Today we went to Louisville to the Citizenship and Imigration Services (what used to be INS, now CIS) for our fingerprinting appointment. This is for our federal background check, the last step on the U.S. end of things before the adoption. Unlike the picture suggests, there was no ink involved...all computers. The process was pretty painless...it took a total of 10 minutes, and we were back on our way home.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Fingerprinting!
Today we went to Louisville to the Citizenship and Imigration Services (what used to be INS, now CIS) for our fingerprinting appointment. This is for our federal background check, the last step on the U.S. end of things before the adoption. Unlike the picture suggests, there was no ink involved...all computers. The process was pretty painless...it took a total of 10 minutes, and we were back on our way home.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Let's Get...Physicals
Adoption brings all kinds of things to light. In addition to criminal background checks and FBI fingerprinting, you also have to have a medical physical, complete with blood tests. Matt's physical revealed that he has gained about 50 pounds since college. Amy's blood tests returned some abnormal thyroid levels.
After some additional tests that included taking a nuclear pill and laying completely still for 45 minutes for a thyroid scan, it was determined that Amy had a nodule on her thyroid and Matt still weighed 50 pounds more than he did in college. There are two treatment options: removing the thyroid or treating it with a slightly higher radioactive iodine dose. (Matt's options are eating less and excercising more.) We chose the radiation pill treatment, which has the least chance of long-term effects.
Here's the interesting thing about the treatment option we chose...Amy will be seeping radioactivity for about a week, which means she must "stay at least six feet away from adults over 45 and at leat ten feet away from children and pregnant women" for a week. She may "ride home with an adult driver", but she should "sit as far from other people in the vehicle as possible". She also must "sleep alone for seven days" with "no kissing or intimate contact during this period".
Matt is secretly hoping that this particular form of therapy will result in some sort of super powers. We may try arranging spider and bat bites, which have a certain level of prior reputation for results. At any rate, please keep Amy in your prayers for personal strength and that the treatment would be successful.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Matt's Album
Many of you have been asking for updates about my recording project. As an update for those who don't know about the project, a pastor friend of ours in Northern Ireland invited me to come over and record an album of me singing. He offered to produce the album and provide all musicians for free, so all we would have to pay for is the studio time. So, Amy & I spent January 2nd-12th in Northern Ireland working on the album.
Now for the new info....the album is hymns, and we are calling it "One Supreme Desire". The songs we recorded are, in no particular order: I Will Sing the Wondrous Story; Just As I Am; Day by Day (duet with Amy); Give Me a Holy Life; I Want to Be Like Jesus/O to Be Like Thee; I'd Rather Have Jesus; Satisfied; The Master Has Come; Wesley Medley (This Is Thy Will, I Know/And Can I Yet Delay/Jesus, Lover of My Soul); It Is Well; Fill Me Now; Nearer, Still Nearer.
We got all of my part recorded while we were over there, and the album is now in the "add-on" phase, where they add little instrumental parts to fill the tracks out. Then it will be on to the final mixing and mastering, and we hope to have a finished master by the end of March. At that point we will have to have the album reproduced for distribution here in the States.
If we had known that we would be starting an adoption when we committed to this project, it may not have happened. This is not a money-making venture; it is a ministry project. (We hope we break even!) We hope that God will use the album to encourage believers and challenge them to live the abundant life that God desires for all of us. It will also be good to have something to offer people when I am out doing song evangelism in campmeetings and revivals. Above all, we pray God is glorified and lifted up in the finished product.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Paperwork!
Amy works on filling out the many forms
Caesar wants to help
Today we finished the paperwork for our homestudy (we think!). Once our provider writes the homestudy, we will proof it,and it will be sent to Citizenship & Immigration Services (CIS...used to be INS). Once CIS approves it, we will get our I-171H, which gives us pre-approval to bring an orphan to the U.S. Also, once we get our homestudy done, we can begin applying for adoption grants.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Why Adoption?
There are two questions that we are getting a lot right now…(1) Are you unable to conceive? and (2) Why Uganda? The short answer is…(1) We don’t know, and (2) Because that’s where the doors opened. Now, if you want some more detail, read on…
When we were beginning to move from “friendly dating” to “this is the person I might marry dating”, we spent an evening asking each other the toughest questions we could think of concerning life, faith, and family. That night we found out that both of us, long before we had ever met, had a strong desire to adopt. As we continued to discuss this, we came to the decision that we would not try to have children biologically (unless the Lord intervened), but would instead adopt our children.
Understand that we are not campaigning against choosing to have children biologically, but we do find it sad that for too many people adoption is a “plan b”. Adoption is a wonderful opportunity for a family (even one with biological children) to welcome a child into their home who has no home and, consequently, little hope for the future. We believe this is especially true for the church, as we have been called to “look after widows and orphans in distress” (James 1:27). Having worked in children’s homes in China, Africa, and Central America, we have seen that the need is so great. The church cannot depend on UNICEF or the Red Cross to care for the children in need in our own country and around the world.
We had pretty much resigned ourselves to not being able to adopt for a while because of expense. Then one of our friends opened her own adoption agency, Promise Kids a Future. She was beginning to look at starting an adoption program to Uganda, a country she had worked in across the years. In conversation, she approached us with the possibility of adopting from Uganda, and we began to see ways that we (with God's help) might be able to make it work financially. After some weeks of thinking and praying, we felt that the Lord was opening doors for us to begin the process, which we did on December 6th, 2006. Our initial paperwork was sent to Uganda by the end of January, and we are being told that for other families it has been taking 8-9 months from that point. We expect to be able to travel anywhere from October 2007-January 2008.
We have applied for a male, age 18-36 months, so our son is living in Africa right now. We have started calling him Micah, which has helped to make it real for us, even though we don’t know him yet. It may not take long for our son to realize that he is not our biological child, since the resemblance factor should be a pretty stark contrast. However, we are looking forward to sharing with him how God has adopted all of us into His family. “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (I John 3:1)
When we were beginning to move from “friendly dating” to “this is the person I might marry dating”, we spent an evening asking each other the toughest questions we could think of concerning life, faith, and family. That night we found out that both of us, long before we had ever met, had a strong desire to adopt. As we continued to discuss this, we came to the decision that we would not try to have children biologically (unless the Lord intervened), but would instead adopt our children.
Understand that we are not campaigning against choosing to have children biologically, but we do find it sad that for too many people adoption is a “plan b”. Adoption is a wonderful opportunity for a family (even one with biological children) to welcome a child into their home who has no home and, consequently, little hope for the future. We believe this is especially true for the church, as we have been called to “look after widows and orphans in distress” (James 1:27). Having worked in children’s homes in China, Africa, and Central America, we have seen that the need is so great. The church cannot depend on UNICEF or the Red Cross to care for the children in need in our own country and around the world.
We had pretty much resigned ourselves to not being able to adopt for a while because of expense. Then one of our friends opened her own adoption agency, Promise Kids a Future. She was beginning to look at starting an adoption program to Uganda, a country she had worked in across the years. In conversation, she approached us with the possibility of adopting from Uganda, and we began to see ways that we (with God's help) might be able to make it work financially. After some weeks of thinking and praying, we felt that the Lord was opening doors for us to begin the process, which we did on December 6th, 2006. Our initial paperwork was sent to Uganda by the end of January, and we are being told that for other families it has been taking 8-9 months from that point. We expect to be able to travel anywhere from October 2007-January 2008.
We have applied for a male, age 18-36 months, so our son is living in Africa right now. We have started calling him Micah, which has helped to make it real for us, even though we don’t know him yet. It may not take long for our son to realize that he is not our biological child, since the resemblance factor should be a pretty stark contrast. However, we are looking forward to sharing with him how God has adopted all of us into His family. “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (I John 3:1)
Saturday, February 3, 2007
Welcome
So, the Kinnells have finally entered the world of blogging...
We figure this is going to be the best way for our friends and family to keep up with our process of adopting from Uganda. We also hope this will be a resource and encouragement for other couples who are adopting. Updates might be a little slow at first, but should pick up as time goes on.
For those of you who haven't heard yet, we have started the process of adopting from Uganda. We don't know the child yet, but we are applying for a male age 18-36 months. We are being told that we could have our son home by Christmas 2007, but we are trying not to get our hopes up too much. The reality is, we have a son living in Africa right now!
We will also use this space to keep you updated on what's going on in our lives in general. We have a busy year ahead that should include: the release of Matt's first music album, mission trips to Kenya and Guatemala, church and work activities, ministry opportunities, and finally the big trip to Uganda.
We figure this is going to be the best way for our friends and family to keep up with our process of adopting from Uganda. We also hope this will be a resource and encouragement for other couples who are adopting. Updates might be a little slow at first, but should pick up as time goes on.
For those of you who haven't heard yet, we have started the process of adopting from Uganda. We don't know the child yet, but we are applying for a male age 18-36 months. We are being told that we could have our son home by Christmas 2007, but we are trying not to get our hopes up too much. The reality is, we have a son living in Africa right now!
We will also use this space to keep you updated on what's going on in our lives in general. We have a busy year ahead that should include: the release of Matt's first music album, mission trips to Kenya and Guatemala, church and work activities, ministry opportunities, and finally the big trip to Uganda.
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