(continued from previous post)

There are social complications…who to tell, who not to tell…protecting privacy vs. combating stigmas…educating those around you vs. opening yourself up to prejudice. There are many laws in place to protect kids with HIV…for instance, you do not have to tell your child’s school if you choose not to. Your public health office will tell the school district that there is an HIV+ in the school, and they will be instructed/reminded to take universal precautions, which they should do anyway.

This being said, we’ve been told by quite a few parents that they have been pleasantly surprised with the reactions of most people that they have disclosed to.... more

I have gotten several emails asking about adopting and parenting a child with HIV, so I thought I would make a post out of some of this…if this is not something that interests you, feel free to skip this post and the next, and there will be different topics coming asap. :)

Anyway, please keep in mind that since my Belane is not home yet, I do not really have any first-hand experience to share and I am not an expert, but I have spoken with quite a few parents of HIV+ children and several doctors and specialists, and I am more than happy to share with you and everyone else what I have learned.

The number one thing that we heard over and over is that a child (in the US) with... more

I figured it was about time for an adoption update. Things are moving along really well. Last week we found out that our adoption agency, AAI, had received our adoption documents from Addis (it was 2 ½ weeks after our court date) and had submitted them to our local USCIS along with our I600 application. If Belane was not HIV+, we could be traveling now and handling this at the embassy in Addis, but the embassy will require the HIV waiver, which will take weeks to process, and unfortunately, I can’t... more

Well, I wanted to share our excitement with knowing that Belane knows about her new family, but I have some other emotions to share as well.

I have to admit that it is different with Belane than it was with Benjamin. With Benjamin, he was in a very small care center, where all of the children got adopted. He was one of the children that had waited the longest to be matched with a family (and yet it was still under a year). When we were sending off his package and the photo album of his new family, we were SO EXCITED!! He had waited so long, and seen so many other children get their photo albums and seen so many other children come and go…we were so glad it was finally his turn.

With... more

Belane is also now waiting for that wonderful day when Josh and I walk through the doors at AHOPE for the second time and hold her in our arms once again...this time for keeps.

Of course at age two and a half, how much she understands about what is going to happen and how much her life is going to change is hard to tell, but she now knows she has a family that loves her. She knows she has a Mom and a Dad. She knows she has brothers and sisters.

On August 17, Denise, the most wonderful volunteer for AAI,... more

Today I am doing photographs instead of an un-photographable post.

I got some pictures today from an adoptive mom who was in Ethiopia and visited AHOPE and spent time with the little kids. She sent me a great collection of pictures of Belane and her friends.

I also got a few pictures from another volunteer who spent some time at “little” AHOPE. Although she didn’t know we were adopting Belane when she was there, she captured her in two fun pictures which she passed on this week after we connected on an email group.

This first... more

We spent a fun weekend at “Gramma’s house”, where we got to visit with Josh’s family and go to his cousin’s wedding. It was great to see all of our family and I learned that MY KIDS CAN DANCE!!! They had so much fun dancing at the wedding…they would have stayed all night.

I came home to an email from a great woman that just spent two weeks volunteering at AHOPE. She gave us quite a bit of information on Belane as well as pictures. The sad news is, poor Belane is freshly shaved. Ringworm is going around the orphanage (which for those of... more

SHE’S OURS!!!!!!!!! Belane is officially our daughter as of August 4, 2006. To say we are excited is an understatement…

I had started to get nervous last night…it is very common for there to be a minor “glitch” in the paperwork when the cases go to court, and for that case to then be “bumped” back a week. Well, there is no “next week” in court until October now, and I started to wonder what we’d do if our case didn’t pass today and we had to wait until after the court closure after all. Josh kept telling me it would be fine and not to make... more

WOO HOO!!!!

I got the best phone call this morning. Our I171H is IN THE MAIL!!!!!

We had run into a brick wall with our USCIS office, and our social worker was not getting any response from them when she called and left messages. USCIS has had our application, homestudy and fingerprints for almost three months, and we keep hearing how they are very timely for families in one state that they “service” and that families in the other state that they “service” are seeing long delays. (I am using the word service loosely here).

Knowing... more

Time for another adoption update. Let’s see…our court date is on Friday, which means if all goes well, as of Friday, Belane will legally be our daughter. We’ll be anxiously awaiting that good news from Ethiopia, and I’ll be sure to pass it on as soon as we get it.

On another issue, I wanted to share with you all how amazingly grateful Josh and I are and how blessed we are feeling. If you read my posts on “Deciding to Adopt Belane” you know that money was one... more