The Games have Begun: Part 2

Well, it has been a little while since I wrote. A couple of things have happened since March. David and Tanya are newly weds and we absolutely love them! I am getting another sister in law from the other side who will share my first and last name. Bryan's brother Kyle is marrying a sweet and hilarious girl with the great name of Megan in June 2013. Chuck has been called up to Spring Training for Spring 2013 with the Toronto Blue Jays after doing very well in Rookie ball this past season (Fall 2012). Mom sold her home staging business to a competitor to be able to invest her time in various areas: counselling, consulting, WiBN, training, sits on various boards, and also is a large part of the women's ministry at her church. Dad is doing well, working on vision for his business, training, and the general intensity of running a business for God.

We also have a couple of updates:

1. Taking after my grandparents' example, we became foster parents in October 2012 and received placement of two sisters in early November. We now have a preschooler and an elementary student living with us. They are precious girls!

2. I (Meg) quit work and am able to stay at home with the girls. Bryan took 2 weeks off work so I could give my notice (good thing his vacation was saved up!) and played Mr. Mom very well.

3. Ethiopian adoption for us is still a ways off - probably next winter. We will need to go through a whole new update and paperwork when we get closer.

4. We are pregnant! Due May 11th, 2013, Little Kampie has already made himself (yes, himself) known as not a single pair of jeans fit! Little Kampie is very healthy and rolling around quite a bit.

Becoming part of a foster home was a bit of a rough transition for both the girls and for the Kamps. :) We had a great couple who assisted us in so many ways with helping us to bond and build trust with the girls. They invested a significant amount of time over the course of the first month. Our small group and Sunday School helped us as all four of us transitioned by providing meals every single Monday, Wednesday, and Friday! We had other foster parents from our church pulling babysitting duty and volunteering to do so much more. What a showing of God's love through His people! We had family and friends lifting us up in prayers. It is an amazing past couple of months. We are constantly tired and constantly laughing. Hard not to laugh  when your elementary student walks up front to Santa at a company Christmas party and starts shouting, "You're not the REAL Santa!" in front of all the other kids or when your preschooler crawls to the next stall where a little old lady was perched on her own toilet to ask her for toilet paper!

Being pregnant has been an adventure as 2 other girls in our small group are due within 2 weeks of me. All 3 of us girls are able to walk through this adventure together and has been fun (and I think the husbands are all lamenting together our recent use of body pillows, mood swings, midnight snack runs, and our constant bemoaning of our ever increasing girths.) - by the way, referencing my last post in March: We Win - our baby is coming first! :)

Ethiopia: We are praying and waiting. Obviously, we have been a bit busy while waiting but nevertheless, we are excitedly, expectantly waiting for our little one from Ethiopia.

Parting words: Especially this Christmas, I would encourage you to seek out a foster family - maybe help with gifts for the foster kiddos or get your CPR and background check with CPS/foster agency so you can give parents a night out (babysitters need be on file for the family - making date night for foster parents even more difficult.) Show a foster family the love that Christ has shown you and give the foster kids or the foster parents an encouraging lift up this holy season.

Merry Christmas!
Bryan & Meg Kamp

Let the Games Begin!

Adoption the front is slow. Our paperwork is in Ethiopia. We just wait for a referral now. Times keep changing on how fast or how slow they will process the adoptions. We know that God has the very child(ren) picked out and it will be His timing, not any government's timing - no offense intended. So we wait on God.

Meanwhile, my little brother got married. We went home to Ohio. We saw Bryan's family as they came in for David's wedding as well. Tanya was so beautiful, I mean, knock-your-socks-off-bring-out-the-oxygen-tanks gorgeous! It was such a wonderful time. We saw my family, aunts and uncles, cousins, grandparents (although one grandma Skyped into the wedding) and even our dear friends, Tim, Lynn and Rebecca Newbrander. The whole event was God-focused and there was an overwhelming sense of joy in the whole celebration. We even got to fly home with Chuck! Well, David is married and now the "race" is on. Will the Oldest (me) bringing in the first grandchild or will it be Middle Brother David? Kamp's are adopting and Ghysels will be trying for biologicals. All in God's timing (but I still kind of want to be first.) I think the happy couple are planning on a little marriage before children come so hopefully, that will give Bryan and I a leg up in the baby competition! (Sincerely, there is no competition but here's for hoping!)

The Slow Down

Everything must go fast in an international adoption. Compile the paperwork, sign, notarize, certify, witness, or seal each sheet and get it to the country as quick as possible. Everything feels as though it is moving like molasses but you are somehow still running around everywhere, sometimes literally "running" around. We have completed our running. Our paperwork is looking good, the Ethiopian Embassy has reviewed our paperwork in D.C. and now, as of Friday, it will be hand delivered to the government in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the capital. Now, we wait. From other's stories, we realize that we will not hear anything for a good while, months or years from now.

Speaking of other's stories, my little brother, David Ghysels is marrying a terrific girl, Tanya Leet this weekend. We are so thankful that God brought the two of them together. I look at their story and I remember to never forget that God's plan is as surprising as it is good. If you think about it, talk to God about them, weddings can be overwhelming and young couples often have a growing phase as they start living with each other.

Austin baby... again...

Austin baby! Again...

Well, last week was a bit disappointing when the State Authentications Unit could not seal all of our papers. It seems that when a notary receives their certificate of notary, their stamp must appear EXACTLY as their certificate. Since two of the notaries did not match their certificates, we were turned away with those two documents unsealed. Our entire dossier was put on hold for these two documents. Grrr... But we know that God has a perfect plan and He has His own timing so we just keep going.

 

We told this to our bible study on Thursday night. Friends of ours, Matthew and Tiffany, said that instead of driving all the way up to Austin again, they had a friend, Brittany, who might be able to help. Brittany oddly but heartily agreed to help us, taking our documents into the apostille office so I didn't have to take another day off work. (Thank you again Brittany and Lims!) We got the documents resigned (actually, we got them resigned twice because ANOTHER notary did not match their stamp and certificate!) We are sending our documents off to Brittany in Austin in the morning and they should be making their way to Ethiopia via Grand Rapids/Washington DC by the end of the week.

 

I have more to share but am not sure how to do so. I will wait until I can share the news. So many good things are happening on our family front.

USCIS Approval - Austin, baby!

Hello Everybody!  (If you are short on time, jump to the last section of the post.)
So much has happened in the past weeks. I am excited to share with you but some of this needs to be told in a private setting so if you are interested in the details, please email me at megkamp@gmail.com. We are so excited about what God is doing in our lives, as a couple, as individuals, and as a family.
As a couple, we are going through a series of books; For Men Only and For Women Only. Incredible books of insight. We have been going through the study with a close group of friends and learning more about our significant other. We read these books before we were married to help us understand each other better and now, years later, we are reading them again. It is very much like a whole new book. We adopted some of habits the books recommend but reading it again shows us how to be even better at understanding our significant other and supporting or encouraging them.
As individuals, Bryan is reading through the Bible on his new Kindle when he isn’t studying and has been very excited about the peculiar stories that seem to fall through the cracks. I have been learning how God wants me to spend my time, being less selfish and being more active and helpful. What a humbling and exciting experience.
As a family, we have experienced a deluge of support in the past 3 weeks. One such story of the support we have received was with our incredible class that we meet with on Sunday mornings who came behind us with their support. At the end of class, some of our friends got up and told everybody that they had a surprise for the Kamp family. They told us how much they loved us, how much they wanted to support our decision to adopt and how much they intend to be there for us. They gave us a large poster that truly had their signatures all over it. I was blown away by the thought, time, and resources they put into this large poster – Bryan was grinning like a fool, I was crying like a baby and neither of us could stop. It was amazing! We have been blessed by our class and so many others have offered prayers or support to us. We just want to keep thanking you but know that you have touched us so deeply, thank you.

Long story, I know but I have ONE MORE THING to tell you. You might have known that we are just waiting for our fingerprints to come back so we can send our documents out to Ethiopia. People, that day is here! Whoot-whoot! Our fingerprints (USCIS) approval has arrived. Simply put: on the 31of January 2012, I will be driving to Austin, Texas with the entire dossier to have it sealed. Once sealed, I am driving to the closest UPS store and sending it to Bethany/Ethiopia! By Friday, Bethany/Ethiopia will have our documents and our part of this journey is finished! I cannot possibly tell you how excited we are. I almost sprained my ankle doing the most ridiculous happy dance Friday morning.

Dossier Prep the night before Austin Trip (31 Jan 2012)