Slow going.

Well, not much to say here. We are waiting for our dossier to arrive back from Washington D.C. and then we will obtain our long awaited "place in line". Things are good here. The weather is beautiful, Max is playing baseball. He had his first homerun tonight. Kent is getting ready to finish up teaching his classes for this semester. Emma is enjoying gymnastics and preparing for kindergarten roundup. Samuel just loves every sport and is so happy if he is dressed in some form of athletic equipment, be it a baseball helmet, soccer jersey, basketball shirt or baseball glove. I guess what I am getting at is that we have our hands full and life passes us by way to quickly already, so how can I want for the months to fly by. It is hard to comprehend in my mind that in some ways, the faster the days go by the closer we get to our daughter, but the more grown up our children our. I am not complaining about the wait, because I am so happy that there are families wanting to adopt children without families and give them one. God will know when it is our time, and we are walking by faith.

The answers to why would you adopt a child, when you already have three?

Because we believe that this life is not our own.
Because we believe that in the end, it won't matter what career ladders we climbed or financial investments we made or what gadgets we could afford. It will matter that one life was saved.
Because we have seen hopelessness in Ethiopia and elsewhere, but believe in all hope that each child is a child of God.
Because we believe that the orphaned street child who plays street soccer on the rough pavement of the streets of Addis Ababa is no less valuable to the Creator than the polished child on a suburban soccer team here in America.
Because we see nothing more worthy of our focus, time, resources, and lives.Because injustice is a wrong worth righting.
Because the poor child is still a child.
Because we know that, while adoption is not the solution in and of itself to the orphan crisis 143 million times over, we have seen with our own lives how it rescues the lives of those who can be adopted.
Because we believe that Jesus died for redemption, not just for eternity, but for our lives on this planet and we believe we can be vessels of that redemption for children's lives here.
Because we know that, if it were our own flesh and blood, we would want someone to love them and call them family, too.
Because, really, these kids are no different from your own. Not at all.
Because it's just not okay with us to say no to a child who needs a home when we have one.
Because it's just not okay with us to say no to a child who needs a family when we have one.
Because it's just not okay with us to say no to a child who needs room to thrive when we have room and can make room.
Because it's just not okay with us to do nothing.
Because it won't be okay with them if we do nothing.
Because it's just not going to be okay to do nothing.
"Rescue the perishing; don't hesitate to step in and help. If you say, "Hey, that's none of my business," [i.e. "that's not for me"] will that get you off the hook? Someone is watching you closely, you know— Someone not impressed with weak excuses." -Proverbs 24:12 (The Message)
"Once our eyes are opened we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows that we know and holds us responsible to act." Proverbs 24:12

Yet again, I did not write this, I copied it off of a blog that I had read. When I read this blog it spoke directly to my thought process. I have told so many people that having my children, and knowing that we are so blessed is what has really made the urge to adopt a child grow in me. How can I look at my healthy, well-fed, clothed , comfortably living with beds and pillows, and loved ever so much children and not think of all of the orphaned children in this world. It breaks my heart to know that there are children the same age as Max, Emma and Samuel, out there in this big huge world, without a mom or dad to call their own.
Pray for God to watch over our orphaned daughter while we try our hardest to make our way to her!

You know your an adoptive parent when...

1. The fact that there are 143 million children without a parent to kiss them goodnight has made you lose sleep.
2. You realize DNA has nothing to do with love and family.
3. You can't watch Adoption Stories on TLC without sobbing.
4. The fact that, if 7% of Christians adopted 1 child there would be no orphans in the world, is convicting to you
5. You spend free time surfing blogs about families who have experienced the blessing of adoption
6. It drives you crazy when people ask you about adopted child's 'real' parents.
7. You have ever been 'pregnant' with your adoptive child longer than it takes an elephant to give birth.(2 years!)
8. You had no idea how you would afford to adopt but stepped out in faith anyway, knowing where God calls you He will provide.
9. You have ever taken an airplane ride half-way around the world with a child you just met.
10. You believe God's heart is for adoption.
11. You realize that welcoming a child into your heart and family is one of the most important legacies you could ever leave on this earth.
12. You know what the word 'Dossier' means, and you can actually pronounce it!
13. You have welcomed a social worker into the most private parts of your life.
14. You shudder when people say your child is so lucky that you adopted them, knowing full well you are the blessed one to have him or her in your life.

I actually read this off another site and decided that I needed to copy this, so that I could remember that I am not the only person that feels this way!

Hip hip hooray, we mailed our dossier today!!

Today we mailed our dossier to our agency!! Hooray! I thought this day would never come.
I really don't have anything to say other than hooray! I can only imagine how happy I will be when our dossier is bundled and arrives in Ethiopia.

So what a wonderful Easter gift. Our I-171 was in the ever treasured mailbox Saturday morning. We had all weekend to just hold onto it, and wait for Monday to come to be able to have a copy notarized, county authenticated and sent to the state for certification. I know it seems odd to be so anxious over something that is still going to have to be processed, but it is the last something to be processed. After this, our dossier will be processed, bundled and what not to go to Ethiopia!!! Yeah!!
We are so excited. Of course then the real waiting begins.
So there is my update, so officially April 14, 2009 our I- 171 will be mailed to the secretary of state for state certification.

One last thought that has been running through my head lately. When Max asks me the huge questions, such as, why can't we give all of the orphans a home, I am taken back. What do you tell a 6 year old who has known nothing but "riches" and blessings his whole life, that not everyone lives the way he is blessed to live. I read somewhere the other day this statement:

I sometimes want to ask God why there are so many people living in poverty and children without homes or parents, and then I think what if he were to ask me the same question.

That sums up a lot of my answer to Max. We are doing what we as a family can. Of course my heart breaks for any family that cannot stay together. For any mother or father that cannot take care of their child. My heart is so heavy for the millions of children orphaned in Ethiopia, much less everywhere else. We are trying Max. I pray someday that we will be able to do more.

First Blog ever!!

Here we are, the first blog ever from the McQuilkin family!! I am very excited to be writing all of this down, because my head is constantly being overwhelmed with information. There is so much I would love to tell all of our family and friends about the wonderful process of adoption that our family is adventuring through!! So, this is easier than giving every living person a detailed update, every time they ask me a simple question. To tell you the truth, I probably tell people way to much. I can't help it, I am just so excited. I am excited that Kent and I are both equally partnered in our passion and love for the wonderful idea of adoption. Our worlds and our lives have changed so much since we have decided to adopt. The blessings are flowing more freely everyday. They are simple blessings, such as knowing my children have a roof over their heads and beds to sleep in. Things I never thought of on an everyday basis, prior to my eyes being opened. I think so many of us (myself included), don't know how to deal with the thought that other people in this world do not live as comfortably as we do as Americans. I still have thoughts of overwhelming under achievement if that makes since. In a world so big, I feel so small and my efforts feel so small.

You know what has been my comfort lately? Knowing that I can do something. I have found something that I feel I am pretty good at. I love being a mother. We have plenty of room for another child and tons of love to go around. So here we are, our journey of adoption. It is the craziest feeling. Kent and I both feel almost exactly like we did when I was pregnant with the other kids. We are in a constant state of change, everyone knows our family is not complete. The kids don't understand why adoption takes so long. They also don't understand why we can only help one orphan, not all of them. It is a huge concept for me to wrap my brain around, much less 6 and 7 year olds.

So here goes, we mailed our home study to immigrations two weeks ago, and we are waiting to hear back from them. When we get that back, we will have it state certified and then mail it to our agency. From then on it is out of our hands. I already feel so helpless, everyone that has compiled a dossier knows that allot of putting together a dossier is not exactly in your control. The rest of our documents for our dossier are already state certified and anxiously awaiting their final counterpart from CIS, so that our love filled dossier can be finally sent to Ethiopia. We will finally get on the waiting list once this has all happened.

We are very excited. Once all of this mailing is completed, maybe Emma will finally be able to comprehend that her sister is not going to arrive in a fed-ex envelope. Although I have tried to explain to her that each envelope we send brings us one step closer to her sister.