Preparing to prepare

It's been a bit since I last posted. That's because we have been working away at getting our final pieces of our Dossier together. This coming week we will be taking a big step in completing this process. On Monday, we go and get fingerprinted (again) for our 600A form which is a form that processes our request to bring an orphan into the country and make them a US citizen.

On Tuesday, we take at trip to Topeka to get the state of KS to certify and authenticate our Dossier. After that, we will send our paperwork to Washington DC, where the US government and then Ethiopia Embassy in DC will approve it and then send it on it's way to Ethiopia!

Is it possible we could get on the waiting list in September?! I can only hope!

We have been able to enjoy some time away from work this past week and realize that neither one of us has traveled enough. So, in these next few months of "freedom" we've got some places to visit, but knowing at the same time that we can't get it all in before we become parents. Can we be the ultra cool parents that globe trot with our child? We'll see, as that's going to have to be our option in order to visit the places we have yet seen. Anybody want to come along as our "travel nanny" ?? :)

It does feel like the clock is ticking before we lose the lifestyle of doing what we want when we want, but at the same time, as business owners, that hasn't always been the easy option one would think.

As we're looking at the next several months of baby preparation and waiting, we're starting to wonder all of the changes we are going to face. How are we going to give up a spare bedroom for a baby room? I'm really going to have share my "me" girly, creative space room with Josh so he has some space to work from home sometimes too? This makes me laugh because so much is going to change and I know soon that 10 minutes of "me" time will be a blessing in a few months, as opposed to now, when I have an entire room in my house for "me." Okay, okay...yes, I'm definitely spoiled!

My ears are open and my questions are flowing to my friends & family that are parents. Advice, suggestions, stories...I want to hear it all!

We have a new agency

Just got word that we have been accepted by a new international agency, Hope Adoption Agency out of Missouri. Whew! Let's get this process rolling faster. Our Dossier is almost complete and we hope to be able to get on the waiting list for a referral much faster now. Very happy about this!!

We could be starting all over...

We are 90% sure we are switching agencies. This means we would be starting all over with a new international agency. We think the waiting list of families is going to get longer with our current one and if we go with a smaller agency we can hopefully expect our baby home within 1 year. That would include travel. Is this a risky decision? Yes. But, we are also so just anxious to begin this journey and I am the most impatient person in the world. I am sure of it. :) Luckily, we have a good idea of what it would entail to make this switch and we're doing the proper research this time. There is nothing wrong with our current agency other than our concerns that there are just a lot of families working with them right now.
We have a lot of our paperwork together already though so this move would go pretty smooth, I hope. But really, it's an adoption, so the word "smooth" changes meaning in this situation. We are determined to keep our chins up and keep moving forward...

Home Study is wrapping up

Our home visit went really well last week. Now, our home study report is being prepared and now we are working on our Dossier....the official paperwork that the Ethiopian government will review to approve us and get us on the waiting list. We're starting to see the waiting list creep up to 11 and 12 months with our agency. It's a little discouraging, but there are families that have been waiting even longer with other agencies and there are families waiting a shorter period as well. It just varies on the agencies. I'm so impatient so this is very trying for me to imagine waiting a year or more just on the waiting list because after that, we aren't even able to travel to pick up our baby until 4 months after we get information on who they are. One more training session tomorrow night and that should wrap up our required training!

Tuesday is our home visit

So, we have our home visit schedule for this Tuesday. It will consist of a social worker coming to our house to see where we live and conduct interviews with us together and one on one. We'll let you know how it goes!

Completed Parenting Class

Well, we have completed our parenting class at the hospital this week. I made Josh get to class 25 minutes early with me just so we could have the 1 black baby doll in class. He thought I was pretty ridiculous. ;)

We have news from our international agency that the Ethiopian courts will not be closing for the rainy season this year. Normally, they are closed from Aug - Oct and any adoptions that are to be finalized during that time have to wait until the courts open back up again. This is great news for the families that have a pending adoption that is in the Ethiopian courts now! Hopefully, next year they will not close either, as that's when our adoption should be close to being in the hands of the court system there.

Still waiting for our home visit to be scheduled....

Waiting for our Home Visit

Hi there. As many of you know, we are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. I thought this would be the best way to keep our family and friends updated on where we are currently at with this adoption process as we are getting lots of questions. I'm excited everyone is asking what's going on and where we are at with things! It's going to be a long road, so I hope to be able to update this every couple of days.

Right now, we are going thru several different required training courses. We completed an international adoption workshop this weekend. It was a 7 hour workshop! However, we learned a lot and met some other couples going thru the same thing and realize we have a lot more to consider and figure out for our adoption. Not to mention things down the road that we realize we will encounter & our child will encounter. The amount of information being thrown at us is completely overwhelming, but it is necessary to keep our focus (and sanity) so we can just work thru the steps together.

Our first round of paperwork is complete (and was exhausting) and are awaiting a call from our social worker so we can conduct our home visit and interviews in person. Once we get this process under way, we will be able to focus on getting our 2nd round of paperwork together...the DOSSIER, which will be what the Ethiopian government will see once we have a "referral" (child).

So, our focus this week is to attend our 2nd parenting class at the hospital and watch some videos. So much training! :)