August 14

I'm giggling even thinking about how crazy this must sound, but I have to say it...
You know how people have favorite colors, favorite ice cream flavors, favorite shirts, favorite restaurants.  Well, I have a favorite day.  It's August 14.  It has been for years!  I know, weird.  I really don't know why.  My favorite number is 14, August is summer, I don't know, it is just my favorite.  August 14 makes me happy.

Well, 2 years ago, on August 14, we were in Ethiopia for our court date.  We met with the Ethiopian Judge in her office, on August 14, and she signed our official Ethiopian adoption papers and made Kyah our legal daughter, on August 14.

We got some amazing news today about our adoption, that I will post about in the future.  But for now, all I can say is that August 14 ROCKS!!  God is good, all the time!!

Today, August 14, is our sweet "B's" birthday!  Coincidence?  I think not!  Nothing is by chance.  My sweet daughter on the other side of the world just turned a year older, today, August 14.  God willing, this will be the last birthday she ever experiences as an orphan!  

I can't explain how it feels to be so in love with someone (actually 2 someones!) who I've never met.  To think that they don't know that I am here for them, loving them and planning for them from afar.  So, we are going out for ice cream tonight as a family.  Celebrating her birthday in our hearts.

All I know is that next year we are going to PARTY all together, in person, on August 14!

Mega pictures and P.A.I.R.

  

Sol & Kyah just chillin' in the hammock

Family photo is currently missing 2

Jesse, Solomon & Kyah having fun on the first warm day this summer.

Kyah enjoys our pygmy goat, "Billy"

Fun in our pool!

Kyah needed to get out of the pool and listen to music on the iphone

Posing by our calves  =)

Kyah is getting braver by the day with our calves

Playing in the sandbox

Solomon found a great way to pick cherries from our tree  =)

Jordan by our new pasture

Todd took a day off from work and we enjoyed a family bike ride

stopped to check out a creak then back to our house for an afternoon at the pool.

Gabe joined us at Peach Wave for some yummy goodness!

I discovered "divide and enjoy" bowl separators.  Amazing idea!!  =)

"Gramma La", as Kyah calls her, helped decorate a princess cake for Kyah's birthday party.

She was so excited for her birthday!   Couldn't wait for everyone to arrive, sing to her and, of course, open up her birthday presents!

Grandpa Lee & Gramma A. gave Kyah a princess doll.  Perfect choice and she loves it!

She smiled the entire party and even sang along while we all sang "happy birthday" to her!  Ha!

Trying on her new strawberry lip gloss.

Then, out for a Chinese lunch with Aunt Lisa and cousin Lily

Putting lip gloss on Jesse....what a good big brother!

Uncle Kirk is the best!

Another party with Grampa Jack & Gramma La

Our big 3 year old!!  Love her so very much!!

Apparently Kyah takes after her big brother Jesse.  She was on the monkey bars at our house, fell and hit her head and ended up with 4 staples in the back of her head.  She was a trooper when getting the staples put in (although drugs helped a lot!)  She sluggishly told the doctor and nurse "ok guys, enough!" over and over!


P.A.I.R. is the process we are about to begin with our adoptions.  It stands for Pre-Adoption Immigration Review and basically is the US Embassy reviewing our girls cases to make sure all is in order (that it's Ethical, that they fit the US guidelines as orphans, etc).  We have been waiting for months to begin this part of the adoption process.  It is a lot of legal paper work (around 40 documents for each one) and we have been waiting for a couple that have been difficult to collect.  And, I am happy to say it is all finished and sent in today!!  We should hear in a couple of weeks that they have received it and then we are told that it takes between 3 - 4 months to complete.  That time seems long, but 3 - 4 months slips by quickly.  (I'm trying hard to remain positive, can you tell!?!)  Once that is done, Ethiopia schedules the parent/guardian court and then WE GO!  

Each step we conquer seems huge when waiting, so today feels great!  

Specific prayer requests:  

*for the I600 forms that were sent in today, to arrive complete and thorough. 

*that no further investigating will be necessary and this will simply be approved.

*for "T" and "B".  Our 2 precious girls who desperately need a family to call their own.

*that during this time of waiting, God will work in all our lives and grow us in wondrous ways.

To Him be all the glory!!

What will they think?.

Our girls don't know we exist.  I feel like I am on the edge of my seat waiting to find out that they have been told.  Because they are of age to understand what adoption means, the social workers in Ethiopia feel that it is best to wait to let them know until the time gets closer for us to come get them.  At first I was thinking "tell them!  Don't wait!" Now, however, I'm realizing why they choose to wait to let them know.

The process will take many months yet and if they know about us now, and we wait months and months to come get them, they will begin to loose trust in us already.  So...we wait to tell them.  Seems like the word "wait" appears often in adoption processes.  But, I totally understand this.  I have asked, if it seems appropriate, to video the social worker letting them know that they have a family and have been chosen! That someone loves them and wants them to be a part of their lives!  

How will they react?  Excited?  Scared?  Confused?  Probably all of the above. We've been told that all children at the orphanage see strangers arrive and take their friends and they know that those kids will now have families.  And, that every child wants it to be "their turn".  Although they don't know what all of this will exactly look like, they all want it to be for them.  

In our April update of the girls, "B" actually asked her social worker if they thought that someone would adopt "T" and herself together?  ....interesting question from her.  =)  Makes me wonder if they do know more than what we think they do.

I'm just so excited for both of them to have hope.  I see pictures of smiles on their faces and they seem to really being taken care of well.  However, at the end of the day, they are still in an orphanage.  I want them to have the hope of a future with a family that will love them forever.  I can not wait to look into their eyes, cup their face with my hands and say "YOU are now mine!"       

Our Sweeties

It has already been 2 months since we've been matched with our girls!  I realize we have months on wait ahead of us, but this seems to be going really fast.  Praying that our time apart continues to feel this same way.

I want so badly to post pictures of them and share details, we are, however, not allowed to do that at this point.  We can not share names or ages, but I will tell you that we are adopting out of birth order with both of them and I will refer to them as "T" and "B".  =) 

When we got their referrals, we were literally bombarded with all of their history.  Another thing I love about working with Bethany, they research and investigate all the children in their care.  Therefore, we have their history!  I received multiple 40+ page reports on each.  Literally hundreds of email update reports, pictures and videos.  I admit I scanned the writings and went straight to the pictures and videos!  Now, I have a chance to sit back and review our children's stories, look over medical reports, dream about what I'm told their personalities are like, etc.  I am falling so in love with these 2!!

For "T", English is her 3rd language.  She recently "ranked 2nd out of 45 students" at her school!  And is a "very smart student"!  She was awarded a diary for her accomplishments.  I am so proud of her!

"B" apparently is a chatter-box.  =)   She likes to be the center of attention.  Her friends have a nickname for her which means talkative and they say that "she will talk to a stone some day if there is no one around".  LOL!! Solomon is gonna have some competition over here!!
  
Both girls like to play with dolls, are social, are athletic and respectful.  LOVE hearing and reading about them.  Realizing that this will likely be full of challenges in every way, I am still super ready to travel to Ethiopia and bring them both home.  And, especially to give them a family, which every child on this planet deserves!  

God has lead us to them and we leave it all in His Mighty Authority about what lies ahead for all of us. 

Relying on my Heavenly Father in all things....that's a pretty great place to be! 

Tulip Time Fun

Posing for pictures during Tulip Time 2014.

Kyah really enjoyed wearing her Dutch costume this year.  Especially the wooden shoes!  

Love this girl!  She asks me to come see her baby-dolls that she set up.  Then, I notice one with a toy hand gun!  I removed it and she quickly put it back and said she was going bird hunting!  She's a girly-girl with a big splash of tom-boy!


We are at the wonderful part in the adoption journey called WAITING.  Things are in process and there's really nothing new to report.  We are in the part of the process when the US Embassy reviews our girls cases and basically makes sure everything about these adoptions are ethical.  Love working with Bethany Christian Services for this fact!  They have a great reputation with the Ethiopian government and make sure things are done properly and with the best interest of the children.

The absolute most asked question is:  "When will you bring them home?"  Well, I wish we knew!  We are told the process we are in is typically between 2 1/2 months to 4 months to complete.  Then, the parent/guardian court date a month from that, then our court date.  We will make 2 trips to Africa, just like for Kyah's adoption.  The 2nd trip should come quicker (less time in between the trips) due to the US Embassy reviewing the cases now, rather than in between the 2 trips.  I really don't like to put a time-frame on this since things in the adoption world change constantly.  God willing, there will be no hold-ups with paperwork, parent/guardian reviews, or more government slow-downs and we can get those cuties home!

DTE!!!!!

To all you adoptive parents, you know what this means!  For you others, it means Dossier To Ethiopia!  Ironically we received an email that all our papers are being sent to Ethiopia today while we were in Chicago at the Christian Alliance for Orphans summit.  

Another step closer to bringing our girlies home!!

So, here it goes...

     As we shared before, we felt God prompting us to adopt again.  The questions facing us were; from where and how old.  As we began talking to God about it, He narrowed the options and made our path very clear that it would be from Ethiopia again.  Looking back on Kyah's adoption, we were very "safe".  We wanted young, less issues to deal with and not to disrupt our birth order.  For this adoption, we both felt we needed to completely place it all in God's hands.

     We are working with Bethany Christian Services again (in our opinion they are the best!) and they have what's called a "400 Campaign" which is basically 400 children who are waiting to be adopted.  They are children from all over the world and as we began looking at these children, God began to work.  These children are so beautiful, vulnerable, alone, and could be mine.  We felt any excuse we came up with was completely selfish.  It is not these children's fault they are orphaned and if we had faith that God was calling us to do this, than we needed to trust Him and leave it all to Him.

     Faith was needed here and a lot of it.  This could get real uncomfortable and messy.  Eventually we conceded and told God we would do whatever He asked and  wanted us to do.  By then, we had our eye on a girl from this waiting child list and began to think about how she would fit into our family and fell in love with her.  In several of her pictures, we  noticed  her with a specific friend.  When we looked at this friends profile, who was also in this "400 Campaign",  we would see "our" child in her pictures.  This began to really bother us.  How could we separate them?  We decided to ask about the other girl and were told from our social worker that because they were not biological siblings, their policy was that it needed to be 2 separate adoptions.  They would, however, check with the team in Ethiopia who knows these girls.

     We felt so strongly, right from the beginning, that they were to be together somehow, we began to pray about this situation.  If we couldn't adopt them together, we would pray someone from West Michigan would or we would get one child home and immediately begin the process of getting the other one home.  About a month went by and we heard nothing and decided that we would stick to our plan on getting one girl home and going back for the other.  Once again, God had other ideas.  I got a call from our social worker saying that it was recommended that the girls stay together and be adopted as "psychological siblings"!  Unbelievable.  Well, not really when God's in charge!  We are still a bit in shock and are humbled that God would call us to do this.


     Knowing with God that all things are possible, (such as this rare event of adopting non-bio siblings at the same time, getting a referral for 2 children so quickly, paper work going smoothly, changing immigration status from 1 to 2 children, etc., etc., ) I simply have confidence that God knows best and knows how to care for us and what each of us needs (which I admit I'm praying now that He doesn't think I need to drive a 15 passenger van!)

     As reality begins to set in, we are faced with challenges that go with this.  The adoption for one child is about $35,000  This is a bit of a stretch for us financially.   Now, with this amazing news of 2 children, the cost will be about $52,000.  Additionally, we will need to buy a larger vehicle (NO 15 passenger van please. ha!)  We know God will provide and He has so far.  We have applied for grants and are willing to borrow money to make this happen.  Since becoming debt free 4 years ago, borrowing money goes against everything we believe in, but will do whatever it takes to get these girls home and with our family!

     Living among this community of believers and having a strong sense that Todd and I need to do something about the global orphan crisis, I wanted to share all these details with everyone so you can get a better feel of all that God is doing here and all that still needs to be done.


  We are asking for your prayers with our adoption.  We know there are going to be many challenges ahead, so we covet your prayers!  We are getting as prepared and educated as we are able.  And, we want these girls home soon so they can leave the orphanage, have hope and join our forever family!  Join us in praying home our girls and our friends babies.  For Kerri, Carmen & Lisa who are desperately wanting their babies home and trusting  God will see this through.  Also, for those darlings still waiting on the "400 Campaign".

    Again, stepping out of our comfort zone, we are asking for help from whomever is willing and able.  Maybe your role isn't to adopt, but you can surround us while we do!   The cause of the orphan should be a priority.  God expects action from us, especially where orphans and widows are concerned.  What are we going to do about it?  I personally would love to be surrounded by the body of Christ and be supported in helping bring these 2 children into my family where they can belong.  We humbly ask you to help us with our adoption.  We are joining with a non-profit organization called Lifesong who has set up an account for us.

There are a couple ways to donate towards our adoption.  You can send a check, written out to "Lifesong" and 100% of what you send in will go directly into our account.  Send your check to:
                   
                     Lifesong for Orphans
                     PO Box 40
                     Gridley, IL  61744

* in the memo, please write:  Klaasen # 4410

Your gifts are tax-deductible and you may ask for a receipt for your taxes.  Lifesong is a 501 (c) 3 tax exempt organization.

Or, you may simply click the "PayPal" button on the top of this page.  Again, using "Klaasen #4410"  There is an administration fee of 2.9% that will be taken out of the donation when using PayPal.

                    Fund Raising Goal date is May 26, 2014.

Please consider this as part of your tax deductions for 2014.  It would really mean a lot to 2 girls who need a family.

Words can not express our gratitude to God and our friends for the support and prayers we have received and we humbly thank you!