Friday, November 18, 2011
Its official....
It's official....we have a walker! Levi is walking everywhere now:) He is so proud of himself and such a happy boy!
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Levi's stats
Levi went in for his 1 year checkup yesterday....yes, he is 13 1/2 months old. He weighed 23 lbs (50th percentile and was 31 inches tall (75th percentile). Levi is quite the momma's boy and his doctors appointment was typical Levi.....the child screamed his lungs out when he was getting weighed, screamed when he had to lay down on the table to get measured......but sat perfectly still and did not shed a tear when they pricked his finger and drew blood (because his mommy held him for that). Yes, thats my boy. No fear, as long as mommy's holding him! Oh, and a side note: Levi's height and weight at 13 1/2 months old is the exact weight Brody was at 10 months. Levi is not little...Brody is a giant:)
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
The Weight Of It All
I think everything is finally sinking in... There is no doubt that adoption is a calling for our family from the Lord. We know that He has already begun a work and is continuing that work in us through this process. Now that we are actually in the process, the weightiness of everything starts to settle in. This by no means diminishes our passion and pursuit of this calling for our lives, it just means that we are more aware of all of the struggles and obstacles that come along with it. I explained it to someone like this... If you've ever prepared for a camping or hiking trip, your bag feels great when your still in your living room. You pack everything you need, put it on to make sure you can handle it... and think, this won't be too bad. Then... the hike actually starts. You get a few miles down the trail and start thinking about how long the trail actually is, and then start contemplating what you might be able to do without. The weight of your pack sinks in and you realize how long of a road you might be on.
Before we began the actual process and everything was still in the "one day" stages, adoption was no big deal, with no paper work to wade through, no waiting lists to get and stay on, and no checks to write. Everything has changed! I can honestly say however, we have never been as excited about adoption. The more we get into it, the more we understand God's heart for orphans and understand the role that church can play. We are so humbled by fact that we get to play a small part in His big story. We are really glad that our children get to be a part of this story as well. Brody asks so many questions now about Africa, and orphans, and clean water... He regularly counts his change in his piggy bank and offers to share everything to get his "baby sister". His eyes are being opened and his heart warmed to something other than the American dream and selfishness. Its got me thinking... maybe this adoption is just as much or more for us as it will be for her...
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
How you can help!
Even though everyone is not called to adoption, we are all called by
God to take care of the orphans. The way you care for them can look
different in each family. Here are some ways that you can be a part of
our adoption story and help bring a little girl to a home where she is
loved and cared for.....
1) PRAY PRAY PRAY! There are SO many ways you can pray for us during this journey.
*Our little girl is being carried by a woman who may or may not care for her. Pray for her and her mother's health.
*Pray that our process would go smoothly. There is a mountain of paperwork that has to be completed and delivered and accepted into the right hands.
*Pray that our baby girl would be well cared for while we wait to go get her.
*Pray for us as we raise funds. This is an expensive process and money is due all along the way. We are trusting the Lord to provide it at the exact right time!
*Pray for patience as we wait:)
2)Host a yard sale or have a home party where the proceeds go to help our adoption!
3) Donate frequent flier miles or a plane ticket to help with our travel. We will be traveling to Ethiopia twice.
4)Donate to help pay for our travel expenses, visa fees, in country medical visits, etc. by donating to our Paypal fundraising account. Just click the “Donate” button above to the right. Or you can donate by mailing a check. Email us at janakohout@hotmail.com for our address.
Adoption is expensive! But we feel called by the Lord to do this and we know he will provide. Here is a breakdown of the expenses that we will encounter along the way....
Expenses so far: $22,278
Application Fee- $300
Home Study- $1,534
Doctor Visits/Medical clearance- $100
Police clearance- $34
Agency Fee- $5,000
Dossier document collection- $150
Dossier Fee- $1,000
Expected Expenses: $6,130
Air fare pick up trip- $3,700
Food, lodging, transportation costs in Ethiopia ($160 per day for 8 days total)- $1,280
Gifts for staff- $400
Follow-up home study fees for first year home- $750
GRAND TOTAL- $28,408
1) PRAY PRAY PRAY! There are SO many ways you can pray for us during this journey.
*Our little girl is being carried by a woman who may or may not care for her. Pray for her and her mother's health.
*Pray that our process would go smoothly. There is a mountain of paperwork that has to be completed and delivered and accepted into the right hands.
*Pray that our baby girl would be well cared for while we wait to go get her.
*Pray for us as we raise funds. This is an expensive process and money is due all along the way. We are trusting the Lord to provide it at the exact right time!
*Pray for patience as we wait:)
2)Host a yard sale or have a home party where the proceeds go to help our adoption!
3) Donate frequent flier miles or a plane ticket to help with our travel. We will be traveling to Ethiopia twice.
4)Donate to help pay for our travel expenses, visa fees, in country medical visits, etc. by donating to our Paypal fundraising account. Just click the “Donate” button above to the right. Or you can donate by mailing a check. Email us at janakohout@hotmail.com for our address.
Adoption is expensive! But we feel called by the Lord to do this and we know he will provide. Here is a breakdown of the expenses that we will encounter along the way....
Expenses so far: $22,278
Application Fee- $300
Home Study- $1,534
Doctor Visits/Medical clearance- $100
Police clearance- $34
Agency Fee- $5,000
Dossier document collection- $150
Dossier Fee- $1,000
USCIS- I-600A (application for advance processing of orphan petition)- $720
Fingerprinting- $170
GOA grant application fee- $40
Program Fee- $10,000
court trip (air fare, lodging, visas, etc) $3,000 - thanks to frequent flyer miles!
Fee for child visa- $230
GOA grant application fee- $40
Program Fee- $10,000
court trip (air fare, lodging, visas, etc) $3,000 - thanks to frequent flyer miles!
Fee for child visa- $230
Air fare pick up trip- $3,700
Food, lodging, transportation costs in Ethiopia ($160 per day for 8 days total)- $1,280
Gifts for staff- $400
Follow-up home study fees for first year home- $750
GRAND TOTAL- $28,408
Thursday, October 20, 2011
It starts...
Our application was received by our adoption agency and our manual came in the mail yesterday! Slightly overwhelming:) It took everything in me not to stay up all night reading it....and by manual, I mean a huge 3 ring binder full of information!
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Our Journey Begins...
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27
Somewhere, in another country, in the next few weeks or maybe even days, a woman is going to find out she is expecting a baby. She may be happy or she may be sad....but she knows she cannot keep this baby. She will carry this baby for 9 months and then be forced to give her daughter up.....MY daughter up. Somewhere in another country, a woman will be carrying MY daughter in her womb. My daughter wont look like me, and it will be obvious to everyone around us, that i did not give birth to her. but she will be MY DAUGHTER.
For as long as I can remember, adoption has been on Brian's heart. We had always talked about having 2 children and then adopting 1. So, here we are! We have 2 sweet, amazing boys and are ready to open our home to a baby girl who does not have a family. Who does not have a mommy and daddy to love her, to be there to wipe away her tears when she cries, or to cheer on her latest milestone. We are starting this journey, and have been researching and praying hard about where the Lord would have us adopt from. I have been spending every spare minute I have on the computer doing research. I'm really not exaggerating when I say every spare minute. I would love to know how many hours I have spent just reading about adoption. In all of this reading, research, and prayer, Adoption has quickly become MY heart! Our plan has always been to adopt....but I had always thought that this was Brian's thing, not mine. I was fine with it, I didn't have a problem with it, but if I hadn't been married to Brian, its probably not something that i would have considered. I now see, though, why people who have adopted are so passionate about it. Its hard to even explain to people how my heart feels about it now. My heart is already SO full of love for this sweet little girl, who isn't even born yet, and who is completely different than me.
We have been sharing with Brody for months about how there are little boys and girls, that don't have families, who live in countries where their water isn't clean, and who don't have enough food to eat. He prays for them every night and we have told him that one day we are going to give one of them a home. Brian told Brody a story the other night, about when he visited an orphanage in Costa Rica a few years ago. There was a little boy who fell down and got hurt, he cried and cried, but nobody was there to go pick him up, hug him, and wipe his tears away. I think at that point, Brody really understood how sad these kids must be. He has asked numerous times, why we cant give them ALL a home:) There are so many orphans....somewhere around 143 million of them! It seems like accepting one child into our home won't make a huge difference when you look at how many kids are without homes. BUT we are going to make a HUGE difference in that one little girl's life. We are going to give her a home with a family who is going to love her unconditionally and a home where she will hear about Jesus! Which is an opportunity she may not have had otherwise!
When I first started researching different countries, I was overwhelmed at the list. Slowly the list dwindled. Some countries were crossed off the list quickly due to age restrictions (where both parents have to be over a certain age). Other countries were crossed off because of the length of stay required in the country during the adoption. With 2 little boys at home, staying in another country for a month (or longer) to complete the adoption is just not possible. Other countries only allow adoption of kids who are older. And we really would love a child under 1 year old. So the list has been narrowed and at this point, we are heading in the direction of adopting from Ethiopia. Why Ethiopia?
~In sub-Saharan Africa, 1 out of every 8 children is an orphan.
~Of the 143 million orphans worldwide, more live in Ethiopia than any other country in the world. Just twice the size of Texas,
it is home to five million orphaned children.
~ At the current rate of adoption it would take 5 million families, $125 billion, and 2,500 yrs to solve the Ethiopian orphan crisis
~Ethiopia is ranked by the UN as one of the four poorest countries in the world.
~The average annual income is less than $160.
~In Ethiopia, 1 out of every 10 children is an orphan.
~In 2008, 650,000 children were orphaned by AIDS alone.
~In 2007, 197 people died per day due to AIDS (71,902 annual).
~The average Ethiopian woman gives birth to 5.9 children.
~1 in 10 children die before their first birthday; 1 in 6 die before age five.
~More than half of those deaths are attributed to malnutrition.
~There is 1 physician for every 34,988 people.
~Girls age 15-19 are seven times more likely to be infected by AIDS than boys of the same age.
Pray for us as we begin this journey. This is a long and expensive process and there will almost certainly be bumps in the road along the way. But we are trusting the Lord, that he has chosen the perfect little girl for our family!
There are new links at the top of the page to update everyone where we are at in the process!
Thank you in advance for your prayers and support,
~Brian, Jana, Brody, and Levi~
Somewhere, in another country, in the next few weeks or maybe even days, a woman is going to find out she is expecting a baby. She may be happy or she may be sad....but she knows she cannot keep this baby. She will carry this baby for 9 months and then be forced to give her daughter up.....MY daughter up. Somewhere in another country, a woman will be carrying MY daughter in her womb. My daughter wont look like me, and it will be obvious to everyone around us, that i did not give birth to her. but she will be MY DAUGHTER.
For as long as I can remember, adoption has been on Brian's heart. We had always talked about having 2 children and then adopting 1. So, here we are! We have 2 sweet, amazing boys and are ready to open our home to a baby girl who does not have a family. Who does not have a mommy and daddy to love her, to be there to wipe away her tears when she cries, or to cheer on her latest milestone. We are starting this journey, and have been researching and praying hard about where the Lord would have us adopt from. I have been spending every spare minute I have on the computer doing research. I'm really not exaggerating when I say every spare minute. I would love to know how many hours I have spent just reading about adoption. In all of this reading, research, and prayer, Adoption has quickly become MY heart! Our plan has always been to adopt....but I had always thought that this was Brian's thing, not mine. I was fine with it, I didn't have a problem with it, but if I hadn't been married to Brian, its probably not something that i would have considered. I now see, though, why people who have adopted are so passionate about it. Its hard to even explain to people how my heart feels about it now. My heart is already SO full of love for this sweet little girl, who isn't even born yet, and who is completely different than me.
We have been sharing with Brody for months about how there are little boys and girls, that don't have families, who live in countries where their water isn't clean, and who don't have enough food to eat. He prays for them every night and we have told him that one day we are going to give one of them a home. Brian told Brody a story the other night, about when he visited an orphanage in Costa Rica a few years ago. There was a little boy who fell down and got hurt, he cried and cried, but nobody was there to go pick him up, hug him, and wipe his tears away. I think at that point, Brody really understood how sad these kids must be. He has asked numerous times, why we cant give them ALL a home:) There are so many orphans....somewhere around 143 million of them! It seems like accepting one child into our home won't make a huge difference when you look at how many kids are without homes. BUT we are going to make a HUGE difference in that one little girl's life. We are going to give her a home with a family who is going to love her unconditionally and a home where she will hear about Jesus! Which is an opportunity she may not have had otherwise!
When I first started researching different countries, I was overwhelmed at the list. Slowly the list dwindled. Some countries were crossed off the list quickly due to age restrictions (where both parents have to be over a certain age). Other countries were crossed off because of the length of stay required in the country during the adoption. With 2 little boys at home, staying in another country for a month (or longer) to complete the adoption is just not possible. Other countries only allow adoption of kids who are older. And we really would love a child under 1 year old. So the list has been narrowed and at this point, we are heading in the direction of adopting from Ethiopia. Why Ethiopia?
~In sub-Saharan Africa, 1 out of every 8 children is an orphan.
~Of the 143 million orphans worldwide, more live in Ethiopia than any other country in the world. Just twice the size of Texas,
it is home to five million orphaned children.
~ At the current rate of adoption it would take 5 million families, $125 billion, and 2,500 yrs to solve the Ethiopian orphan crisis
~Ethiopia is ranked by the UN as one of the four poorest countries in the world.
~The average annual income is less than $160.
~In Ethiopia, 1 out of every 10 children is an orphan.
~In 2008, 650,000 children were orphaned by AIDS alone.
~In 2007, 197 people died per day due to AIDS (71,902 annual).
~The average Ethiopian woman gives birth to 5.9 children.
~1 in 10 children die before their first birthday; 1 in 6 die before age five.
~More than half of those deaths are attributed to malnutrition.
~There is 1 physician for every 34,988 people.
~Girls age 15-19 are seven times more likely to be infected by AIDS than boys of the same age.
Pray for us as we begin this journey. This is a long and expensive process and there will almost certainly be bumps in the road along the way. But we are trusting the Lord, that he has chosen the perfect little girl for our family!
There are new links at the top of the page to update everyone where we are at in the process!
Thank you in advance for your prayers and support,
~Brian, Jana, Brody, and Levi~
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
First step
I witnessed Levi's first little step today....and then he quickly sat down:) He is not very brave when it comes to walking, but unfortunately is very brave when it comes to climbing!
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