What the Hale?

We passed court!

2010-01-05T15:01:00.003-06:00

We passed court yesterday! It seemed for awhile that we wouldn't hear anything until today, so we thought maybe something had gone wrong or that our case hadn't been heard. But around 1:30pm I received a call from our caseworker saying that we passed! Shortly after she also told me that we would be traveling the week of February 15th. So that part, I have to admit, was a bit disappointing. We thought we might travel about two weeks sooner. I keep reminding myself that Banke has been where she is for over five months and that she is being lovingly cared for.

So here she is: Banke (Bahn-Kay) Esther Bekele Hale! We can finally post pics of her sweet face!

Please pray for us as we prepare for the trip. And especially that God would prepare Banke and Vaughn for all of the changes they will be experiencing soon.

Alex

Court Date!

2009-12-13T08:26:00.002-06:00

We've received our court date! Our case will be presented to MOWA in Ethiopia on January 4! Please pray that we pass court on that date.

We should be receiving a physical update on our daughter in a few days and then a developmental update toward the end of the month. Please pray that she will continue to gain weight and that we will all be prepared for her homecoming.

Alex

Conference Call

2009-11-24T13:18:00.002-06:00

I just listened to the conference call recording, and it looks like we should receive a court date sometime in December. The great news is that on average the court dates are being scheduled no longer than a month out. So our court date could be scheduled as early as January. That leaves us traveling in February or early March. Please remember these are just our best guesses based on the averages we have been given.

We always appreciate your prayers. Please continue to pray:

That we will have no major issues passing court.

That our baby girl will continue to grow and gain weight.

That we, and Vaughn, will be prepared for her homecoming.

Alex

We have a daughter!

2009-11-21T16:10:00.002-06:00

We received our referral November 5th. I'm so sorry that I didn't post sooner. I'll be honest. It has taken all of my brain capacity to remember to update Facebook and attempt to get our "announcement" email out to every person I can think of. I promise to try and do better in the future. ;)

Our referral came much sooner than we expected - just over 7 months into our wait. So I was in complete shock when I checked my messages and heard, "Hi Alex, this is Sara from Gladney. I have your referral. Call me back when you can." What?!?! I completely freaked out. I hung up the phone before listening for her extension. Called 411 to get the number to Gladney. My hands were shaking, Vaughn was cackling in the background wondering what I was so excited about and why I kept saying, "Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh."

I went and picked Doug up from work and we headed home. We listened as a virtual stranger described our daughter to us. (Our original caseworker moved recently and I'm pretty sure neither of us had ever spoken on the phone with our new caseworker before this point.) She told us that she is 10.5 months old - now 11 months on Monday. She is the most beautiful little girl with big, studious eyes and beautiful pouty lips. Sara said that her caregivers describe her as quiet and reserved. In the pictures she showed us we saw this strong and curious little girl. She looks so old in her pictures - much like Vaughn did. Not much of a babyface and with a lot of thought behind her sweet eyes and not so much as one smile. Exactly like her big brother.

We are now waiting for our court date. We hope to receive one in about 2-6 weeks. We have an update on Monday and I will post something further at that point. I will definitely post when we receive our court date.

Thank you for praying and supporting us through our wait,

Alex

It's about time...

2009-10-12T13:56:00.003-05:00

For another update. Unfortunately we have no news. The current wait hasn't changed. It is still 8 months and we are 6.5 months in. However, I think it will be closer to 9 months and we will hit the 9-month mark the day after Christmas. So I think there is a good chance that it will be January before we receive our referral.

At this point, there is a very good chance that our daughter is born and is in the care of an orphanage. Once we receive and accept our referral she will be transferred to one of Gladney's foster care home in Addis.

Please pray for patience for us as we get closer and closer to seeing a picture of our sweet baby girl. The wait has actually been much easier than I had anticipated, which has been a huge blessing. I was definitely thinking that I would be a complete and total basket case for our entire time on the waitlist. :)

Thank you for going through this journey with us. We appreciate all of the support.

Alex

August Conference Call

2009-08-29T23:07:00.002-05:00

I realized I posted the new wait time on Facebook, but neglected to mention it on our blog. Sorry!

The current average wait time for our age range is still 8 months. We are so excited. We realize that it will likely increase to 9 months before we receive our referral, but that still means that we are over halfway through our wait. Praise God!

He is good... all the time.

Alex

One of those days...

2009-08-21T12:31:00.003-05:00

Today I am struggling with patience. Occasionally I become aware of milestones before they arrive and then waiting for them is torturous. On Wednesday I realized that we were one week away from our 5 month mark on the waitlist. That day also happens to be our monthly conference call with the updated wait times. Last month was such a great report. I'm just praying that the wait time remains the same. It's all I can think about. This is really the first month that I have been really concerned about the wait times increasing. The first two times it was a total shock and then last month, when it actually went back down, I was completely prepared for another increase.

We have booked up the rest of our year with well spread out trips, so we have a lot to look forward to. I'm hoping that will keep us occupied for the next few months. Plus some structure is about to return to our week as the school year approaches and we start Bible study up again.

Please continue to pray for Vaughn and his understanding of the adoption process. He understands so much more than I thought he would and for that I am SO grateful. Also, we are planning on moving soon, so please pray for wisdom for us as we make that decision. And, as always, please pray for the health of our baby girl and for peace for her sweet birth mother.

Love and thanks for all of your prayers and support,

Alex

Old Video

2009-08-12T21:43:00.005-05:00

Here is a funny video that I completely neglected to post earlier this year. It is from February... but better late than never!

Wait Time Update

2009-07-22T22:55:00.003-05:00

Today was our July update from Gladney. The numbers improved slightly for the wait times, which was great news. Honestly I was bracing myself for another increase in our wait. Of course, I feel obligated to say, the times will most likely change multiple times from now until we receive our referral and pass court.

For the time being, the current average wait time for adoptive parents waiting for children in our age range is 8 months. Last month this number went up to 9 months so this update was a huge relief. Also, it looks like the wait time from acceptance of a referral to receiving a court date is still hovering around 1-2 months. So that is very encouraging as well. The court dates are currently being scheduled about 3 weeks out and then parents typically travel about 2-5 weeks after passing court.

So this was all (much needed) good news.

I will end with some lyrics from a song we sang on Sunday that always makes me think of our baby girl...

I have decided I have resolved
To wait upon you Lord
My rock and redeemer shall not be moved
I'll wait upon you Lord

Please keep our baby girl and her birth mother in your prayers,

Alex

Is she born yet?

2009-06-18T15:10:00.002-05:00

I probably get this question more often than any other. I wish I had an answer. However many times we've been asked, Doug and I have asked ourselves that same thing ten times over. Vaughn the other day was walking around and mumbling to himself, "Baby Esther not born yet. She still not born yet." (I love that he thinks of her without us bringing her up!)

Last week on vacation I had the realization that it is now very likely that she has been born. I guess we will have to quit praying for Baby Esther "in her birth mommy's womb." Unfortunately I think that was the easy part to explain. How are we going to explain that she is born and she is ours, but that she just can't come home quite yet? Or maybe, if I'm being honest, it is me and Doug that will struggle most with that.

Thanks for hangin' in there with us,

Alex

Vaughn in Nov - Did anyone else not realize how much Vaughn has grown up in the last six months?

2009-05-19T13:33:00.004-05:00

Still waiting.

2009-05-19T13:21:00.002-05:00

Hi Everyone,

I have to apologize about not posting more often. I find it very hard to come up with anything worthwhile to write about right now.

It has been almost 8 weeks since we got on the wait list. I think this is the first time it has not felt "real" during this process. Sometimes I feel like she will never come home. I talk about the adoption, but I don't really feel like she is out there. It's kind of weird. It felt more real during all of the paperwork.

So just as a reminder - as much to myself as to y'all... We are almost eight weeks in to our wait. Which means that we still have about another six and a half months to go. (According to Gladney's most recent estimations.) That means we will be coming up on Christmas before we receive our referral. Then it will take another 4-6 months before we are able to travel to bring her home. So it could easily be June before we travel.

Please continue to pray for:
- the health of our sweet baby girl
- peace for her birth mother
- patience for us

Thank you all for caring so much about us and our family and for sharing in this experience with us,

Alex

I have no words...

2009-04-01T13:33:00.003-05:00

We have been on the wait list for about a week now. I keep thinking that I will be inspired to write some amazing blog entry about how I'm feeling. The relief, the anxiety. Yes, both. Really I've just been deep in thought lately. Wondering what our daughter's name is. Wondering if her mother is at peace with the decision she is going to make - or has already made. Our daughter might even be born already. Is she already in the orphanage? Can't they get her into Gladney's foster care sooner?

I don't know which is harder: Waiting to receive our referral with all of these questions in mind, or having a picture of our sweet daughter who is across the world whom we just can't bring home yet. I think being on the wait list will get harder as we approach the end - when we know we might receive a picture of our beautiful girl any day. But then we will know where she is. We will know that she is safe and healthy. That she is being loved on and carefully looked after. Now I just sit and wonder and pray for her and her birth mother. I just pray that I will get to sit down with her birth mother someday and ask her about her story. To ask her what was going on during these tough months. To tell her thank you.

Alex

We Received Our CIS Approval Letter!!!

2009-03-14T20:23:00.002-05:00

We had a great day today! We received our CIS approval letter just 9 days after our fingerprinting! Our spirits are lifted. Praise God!

Alex

2009-03-02T14:01:00.002-06:00

Hello All,

We received our notice to get fingerprinted by CIS, but they did not include all of the adults in the household. So we have to call them tomorrow - when they open for the week - and get everything straightened out. I am hoping that they can simply send another notice tomorrow and everyone can get fingerprinted this week. We will see.

Please continue praying that our CIS approval will come quickly. According to Gladney's best estimates we still have another 6-10 weeks before receiving approval.

Alex

Good News!

2009-02-09T13:42:00.002-06:00

We have made some new progress! Last Thursday we sent in our last few pieces of remaining paperwork that was needed to complete the homestudy. Today we received an email from our program assistant telling us that she is processing all of it today. So... what that means is that our homestudy should be sent to CIS very soon. Hopefully this week. The way I understand it, the packet has to be approved by our assistant's manager before it can be sent off to CIS. Then once it is approved at CIS we will get fingerprinted. I am not really sure when we will hear from them next. I think once our packet is sent off we will be able to work with our case worker on completing our dossier.

I will write again when we hear something.

Alex

New Wait Times

2009-02-03T15:16:00.002-06:00

Hi Everybody,

Gladney has this new thing where we can listen in on a conference call once a month and get an update on current wait times and any new changes to the Ethiopia program. So I thought I would share with you our latest guess as to when our baby girl might be coming home.

As I shared last time, our estimated time of getting on the waitlist has been pushed back quite a bit. Initially we thought we might be placed on the waitlist this week or next and that is definitely not the case. Right now sometime in April is our best guess. We still have to complete a small amount of paperwork, get CIS approval, complete our dossier and then get the dossier authenticated. We will work as fast as we can, but some of this stuff is simply out of our control.

It looks like the average time on the waitlist is 6 1/2 months right now. And I guessing that since we are waiting for a girl it will be at least 7 months - though there are many other factors. So if we get on the waitlist in April that means we might get a referral in November, but probably more like December. Then after that it looks as if it will take 1-3 months to get a court date and the court dates are usually scheduled for 10 weeks out from that point. All that adds up to us possibly not traveling for another 14 to 15 months. Maybe April or May of next year.

Please continue to pray for our developing patience with this process. Everytime we hear that it will be a little longer it is very discouraging. We really wanted to bring her home this year. It just isn't looking like that will happen. I just have to keep reminding myself that we started this journey in September and it is already February. Then I realize how quickly this will all pass by and we will be holding our baby before we know it.

Alex

A little bit of progress...

2009-01-26T20:03:00.003-06:00

So it looks like our home study is complete. However, we don't have all of the paperwork for the new babies finished so we will have to wait until we receive all of that to send it off. Basically we are waiting for birth certificates to arrive in the mail. I really don't have any idea how long it will take to receive them. Maybe a month? Hopefully less.

Once everything is sent off, we wait for CIS approval and then we get fingerprinted. Please be praying that our living situation doesn't hold up the approval process. I guess we are now hoping that we will get on the wait list sometime in March.

I will let you know when we make any more progress. Thanks for seeing us through all of this.

Alex

Guess Who??

2009-01-08T14:26:00.004-06:00

No News

2009-01-08T13:59:00.002-06:00

Hey everybody,

I have absolutely nothing to update you on. Our homestudy was conducted 7 weeks ago and it still hasn't been fully written up. We can't move on at all until it is completed.

Needless to say, we are extremely disappointed. We are most likely looking at March or April now for getting on the wait list. This is will not affect the age she will be when she comes home, but it means that we will probably not be traveling to Ethiopia before December.

Wish I had something more exciting to share. We will write again as soon as some progress is made.

Thanks for all of your prayers!

Our Home Study Visit is Complete!

2008-11-18T14:58:00.002-06:00

Hey Everyone! Our home study visit was this morning and it went great! It was completed without any trouble - including any from V who was AWESOME the whole time! He played, watched his "ABC" movie, ate lunch and went to bed without any complaint. His cooperation was a huge blessing.

It should take about two weeks for our report to be written up. Then we (and several other people) will review it before it is finalized and sent to CIS. So we are hoping that we will get fingerprinted by the end of December at the latest, but I don't honestly know if that is an accurate guess as to the timing of it all.

Please continue to pray that the process will go smoothly. Today was an awesome day!

V's Attempt at Whistling

2008-11-09T21:40:00.004-06:00

The Home Study is Scheduled!!!

2008-11-07T14:46:00.003-06:00

We are so excited! We got a call two days ago from Amy Curtis to schedule our home study! Not only that, but I talked to her about our living situation and the fact that Hank and Lindsay's baby would not be born for a few more weeks and she said that we would not need to do a follow-up visit! That means that she will only need to meet with us for four hours on the 18th! We were under the impression that it would take multiple visits plus an update after Henry is born. So that is GREAT news!

While we wait for the home study we are continuing our work on our dossier. We are about halfway through that paperwork. So here is what the rest of the paperwork adventure will look like:
Once the home study is complete it will be sent to Gladney and we will be officially approved to adopt through their program. We will then be passed off to Abbey Reeves who is our Ethipia caseworker - she will help us complete our dossier.
During all of this, our home study will also be sent to CIS. Once CIS receives it they will schedule us for our fingerprinting. The fingerprinting will take a few weeks to complete.

After our dossier and fingerprinting are all finished we will be placed on the waitlist! Our best guess is that it will be early February when that finally happens. We can't wait to wait! :)

One down, a lot more to go

2008-10-21T14:46:00.003-05:00

We hit another small milestone today... we sent in the last portion of our Gladney application! We will not be officially accepted into Gladney's program until our home study is completed and approved, but it was still a huge blessing to get it all done in just under 3 weeks.

So here is where we are at now:
1. We are waiting to have our home study scheduled - which is taking quite awhile we've been told. We are expecting to hear from them in the next three weeks or so.
2. We are working on our dossier - which is all of the paperwork that will be sent to Ethiopia.

Once our home study is complete it will be sent to Citizenship and Immigration Services and we - and all of our housemates - will be scheduled for fingerprinting. Once we receive our CIS approval our dossier can be sent over seas. Soon thereafter we will be on the waitlist! That sounded so simple didn't it? ;)

Please continue to pray that this process will keep moving along smoothly. Thanks for all of your concern and prayers!

We sent in our first packet of paperwork today!

2008-10-06T13:05:00.003-05:00

Yay!!! We got all of our I-600A paperwork together over the weekend and sent it in today. We are so excited! It is so nice to have something out of our hands and into the mail. The only thing that we still have to send to them is our home study - which Gladney will submit for us after it is complete.

So now we are working on finishing our Gladney application, which is moving at a great pace. The application is broken-up into three sections and we have almost completed the first two. We are aiming to finish the third by the end of next week. That part includes all of our physicals - and by all I mean ALL SEVEN of us in the house. Please be praying that all of those appointments and all of that paperwork is completed with ease. The paperwork has to be done just right and there are a lot of details to pay attention to.

V is struggling with his allergies and has a bit of a runny nose. Please pray for him as well.

Love you all.

Gladney Update

2008-09-25T13:20:00.006-05:00

Hey Everyone!

We had our phone orientation with Gladney today and it went great! Even better than we had expected. It is a large organization and we were worried that the process would feel impersonal and that we would be largely doing the massive amounts of paperwork on our own. We will certainly be responsible for a lot, but today we were given the name of our caseworker and the woman that will be helping us complete our dossier - all of the paperwork that will be mailed to Ethiopia. So that took a load of worry off my back just knowing that there will be someone for us to contact with questions that knows us well.

The time frame we are looking at is roughly one year total. Meaning that we might be able to travel around this time next year to pick up our sweet baby! That is a HUGE relief because the smaller agency I met with last week gave me an estimate of 18-22 months just for the wait alone. (Meaning after the American paperwork and before the wait time for travel.)

Here is a rough idea of what our next year is going to look like:

Now - Jan/Feb (4ish months): Working on our CIS (Citizenship and Immigration Services) approval, which includes the completion of our home study, fingerprinting, background checks, etc.

Feb - Aug/Sept: Then comes the 6 or so months of waiting for the "referral" - the name, picture and medical info of our baby. (And for those of you that are wondering, we will most likely change the baby's name.) That is the average wait time they are giving us for the youngest available child. The baby will most likely be between 6-9 months by the time we travel.

Finally there is about a 2-3 month waiting period before we will be able to travel to bring the baby home.

So that brings us to a grand total of 12-13 months. It is possible that the process will move faster than that, and it is unfortunately possible that it will take longer. The courts in Ethiopia break in August for the rainy season, so we are hoping to get our end of the paperwork done ASAP so that we can get our referral before that time. If we get on the wait list in January there is a good chance that we will beat the August break. However, I have to say that knowing that the baby and V will only be about 2 to 2 1/2 years apart is really giving me peace about how long the process takes. After talking with the other organization we were preparing ourselves for a 3 1/2 to 4 year gap. Most of you know that we want a large family and that large of a gap was definitely more than we had planned on - at least between our first two.

So here is what we are dealing with for the time being... Now we have to send in our preliminary application to Gladney to receive the full international adoption application. We should be able to complete the necessary paperwork for that tonight and mail it tomorrow. It will take about a week for them to process that infomation and send us our full application packet. In the meantime we are waiting for copies of our birth certificates to arrive in the mail. Once we receive those we can mail in our I-600A - the form that we send in to CIS in order to be approved to bring the baby into the US. (Eventually we will also send them our home study.) From there we will work with our caseworker to complete our application and our foreign dossier.

Please be praying:
*That our paperwork goes as smoothly and quickly as possible - that we don't miss steps, loose anything in the mail, etc.
*That V will continue to be healthy and feel loved and secure.
*That our living situation doesn't create any obstacles or major setbacks.
*And most of all, please pray that this experience draws us closer to the Lord and closer to one another.

Thank you SO much for all of your love and support. We love you all very, very much.

Maggie Valley trip number 4

2008-09-22T13:27:00.007-05:00

We just returned from Maggie Valley, NC. My grandparents have a summer home up there. It is probably one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. This was V's second time up there, and our 4th time since we got married. The best part of the whole trip was taking V for his first amusement park experience. It was awesome! He rode five different rides - two of which I was sure he would be too scared to even consider. He was so brave!

Enjoy the pics!

Making Progress... We Hope

2008-09-13T20:37:00.004-05:00

So we are officially adopting. I'm not really sure that I have the emotional energy right now to explain all that I am thinking and feeling. I will simply say that we are VERY excited.

We are going to have a phone orientation with someone from Gladney on the 25th of this month. And as awesome as it is to have that on the calendar, I'm already feeling like we could be moving faster. By the time we have the orientation a month will have already passed since we filled out our information sheet. I was really hoping to get through this initial stuff a lot faster.

During the orientation they will explain the adoption process to us - including the massive amount of paperwork we have to fill out and send off. So I guess now we are just praying that our living situation will not be a major obstacle. We are planning to explain everything over the phone during our orientation, though I would much rather deal with it in person.

I will continue to post updates when there is any new info or progress. Thanks to everyone that is keeping us in their prayers and will stand beside us through this long process.

The Hales enter the 21st century!

2008-08-28T21:16:00.001-05:00

Hello Friends!
We have finally created a blog. Sorry it took Joe and Jenny leaving for it to happen. :) We are excited to share photos and videos of us and our sweet baby with you.