some thanksgiving pics

nashville to rwanda

Today we had dinner with 2 other families who are adopting from Rwanda, the Smiths and Lavenders! We are excited to begin to establish this kind of community. We had lunch at Pei Wei and discovered that our Dossier's (paperwork) arrived in Rwanda close to the same time - the other 2 familes on Oct. 12 and ours on Nov. 1. We hope this means that we will get to travel together!

Also, Kelly gave me a heads up on our position in line. It sounds like with our agency there are only 6 families ahead of us, and with all the movement we have seen in the last couple weeks, it feels like we may be traveling sooner than I thought. We decided that June would be good for all of us.... now we just need to get Rwanda on board. :)

If you are curious about any of the families that are in Rwanda or leaving soon- check out the blogs in my adoption blog list.... they are probably the blogs with recent activity.

Fedex comes through- kudos for tracking numbers

After about a week of the Fedex folks rapping on the door of the folks in Rwanda, someone finally answered and signed for our documents- they have officially arrived. I don't expect to hear too much more on the adoption front for a while. This is out time to wait.

Several families who have been waiting a while for their Rwandan babies heard news this week and received referrals... we are so excited for them to have court dates and then they can show us pictures of their little ones! I will try and get some of the links on the blogs I follow.

Orphan Sunday

We were able to attend the Cry of the Orphan event this afternoon/evening at Christ Community Church. Speakers/ musicians included Steven Curtis Chapman, Jim Daley (focus on the family) and the Children of the World Choir. It will be broadcast on the Gospel Music Channel in the near future. www.cryoftheorphan.org.

It was wonderful to be part of an environment of people passionate about adoption and believing that we are privileged to be part of eliminating the word orphan!

Halloween

Sadie did not want to wear the dog costume we had, so that went back to Target. She was a fairy/princess/tinkerbell at school and a Buckeye for trick-or-treating.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Our Dossier that is! We got the email this morning from our adoption coordinator. Our Dossier was approved by the Rwandan Embassy and our paperwork is on it's way to Rwanda! The approval letter was attached to the email and it made our little guy feel a little bit more real. I can hardly wait to meet him.

Lots of paperwork, lots of excitement

Just Love Coffee Fundraiser

Just Love Coffee has finally opened it's doors! This company provides a way for families to fundraise while supporting the coffee industry in Africa and other countries with Fair Trade.

We have a store front on the website: http://www.justlovecoffee.com/sharp

You can purchase coffee from our store front to support our adoption. We earn $5 per bag sold. You can purchase the coffee by the bag as you need it or sign up to receive it every month or every other month. Shipping is the same for 1 or 2 bags, so I would recommend going for 2 bags at the same time.

I am excited to try the Rwanda coffee first! I found some Ethiopian coffee earlier this year and thought it was pretty good.

Thanks for your support!

yard sale success!

Sadie needed a pair of size 6 shoes, so I decided to go to the Factory for a yard sale today. I found a bunch of clothes for Sadie for $2 and a pair of size 6 shoes for $1 and a couple of rompers for our baby boy. One of the ladies told me to come back at the end and I could have all the clothes she had left. After going to the New Hope Academy Duck Race, Sadie and I went back to the yard sale and left with a LARGE box of boy clothes. I gave her $5 and probably received 100 boy clothing items! I can hardly wait to get him in them.

It was a good day.

dossier sent off

This past week was busy with adoption work.

• Monday I visited the doctor's office to get our final physical forms
• Tuesday had our final documents notarized
• Wednesday took most of the documents to be certified at the Williamson County Clerk of Courts
• Thursday had a few documents certified at the Davidson County Clerk of Courts and then went to the Secretary of State to have all the documents (21 in all) authenticated and...
• Friday I mailed them to America World!

All those documents are called our Dossier and it has taken since June to complete it all. The dossier should arrive there on Tuesday where our family coordinator will look it over and then send it to the US Secretary of State for more authentication and then to the Rwandan Embassy. 10-14 days later, we should receive our approval from the Embassy and our dossier can go to Rwanda. It feel great to have that part finished and be that much closer to bringing our son home.

Garage Sale Success

Our garage sale took place last Saturday. It has been raining for about 2 weeks here in the Nashville area and Saturday was not exception. But rain did not keep away those die hard garage salers and we sold a lot of stuff. We could have not done it without the help of all of you who made generous donations... so Thank You! Also, the Albrecht family really made it happen- they are incredible friends to us. The profits from the garage sale came just in time as we should send off our dossier soon!

I-171H

We received our approval from USCIS today! The US gives us permission to adopt. We have been waiting for this in order to complete our paperwork for our Dossier. Now it is time to get busy with the last bit of paperwork and then to the county clerk and secretary of state for certification. This is exciting news!

2 weeks to garage sale

Our garage sale / bake sale is going to be on Saturday, September 19 at the Albrecht's house (331 Sterling Park Terrace in Fieldstone Farms). We are beginning to collect items from family and friends and trying to organize it so we don't have so much to do right before the sale. We welcome more- garage sale items, baked goods and drinks! Thanks everyone.

fellowship 686

This weekend we attended Fellowship 686.  It is a Nashville based community of families who have adopted (or adopting or thinking about adopting) children from Africa.  It was INCREDIBLE to see all of these children from Africa grafted into families from Nashville.  It made our adoption feel so real.  Most of the families have adopted from Ethiopia, but we met some who are adopting from Uganda and another couple just ahead of us in the Rwanda process!  We are so thankful to be able to be part of a group like this as we prepare to bring our son home.

Fellowship 686 comes from God's promise in Psalm 68:6 - To set the solitary in families....

reconciliation

We caught the documentary on PBS a couple of weeks ago called As We Forgive: Stories of Reconciliation from Rwanda.  It is an excellent film and has given us insight into the healing and struggles going on in Rwanda today.

about rwanda

Here is a good map of Africa showing Rwanda.  Also, here is what America World says about Rwanda.

Rwanda is a verdant and beautiful country, often referred to as "the Land of a Thousand Hills" and "the Switzerland of Africa."  Rwanda is about the size of Vermont, but hosts a population of about 10 million; its population density is the highest of any country in Africa and currently has one of the world's highest birth rates.  Unfortunately, UNICEF estimates that there are nearly one million orphans and vulnerable children:  children are primarily orphaned due to poverty.

Originally, Rwanda was colonized by Germany in the 1880's and fell to Belgian rule after World War I.  The primary educational force in the country was the Roman Catholic Church throughout the Belgian rule, which came to a peaceful, but rather abrupt end when independence was declared in 1962.  Landlocked and bordered by Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the majority of its inhabitants are subsistence farmers.  

As with all African nations, Rwanda has diversity in languages and cultures, yet unlike its neighbors it is primarily home to only two ethnic groups (Tutsi and Hutu).  The national language of Rwanda is Kinyarwanda.  

Rwanda is well known to many Americans because of the tragic events that unfolded there in the spring of 1994.  Rwandans today struggle to recover not just from that singular event, but from a legacy of 60 years of intermittent war.

Life expectancy in years: 45

Annual per capita GNI U.S. dollars: $250.00

Total number of orphans: 820,000

Education:
Children completing primary school: Male – 43%; Female – 49% 
Children enrolled in secondary school: Male – 15%; Female – 13%

Number of physicians per 100,000 people: 5

Post #1

It's true...Sten and Caitland have joined the century and have started a blog. Our main motive in doing this is to celebrate our family as we grow and go through life.  Our latest adventure started a couple of months ago when we applied to adopt a Rwandan 0-9 month old boy through America World Adoption.  Everyone we know says it's a roller coaster, and to be prepared for the unexpected. So, that's what we're doing. We've already found in our discussions that some are not so sure about the idea of adoption, but there are so many of you, our friends and family, that support this endeavor and we are so grateful for that. We know that our lives will get turned upside down but we believe whole-heartedly that the Lord is calling us to adopt a child. 
So, on this very first blog, we're eagerly looking forward to the day (6-11 months from now) where we will post the video of us getting our little boy in Rwanda on "Gotcha Day", as they call it.  More on Rwanda, the sharps, and the process to come!