dossier was another story.  This packet of information included references, autobiographies (from each of us), medical exams, psychological exams, drug tests, criminal checks, financial statements and photos.  In the end it was about 30 pages long.  Needless to say we are healthy, drug free, upstanding citizens!

The homestudy consisted of 4 homevisits from our BCS Social Worker Kim.  Each time she came she asked questions, looked over the house and dug deep into not only our current and future situation but also our childhoods.  She even interviewed the boys.  I was a bit nervous about the home visits. It was good for us to experience but hard to wait to hear if someone approves of you and the life you lead.  In case you wondered, they decided we are okay ;)

We were hoping our paperwork would have been sent to the Philippines already but unfortunately, due to changes and delays, it is still sitting in the US.

A family decision...

Looking back to August, I smile.  Once David and I decided that we should move forward with adoption we decided that we had better discuss it with Micah and Luke first.  After dinner one night we called our first "family meeting".  We asked the boys what they thought about the idea of us adopting a baby.  Their reactions were priceless (in my opinion).  Micah had a funny look on his face like a half smile, question mark type of look so we said, we'd like to adopt a child but wanted to make sure you guys are okay with it.  At this Micah said "sure" with a big smile (he can be a man of few words), and Luke yelled "YAY", which I was not surprised since I knew Luke has always wanted to be a big brother and not just the little brother.  They both then said, can we get a girl?
That was the plan..

*Oh and I have to point out that David, the one who was cautious and hesitant, almost totally against adoption for years, was the first to send out emails and make phone calls to friends and family to tell them we had decided to enter the process :)  The supportive response we've received from everyone has been humbling and overwhelming.  God is good!

In the beginning....

 Blogging is scary to me because it requires sharing your thoughts and feelings and putting yourself out there, which I am not good at.  But, at the suggestion of a dear friend who is also an adoptive mom, I am starting a blog that will follow the Hoekstra family's journey through the adoption process.  


Bear with me as we back up to the beginning.  It was August 2011 in Green Lake, WI.  We were spending the week at Northern Pines Family Camp which we do every summer together.  This year the worship leader, Peder Eide, shared his testimony regarding his family's decision to adopt and how it had blessed his family.  It was a very moving testimony and looking back, we know that God used that to soften our hearts towards adoption.  While neither David or I discussed it at camp that week, we later admitted to have been thinking about it constantly throughout the week.  


After we left camp and came home, God still worked on our hearts.  We were prompted by a separate conversation to bring up the option of another child.  We have 2 incredibly awesome boys and didn't have any regrets but I've always had adoption on my heart and David's heart was never quite there.  This night, while walking, he told me that maybe we should revisit the idea of adopting.  In his words, "He had been wrestling with God, and God won.".  woot woot! 


That's where our journey began.  We immediately began the application process.  We weighed all of our options regarding possible countries to adopt from and without consulting each other first, came up with the same list of 3.  After further narrowing it down, we decided on The Philippines.    It was not our original plan as we went in hoping to request a girl under 2 years of age and the Philippines does not let you specifiy gender or guarantee a child under 2.  Nonetheless, we felt like God placed this country on our hearts. 


To be continued....