Our Weekend Getaway

We spent last weekend up north in Traverse City, MI for a little getaway.  We try to make it up north each summer, but the past two summers were not "normal", so we were happy to return this summer.  

We left of Friday afternoon and drove to Traverse City for the weekend. Our getaway started with a great dinner at a restaurant on Old Mission Peninsula...The Jolly Pumpkin.  It was our goal to eat only at local restaurants the entire weekend...and we were successful.  You can't beat local ingredients and delicious menus....and every local menu in TC has several dishes with cherries!

Old Mission Peninsula

On our way back to our hotel we caught the sun setting over the west bay.

We decided to try something new on this trip...wine tasting!  Old Mission Peninsula has seven wineries.  We made it to three of them...and it was so fun. We both really enjoyed it and are looking forward to going to the wineries we did not visit on our next trip.


Our first stop: Black Star Farms

Our second stop:  Chateau Chantal

Seriously...you cannot beat the views here...so beautiful!  Views of the west bay...

...and views of the east bay!

Our last stop was Bower's Harbor Vineyards:

On Sunday we took a walk along the bay and then drove north to Charlevoix.  Our intent was to relax on the beach, but the weather was a little chilly for that.  We strolled through some local shops and ate lunch overlooking the harbor.  


We love so many things about Northern Michigan and are blessed that it is only a short drive away! 

On Its Way!

We found out today that our dossier was authenticated in Washington DC and returned to Bethany in Grand Rapids. Which means...tomorrow our dossier is being sent to Ethiopia!  It seems surreal that all of our paperwork is actually going to the country where our child will be from.  Such a good feeling!


When our dossier reaches Ethiopia it will be translated and authenticated.  Then we will officially be on the waiting list!

Florida iMovie

Ok, so we are finally getting around to posting some pictures from the vacation we took at the end of April.  We travelled to Destin, Florida once again with the Sayers Family.  We love this area so much...we keep going back!  I think this was our 6th trip there! These vacations are very low-key and relaxing.  When people asked us what we did on vacation...we just hung out by the pool and beach, went for walks, hit the playground, ate some yummy food and ice cream too! 


I was not looking forward to the time it would take to post several pictures on Blogger, so I decided to try making an iMovie with still photos.  So, this is my first attempt...


Untitled from Stacey Lubbers on Vimeo.

Complete.

Today was a great day as we finally turned in our dossier.  We felt a sense of relief as we handed over 6 months worth of paperwork to our case worker.


It feels good to have this step done, but we know the hard part of waiting is now upon us.  The approximate wait time for a referral is still 6-12 months from the time our dossier reaches Ethiopia.  We now just continue to pray for patience and rest in the knowledge that God has a child in mind for us already.  We pray for that child's health and development and cannot wait to meet him or her!

It's Finally Here!

Our USCIS Immigration approval finally came in the mail on Monday!  We were so excited to see the final document needed for our dossier.  


I went to Grand Rapids today in an attempt to get several documents in our dossier state-sealed.  This is done at a Secretary of State office, but the closest office that gives state-seals is in Grand Rapids.  I walked in and was told that their computers were down, and they did not know how long this would last.  I burned some time shopping at a few stores and then went back.  No luck. Still down.  I decided to go to a few more stores thinking this problem can't last much longer.  I headed back to SOS and they were still down.  So, I decided to drive back home since I had already been there for 2 1/2 hours...with no state-seals. 


Scott is going to GR tomorrow to try to get our state-seals.  Hoping he has better luck than me:)  Then we can officially submit our dossier!

Tulips!

Here are a few pictures from our Thursday evening in Downtown Holland, MI at the Tulip Festival.  We met up with Scott's sister and brother-in-law and our two nieces- Lauren & Allie.  


The food was great, the Dutch Dancers danced, and of course the tulips were beautiful!  

Mother's Day

To be honest, Mother's Day is not a day that I have looked forward to over the past few years.  It seems to be such a raw reminder that our children are not with us, but we look forward to celebrating with our adopted child in years to come.  We made the best of our weekend and enjoyed celebrating with our families.  Scott & I are blessed to have great mothers and do not take those gifts for granted.   Our weekend was highlighted by our church service on Sunday morning which focused on not only celebrating mothers, but "Celebrating Women".  A major part of the service also focused on adoption and foster care! Such perfect timing! We cannot help but think about our child's birth mother on Mother's Day.  We pray for her each day as she takes steps toward this HUGE sacrifice.   And...Scott gave me a "Heart for Africa" necklace for Mother's Day.  Soooo cute, I love it! (Thanks for your help Sara!)

Quote, the Mailbox, & Vacation

God does notice us, and he watches over us. 

But it is usually through another person
that he meets our needs.

Therefore, it is vital that
we serve each other.

~Spencer W. Kimball

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We are about 3 weeks into waiting for the LAST thing needed for our dossier.  The USCIS approval is the only piece of paper we need to proceed, so we open the mailbox each day in hope of seeing the envelope.  Once we receive it, we need to make a trip to Grand Rapids to have the documents state-sealed.  Then we will drop off our dossier at Bethany in Holland, they will forward it to Bethany in Grand Rapids, they will send it Washington DC to be authenticated, and then off to ETHIOPIA and officially on the wait-list!  

We recently learned that Bethany Christian Services (BCS) is not currently changing the wait times for referrals.  So, we expect to wait 6-12 months to get a referral.  The big question mark comes after we get our referral.  Many changes have occurred in the Ethiopian adoption process and BCS hopes to have a better idea on wait times for court dates and Embassy appointments in the next few months. 

******

We were able to get away last week for a week in Florida with our good friends. We had a great time a relaxing week!  More pics to come!

Fingerprinted!

Today we had our fingerprinting appointment at the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) office in Grand Rapids.   We are one step closer to submitting our dossier and getting on the waiting list!  Our fingerprints are sent to the FBI for clearance in order to get our Immigration paperwork approved.  We are hoping to get the approval in the mail in the next 3-4 weeks.  At that point we will put a few finishing touches on our dossier and send it in.  We love making progress in this sometimes long & daunting process.  The end of the paperwork is in close sight...which means the beginning of a long wait.


At this point we do not have any idea how long the wait times will be to receive a referral.  With all the changes that are going on around the Ethiopian adoption system, our agency (Bethany Christian Services) is doing what they can to keep us informed.  They are not able to give approximate wait times until families go through the modified process - the process seems to be constantly changing. We received an email today stating that the Ethiopian court must obtain a letter from the police, hospital, family, etc. proving the orphan's status.  We think this is a positive step in cleaning up some of the problems in the system and hope and pray this will be beneficial for the children.  


I follow several blogs of families adopting from Ethiopia.  It is encouraging to see the process working and moving forward in many cases during this time of unknowns.  Families are currently getting referrals, court dates, Embassy appointments and bringing children to their forever homes.  We are dreaming of that day!

A Great Adoption Video

We mentioned in our 1st post on this blog that God had opened our hearts to international adoption after attending an Orphan Sunday Event at our church.  I recently came across one of the videos that was shown during an international/domestic adoption session at that event.  God used this video to open our eyes and hearts to international adoption and ultimately an Ethiopian adoption.



(2011) Adoption Associates 'Owen' from Chad Kremer on Vimeo.

Just to keep everyone up to date...we have not heard any updates from Ethiopia in the last few weeks.  We continue to pray for the orphans and those making decisions in Ethiopia.