February 15, 2012

Currumbin Community Garage Sale

 

Three simple ways to help us raise money for our adoption:

1. Fill your car and trailer with items to sell at the garage sale.
2. Be willing and generous to buy items on the day.
3. Spread the word to your family and friends.

 

* Thanks everyone for your constant support. As you will notice (to the right), our funds are rising steadily  and we are blessed to be meeting all of our current payments.  As far as the process, we are still dealing with final paperwork. Two weeks ago we flew to the US Consulate  office in Sydney to get official fingerprints for our USCIS I-600A application.  After that was completed, we sent that application to the USCIS office in Bangkok Thailand (which oversees Australian US residents).  We are now currently waiting for their approval.  Once that is approved we will almost have every document needed before sending paperwork to Ethiopia! We are praying things will move quickly.

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December 12, 2011

Our son is going to have a SISTER!

As our adoption process is moving steadily along, we would like to announce the exciting news that our son will now have a little partner in crime! For those who didn’t know already, Karina is 21 weeks pregnant, and we found out a few days ago that we are most likely having a baby girl. We feel so blessed that God not only generously answered our prayer for one child by opening the door for adoption, but now has also given us the gift of a biological child.

As for how this news affects the adoption, it doesn’t. Since we are still very passionate about adoption, it simply means that we will be welcoming two children into our home in the next year and a half. Our baby girl is due on April 24th, 2012, and from current estimations we are guessing that the adoption will be finalised in mid 2013. This means that our son and daughter could be very close in age (as our son will probably be between 4 to 14 months old when we bring him home), which means that we will be blessed with ‘twins’ in some sense.

As for the Home Visit which occurred last month, it went very well and we were officially approved to be adoptive parents from our social worker. As an outcome, she wrote a 15 page “Home Study” summarising why we are fit to adopt our son from Ethiopia. Her visit was also very informative and gave us a lot to think about in terms of parenting an adoptive child.

The next step in our paperwork is to mail our Home Study to the U.S. Citizenship and  Immigration Services offices along with another fingerprint check for them to approve us for adoption. Once that is done, (which could take up to 16 weeks), we will will be preparing our final lot of paperwork to be sent to Ethiopia. Then we wait for 10 – 16 months for an official   referral of a child.

Apart from the news of our daughter and paperwork, we now have our Australian cookbooks printed! The book consists of over 60 delicious recipes from our friends at Christ Church Currumbin. We are selling them as a fundraiser for adoption at a donation cost of $20 per book. If you live in Australia and are interested in either buying a book or helping fundraise for us by selling them to your friends/family/neighbours/workmates, please send us an email (ak.feich@gmail.com).

Thank you again to everyone for your constant support. (We have already raised over $11,000 thus far!)

Peace,

Adam &  Karina

p.s. Hope you all have a Happy Christmas and New Year.

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Filed under Adoption, Cookbook, Family, Paper Chase

November 6, 2011

Home Visit

This week is our official “Home Visit” from a US licensed adoption social worker. A woman from American Adoption Professionals Abroad will be flying from Amsterdam, Netherlands to spend 3 consecutive days interviewing and assessing us and our home as potential adoptive parents. After her visit, she will write a formal “Home Study” that will be sent to Ethiopia with the rest of our official paperwork in a few months.

In preparation for the visit, we are currently in cleaning mode and baby-safety mode…. praying that everything goes smoothly, and that as a result we are better-informed to parent our future son from Ethiopia.

We will give an update of the visit next week.

* Look to the right of this page to check the funds which have been raised thus far! We are very blessed by all of  your donations and continued support.

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October 1, 2011

Bloodlines Documentary with John Piper

John Piper just released a book titled “Bloodlines,” on racism. There  also has been a short 18 minute documentary produced on the book which is amazing! This video captures John Piper’s story of growing up in the South, to serving in a church in downtown Minneapolis and concludes with John and his wife adopting a little black girl at the age of 50. Enjoy.

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September 28, 2011

Sundays Are For Feasting

We are making a cookbook to help raise funds for our adoption!

If you have a favourite family recipe (dinner or dessert) that you would like to contribute to our book please  email it to us at ak.feich@gmail.com

One of the goals of this project is not only for us to sell these books, but for you (our friends and family) to have an opportunity to raise funds for our adoption through your personal networks.

(Please note that there will be two editions of this book, an Australian in metric measurements and an American in US customary measurements)

 

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August 14, 2011

Faces of Ethiopia

Over the past few weeks there hasn’t been much to report on other than more paperwork, international phone calls with the adoption agency, medical exams, police background checks, and completing our online adoption training course.

While we wait for all of our paperwork to be processed, here are some beautiful faces of little Ethiopian boys.

In a year or so, we will be able to add our son’s photo alongside these boys!

On the donation front, things are moving along smoothly. Thank you once again to everyone who has donated to our adoption fund, and for those who still wish to join our cause you can do so by credit card, check, or bank transfer.

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July 30, 2011

Donations

Thank you to everyone for your  overwhelming support and encouragement thus far. It has truly been a blessing to us. We have received a handful of questions regarding donations, so we thought we would give an overview of the financial side of the adoption process.

First,  before any financial support – we would covet your prayers and emotional support.

As for the costs of adoption, the process as a whole is estimated to cost around $30,000. This is a mixture of fees from the adoption agency, social workers, legal fees, US government, Ethiopian government, paperwork, court dates, and two trips to Ethiopia.

These fees are not all paid at the same time, but are broken up throughout the whole adoption process. Currently we are trying to raise around $8,000 over the next 5 months for agency, social worker, and paperwork costs.

If you choose to donate, you can give in whichever way is best for you. One big donation, or 12 monthly small donations, or 1 small donation.

Over the next year we will also be trying to fundraise in creative ways, so be on the look-out for craft auctions, garage sales, dinners, and maybe even a cookbook. You can take part in our fundraisers… or even better, you can get creative yourself and fundraise on our behalf.

Thank you all once again for your willingness to support us in a plethora of ways. If you have further questions or comments, just let us know.

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Filed under Adoption, Donations, Ethiopia

July 20, 2011

the “paper-chase”

Welcome to our dining room table.

This is only a portion of the paperwork that we need to collect and fill out over the next few months.  Plus, last weekend we finished a 52 page questionnaire, and we are also almost finished with 8 hours of an online adoption training course with the National Council For Adoption.  (The course is not only interesting, but also pretty fun, believe it or not…)

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July 9, 2011

welcome to the start of our journey.

We are  excited to announce that we’ve been approved to adopt a son from Ethiopia through America World Adoption Association. This is a process that will take 12 – 24 months and will cost around $30,000.

During these next 12 – 24 months, we hope and pray that our adoption process will not only be life-altering for us, but also for everyone around us who partakes in our joys and challenges.

Over the months to come, we will be regularly updating this website so you can be present with us through each step of our journey.  To find out more specifics about us, our adoption timeline, and the country of Ethiopia, please click on the page links above.

To give financially to our adoption fund, you can click on the US or AU donation buttons on the right hand side of this page.

Thank you all for your  support, whether that is the gift of time, prayer, or money.

Love,

Adam & Karina

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Filed under Adoption, Ethiopia

July 8, 2011

We’re Adopting!

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