Our Journey: The Basics

Kevin, Abby and Lexi Hendricks began our adoption process in the summer of 2007. On March 18, 2009, Abby and Kevin will travel to Ethiopia to bring Milo home. Milo was born in October 2008 and is a tiny, content little guy. We're beyond excited to welcome him into our family.

We adopted through Children's Home Society and Family Services, one of the largest and oldest adoption agencies in the country. The process can take 1-2 years (18 months for us) and can cost upwards of $25,000.

Thank you.
Well over 100 families and friends have helped us through this process in some way. We couldn't have done it with out you. Thank you.

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More

• Check out a quick overview of our itinerary to see where we were when.
• See photos of Milo in the care center and pictures from our trip.
• You can join our Facebook Group to receive updates, post comments and follow along.
• You can read more about the entire process on our blogs. Here's a sampling:

Kevin's Blog: Say Hello to Milo Adoption Court Date: Feb. 20, 2009 It's a Boy! Lexi Says Ethiopia Adoption is a Last Resort 144 Million Orphans Demand a Response The Transracial Challenge of Adoption Not 'Grateful' To Be Adopted Why Adoption? Adoption Interviews: Josh, Gene, Erin, Sheila and Frank. Read more from Kevin >>

Abby's Blog: An Open Letter to our Family & Friends Social Report And the Wait Is Over Why Are You Adopting? Adoption Bills - Why Does it Cost So Much? Why We Chose an Ethiopian Adoption Political Correctness in Adoption Names and Adoption There Is No Me Without You Adoption Dreams Read more from Abby >>

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Gifts?
A few people have asked about baby showers or gifts. We have nothing planned and don't really need anything, but if you insist on doing something you could consider one of the following options:

• An ideal way to give would be to make a donation in Milo's name to one of several organizations working in Ethiopia:
  • CHSFS Ethiopia - Our adoption agency has a number of humanitarian aid projects in Ethiopia that are doing tremendous good (be sure to note in the comments of the donation form that you want your donation going to Ethiopia)
  • AHOPE - A care center in Ethiopia for HIV+ orphans.
  • Red Letter Campaign - Fighting poverty and loving orphans in Ethiopia and elsewhere in Africa.
  • Charity Water - Providing clean water around the world, including 300+ projects in Ethiopia.
• There is an online registry of a few things we want for Milo. Some of these are more immediate needs and some would make good birthday or Christmas presents (note the priority level).
• A final option would be to make a donation to Milo's college fund. We realize that's not as cute as baby clothes, but consider the magnified power of 18 years of compound interest. That's more than cute. You can make a donation through PayPal or contact us for a mailing address.

Thank you.