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!)

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)

2012 New Year!

So close! As of yesterday, we have had all of our paperwork noterized except the fingerprinting approval which has yet to come. It is the last thing we are waiting on until we get our papers sealed and ship all of our paperwork off to Bethany/Ethiopia. Yes, 2012 is going to be an exciting year.

3 Partying for New Year's, 1 Sicky for New Year's

Just this month, we babysat for Raylan-7 months. We had so much fun having a baby in our house again - it's been a few months since he has stayed with us. We spent Christmas Eve with Luke and Ashley. Having our dear friends and having our house filled with their children, Noah and Raylan, made the holiday all the more cheerful. We had Christmas with one of Bryan's bosses. It was very nice but I can't wait to trade in my bottles of wine for grape juice boxes and for quite evenings with Bach in the background to be filled with Veggie Tales. We also spent separate Christmas' on Skype with each our of families. We had a good time celebrating from afar. We wish you a great new year celebration's! Thank you for all your love, prayers, and well wishes!

Happy New Year's!

Two Stockings in 2011

It's Christmas Season!
I so enjoy this time of year. We are all working feverishly to collect gifts for our loved ones and to stow them away from curious eyes. We love to give and share little (or big, in some cases) surprises, tokens of our relationship. Truth be told, I have yet to make a singular purchase for Bryan's spot under the tree. Still, as a look for gift what I would like to gift Bryan, I am surprised by how much Christmas has intensified the desire for my own bundle of joy. Maybe it is looking at sweet baby Jesus, laying in a manger or all the sweet babies wrapped up in their mother's arms as they go shopping for daddy's gifts. It strengthens my desire for this to be my last Christmas with just two stockings over the fireplace. As a comical side note: I literally have to tell Bryan "no" each time we go shopping together, you may not purchase the tu-tu, soccer ball, playmat, Barbie or G-I-Joe until we at least have a referral (a picture and information on the child(ren) matched to us).

We are excited to share a couple other bits of news.
1) We were accepted by Lifesong for Orphans. This means that they will give us an avenue to help direct funds. (More information to come)
2) Our floors that were damaged by the pipe bursting will begin the replacement process today!
3) Bryan is going to be taking two parts of the CPA. One part in January and one part in February. During busy season, this will be very stressful. Please pray for him!
4) We got our fingerprinting appointment. The 21st of December, 2011. Can't wait as this looks like it is the last step before our paperwork going to be sealed and then to Ethiopia!

I've included some fantastic photos of Bryan and I at my work's Ugly Christmas Sweater Party.

I am struggling to figure out how to rotate the photo for Bryan - he is wearing a Grinch shirt.

Guidance from the Dashboard

Because God is great, I wanted to share what He recently did for Bryan and I.

Today is car shopping day. We were searching for a car that was exactly like what we had before the accident in order to leave the numbers already in our paperwork. We got such a good deal with the car that we knew it would be difficult to replace a like car with the amount the insurance gave us but we trusted God to guide us. We had a list of cars to test drive. We found one that we really liked and the salesman came down to meet us where it would be affordable for us. We felt like we should pray about it so we went to lunch with the car. Bryan prayed specifically for God, "to send warning lights" if we should not purchase the car. We spent some more time in prayer and then ate at good ole Chipotle. We went back out to the car and while we were not feeling one way or another about the car, we thought it was a good car so we would probably purchase the car when we brought it back to the dealership. Bryan turned on the car to drive the 3 miles back to the dealership and the check tires light popped on! We sat there stunned! The light had not been on while driving there but Bryan specifically asked for warning lights and, literally, the warning sensor in the car went off. The car might be a great car but God clearly had different plans for us. We returned the car - told the salesman that we couldn't purchase the car because we had prayed about it and the warning light came on but thanks him anyways. (He probably thought we were a bunch of loons but we know to listen when God tells you!)

We found another car in fantastic condition with all the features that we wanted and even more. Again, we prayed that the Holy Spirit would guide us. While we waited, we decided that if they came back with something higher than our God-promised number, we wouldn't purchase the car. They came back with a price thousands more than our God-promised number. We knew this would probably be the case as all the sites showed pricing for a car such as this as much higher and there was no "earthly" reason to come back with anything else. We thanked them for their time but we knew God had called us to spend only a certain amount. We stood to leave when our sales woman asked us for one more moment. She went back to her manager and brought back a new price. They dropped the price to exactly our God-promised number! We are the proud new owners of God's beautiful blue car! Thank you for your prayers. Praise God for He is good!

Home Study Work Completed!

Hello All!
Our interviews went well and our fire and environment checks passed with flying colours. What that means; our home study is completed and we just need to review the write-up! Let me ask you out there who have somebody like your mother-in-law visit for the first time; did you completely clean out the pantry, bathroom closets, scrub grout with a toothbrush, make your husband rearrange the rooms' furniture, wash walls...?   I should've guessed because I did the same thing for when my mother-in-law made her first visit to my apartment. (Disclaimer: I unnecessarily panicked because of me, not because of anything to do with sweet and unassuming Gloria Kamp.) Thanks to assistance from the Klein (TX) and VandeKamp (IL) families, we were very prepared for the home study.

The next part of the process is to get fingerprinting appointments with the FBI. We can finish filling out our dossier paperwork and have it noterized. Once all papers are noterized, Bryan will drive it to Austin and have the state seal put on each page. When completed, we can send it to Ethiopia and then we wait... I am a fairly impatient woman and I already feel like asking, "Are we there yet?" We are in the "hurry up" phase of the "hurry up so we can wait" process. At least this part is exciting because we can still do things in this phase.

Tuesday, we came in late to find that our entry way, bathroom and family room had taken on a much glossier profile. The pipe the runs water from the street to the house burst. Thank goodness for home owner's and Pablo! Pablo is our insurance man and he has been fantastic, taking great care of us. Some of our friends recommended Ryan at Buffaloe Floors for us and they were right, they have been giving us great customer care. We feel that, in the midst of this, that God has been taking such great care of us.

As a side note, my brother, David has asked the most lovely woman to marry him and she said yes! Miss Tanya Leet is to marry my brother March 2012.

Thank you for all your prayers. Especially for our friends in Uganda and their two children. If you like to see how they are follow this link - at least check out the pictures! http://www.thebrowntree.blogspot.com/

Why Kamp Plus One?

Welcome to Kamp Plus One, a link between you and our journey to finding our child. We started our journey long before either of us ever met each other, although we see that this is the journey God laid out since the very beginning. Since I was a little girl, I have wanted to have a family including adopted children. Bryan was a babysitter for his adopted cousins from South Korea whom he adores. When I was 18 years old, my doctor was looking at my knees as I tore my cartilage when she discovered what later would be diagnosed a ovarian cancer. The tumor was taken care of with surgery and while the doctors were optimistic at the time, I would find out that there was a lot of scarring that could present difficulties in conceiving naturally. When Bryan and I met, we discussed this possibility and decided that God has placed so many wonderful children on this earth, that we would want to adopt some of them. We prayed about it and in November of 2010, we started talking about looking into the process and speaking with friends and family about international adoption. Unbeknownst to us, we were already pregnant! Right after the new year, I started feeling sick. A visit to the doctor would reveal that we were having a miscarriage. While it was very difficult, it gave us hope that we might be able to conceive. During the struggle, we realized that all life is a true and beautiful miracle. We took to our knees before God and with the support of Luke and Ashley Cheatham, and family, we grieved the loss of our pregnancy but we also asked God what was His plan for our future. A few months later, during a church service, Bryan leaned over to me to show me something that I had already circled in my bulletin, a discussion panel on adoption. We prayed before going in that God would lead us and help answer some of the questions still lingering in our minds. He answered them all as we sat and listened to both the hardships of being adopted and the joys of being part of a forever family. We were thrilled! We continued to pray and have others pray with us. Finally, Bryan's Aunt Jan went to the Orphan Summit 2011 in Tennessee where she gathered as many resources for us as any one human could. She sent us the contacts of a couple who happen to go to our church and lead an adoption group. We met with this terrific couple and asked some questions specific to Texas and their experience. This conversation was the last green light God gave us to start the process. We chose Bethany Christian Services to help us with our Ethiopian adoption of a boy or girl under the age of 3. Here we are, the first part of the application is in and the mounds of completed paperwork grow by the day. We know this will be a long process but it is our hope that you will pray for us and pray for protection over our child while we keep you updated with developments. Please feel free to comment, call, email, pray and know that we thank you for your part in this journey!