mcmullin family adoption

Still Waiting . . .

2011-12-20T17:37:00.000-05:00

Still waiting . . . with nothing new to report.
:)

We are getting close to some of the pieces in our portfolio expiring. We will need to make a decision about going forward (repaying) or letting them expire.

Your prayers are certainly appreciated as we try to discern what God might be saying to us at this point.

Mother's Day Thoughts

2011-05-08T23:17:00.000-04:00

Today was the perfect Mother's Day....almost. My wonderful husband went out and got me breakfast, and he didn't get me just one breakfast but my two favorite indulgent breakfasts - an egg & cheese biscuit and a red velvet doughnut. I ate them both. We went to church, came home and ate a light lunch as I was still quite full from my special breakfast.

Then I did something that I never do. Anyone who knows me can tell you that I never take naps. EVER. I am not a napper. Only when I am very ill am I able to sleep during the day time. However today, while Mike & Sam laid down in the house, I went out to the back yard to take a nap. Yes, my back yard.

When I got home Saturday afternoon finally completing my busiest week of the year, Mike and Sam surprised me with my very own hammock for my back yard. I have been not so subtly mentioning for weeks now how I would love to have a hammock in my yard. I had the perfect place picked out in between 2 trees in the corner of the yard. Did I expect to actually get it? No. :)

But when Sam took me outside for my surprise, I really did almost burst into tears. It was perfect. And they had worked all morning to put it up for me. So today, I took my i-pod out to my brand new hammock, laid down and went to sleep. I slept for an hour; then I was on my stomach playing on my phone, but it was the most relaxed I have been in weeks.

After nap-time, we loaded up and went to P.F. Changs in Chattanooga for a perfect Mother's Day dinner. When we returned home, Sam & I took Charlie, our 6 month old miniature schnauzer, out for a nice long walk. It really was a wonderful day. I can honestly say it was one of the best Mother's Days I have ever had.

It would have been perfect except for one niggling thought in the back of my head that there was still one thing missing. Somewhere out there I know there is a little girl that God has picked to be in our family. She needs us, and we need her. Maybe by Mother's Day next year she will be here.

2 years later still waiting patiently (most of the time)

2011-04-17T21:32:00.002-04:00

Next month is the 2 year anniversary of my trip to the Philippines. It was immediately after that trip that we began our adoption process. Today I went to a get-together with 3 of the girls who went on that trip. They are graduating from college and now moving on with their lives. I am so excited for them, but it reminded me how much time has passed while we have been waiting. On Friday I mailed off our I-800a form to USCIS (immigration). It is our first extension since we applied for approval almost 18 months ago. After the initial 18 months, you are allowed to apply for one free extension. If something does not happen soon, we will have to pay the fees again and get a new set of fingerprints done. (Just in case we have committed any felonies since our last fingerprinting.) :)

We have always said that we trust that God will send us the right child at the right time. I still believe this although sometimes now it seems more like a faraway dream than an actual reality. One day recently my son Sam came home from his first grade class with a little toy pony with a crown. I asked him why he picked that toy, and he said, "I picked it for my sister." And yes, I had to hold back the tears. He brought it home and put it on the dresser in "her" room.

So for now, I will continue to TRY to wait patiently even when it feels like everything in our lives is on hold. Because I know that things are really not on hold. We continue to love and laugh together. Sam is now almost finished with another year at school and at least a few inches taller than when we started this process. But someday (hopefully soon) we will bring his sister home to see her special pony on her dresser.

God's Unexpected Provision

2010-11-24T14:27:00.002-05:00

At some point in my life maybe I will stop being surprised by how God continually provides for our needs, but I have not reached that point yet. We got a call from our social worker on Monday informing us that we need to do an update on our home study. We get to fill out more forms, etc. and she has to come visit us at our house on Monday. Along with the update comes a $300 fee. As always we pray that God will help us to pay the costs each step along the way.

Last night, we had some family over for dinner, and this morning I found a card with a check for $300 inside with a designation for "Sam's sister" in the corner. I was completely overwhelmed. We had not even mentioned the upcoming home study update fee. These are the moments when I am still amazed at how God speaks to His people, and how they listen and obey. As the body of Christ, if we all listened and obeyed whenever God speaks to us, I believe there is no end to what could happen. It is wonderful that he allows us to be a part of his blessings on others by giving and receiving.

During this Thanksgiving holiday season I am as always grateful for my family and friends, and especially thankful to serve a God who cares about every situation in our lives. Sometimes we get to see special evidence of this, and other times we are left to keep the faith without seeing His hand, but I know that he is always there. Always.

Where oh where could our little girl be?

2010-10-14T09:40:00.003-04:00

OK. For those of you who have faithfully checked my blog only to find I have not posted anything since March, I sincerely apologize. I realize that I am not a good blogger, but thanks for checking on us anyway!

For those of you who have not heard, we did have some awesome news 3 months ago. Yes, 3 months ago. I am ashamed at my delinquency in sharing the news on the blog. On July 13 we got our notification that we are officially approved to adopt in the Philippines. We have been faithfully praying and waiting since that day to find out the identity of the little girl that God has chosen to be a part of our family.

It is hard to wait, but I know that God is control of the perfect time for her to join our family. This summer we also moved from our rented apartment to a house of our own. We are so much happier to have a permanent home when we welcome our daughter. We have spent the past few months getting our house ready, and now we just want her to come home. :)

Any day we could get the information that we have a match, and I promise to do a better job of sharing the news when we get it!

Government signed, sealed and approved adoption plans

2010-03-01T20:57:00.002-05:00

Two weeks ago we got our appointment to appear in Atlanta on Tuesday, February 23 at 9:00am for our biometrics appointment. (That means fingerprinting. I had to learn that one.) So we left our house at 5:30am to make sure we had plenty of time to fight our way through Atlanta traffic. We arrived at the USCIS (United States Customs and Immigration Services) building off of Howell Mill Road in plenty of time for our appointment. As we approached the door we noticed that there was a crowd gathered outside, and the sign on the door said "Closed." This was a little confusing as we could look through the window and see people inside, and we also noticed people exiting the building from another door. So we waited outside along with several other people of various ethnic cultures and speaking many different languages. I would hazard a guess that we were the only people there who were already Americans. We were all clutching our appointment papers as we waited. Shortly before 9:00am, someone came out of the door and told us that the guard would be returning in just a minute. A few minutes later the guard came out the door and told us we could not bring our cell phones in the building. (We had been prepared for this because of our notice, and we left our phones in the car.) Then he said we could not bring in purses either. I was not prepared for this, so Mike got to hike back to the car with my lovely brown shoulder bag. :)

Finally we were allowed into the building. At every step in the process, our hands were inspected. It would have been very interesting to see what might have happened if they turned someone's "hands" away, but that did not happen while we were there. We went through a few different lines, completed a form, and waited for our numbers to be called. When we were called up to the "machine," it was a very quick and painless experience. Actually the whole process was very smooth and organized. This is quite a compliment from me as I have a Masters degree in organizational leadership and do not pass out those comments lightly. We were done in less than an hour and on our way back home.

We left with the expectation that it could be a few weeks to a month before we received our approval notices. I know some friends that waited more than 2 months. To our complete surprise, we received our approval notice on Friday, February 26. According to the post mark, our approval letter was mailed out the day we were there. I thought it must be some kind of a joke, but the paperwork does not lie. Even our social worker was amazed at the speed of our approval and has never seen it happen so fast.

I find I must laugh at myself and my lack of faith. I prayed for this to happen quickly. I know God has His own time frame and can make things happen in His perfect timing, but did I honestly expect this small miracle? Probably not. I have seen God work amazing miracles all through-out my life, but I still seem to be surprised when he works things out in an unexplainable way. So now it is back in our hands.

It is now time to send our dossier (notebook full of paperwork & other stuff) to the Philippines to be approved. Because we did not expect to be approved so quickly, we are not yet prepared for the next financial step. We must turn in our next payment of $900 before we can send our information to the Philippines.

Please continue to pray for us as we seek our next miracle. I know God did not bring us this far to leave us hanging. I will be confident of this as Philippians 1:6 says, "that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." By this I refer to the perfecting of my faith, :) although I know God will continue to be with us every step of this adoption process as well.

Waiting on Immigration

2010-01-25T18:06:00.000-05:00

I know it may seem like forever since I have posted on this blog. It feels that way to me too. Due to various circumstances over the past few months, we were not able to get our finalized home study until 2 weeks ago.

So...... drum roll please...... today I finally got to mail off our completed paperwork to USCIS (Immigration). After Mike and I reviewed every page probably 10 times (each), we wrote the check, scanned the document (I figure it is always safe to make a copy before we send anything to the government), and placed it in the mail to Dallas, TX today. Funny how we were living in Texas when we first thought we wanted to adopt from the Philippines, and now our paperwork is going back there.

Now we can only pray that every "i" is dotted and every "t" is crossed. We can't fix anything now. We have been told that this part of the process usually takes 4-6 weeks, maybe 2 months, although some people have said it can go much longer. But as soon as we get it back, we can send our dossier on over to the Philippines. Hopefully it will land on someone's desk there in the great state of Texas, and he or she will exclaim, "There never was a couple more suited for adoption; it is so sad they even need to complete all this paperwork. They don't need to get fingerprinted; just send them an approval letter today." Okay, do I really expect that to happen? No. :) But it would be nice if someone were to look it over and start the process for us right away instead of our form getting stuck in a pile somewhere. That is possible right? It isn't too much to ask. Believe me, I will be asking. My prayers followed that package as it went behind the counter at the post office, and my prayers will keep going heavenward over the next few weeks.

Maybe in Frank Peretti style, an angel will slip the application right to the top of the stack and hand walk it down the hall. (Hey don't judge me. We have no idea what happens in the spirit world.)

But I digress. Please excuse these ramblings as my fun way to relieve the pressure that it is out of my hands for now. As much as I jest, I do believe that God's timing is perfect for our family and for our hopeful new addition. I trust his plan, and I will try to wait patiently. I am not always successful with the patient part, but I am trying.

Questions from Sam

2009-10-19T19:59:00.000-04:00

For those of you who are keeping up with our journey, we have no news to report, but I did have a funny conversation with Sam that I wanted to share.

Sam "Mom, when we get the little girl, can we name her Cassie?"

Me "Well Sam, she may already have a name so we will have to wait and find out what it is first."

Sam "Mom, can we get a little girl with a ponytail? You know, like you have sometimes? I like girls with ponytails."

If life were only so simple that the question could be as simple as ponytail or no ponytail. :)

Home Study Finished

2009-09-09T22:19:00.000-04:00

Today was a good day. I drove to Chattanooga to deliver the final papers for our home study to our adoption agency. It has been a long journey with so many surveys to fill out, forms to gather, etc. It is a relief to be done with that part of the process. Now we will begin the next stage.

We will soon send our paperwork to immigration so we can be approved to send our portfolio to the Philippines. We will also begin applying for various grants and other assistance programs to help with the finances.

Thanks for your continued prayers and support. I have received so many kind messages from many of you. Your words of encouragement have truly been a blessing to us.

It seems like the end of the journey is still so far away, and as Sam wants to know, "When is she going to get here already?" Trying to explain the lengthy adoption process to a five year old is not an easy task, but for the most part I am just as impatient as he is. :)

Welcome

2009-07-10T23:00:00.000-04:00

Thanks for checking out our blog about our adoption journey. Feel free to look around and find out more about what's going on.

'The Story', 'The Process' and 'The Need' links above will give you a good overview. We've started a few links about Philippines adoption if you're interested. Maybe you've thought about adopting a child or are in the process yourself, we'd love to share info and encouragement. If you have an adoption story we'd love to hear that as well.

We desire your prayers as we begin this exciting adventure!

The Need

2009-07-10T20:49:00.000-04:00

While we feel called to take this adoption journey, we realize it is not something we can do alone. Sometimes God places things in our heart that He knows we cannot accomplish on our own. It is in these times that God wants to help and wants to use others to help.

Below is a breakdown of the adoption costs (that we know of so far). It is certainly not all that we "need" from friends and family. Your support and prayer during the process and after are very much appreciated.

For those who may feel lead to help financially, we have placed a "ChipIn" widget to the right. You can make a contribution using PayPal or your credit card. Any gift is greatly appreciated whether it is $5 or $5,000. If you want to help us with this need and don't feel comfortable paying online, below is our mailing address:

McMullin Family
3900 Chilhowee Circle NW Apt. A
Cleveland, TN 37312

Item . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cost . . . Running Total
Home Study
Application Fee . . . . . . $100 . . . . . .$100
Background Checks . . . $40 . . . . . . .$140
Medical/Psych Eval . . . $90 . . . . . . $230
Home Study Fee . . . . . .$1,000 . . . $1,230
Adoption Training . . . . $120 . . . . . $1,350

Dossier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $900 . . . . . $2,250

Child Providing Agency . $1,000 . . . $3,250

ICAB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $2,000 . . . $5,250

Agency Fees . . . . . . . . . . . $3,550 . . . .$8,800

Immigration . . . . . . . . . . . $750 . . . . . $9,550
Fingerprinting . . . . . . . . .$160 . . . . . $9,710

Travel (estimate)
Airfare (for 4) . . . . . . . . . $4,800 . . . $14,510
Food/Transportation . . .$700 . . . . $15,210
Miscellaneous . . . . . . . . . . $360 . . . . $15,570

Court Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . .$1,000 . . . $16,570
(estimate)

Post-Placement Visits . . . $450 . . . . . $17,020

Miscellaneous Fees . . . . . . .$500 . . . .$17,520
that we have no idea
are coming

The Process

2009-07-10T19:21:00.000-04:00

This is a brief overview of the process for our international adoption. We will update it as we progress through the stages and learn more.

The Home Study
An adoption agency, that is permitted to handle adoptions in the Philippines, must do an assessment to determine if we are suitable to adopt a child. The home study gathers information to be used in the dossier and is also a time to educate ourselves about the adoption. It includes a couple of interviews, a look at the home environment and LOTS of paperwork (applications, info about our families relationships and tons of forms). The home study also includes: reference letters, criminal background checks, medical and psychological evaluations, and some training on adopting a child from another country (this is required of countries that belong to the Hague Convention on Protection of Children). We are using Holston Home for our home study.

The Dossier
This is basically a book that contains all of our information that is sent to the Inter-Country Adoption Board (ICAB) in the Philippines. It contains a description of our family, many of those reference letters and forms from the home study, and some other forms that the Philippines require. It may also include a few pictures of us. This is prepared by the adoption worker once home study study is complete. Our adoption worker is Janet, who has been great to work with.

Immigration Stuff
After sending the dossier we must file an Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country (I-800A) with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) office. I think this is basically a process that allows us to tell the government our plans to adopt and for them to tell us either yes or no regarding bringing a child into the country. We are told this process can take as long or little as they feel like it (2 weeks to 4 months). We have heard both horror stories and good stories about this part of the process.

The Match
ICAB will match a child to our family based on the things in our dossier and the child study. The Philippines is known for taken great care in matching the children and parents. A social worker from the agency taking care of the child is actually involved in the process. They may select a particular family based on religion, a physical similarity they see between the child and the adoptive parents, or any number of other reasons. They will send us a Child Study containing background information, pictures and what medical information they know. At this point we will have 2 weeks to decide and respond.

More Immigration Stuff
After we accept the match, we must file another form with USCIS asking to bring the specific child into the U.S. They make sure the child is eligible and grant authorization to adopt the child in the U.S. as well as grant a Visa to the child.

To the Philippines
Now we get to go and get our little girl. We arrive at the orphanage and meet her for the first time. We will spend some time getting familiar with her (and her with us) as well as doing some paperwork with ICAB and the U.S. Embassy. We would like for all 3 of us (Mike, Angeline and Sam) to travel to the Philippines. We want it to be a family experience that we all share together.

Return Home
After returning home, we have 3 post-placement visits with the adoption worker. This is to make sure everyone is adjusting to our new life. After 6 months the adoption is made final here in the U.S.

A couple of links if interested:
http://manila.usembassy.gov/wwwhadop.html
http://adoption.state.gov/

The Story

2009-06-21T16:49:00.000-04:00

I (Jonna Angeline Jones McMullin - known as Angeline to most) met Mike at Lee University and got married in 1995. After graduating, I worked at Lee and Mike went on to the Church of God Theological Seminary. It was in a class on Isaiah that he first felt the calling for us to adopt. In class they were discussing Isaiah chapter 1 and when they read verse 17, "Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow." Mike very clearly heard the Holy Spirit telling him that it was his calling to be a father to the fatherless. He came home and told me, and we began to pray about it. We did not know when it would happen, but we knew that it would. Our initial thoughts were that we would have biological children first and then adopt later.

A few years later we were both finishing our graduate degrees and seeking God for the next step in our lives. We went online again and began to research various adoption possibilities, but we did not know how we would be able to afford it at that time. We knew that if it was God's plan, he would provide. The very next day a friend that I worked with at Lee, Regenia Collier, said she had something important to talk to me about. She told me that her best friend in Pennsylvania had a 19 year old daughter, (Elizabeth) who was pregnant and in a bad situation. Elizabeth wanted my friend to help find them a Christian couple who would be interested in adopting the baby. Regenia and I had never discussed adoption, and she said that she didn't know if it was something we would even consider but the Lord had put us on her heart. I smiled at her and told her that as a matter of fact we were very interested. She told me that the child would be bi-racial, and she didn't know if that would bother us. I told her that we already knew that the Lord had purposed for us to have a multi-cultural family. She looked at me amazed and said that I didn't even seem surprised. I told her I was not surprised; God had given us the answer before the question was asked. Elizabeth came down from Pennsylvania, and we spent the next 6 months getting to know her. I went with her to every prenatal visit, and Mike and I were there with her in the hospital when our son Samuel was born.

That was 5 years ago just this past January. Our son Samuel was 5 years old on January 15. We tell him every day that he is a present from God. The way God brought him into our lives was completely supernatural and miraculous to us. We don't know for sure if there is a physical reason why we have not conceived a child biologically; so that is always a possibility, but we believe that if that happens it is God's will for us. But if that time never comes, God has put children in this world who need families. He has given us the desire to build a multi-cultural family that is representative of God's family - a family that is all inclusive and appreciative of diversity.

We moved to Tyler, TX 4 years ago, where we served as the Discipleship pastors at Rose Heights Church of God. We have just recently moved back to Cleveland, TN, and we are both presently working at Lee. I work in academic administration as the Coordinator of Academic Events. Mike is working in the Records Office and plans to start a Ph.D. program in the near future; his goals are to teach Bible and theology and be involved in local ministries wherever we may end up in the future.

A few years ago Mike was communicating with Mike Nitz, a friend of ours, who was in the Philippines at the time. We began to talk and pray and felt a burden that the Lord may be calling us to adopt a child from the Philippines. We have been praying about this for a while, but I had not felt a release to actually make steps in that direction until recently. This past November as the Lee University homecoming, we found out that my sorority, Delta Zeta Tau, was planning a trip to go to the Philippines to work at a children's home there. After I saw the video that DZT showed of Samaritan's Place, I cried all the way home. I felt a greater burden than I had felt in a long time. I looked up the web-site at that time and began to sincerely pray for the children and for the Morris' work there. Marc Morris is a Lee University alumnus, and he and his wife Marilen are the founders of Samaritan’s Place.

Once again we truly felt the call to adoption, but it was frustrating because it seemed impossible. I began to get frustrated with God. It did not seem fair that God would give us these desires and allow finances to be the reason we could not fulfill those desires. While I was struggling with these issues, I went to hear Carolyn Dirksen, my boss, speak in chapel. I still remember all three points, and I have used them frequently in sharing with others. When she talked about Peter stepping out on the water without knowing how he was going to walk on the water but just knowing that Jesus said come, I knew that I had to change my attitude. I always want to have everything planned and know how things are going to work out. I understood when she shared that if Peter knew how it was going to work, it would not have been a miracle. I knew then that we were going to have to proceed, so we began to pray that God would lead us and let us know when it was the right time.

We began praying for God to tell us when to step out. In January, I was praying during a church service, and the worship leader sang a song I had not heard before. The lyrics were as follows:

When you say go, we will go.
When you say wait, we will wait.
When you say step out on the water,
And they say it can't be done,
We will fix our eyes on you
And we will come.

Once again, I cried because I knew this was God's way of telling me it was time to step out on the water. So I decided to look to Jesus, and not look at the waves or the distractions. I began to work on an e-mail to send to Marc Morris at Samaritan’s Place. Before I could complete the e-mail and send it, God was already working. Stephanie Taylor, my friend who works in the President’s office at Lee, called me to tell me the DZT president wanted to meet with me that day. The DZT girls showed up in my office, and to my complete surprise, they invited me to come along on the trip to the Philippines as their staff representative. I did not even know any of the girls going on the trip, but I was recommended to them by some other staff members. They also said that they would like pay my way to go with them. When they asked me, my mouth just dropped open. I told them that I was definitely interested, but I would have to figure things out with my family and my job.

In May, I went with 8 current DZT members and one charter member to the Philippines for 2 weeks. It was the most amazing experience. I truly fell in love with the beauty and the spirit of the islands and the people there. While there I shared with the staff at Samaritan’s Place our desire to adopt a child from there. I fell in love with a 7 year old little girl who I would love to bring home to be a part of our family. While we can not specifically request a certain child, we will leave this in God’s hands as well. Sometimes it is easier when you are interested in adopting an older child, because they really want to find homes for these children. We will put our trust in God because we know that He already has the perfect child in mind to be a part of our family.

The week I got back to the US we started the process for a Filipino adoption. I do not believe that all of these circumstances coming together could possibly be a coincidence. We feel that God has been guiding our steps and that God has chosen this timing. We don't know how all of this is going to work out, but we feel confident that if we keep our eyes on Him, whatever happens, we won't sink.