Cartwright's for Christ

Change of plans

2012-02-10T14:31:00.000-08:00

"We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps." Proverbs 16:9

God has moved us in a different direction. We are now adopting from Ghana!! Many different factors have led us to this decision. After lots of conversations with Dillon International and prayer, we officially decided to switch programs. God closed one door but opened another wide for us. We’ve decided to walk through this open door by faith and trust God each step of the way.

As far as the timeline goes, it’s going to be as if we never switched. Since we hadn’t submitted our homestudy to the state for the Russia program yet, it’s pretty simple for our social worker to change things at this point, thankfully. Thank you, LORD! Since the Ghana program is very new, we are unsure how long referral waits, expected travel dates, etc will be. As of right now, no one has waited for a referral and the wait for travel has been anywhere for 1-6months. We will be required to take two trips to Ghana. The first trip will be 1-6 months after our referral and the second trip will be around 2-3 months after the 1st trip. However, as with all adoptions, our specific timeline is unknown at this point. We should have our homestudy approved by the state around the end of February and start our immigration papers with USCIS in the beginning of March. We will keep you updated each step of the way.

In the meantime, Ethan is SUPER excited about a new brother. He talks about wrestling, sharing his bunk bed, and giving his brother “tickets”. He’s a boy, what can I say!?

We are truly amazed when we sit, reflect, and look back at all the ways God has been faithful to us and used our tiny efforts to expand His kingdom for His glory. We are also blessed beyond belief to be apart of the miracle of adoption. The stories we have to share, the miracles God has done, and the family He has knit for us is more than we could have ever hoped for!! We are head over heals, totally, completely in LOVE with our kiddos. We have our rough and sad days too. However, what God has created out of those days and how He has used us to weave a colorful, loving family is just awesome. We wouldn’t want it any other way. I definitely cannot imagine what our lives would have been like without our beautiful children. They add so much to our lives and we are just so blessed to be able to have more little ones.

"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate."
Psalm 127:3-5

Thank you for your prayers and support! We are dreaming of Ghana...

Love,

The Cartwrights

Why adopt?

2012-01-21T13:27:00.000-08:00

"Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you." James 1:27

To help offset some of our adoption costs, we are doing a little fundraiser. We are partnering with 147 Million Orphans. If you use our direct affiliate link to purchase merchandise (tshirts, necklaces, cell phone cases, etc), 30% of all monies go directly to our adoption agency. The rest of the money goes directly toward orphans. I just LOVE that!

Here is the link:
http://www.147millionorphans.com/?AffId=52

Today was our last homestudy visit. In about 2 weeks, we should have our approval from DCFS and our homestudy is officially complete. Once we have our approved homestudy, we can begin the paperwork for immigration and our dossier. To celebrate, we took some new photos of our kiddos. Children are such a blessing. We are so thankful that God is filling our quiver one by one! (Psalm 127:5)

This past week has been a little tough for us and we are learning more to walk by faith, give up our rights and desires, and trust God. It has forced us to go back to the Lord's living word for encouragement, peace, and to remind us why we adopt in the first place. Adoption is expensive, inconvenient, and our children don't always love us back! The overall response we've been getting this week is... So, why would we do this?

Our answer is simple: "We love because He first loved us." (1 John 4:19) When Christians adopt, we demonstrate love to the watching world. We not only show love in word, but also in action. When we adopt, we choose to give our life away. Adopting children is a like living out the gospel in your living room.. Adoption's redemptive response to tragedy is a tiny reflection of what Jesus Christ did for us, sinners. Jesus Christ, the perfect redemptive response, laid down his life in order that we could be saved through faith in Him alone. Chad and I certainly do not redeem our children by our acts alone. God does that great work when He uses our obedience to bring these precious children into His light, which provides them with a future and a hope.

My life is not my own. James 1:27 mandates us to care for widows and orphans. This requires sacrifice. It's not easy to give up the things I deem more important or worthy of my financial, emotional, and physical resources but God demands me, as a follower of Jesus Christ, to do it anyway and trust Him to be with us every step of the way. Jesus says, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these my brothers you did it for me (Matthew 25:40). Thank you Lord, for this awesome opportunity to strengthen our faith, build our family, and to use us as a vessel for your kingdom purposes!

Rejoice!

2012-01-11T17:26:00.000-08:00

"Praise the Lord; praise God our savior! For each day he carries us in his arms. Our God is a God who saves! The Sovereign Lord rescues us from death." Psalm 68:19-20

Reflecting on all that God has done in the past year is humbling. I am so thankful for the many opportunities Chad and I have had to serve and grow in our walks with the Lord. All the while, we have been blessed beyond what we could ever measure. There have been many moments where we could not contain our joy or sorrow. We have had many highs and many lows. Through all of it, God used it to show us more of who He is and stretch our faith, ability to love others, and bring our family closer together. While I cannot publicly share everything in our lives, I can share some great moments we’ve had since Sarah came home in May 2011.

We celebrated Ethan’s 3rd birthday.

Lots of fun, family time at the splash pad and pool!

Family trip to a local children’s museum and zoo.

Some of our first months as family of four we tough. However, God has been using our time together to strengthen our bonds for life.

The Lord blessed us with a new roof and siding at no cost to us.

Our little princess doesn’t need any surgeries. After SEVERAL appointments, tests, and examinations, we have found that Sarah is completely healthy, healed, and miraculously thriving. She has not needed any surgeries or treatments for her feet or heart. She also does not have arthrogyroposis after all. She is receiving other therapies for core strength, sensory issues, and speech. However, this is nothing compared to what we originally were told about her physical needs.

We’ve had lots of firsts for Sarah. We’ve particularly enjoyed celebrating our family holidays with her this year.

We were elated to celebrate Sarah’s 2nd birthday, first with us.

On December 10th, we celebrating Ethan’s 3rd Sum Hop day. It’s been 3 years now since we traveled around the world to get him.

Looking ahead, we are also excited to share that we are beginning the process to adopt our third child from Russia. A few months ago, Chad and I decided to commit to praying over the future of our family and more adoptions. At first we thought IF we adopted again it would be a long time from now. We thought it would be more convenient to wait until our toddlers were a little older and we recovered a little more financially from the costs of adopting the first two times. However, God’s plans are not always our plans and his timing is not always our timing.

"You can make many plans, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail." Proverbs 19:21

Through our prayers, God began to transform our hearts and minds day by day. In early November, Chad sensed a deep call from the Lord to adopt again and I was in complete agreement with him. From that point on the serious conversations and prayers over where we could adopt began. We decided we wanted to stay in Asia (like our other two children) and began looking over the options. Within a day or two, we both knew God was calling us to adopt again...now not later. So, we obeyed and have had several confirmations of this decision along the way. We both know we have a son in Russia and are anticipating the wonderful day that we can bring him into our family forever.

“God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.” Ephesians 1:5

It’s amazing how God intervenes isn’t it!? Russia is the one program we always said we never EVER wanted to adopt from. It’s more expensive than most programs, requires 3 trips, and many children come from understaffed and underfunded orphanages. In addition to all of this, FAS complications that go undetected are very common in adoptions from this part of the world. Those reasons were always enough to keep us away from that program. But God started to tear away our “concerns” and show us His heart for these children and this area of the world. Now, we are truely heartbroken for the orphan crisis in Russia and are developing a great appreciation for their rich and diverse culture. We are trusting God completely, step by step to provide for us financially and to work out all the details.

“What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?” Romans 8:31

We just completed our first homestudy visit yesterday. We only need two this time around. We should be filing our immigration papers, approvals, and fingerprints by the end of this month or early next month. That is all the information we have right now. When we get more updates or things start moving, we will update you all.

Thank you for joining us in our journey to become a family of 5!

"And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father." Colossians 3:17

Last Day in India and HOMEBOUND!

2011-06-10T15:21:00.001-07:00

"God's unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ and this gave Him great pleasure." Ephesians 1:5

We had planned the day out well. We thought we would go to our appointment at the Embassy, tour Delhi a little, see the Red Fort, pick up some authentic gifts and souvenirs along the way and call it a day. However, God had other plans for us ...

Above is a photo of Sarah waiting on our taxi for our Embassy appointment. Instead of writing about every little detail, I think it is best to summarize our day and how God moved mountains in order to get us home! Our day included a horrible driver, missing papers at the Embassy, unplanned trip to CARA, airline strike complications, world events, etc. We are so thankful for God's provisions for us on that day.

Prior to our appointment at the Embassy (9am appt)
1) Our driver was almost 30 minutes late and spoke very poor/little English
2) Thank God, the streets of Delhi were virtually empty so we ended up being 1 hour early.
3) We knew the Embassy didn't open until 9am so we decided to see a few monuments close by
4) As we rode, we were able to get more photos of India. Below, are a few of them ...

5) We originally asked our driver to take us to the Parliament House and India Gate (they are very close to each other). After several misc. stops and asking for directions, he got us there.
6) We were thankful to see these monuments. This was the only official "sight seeing" portion of our trip. Thankfully, we have other friends from our agency that have been such a blessing by sending us pictures from their visits.

As the morning progressed, more people began to fill the streets and parks. By 8:30 am we decided it was time to head over to the Embassy. We wanted some extra time since it seemed like our driver did not know where he was going.

After the driver continued to stop the car for pictures, even after we asked him not to, we made it to the Embassy at 10 minutes until 9am. However, we actually arrived at the American Center, NOT the Embassy. Thankfully, the guards told us right away that we were in the wrong place! Unfortunately, our driver already drove off! Chad, holding all the baby gear and documents, ran after our driver. Chad's mission was not successful. Fortunately, one of the guards let us use a phone and call our driver back. PRAISE GOD, he didn't get too far.

After we stopped to ask several people for more directions, several u-turns, and said MANY prayers God brought us to the Embassy a few minutes past 9am. At first we were dropped off at the wrong gate but we eventually got where we were supposed to be

THE EMBASSY APPOINTMENT

1) We had several problems getting into the Embassy. Security was very high and all the guards were very demanding. We continuously told the guards we were American Citizens and an I-800 family but the guards kept insisting for us to follow their directions so we complied.
2) While we were waiting in one of the buildings, we saw the news flashing that Osama Bin Laden had been killed! This helped to make some sense out of the high security that day. That world event was only a few hours from where we were. We give thanks to God that the Embassy was safe and not locked down! It did lock down later but that did not affect us.
3) After what seemed like an unwanted tour of the entire facility, God brought us to the VISA appointment area. By this point in time, we were 30 minutes late for our appointment!
4) Feeling very anxious, Chad and I said a quick prayer and walked down the long hall for our meeting with the consulate. We felt some relief when we saw the other adoptive family still waiting. PRAISE GOD! We didn't miss our appointment! The other family had just finished their "interview" and then our names were called! God's timing is ALWAYS perfect!

THE VISA APPOINTMENT

1) Finally, we thought we could relax a little. (Wrong!) After I had handed all the documents to the consulate, he said we were missing our NOC (certificate CARA produced). I looked through my papers over and over and found nothing. I asked Chad to get help from the other family as they were getting ready to walk out the door. Sarah started to melt down and at that point, I just started crying! The other family was very gracious with us and helped me calm down and look again through our paperwork.
2) After several minutes of this, the consulate shut his window on us. I just stood there. He never came back. NOW WHAT!?
3) After about 15 minutes of standing there, another woman came to the window. I told her what had happened and she apologized for the consulate's actions. She spent a few minutes overlooking our papers and said the consulate was mistaken; they had our NOC. THANK YOU GOD!
4) We continuously thanked the Lord for this kind, understanding woman. She sent our documents to CARA and went above and beyond for us. She called our driver back, copied all of Sarah's file for us to take to CARA, and told us if we brought back the Article 23 that same day they would get us the VISA packet same day as well.
5) We held this information loosely. We knew this was a LONG shot! CARA usually requires at least 2 days to process the Article 23 and the Embassy (even though she said it would be done) typically doesn't have the VISA packet ready until the following day.
6) We both sighed and collected ourselves emotionally. It was hard to put everything into perspective. We accepted that we were probably not going to make the 1:45 am flight the next morning. We weren't even sure when we would get home. Our Saturday flight had been cancelled because of the pilot strike and the only available flight that week was the 1:45am flight.
REGARDLESS of what happened or how long we were going to be in India we gave thanks to God and accepted what he had for us. However, we had an open door to do what we could to get home soon and we walked through it by faith! God is so much bigger than ALL OF THIS!

Romans 8:28
"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for the good, for those who are called according to his purpose."

JOURNEY TO CARA

1) As Chad helped our driver navigate, I prayed. If this was going to work out, God would have to intervene. It was also very hard to accept that we might have to wait another week or more before we could go home.
2) God protected us as we drove through some "less visited" areas of Delhi. Our driver continuously stopped on the side of the road, left the car running and got out to ask for directions. Thankfully, Chad was always able to jump over the seat and lock the car.
3) The above pictures are from our ride to CARA and the pictures below are from our walk to the CARA office. I driver had to drop us off at the gate. We walked down an alley, behind a creepy/dark building, by several people sitting in the dark shade staring us down, past armed guards, up a spiral stair case and down a long hall to the CARA office. WHEW!

When we arrived, the receptionist pointed to a sign on the wall. It said, "Adoption Visiting Hours Mon-Fri 4pm-5pm". WHAT!? Chad and I were NOT going to leave there without getting past the front desk. I took a deep breath and we both just walked in anyway. A man stopped me and again pointed to the sign. I just kept walking. Another man walked over to us and I said, "We are here for our Article 23 and the U.S Embassy sent us." After pretending like I didn't understand the visiting hours sign, a beautiful woman showed up in a gorgeous sari and clear English. She said, "You are here for Article 23?" I replied, "Yes." She said, "Come here." She looked at my papers, told us to wait (in a dark room with no lights ANYWHERE) then walked down this long hallway. I never saw her again. After 40 minutes of waiting in the dark room, another woman walked in with our Article 23. Thank God Sarah was flexible with us at that point. She just sat on my lap and played with the same toy the entire time. SUCH A BLESSING!

Now that we had our Article 23, all we needed was the VISA packet to go home. Around 2pm, we arrived at the Embassy. Chad went in while I fed Sarah in the car. When Chad walked up to the guards, they were sending people home and told him to come back tomorrow. Chad showed them his documents and asked again. God gave him favor and the guards let him through. Thankfully, Chad made it in with no security issues the second time. The woman we spoke to that morning was not there, but thankfully the man at the desk prepared the VISA packet while Chad waited. This was another HUGE blessing because most families wait until the next day for the packet. 30 minutes later, Chad had the Visa packet and Hague adoption certificate in HAND! THANK YOU LORD!

HOMEBOUND

1) Chad and I spent the ride back to the hotel thanking God for every answered prayer. We did not deserve to have every important detail of the day work out for our good but it did. We were praising God for it all!

2) Closer to the hotel, our driver took us on another unwanted excursion after we insisted that he take us straight to the hotel. He stopped our car on a unpaved dirt road and asked us to spend 5 minutes in this "shop" with no markings, no windows, or anything that would make it a credible place to shop. Almost at screaming level, Chad told our driver to take us to the hotel. Thankfully, he complied and took us back to the hotel. The hotels did not charge us for the car that day after we told them about all the problems we had with our driver.

3) After SEVERAL hours of phone calls, God provided us with an affordable flight home. Plane ticket prices were extremely high for all airlines but God gave us a non-stop flight home for only $1,800!!! During the strike, it was not uncommon to pay 6,000 -10,000 for 2 international plane tickets. We are so thankful for God's provision.

4) We had another bump in the road at the airport. For whatever reason, we had to purchase Sarah's lap ticket at the airport. However, Air India was not issuing new tickets because of the strike and they weren't going to give us a ticket for her! Once again, God intervened and after at least an hour, they agreed to sell us a lap ticket. Shortly after this, a manager asked to see proof that she was adopted or he wouldn't give us the ticket. THANK GOD, Chad had kept the Hague adoption certificate in his carry-on with the VISA packet! The manager went to a special safe and pulled out a fancy looking ticket for our baby girl. After showing our passports at least 10-12 times in the airport, we were on our flight home.

Baby Sarah slept almost 12 hours of the 16 hour flight!!! PRAISE GOD! This was yet another blessing to our very long day.

We were elated to hold our little boy again. As you see, Sarah's first few hours were a little rough...

After a LONG family nap, everything was falling into place. It didn't take long for the two kiddos to make friends :)

The beginnings of a life long relationship and friendship...

THANK YOU FOR READING THIS VERY LONG POST! More updates to come soon!
Love,
Jess

Leaving Kolkata and Medicals

2011-05-08T00:18:00.000-07:00

Friday, the day after we got Sarah, started around 8am in Kolkata. The first night, Sarah slept 12 hours! We were sooo blessed by this! She woke up happy, alert and ready for the day. After breakfast, we checked our flight schedule and found out our flight to New Delhi had been cancelled because of the strike!! YIKES! We quickly called our travel agent in the states and he said he would call us back in 15 minutes. However, after this conversation we never heard from him again until we arrived in America. I will never use his services again and I know our adoption agency has now taken him off the travel packet. Anyway...

Chad, called several people. One person would tell us the site was wrong, the flight is not cancelled. Another person would say, give us cash and we'll get you a flight. A different person would say we'll call you back. This cycle continued for SEVERAL HOURS. Chad was tirelessly making phone calls all morning until we finally heard back from our hotel's travel agent. Around noon, the travel agent came to our room and set us up with new tickets to Delhi through Jet Airways. The flight would be a couple hours earlier than we had expected. So, we quickly gave Sarah a short nap, packed, and headed to the airport. PRAISE GOD we were flying out that Friday!! If we had flew to Delhi the next day not only would be have missed Sarah's scheduled medical appointment but we also would have been paying 1,000 dollars a person for our domestic flight!! The private airlines were definately taking advantage of us, the Air India customers.

Thankfully, our driver to the airport was fantastic. He gave us an "on the go" tour of Kolkata and spoke great english. We had no problems getting on our flight. It was a little delayed and very crowded but we were just happy to be on a plane by this point in time. Amazing how your perspective changes isn't it!? We arrived at our hotel around 11pm. We quickly put Sarah to bed, video skyped with Ethan and slept. It was great to finally hear Ethan's voice and see his cute face.

Our next morning was pretty relaxing. We slept in, ate a leisurely breakfast, unpacked a little, and played with our baby girl. Our appointment wasn't until noon and was only 2km from our hotel. The medical appointment is done by an U.S. Embassy approved physician. It is just a requirement for immigration. We had to do the same thing for Ethan. We had no problems getting to the medical center and our driver was great. The medical center was chaotic and crowded but we found where we were going with little difficulty. We checked in at 12pm but weren't seen until 1:30. So, our little girl was starting to get pretty cranky by the end of it. Thanks to another family that traveled before us, we had a waiver for Sarah's vaccines. No shots were required!! THANK YOU LORD! We are still required to give her shots when she is home, but I'd rather do it here than in India. The exam was pretty quick and simple. He listened to her heart and that was about it. We were fine with that. It was getting really hot in there and we just wanted to get back to the air conditioned car.

On the way back to our hotel, Sarah fell asleep. We did ask the driver to pull over real quick so we could get a good picture of the tower. We were satisfied with this view. It was terribly hot in New Delhi. May is a VERY hot month. By this time of day, it was pushing 110 degrees with lots of humidity outside. We all rejoiced for our successful day and celebrated with a family nap and dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe.

The next day was also extremely HOT and we were VERY tired. As a result, we decided we would just stay close to the hotel. Our hotel was connected to 3 malls (all air conditioned!). So, when our daughter wasn't catching up on her rest, we explored the malls and did a little shopping. We bought our daughter her first bows, shoes, etc. It was a pretty good day. :)

"The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exhault him." Exodus 15:2

Sarah Day

2011-05-01T13:50:00.000-07:00

Howdy friends and family!
Unfortunately, I am unable to post pictures on this blog until we get home. There's an issue with our portable computer reading the SD cards with the pics on it...sorry! :( We will keep posting pictures from our portable devices but the actual camera pics will have to wait for now. We've been posting some pictures on facebook.
However, I thought I could at least update you a little on the last couple days or so. Let's start with Thursday....SARAH DAY!
We started the day after a full night of rest (thank you Lord!). Early in the morning, I started calling Ms. Roy (the orphanage director). We didn't get ahold of her, so I went downstairs for a foot massage (very nice) and had breakfast with Chad. As the morning progressed, we still couldn't get ahold of her and were starting to get a little concerned. Thankfully, we did reach her around 12pm (another praise!). She told us we could come at 3pm. We gathered the donations, went over the questions we were going to ask and were all set to go by 12:30pm. Now what!? lol Since our driver was coming at 2:30, we decided to just lounge around the room a little and enjoy the last few hours of our childless day. We had hoped to do a little sightseeing earlier in the morning, but we didn't want to miss a call from Ms. Roy. Oh well, we enjoyed the down time too :)
At 2:15pm our driver arrived. We hopped in the car rested and refreshed...ready to receive our baby girl! As we started the journey, we began to see the poverty in Kolkata. There's nothing that I could say to describe it. I pray those images stay with us forever. Then, before we knew it, our driver pulled over. He was lost and asked for directions.....yikes! We both prayed silently in the back of our car. Thankfully, we made it to the building. We were a little later than expected but we got there.
We started the visit at the special needs building (where our baby girl was!). It looked just like the pictures we had seen. Small, little pieces of clothing were drying outside and one of the staff members was outside waiting for us with a big smile. First, we climbed up the spiral staircase that led to the toddler/infants. When we got up there, many of the kiddos were sleeping. The staff member introduced each little one by name and we loved on all of them. So many precious moments. Then, at the end of the line of cribs, was our precious Rukmini (Sarah). She was standing up in her crib looking right at us. Our first moments were not "story book moments" but after lots of tears and attempts she let me hold her. Her Ayah (caregiver) went in the other room and gave me a moment. I paced around the room with her and hummed "Amazing Grace" in her ear. After only a few seconds, she relaxed on my shoulder and for the first time we bonded. It was precious. I will never forget that moment.
After this, I gave her back to her Ayah so she could say goodbye and asked many questions. It was such a HUGE blessing from the Lord that her Ayah was there that day. I learned so much by watching her care for Sarah in person and telling me what she knows. We then toured the downstairs area and loved on all the older chidren. After we were finished, we went back up the stairs one last time. I then huged Sarah's Ayah and thanked the woman who lovingly cared for my daughter for her first 18 months of life. With tears in her eyes, she huged me back and smiled. She then turned away because it seemed she was overwhelmed with emotion. I thanked her again and we left.
After all of this, we went to the other building where many of the newborn babies and other healthy children and infants were. We did a quick tour of that building and met Ms. Roy. I gave her a big hug and thanked her for all her hard work and dedication to get our children home. After we took some pictures, we started signing our adoption papers. It was very exciting!! Once we finished, she answered several of our medical questions as well. When we were about to leave, the Ayahs fed Sarah for us. I am soooo thankful we got to watch them prepare her food and feed her!!!! Thank you Lord for this blessing!! When her tummy was full, we went back to the other orphanage so her Ayah could see her once more. Then, we were a family of four.

We are in Kolkata

2011-04-27T23:44:00.000-07:00

"Don't worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus our Lord." Philippians 4:6-7

God has been answering your prayers! We are picking up our daughter in 2 hours.

It is a HUGE blessing that we even made it here yesterday. After we comfortably flew to New Delhi (we had 3 seats for each of us! it was NICE), we arrived with the anticipation of a 4 hour layover and then take off for Kolkata. Well, apparently while we were in the air, Air India pilots went on strike. So, by the time we arrived in India our flight was cancelled. The staff at the airport had us all sit in a holding area until they knew what to do with us. Right away, Chad and I held hands and prayed to our God that he would get us to Kokata. Not even 30 minutes later, we were one of few people who got to fly to Kolkata on a plane that had been delayed 4hrs from the strike. Apparently, they found a pilot. So, we ran to the terminal and walked right on the plane. Praise God

We are well rested and ready to receive our little girl. Another praise! We are praying we will be able to fly to New Delhi tomorrow as planned. Air India is our airline for all our flights. Lord willing, I will be updating you tomorrow from New Delhi.

Quick thought...

2011-04-24T21:24:00.001-07:00

Howdy!

In case you don't already know, I am on facebook. If we don't have time to blog, we will probably at least post a few pictures and quick, short updates there. If you are not my "friend" yet on facebook, feel free to look me up and I will "friend" you. Otherwise, we will do our best to keep everyone updated here as well but no promises.

Thank you for all your prayers and support and Happy Lord's Day!!! He is RISEN!!

Love,
Jessica Cartwright

We're going to INDIA!

2011-04-21T23:47:00.000-07:00

"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." Romans 1:20

Our Baby Girl Is Coming Home!
In a few short days, we are flying to India! Can you believe it!?

We had a VERY surprising email from our program director today. Apparently, Sarah's passport was applied for last week! In addition to that, she was quite confident that we could start making plans for our trip. I had to actually hear it from her voice to confirm it, lol! This is wonderful! Our little Indian Princess is coming home.

Below is an itinerary for our trip.

4/26 Fly from US to Delhi

4/27 Arrive in Delhi in afternoon. Fly to Kolkata in early evening and get some rest

4/28 Pick up Sarah in the afternoon and get VISA photos

4/29 Fly to Delhi in evening

4/30 Immigration physical

5/1 Rest

5/2 - 5/6 Visa appt, Embassy, and CARA

5/7 Morning flight from Delhi to Chicago

5/7 Officially a family of four and home safe :)

Pictures, Visas, and Approvals!

2011-04-09T18:43:00.000-07:00

"The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven." Hebrews 1:3

After more than 2 months of waiting, we have been legally approved as Sarah's guardians!! We already knew she was ours, but now it's officially on paper. :) Sometime in May, we should be holding our baby girl. Before we can travel, we still have a couple more steps to be completed...

1) We are waiting for the judge in India to sign Sarah's adoption court order. This is her adoption decree. We are hoping to have this step completed within the next week or two.

2) Once we have the legal papers, her passport is applied for. For some families, this has taken as few as 7 days while other families have waited over 2 weeks.

Once the orphanage director has these papers in her hands, we email the embassy in New Delhi and can book our flight to India. Pretty exciting, right!?

Since legal papers for all the families have been moving along, we should be getting more pictures! Here's a picture I received today of our precious 17 month old daughter. It looks like our baby girl is WALKING!!

Thank you for all your prayers!

Jessica and Chad

We're getting closer!!!

2011-02-22T11:29:00.000-08:00

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose". Romans 8:28

COURT PRAISES!!!!

In case, you are unaware....in the beginning of January, the India adoption authorities told us we have to have an US adoption decree for Ethan in order to move forward with Sarah's adoption process. This was VERY disheartening for us as we were hoping to travel in February but God had other plans. Although, our attitudes weren't always great, we complied. There's more details in between but God did a miracle a couple weeks ago and CARA (the India adoption authority) granted us NOC and moved forward with our process anyway. Recently, we had a court date for Ethan's "re adoption".

HUGE praises in regards to Ethan's court date....

The judge waived our publication requirement! This is saving us 600-800 dollars and 3+ weeks we would wait for a decree. This has never happened before. :)

We will have our final court date this coming Monday,Feb. 28th. Normally, adoption court in our county is only 2 Wednesdays a month. However, our judge was very reasonable and agreed to meet with our lawyer ANY time or day that worked for him

In addition to all this, Sarah's papers are currently in the Kolkata courts. This means, that the courts have already cleared our paperwork and are going to bring it before a judge for him to make it official. Our case worker from Dillon International told us all cases should be cleared sometime between last Thursday and March 3rd. However, we have to hold this information lightly since court dates in India are often delayed.
So, here's a basic outline of what's left....

Kokata courts grant us guardianship
ISRC (the orphanage) lawyer drafts up an adoption decree! This is a HUGE blessing for us as this means we will be able to get our adoption tax credit in 2012 AND will make all of her re finalization processes MUCH EASIER! God always knows what we need before we even ask!
After the adoption decree is drafted and signed by a judge, we will put in for Sarah's passport. The passport should take 2-4 weeks.
One we have her passport, we can make arrangements for our trip to India! We will probably leave within a week of receiving Sarah's passport.

I know there are no pictures right now but I'll try and work on that later. I've been a little behind on pictures lately.

Love you all and thank you for your prayers!

"But those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not be weary; they will walk and not faint." Isaiah 40:31

Adoption Process overview and pictures

2010-12-21T13:50:00.000-08:00

The adoption process for India is a little different than Vietnam. I'm going to do a general overview of our timeline below. Then, enjoy the pictures!

1) Adoption application June 2010

2) Homestudy July 2010

3) IL DCFS approval August 2010

4) USCIS fingerprinting and Dossier sent to Dillon International September 2010

5) The children's home prepares our case for CARA (Central Adoption Resource Authority) in New Delhi. September 2010

5) USCIS I800 preapproval granted. October 2010

6) Signed official referral papers October 2010

7) I800 approval, US immigration sends our approval to the National Visa Center in New Hampshire, who then sends our approval to the US Embassy in New Delhi November 2010

8) Article 5 issued by the US Embassy in New Delhi and provided to CARA December 2010

Here's what's left (in order)

CARA receives Article 5, our case will put forth for CARA approval. Our case will go before a committee for the approval of the No Objection Certificate (NOC).
Once CARA grants the NOC, they will send the NOC to the children's home in Kolkata.
The Children's home will then submit our case to the Kolkata courts for the guardianship process. This takes two steps: scrutinization of paperwork, and guardianship hearing.
Once guardianship is granted, we are the legal guardians of Sarah. The children's home can then submit a request for Sarah's Indian passport.
Once we have the passport, we will call the US Embassy in New Delhi to make an appointment for the visa interview.
At that point, we get our tickets and fly to India!

At this point, we really don't know when we'll be traveling but we can say it will be SOON!

One of the first picture they sent of Sarah

A little out of order but this is when she was about 10 months

7 months

November pictures.

Happy Birthday little princess!

Again, out of order. 10 months

Pregnant on Paper for the second time :)

2010-12-21T12:57:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking about coming back to the blogging world so I could share all the wonderful, awesome things that God has done through our current adoption of Sarah Anjali LuAnn Cartwright. Thankful that Ethan is now sleeping soundly for his afternoon nap, I have decided to finally do this! I'll just start from the beginning....

Last fall, Chad and I had decided we wanted to adopt another boy from India. We love the Indian culture, we qualified for the program, we prayed about it and really felt God leading us that way. However, that wasn't God's timing because we had some other commitments that had been made prior to that decision that we later found out would legally keep us from adopting during that season of our lives. So, we pushed on another "door", so to speak.

Last December, We started the process to become a safe family and minister to the local children in our area. We also saw that our agency, Dillon International, had opened a new adoption program in Nepal and we would qualify for the program in 2011. So, we saw this as an open door to walk through, and added ourselves to the list for 2011.

Last spring, We took in several children through the Safe Families program. During some of my free time, I would peruse the India waiting children lists. We also kept reading the adoption alerts for Nepal and knew in our hearts that probably wasn't going to be the program for us.

In May, Chad and I came accrossed Sarah's waiting child profile online. I knew in my heart, and told Chad that next day, that she was our daughter chosen by God for us. Keeping the emotions at bay, we did our research about her conditions, talked to a pediatrician, specialists, other families, etc. After lots of praying, we both decided to move forward with her application and remove ourselves from the Nepal list. The next week, we received notice that Nepalesse adoptions were going to cease and a month later, our agency closed their program.

In June, We started our application and her application was put on hold for us. We decided, almost right away, that we would name our daughter Sarah. Her hindu name is Rukmini. In Hinduism, Rukmini is a princess, daughter of the king of Vidarbha. Rukmini is also considered to be the incarnation of the goddess of fortune. However, we know that our daughter is a princess of the KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS, JESUS CHRIST. To honor our heavenly king, we decided to rename her Sarah. In Hebrew her names means "princess".

Since we first started the process, God has just poured on the blessings. Here's a few...

Our homestudy only took 3 weeks!! Yep, 3 WEEKS!
Sarah has had no complications with her heart condition. As far as we see, everything has been normal for her.
Our IL state approval took 6 weeks less time than expected.
The Indian adoption process has been undergoing several changes the past several months. As of now, our timeline has been almost completely unaffected by it.
God has provided for our every financial need to fund the adoption thus far. We believe He will continue to do so.
Sarah seems to be developing physically like we would expect any other 12 month old.
There's been some hiccups and complications with paper work, etc but our Lord is sufficient and has comforted us when we needed it.
We have a closet full of cute girl clothes from hang-me downs to garage sale finds too!

We are continously giving God ALL the GLORY!

"that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. "

Philippians 2:10-11

2009-09-25T18:38:00.000-07:00

The picture above and below are where we ate lunch. The temperature was perfect and the view was gorgeous. One side was a view of the skyline and the other side was the lake. We could have sat out there all day.

There he is climbing on a turtle. So many cool textures.

We spent at least an hour in the wild reef. Believe it or not, Ethan really enjoyed the great white shark. He would get very excited when the shark swam by, smiles, giggles and everything. :)

2009-09-25T18:27:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, my mother and I took Ethan to the Shedd Aquarium in the city. It was a great day. Slightly foggy, but I actually enjoy those days! Ethan loved all the fish and we couldn't have picked a better time and day to avoid large crowds, etc. We saw the entire aquarium with the exception of the polar play zone because that is currently under construction. We'll have to go back for that.

On a side note, does anyone know how to post pics directly from picasa to blogger without being limited to 4 pictures? This is the reason I tend to have multiple posts for one subject. I just spent a good deal of time trying to figure it out but decided I would get this post up instead! lol ok, back to the aquarium trip.....

Since I was holding Ethan most of the time, we didn't get a lot of pics but here's some of the highlights....

This is Ethan checking out the man with a fish fountain.

This is some very large fish from south east asia. What's funny is, not too long after this picture, the fish opened it's ENORMOUS, large mouth like it was trying to eat Ethan. Although, there's glass there, it still made me feel a little uneasy, so we kept walking!

This is us standing in front of the fish that live in the mekong river. Ironically, this was one of Ethan's favorite spots. The southern part of the Mekong River is where he was born, Can Tho City. So, of course I had to get a picture of that!

"And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." Genesis 1:20

August Days

2009-09-07T21:33:00.000-07:00

One of the highlights of August was going to Festival Park. I wanted to wait until Ethan could walk confidently before going. That day came and both my parents had the opportunity to spend time with us there. Forunately, we went 2 of the 3 (probably not exagerating) hot days in August. Here are some of my favorite pics from that park.

Time with our parents, exciting new things in our church, play dates, cook outs, birthday parties....August was a great month. The three of us are doing great. Thank you for all your prayers over our family and I look forward to sharing more of our adventures later. Hopefully, it will all be in one post next time! lol Have a wonderful rest of the week!

Love,
Cartwrights

"I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is written within my heart." Psalm 40:8

August Days

2009-09-07T21:26:00.000-07:00

Once again, we're at the park with the red equipment and Ethan is the comedian as usual. hehe Here's some very entertaining faces we get to see often in this house. Love it!

August Days

2009-09-07T21:23:00.000-07:00

Ethan has been eating more with a spoon. Believe it or not, this mess was created in about 1 minute. Amazing what a mess a spoon creates!

I decided to check if Ethan's Halloween costume will fit. Someone gave this to us awhile ago. It's going to be close but it might fit.

My parents each came to visit for one week this past month. While my dad was here, he put up Ethan's swing in our backyard tree. He LOVES LOVES LOVES the swing! This is Grandma swinging him today actually. I decided to freezer cook 11 dinners today and was blessed with childcare from Grandma Semick so I could accomplish this task.

View of the bee costume from behind!

August Days

2009-09-07T21:16:00.000-07:00

There's this park pretty close to our house where they have all this red playground equipment. This is a must for Ethan since his favorite color is red. We've going there a lot lately. I just love these pics. I really could look at them for hours.

August Days

2009-09-07T21:11:00.000-07:00

One of the best times in Chad's day is coming home to his little buddy who is very eager to see him. Some of their most precious moments are spent during these times. These pictures are a great summary of these moments. Ethan and Daddy bonding time :) I LOVE LOVE LOVE watching them together.

August Days

2009-09-07T21:00:00.000-07:00

It seems as if August has just begun. It was here and then it was gone. August was a great month for our family to connect and create some special moments to remember. Below are small pictures of what we were so blessed to experience together.

Last weekend we had a last minute pizza party with Great Uncle Dave and Dotty. They live about 40 minutes away and we truly enjoy all the time we get to spend with them. Although he was pretty grumpy that day, Ethan had some very cute moments. For example, he showed off his little tikes bike skills going backwards (cause that's all he does at the moment), walking skills, peek-a-boo, and so big. He did everything he could do get some smiles and laughs. We loved every minute :)

For some reason, I just don't understand how picasa works with blogger. So, I think I'm going to have a couple different posts again. oh well :)

Birthday and Boo Boo

2009-08-09T21:37:00.000-07:00

Although we haven't had anything too exciting going on, my golden birthday was last week. Chad surprised me with a "golden" cake, sweet card and an evening out with the ladies. We had a fantastic time at Olive Garden.

The next evening, Ethan got his first "real" boo boo. Poor little guy. He was walking toy to toy in the play room, got really excited and slamed his nose and forehead into a toy. Fortunately, no stitches were needed. His mark is completely healed now and he's back to walking around the house.

We have been so blessed the last couple weeks to have the Laird children over for play dates. We LOVE these kids! I kept trying to capture a photo of them playing together and finally snuck up behind them for this snapshot. Watching our children play with others is such an incredible joy, isn't it?

Last but not least, I thought I would share this photo because it is the closest one I have of him actually walking. Looking at his posture is sooo convicting. I bet my chiropractor bill would be much less if I were more mindful of MY posture.

Well, I hope to be back on before too long with the popular "walking" photos.

"There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no rock like our God."
1 Samuel 2:2

Final Catching up post

2009-07-23T21:42:00.000-07:00

There pictures represent many May and June teething mornings (and evenings :)

Those eyes just melt our hearts. It is worth it all. We love him so much and cherish every minute.

Catching up!

2009-07-23T21:39:00.000-07:00

This was our last trip to our old neighborhood park. I was surprised his hat and hood stayed on so long.

Still Catching up!

2009-07-23T21:38:00.000-07:00

Other than the red car, here are Ethan's favorite gifts. A cute, chubby bear (we call him Chuckles) from his great aunt and a red balloon from the great grandparents.

This is Great Aunt Kay with Ethan. She is so wonderful with the little ones.

MOVING DAY! Ethan trying to conquer the box mountain!

Catching up!

2009-07-23T21:35:00.000-07:00

Until recently, Ethan never put things in his mouth. Instead, he inspected everything. This is Ethan inspecting the mulch at the park. This definately occupied most of his time (almost 1 hour).

Here are some pics of Ethan's ACTUAL BEARTHDAY! Yes, we had multiple celebrations. I guess you only turn 1 once, right!?

Hank's Graduation...catching up!

2009-07-23T21:33:00.000-07:00

Getting out of the car.....FINALLY!

Trying to escape his stroller during the procession.

Congrats Hank!

Ethan swinging away during Hank's park party.

Some Birthday photos...still catching up!

2009-07-23T21:30:00.000-07:00

Mommy and Ethan time.

We had a great time with the party hats.

Ethan enjoying one of his gifts. He LOVES the color red btw.

Catching up!

2009-07-23T21:28:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken on Ethan's first birthday with his cousin Aiden. He just so happened to play with the #1 of his foam puzzle and we couldn't resist a cute photo opportunity.

Pictures of two grandpas. The one above was Father's Day. The one below is Ethan's birthday party.

This was Ethan's bday party cake. As you may see, I REALLY like pandas!

Catching up!

2009-07-23T21:23:00.000-07:00

Below is a beautiful picture of Ethan with his Great Grandfather. They came to visit for a couple weeks in May and stayed through Ethan's first birthday party. It was such a blessing to have them here and capture many of those moments on camera!

Chad's first father's day!

Ethan and his buddy Joshua getting ready to perform a duet!

Catching Up!

2009-07-23T21:17:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family!

Yes, I know I have been very deliquent since we returned in December! I could go over all the excuses and reasons why I didn't want to sit at my computer and upload pictures to facebook or let alone write about them on a blog. However, I've decided to take full responsibility and inform you that I will be doing my best to at least keep this going every couple weeks.

I know there is a lot to catch up on, so I thought I would just post pics from the last few months (specifically April) and give you the highlights! If you enjoy facebook, I have posted pictures there from December until April. If you would like to view them, please email me. After April, we celebrated my youngest brother's graduation, Ethan's first birthday, Chad and I's anniversary, Mother's day with 4 generations, spent quality time with Ethan's great grandparents from NH, BOUGHT A HOUSE AND MOVED, father's day, helped Ethan's grandparents on Chad's side move in our condo, and celebrate the Fourth of July. I'm sure I missed something but maybe I'll capture it in pictures! Well, here's the best I can do for now.

This is one of Ethan's silly faces. We laugh every time he does this!

These are some pics from the 4th. It was a pretty chilly 4th of July up here.

This is Ethan meeting me at the bottom of the stairs. Chad lets me sleep in on Saturdays. I came downstairs and was greeted with this beautiful, smiling face. :)