Update.... But still just waiting

I spoke with our Case Manager at our adoption agency again today. Here's what I found out. We're number 17 on the list. The 16 families ahead of us are requesting any age, gender and number of children, but approximately 7 of them are anticipating a referral of a child that is similar to our hope. So, she said it will probably be Spring before we get our referral.

When we went on the list in July, we were told to expect to wait up to ten months for a referral. I however had other ideas and was hoping to be matched by October. A couple months in I realized that was not going to happen. Then I was hoping before the end of the year.... still 21 days to go, but that's just not looking like a possibility. Then I began hoping we would be matched sometime early in the year. Now they are estimating it will be in the Spring. As long as we're matched by the end of May, they'll be right on schedule. So we continue to wait. That's my news!

What Now?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1YcViDGO28&feature=player_embedded

Orphan Sunday

Have you EVER found an interest in adoption? ...even one teensy little question in your mind as to whether you could adopt? Have you ever found yourself wondering how another child could enter into your home? If you've even for a moment ever considered adoption, please do not just walk away from this thought. At least pray about it and ask God if this MAY be His calling for you and your family. It can be scary, but what if this is HIS request of you?

If you have considered this for even a moment or know someone else who has, please take 3 minutes to read this blog http://weloveourlucy.blogspot.com/ and meet a boy who needs a home. If you're not called to adopt, but you know someone who has been, please pass this along. If you haven't been called to adopt and you don't know anyone else who may be either, please at least pray for this boy to find his forever family.

Today is Orphan Sunday. http://www.orphansunday.org/

Adoption Update

Can you believe it? I finally have an update. No, it's not "the news", but it is an update on when we may expect to hear the news, which is great! The adoption referrals have finally started to pick up at our adoption agency, which is so exciting since very few referrals have occurred since we have been on "the list" for the past 3 1/2 months.

As of last week there were approximately ten families ahead of us who were requesting a child in a similar age/gender range as we are requesting. I know that three of those families, who have been waiting for approximately 6-7 months, each received a referral this past week. This means there are approximately seven families ahead of us now. So we're making it our way up the list! I was really hoping we would receive a referral before the end of the year, but after speaking with our Case Manager this week, she estimates that we will likely not receive our referral until after the first of the year. That is OK though. I would rather know it will be longer than I was hoping, than sit around waiting and being disappointed.

I will leave you with some recent photos of the girls I took before our walk the other day.

Isn't this typical sister stuff?

Nice Smiles!!!

Buddy Artists?

Here are some pictures which were colored by our budding artists!

Can you believe this was colored by a two year old? This is NOT a joke. Emma colors every day, and if we would let her, would color ALL day every day. She loves it! Every evening when I get home from work she says, "Mommy, you color with me?" Nice work Emma! You're a pro!

This is a picture she colored at day care today. That might be a better job of staying within the lines than I can do. Although I have been practicing my coloring every day too lately!

This is likely more typical coloring for a two year old -by Abigail. Happy Halloween!

This was colored by Abigail also.

Grandpa Wilson

Today, once again I had the conversation with the girls regarding what baby sister's name should be. Abigail responded first with "Adey" (which is the name of our great friend's daughter whom they recently adopted from Ethiopia). After explaining that we should probably chose a different name, she responded with "Grandpa Wilson". Without missing a beat Emma responded, "We can do THAT!" It was cute. Sorry Dad, the name Grandpa Wilson is for sure not on the list of possible names!

Yesterday we celebrated our 9 month anniversary of us being officially called to adopt, and we completed all our paperwork and have been officially waiting for our referral for just over 3 months. We still don't have any news to share. The Ethiopian courts have reopened after closing for their rainy season, but the referrals are still pretty slow, so we haven't noticed any movement in our placing on "the list".

Will keep you posted.

Nice Reminder

Tonight the girls and I were driving home from my sister's house, as she watched the girls today while I worked and Sean is out of town hunting. We left around 8pm and it had just gotten dark. My sister lives out in the country, so it was extra dark on our drive. We were chatting away when suddenly we heard a huge bang on the van which frightened us all. We didn't see anything, but I was sure someone had thrown a very large rock at the van. The girls asked what the sound was. I told them I didn't know, but that it scared me. Since the windshield wasn't broken, we didn't seem to have any flat tires and the van was still running, we continued on.

A moment later Emma said, "Mommy, Jesus keep us safe." It was the perfect reminder to me! I was so impressed that at two, she knew exactly what to say. I responded telling her, "Yes Emma, Jesus does keep us safe. You're right. 'Thank you Jesus for keeping us safe'."

Not more than a mile later, I caught a glimpse of something in the road and slammed on the brakes ---just avoiding a large deer which scurried to the side of the road just as we were passing. Whew! We missed it fortunately. The girls were pretty excited to see a deer and discussed it the rest of the way home.

When we got into the light later I was able to check the van over, but couldn't find anything wrong with it from the big BANG we had heard earlier. Not sure what that was other than God reminding us that he'll keep us safe. "Thank you Jesus for keeping us safe!"

Still no news...

We have been on the waiting list for two months now, and we still don't have any news -which isn't at all surprising.

So here are some photos to entertain you.

Mommy reading books at bedtime.

Abigail looking SUPER cute while playing in her new sleeping bag.

Emma pointing out her bite wound from her sister. The mark lasted over a day and the bruising lasted several days. Ouch!

Abigail showing off her clown look after she applied multiple layers of her cherry chapstick. Notice her beads as well. She is surely a GIRLIE GIRL!

Yep! You're right. This is a photo of Emma picking her nose. Well, she wasn't really digging, but did have her finger up TO her nose.

Adey! This is the daughter of some of great friends. She came home from Ethiopia in July.

This is AUNTIE and Abigail!

This is AUNTIE and Emma!

Tonight

What was I thinking when I gave them each 2 bites of cookie before bed? .... Silly Mommy!

A GORGEOUS Hicks GIRL!

She has finally arrived. Claire Jeannette Hicks blessed us with her arrival on September 10, 2009 at 8:53pm. Her parents are so excited!!!

These are our DEAR friends whom I have known since grade school and junior high.

This is proud Mommy Edie holding her precious bundle of joy!
This is proud Daddy Dave amiring his daughter's perfection and beauty!

Check out these T-shirts and help us out!

I have met so many people through adoption so far -some I have met face to face and some I have met online. Through these people I have learned sooo much, and I am so grateful!

I recently learned of a brand new fundraising opportunity created by another adoptive family to help other families with adoption costs. They are selling shirts which read "Every Child's Right" and are focused on advertising that every child deserves the right to healthcare, education, a loving family, a safe home, food and clean water. While this may seem obvious to some of us, it is no where near reality for millions of children in the world.

This family has given us the opportunity to sell some of these t-shirts as well and they have graciously offered to provide us $5 towards our adpotion costs for every shirt purchased with our name mentioned in the notes section of PayPal. Check out the shirts on this website. http://everychildsright.wordpress.com/

If you are interested in purchasing a t-shirt, you may do so through the website directly by clicking on PURCHASE. Be sure to list our names "Sean and Christy Anderson" in the notes section of PayPal.

Anniversary & another task

Today is our 8th wedding anniversary! It's hard to believe it's been 8 years of marriage bliss already and 13 years together. It hasn't always been easy, but I'm so thankful for the blessing of my amazing husband. He was absolutely well-worth the wait!

In addition to cleaning up and cleaning out the house, we're also working on another fairly major project this week .... restaining the fence. This is the fourth summer we've been talking about getting this done, but finally it's getting done! It's looking pretty good. Nothing like getting all the projects done around the house in the same week.

Nesting?

Is it possible for someone who is adopting to be NESTING? You know, like when you're actually physically preparing to give birth.... It's not likely, but this week I have been busy cleaning up and moving stuff out of our home. The cleaning part is because it just needs it periodically -the kind where you wipe down the cupboards and drawers, dust the walls and clean behind and under all the furniture. But the cleaning OUT part consists of ridding our home of all the stuff we seem to store but never use. My immediate goal is to make me feel more organized and like there's a bit less chaos in our lives, but also to make room for our new little one. Nope, still no announcement, but we're preparing. I'm trying to get rid of things in our home which we don't need in anticipation of even MORE things being brought into our home for our wee one. We're on our second pick-up load to the Good Will, we have enough garbage to fill up an extra can and the recycle can is full too. It's looking GOOD around here. Open up a closet and see for yourself. I dare you!

Still no news

We still don't have any news to share in the adoption process. We actually haven't heard of any families being matched with any kids since before we were even added to the list. I assume this has to do with several things....

1) the huge number of matches which were made in May and June and all those families getting through the process and bringing their children home -thus in essence making room for more children to enter the transition home which is typically where the kids live once they are matched with a family and waiting for the court process.

2) it's the rainy season in Ethiopia which means electricity is even more scarce than the rest of the year. The courts in Ethiopia usually close for approximately a couple months during this time, which means that adoptions can't be processed.

3) our director in Ethiopia who processes ALL the adoptions is currently in the United States working with the staff here. This makes it difficult for him to match any children with families.

So I anticipate the matches will begin being made again within the next couple months.
We'll be sure to keep you posted as we hear anything.

One for the shots - Zero for ME

Last week I had round two of our immunizations -three shots. My appointment was Wednesday morning and the shots themselves weren't bad at all.... well considering they were shots. But you get the idea. But Thursday morning I woke up sore and feeling just plain yucky. After getting all ready for work, I crawled back into bed and contemplated what to do. I was feeling nauseous, but knew I had to go to work anyway. Maybe I was just being a big baby. So off to work I went. I struggled carrying my bag into the office cuz I was feeling weak. I had a fever with the sweats and goose bumps. I got started with my work, but very quickly realized I wasn't going to be able to make it. I could hardly think when someone was talking to me and couldn't focus. I had pain in both arms from the shots, but in my left arm it hurt up into my shoulder, my neck and the base of my skull. I was so stiff I could hardly move my neck. I ended up heading home before lunch and went right to bed. When I woke up I took some ibuprofen to help with the ache, but it didn't seem to help my throbbing headache. My evening I finally started feeling like I could function again. I still felt pretty yucky for the next few days, but am on the mend now and have nothing but a bruised feeling in my arm remaining.

Sean had his appointment today. I'm sure he was completely dreading it considering how the shots affected me, but hopefully he'll be in better shape.

Can you help?

We have some dear friends, the Gurskes, who have adopted two children from Ethiopia in the past year and a half. In fact they just returned home from Ethiopia with their daughter Adey this month. We had the blessing of meeting them at the airport when they returned to the States and got to meet Adey right away. She is such a doll and her big brother was so excited to meet her too.

They spent two weeks in Ethiopia on this past trip and are working so hard to help other orphaned children in Ethiopia -the ones they can't bring home with them. They made contact with a orphanage who is caring for 40 children, but doesn't have any income to provide them with food, clothing, a place to sleep or medications, and they are desperately asking for our help.

I encourage you to take a look at their blog. If you feel led to support those children through prayer or financially, please do so. Even $5 makes a huge difference to these kids.

http://bethany-withthesehands.blogspot.com/

Update... sort of

We haven't had much news related to the adoption lately, which is expected at this point in the process. But I thought I would note what has happened.

On July 23 our dossier was sent to Washington DC for its final verification. It was received back by our adoption agency last week and now it is ready to be sent to Addis Ababa. However it will actually be hand delivered, as Ato Teklu, (our director in Ethiopia) along with Ato Menywab (the director of the Bete Hitsanet Association Orphange), will be coming to the Seattle area to visit for a couple weeks. When they return to Addis Ababa, they'll just take our dossier with them.

In the meantime we wait.... which seems like it would be difficult, but it hasn't been as difficult as I thought -likely because we have been SOOO busy this summer and have hardly had time to be anxious about waiting. I'm sure once summer comes to an end we will begin to get a bit more anxious.

Why Adopt from Ethiopia?

I recently read an amazing book entitled "There Is No Me Without You" by Melissa Fay Greene. This is a book about a middle class Ethiopian woman whose home became a refuge for hundreds of orphans. She unfortunately passed away earlier this year leaving many of those children behind. I found several interesting statistics regarding Ethiopia and Africa in this book which I thought would be beneficial to share. I thought it would at least give you an idea of the needs in Ethiopia and Africa.

*2/3 of school age children in Ethiopia are not in school.
*59% of adults in Ethiopia cannot read.
*81% of Ethiopians live on less than $2 per day.
*26% of Ethiopians live on less than $1 per day.
*Up to 20% of Ethiopian's 65 million people are not able to eat at least one time per day.
*In 2000 AIDS/HIV had killed 21 million people including 4 million children in Africa.
*In 2006 4.7 million Africans needed life saving AIDS/HIV drugs and only 500,000 had them.
*Approximately 6,600 Africans die each day from AIDS.
*In 2006 is was estimated that 4.7 million Africans needed life saving AIDS drugs and only 500,000 received them.

We recognize that adoption is not for everyone, but there are other ways to help if you feel obliged. I'd be happy to help you find a way to make a difference to one or many in Ethiopia.

Pink or Red?

Oh, two year olds! What fun, eh? Well we rarely have those typical "two year old days", but the last couple days have been very trying. So here's one of the things which happened yesterday.

The morning started out by the girls asking me to paint their toe nails, which they absolutely LOVE. Abigail always wants pink and Emma always wants red. I, without any objections, obliged and proceeded to paint their toe nails. They also requested I paint their finger nails, but we discussed that we could do that another day instead.

Later in the day, while I was sending a quick email, Emma came running up to me holding the bottle of red nail polish asking me to open it for her. I promptly explained that I wouldn't open it for her, as it wasn't something to play with. Unsuspecting, together Emma and I proceeded to the back of the house to see what Abigail was up to. As I entered our bedroom I saw Abigail sitting on the carpet holding the pink bottle of nail polish in her left hand and the finger nail polish brush in her right hand. Then I noticed she had fingernail polish all over her right foot, on both of her legs and on her left thumb and finger. Oh boy! I promptly took it away from her and gave her directions to not touch anything as I began pulling out the polish remover so we could begin the clean up. I was a bit frustrated, but not angry, as I was actually laughing on the inside. So with Abigail in a frozen position I ran to get the camera to capture the moment.

Then I realized that the fingernail polish was also on the carpet -in several places, and also on her shirt and shorts. So we cleaned it up as best we could. I was quite surprised to find that finger nail polish remover removes polish from carpet, but not from clothes. Interesting eh? After the clean up was pretty much done we began having the conversation about how only Mommy opens the finger nail polish and that it's not for them to play with. I remained calm and spoke to them on their level. Just to confirm they were understanding, I brought up the conversation later in the evening and they were prompt to explain that only Mommy opens the nail polish and that it's a No-No to play with it without Mommy.

So this was just part of our day, but you get the point. I was however remembering the things I was thankful for as I was cleaning up the mess.

1) I was thankful that it was Abigail who actually got the bottle open and not Emma, as Emma is much, ummm, shall we say messier.

2) I was thankful that Abigail only likes the PINK nail polish, as the red would have been much more difficult to clean up.

3) I was thankful that I wasn't angry and could actually find great humor in the situation while it was happening. Boy have I come a long way in the last few years, eh?

We're on "THE LIST"!!

Yesterday, before we even knew our immigration approval was in our mailbox, our case manager from our adoption agency sent us an email stating the following, ..."I JUST got your Immigration approval! Congratulations! ... right now you are Officially on the wait list for a referral!" Yippie! We're celebrating each step of the way, and we're quite pleased to be where we are at this point. BUT, now we wait.

We spoke to our case manager today. She explained the next few steps -including what our agency will be doing for us behind the scenes. They'll be sending our dossier to Olympia for state verification. Then it will be sent to Washington, DC to be processed. This takes about three weeks. From there it will finally be sent to Ethiopia where it will wait for us to receive our referral. It doesn't really matter how long it takes for this part of the process as we're still on the list just waiting for our referral.

She did give us an update as to where we are on the list. She estimated there to be approximately 12-15 families ahead of us on the list who were waiting for children from ages of 0-3 years. The families who have been waiting the longest have only been on the list since March, which means they've only been waiting 4 months so far. This was encouraging to us. Using her experience, she is guessing we may receive a referral sometime in the winter.

God knows exactly who she is and has the perfect time chosen for us to first hear about her and to finally meet her and officially bring her into our family. He knows if she's been born yet and every circumstance of her precious life. We will wait for Him to reveal His timing to us.

I-171H Received!

After anxiously checking the mail every day for the past week, our I-171H form finally arrived today. My neighbor thought I was crazy because he heard me yelling and dancing around with joy, although he still has no idea what all the hoopla was about. I will fax a copy of the form to our agency tomorrow and hope to get more details from them later this week in regards to where we are on this list. I'll post when I know more, but tonight we're celebrating this step in the process!

Spring Time Fun Photos

Here are some recent photos of the girls enjoying the Spring.

Abigail & Emma!

Emma -out for an evening walk with Mommy!


Abigail -going for a walk in her favorite "pink shoes" which she insists she wear every day.

Emma! What a poser? We made a visit to the Iris Gardens a few weeks ago.

Abigail -This is a shy look. She's only shy out in public. We get her home and she's very out-going! I wonder where she got this?

Did we say only 1?

Did we say we were only adopting ONE child? Well that most likely is the truth. However once we receive our immigration approval we will actually be approved for a referral of either a little baby girl OR twins. The chances of being matched with twins is VERY low, but it's a possibility. Not sure if many heard that and didn't want anyone to be shocked IF by some 100th of 1% chance it actually happens. You know our luck! Only God knows the plan he has for our family and who he has waiting for us!
Jeremiah 29:11

Biometrics? ...Check

Today we had our fingerprinting appointment for Immigration. It was super simple and quick. We arrived at 7:45am for our 8:00am appointment. We were done and back in the truck by 8:20am. We didn't know how long to expect it to take, but were expecting to possibly have to spend a good part of the day there. So we were quite pleased to be done in 35 minutes. Now we wait for our Immigration approval -the infamous I171H form.

Tomorrow Sean and I begin our first round of immunizations. Sounds fun eh?

Sissy?

We have been talking to the girls a lot about the fact that they are going to have a new baby sister -trying to prepare them as best we can. We often ask them what they would like their baby sister's name to be. They've suggested Lauren (the name of their latest babysitter), KeeKee (which is "blankie" in our household 2 year old talk), "Sissy" and other common household item names. Each night we pray for "Baby Sister" and her birth family and ask that God keeps them safe and healthy. The other morning out of the blue Emma said to me, "I want it." I of course asked her what she wanted. She said, "I want baby sissy." I thought it was so sweet. Maybe she's starting to grasp the general idea of ANOTHER sister.

Whew!

We had a small issue with our immigration paperwork due to an error on my part. When we submitted our application at the end of March, the instructions indicated to include your maiden name. Well I apparently missed the definition of the word "include" and only printed by maiden name and not my married name. Since we were applying as a married couple and I was listed as the spouse, I didn't think twice about it. Well when we received our notification of our fingerprint appointments the paperwork came in my maiden name only. I temporarily freaked out thinking this would for sure cause some serious delays in receiving our immigration approval and wondering if we would have to start the entire immigration process over. Well today we received good news from our case manager.... "It’s all taken care of – just go to the appointment on the 23rd and your married name will be placed on the file." I was ecstatic. I don't know what she did or what kind of connections she has, but she took care of it for us!

Our agency has been great to work with so far, and we're super excited we chose this one to assist us with our adoption. We loved the service we received when we interviewed them initially, and we were of course attracted to the much shorter wait times for a referral compared to many other agencies. Regardless of any kinds of delays we may have had or may have going forward, we rest in knowing that God has already chosen the little girl who will join our family. He knows exactly who she is and when she'll come home to be with us.

Mis-understanding

The packet we were waiting for finally arrived last week, and today we were able to have a conference call with our Case Manager. She walked us through the next few steps of our adoption process. The bad news is that we found out we're not actually on "the list" yet as I thought I had understood. We were simply accepted into the Ethiopia Program on May 21st. Now we are waiting on our Immigration Approval from USCIS (form I171H). But before we can receive our Immigration approval, the USCIS has to capture our biometrics (ie fingerprints), which we have to do on a specific date, at a specific time and location which they completely control. That's OK though. We just received the notification of our appointments with the USCIS in the mail! So we will go to Portland on June 23 to be fingerprinted. Once this is done we'll wait for our final immigration approval letter which should arrive in the next 5-6 weeks we're guessing. Once that arrives, THEN we will be added to the list for a referral.

We tried to get a more specific estimated timeframe from our Case Manager today regarding how long it will take to receive a referral, but she was still pretty vague -except for saying that she's very sure we would receive a match within 10 months of being on the list. She did tell us that we need to expect the possibility of receiving a referral much quicker than that as well, as that could happen too -which was very encouraging. She wouldn't tell us how many families were ahead of us, as she said it could change between now and when we receive our Immigration approval anyway. She agreed she will share more details once we receive our Immigration approval.

Still waiting

We are still waiting for an update on our next steps. We have been in contact with our Case Manager briefly. She advised she mailed us a packet of information before the Memorial Day weekend, which she would like us to review before we have a voice to voice conversation with her. However we still haven't received the packet. :-( She sent a 2nd one UPS which should arrive this week. So we're hoping to have a conversation with her later this week to get some more information, and I'll post when that happens. The good news is that this delay only affects me and my sanity and has nothing to do with how long it will take us to get our referral. :-)

We've been accepted....

We've officially been accepted into the Ethiopia Program as of this afternoon!!!!!

Our next step is to wait for the Program Coordinator to contact us to discuss what to expect from here. I will anxiously wait to hear from her. I'm not sure if it will be by email, phone or mail, but I am on the edge of my seat either way. I will share more details as I know them.

Thanks for your continued prayers and support.

If anyone is out there actually reading this blog, please leave a comment. I feel like I'm writing into space and no one is listening.

Another Blog

Our sweet friend Bethany, who has also adopted from Ethiopia and is in the process of bringing home her precious baby daughter soon, recently posted about us on her own blog. Check it out!

http://bethany-withthesehands.blogspot.com/

They are an amazing couple and have encouraged us in our own adoption journey. They have answered tons of questions for us already and are so willing and eager to support us however they can.

Getting Closer

So our homestudy write up was sent to our agency by our social worker today! The agency has confirmed they have received it, but it's in the review status right now. I'm hoping this will only take a couple days and that there aren't any revisions to be made before being approved. Each country is pretty specific with what kinds of information is required to be included. Fortunately it seemed like our social worker was comfortable with the Ethiopia requirements, which is good.

We did find out today that our agency still hasn't received the official copy of Sean's Child Abuse Clearance form. No fear though, as they have confirmation he is cleared... in case any of you were concerned! They just need it in writing. It's strange that they received mine within a couple days of submitting (back in early March), but haven't received Sean's -considering they were submitted at the same time. The agency said this isn't common, but it's not the first time they've seen them come through separately. I'm hoping this doesn't delay us getting on "the list" this week. I have an email in to find out.

I hope to be posting again later this week with GOOD NEWS of being accepted into the Ethiopia Program. So please stand by.

Dossier? ....Check

We received our documents back from the WA Secretary of State on Saturday, which completed our Dossier. I dropped it in the mail yesterday which means our portion of all our initial paperwork is complete! It is SUCH a good feeling! We're still waiting for our Social Worker to complete our HomeStudy write-up, but no time frame on this yet.

Thank YOU

Today we received our last reference letter! We are so grateful to all of those who have been willing to either complete a questionaire regarding Sean and I as individuals, as a married couple and as parents and also to those who so graciously wrote reference letters on our behalf. We are so blessed to have friends and family who were willing to take their time to put into words some thoughts they have about us and our family and our ability to be parents. We know how difficult these letters and questionaires can be to write, and we want you to know how much we appreciate each of you who wrote on our behalf. So thank YOU!

After we picked up our last reference letter, we headed down to the Secretary of State to have our documents which were notarized in Oregon verified. Basically this means we pay the state to have someone look up each notaries' information to confirm they are indeed a notary. Then they slap an official looking gold stamp on the front and call it good. It seems to be quite a racket for the state!

Now we're waiting for our documents which we had to send to the WA Secretary of State (for the same thing) to be returned. I called today and it sounds like we should have them within a week -or less.

Almost there

We have submitted our final documents to complete our portion of our homestudy. We are just waiting for our social worker to complete our write up, which I am HOPING will be done by the end of this week. Once it's done, it will take about a week to get our home study approved by our agency.

We are waiting for one more reference letter, which we anticipate receiving this week. Then we will take most of our Dossier documents to the Oregon State Secretary of State to receive the OR state seal of verification. We'll do this in person, so should get it done the same day.

In the meantime we have mailed off the rest of our Dossier documents to the Washington State Secretary of State to receive the WA state seal of verification. I'm not sure how long it takes them to process and return these to us -since we couldn't do it in person, but we're hoping not long.

Once we get the documents back from the WA State Secretary of State, we should be able to assemble our entire Dossier and send it to our agency, who will then send it to Ethiopia on our behalf. At that point, if I understand correctly, I think we will be added to "THE List".

Being on "THE LIST" means that we'll be waiting to be matched with our precious daughter who is waiting for us in Ethiopia. So, we're almost there.

Since then...

After we submitted our adoption application, we began writing our own autobiographies and completing a Parenting Resource Plan -all of which took many, many hours of time, research and deep thought. We submitted these documents to our social worker on 04/10/2009 and had our home visit with our social worker on 04/19/2009. Our home visit went well and seemed to be pretty painless.

During all of this, we also attended some adoption classes and have also been preparing our other required home study documents -getting our Child Abuse & Neglect Registry Clearance forms, requesting certified copies of birth certificates and our marriage certificate, getting medical clearance forms completed, completing financial statements, health insurance forms and other required documents. We also have some of our kindest friends writing reference letters on our behalf. We have submitted our I600A form, which is our Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition, to the US Citizenship & Immigration Services. They have received this form and are just awaiting a copy of our final home study report from the adoption agency, which should be completed in approximately a month. From there they will set us up with an appointment to be fingerprinted (again) and then we should receive our I-171, which is our Notice of Favorable Determination.

While we wait, we are gathering yet a few more documents to complete our Dossier, which is our packet of paperwork which will be sent to Ethiopia. Fortunately many of the documents required for the homestudy can be duplicated in one form or another for our Dossier, which helps us out a bit. Most all of these documents need to be notarized and then verified by the Secretary of State. We're awaiting just a few more documents to be returned to us from various people and then we'll be able to begin the verification process.

Once we receive the I-171 form, the Dossier will be complete and will be sent to Ethiopia. From there we will be placed on the waiting list to be matched with a baby girl up to 12 months to join our family. The expected time frame to be matched with a child is up to about 10 months. From there we will await a court date and then schedule our travel plans, which will likely be another 4 months or so after we are matched. So we're expecting to bring home our baby girl sometime in 2010.

We appreciate all the prayers, support and questions of those who we've shared this with so far. We invite you to share in this journey along side us.

In the beginning...

God has been preparing our hearts for adoption for many years. On January 17, 2009 God specifically spoke to us and made it clear that He was calling us into this journey. We immediately began researching adoption agencies and learning as much as we could about the process. It took approximately 6 weeks of nearly daily researching agencies before we finally decided on WACAP and submitted our adoption application on 02/27/2009. I was initially drawn to this organization for many reasons, but the overall confirming factor was the shorter estimated time frame for the process. And so it begins...