The First of the Waiting

I should really get used to this waiting stuff, but I thought it would be after our dossier is submitted, not so much during the "paperchase".

Our Home Study has been done for over a month now, but all the revisions for Virginia and Ethiopia are taking some time. Our last reference letter should be emailed today, so that will help. Once we have a notarized copy of our Home Study we can submit our I600-A application and do our FBI fingerprints in Charlotte whenever they tell us to go. I didn't realize this approval takes about 3 months to get back, I was hoping for 6 weeks. It's all step-by-step. I'll be working on the dossier during that time so it can all be submitted as soon as that's back.

Some prayer requests for now:
- speedy completion and notarization of the Home Study
- smooth process with the fingerprints

A cute story:
I was laying with Keller the other night and he was talking about Elynne. He said when she comes home he will feed her and hold her. He said she may be scared, and I told him we would love her and try to make her comfortable in her new family and new home. He said he would sing her a lullaby like the ones I sang to him. It's so fun to hear them think about where she is and what it will be like when she comes home.

December 29, 2012

We finally have our website up! We wanted to get all of our required education done before working on the website. Just like we want to get our dossier submitted to Ethiopia before we begin decorating Elynne's room. There's so much to do, and most of it in a certain order. But it's really been fun so far. I think we're so excited to finally be in the process, that the paperwork and education is enjoyable because we're really doing something to bring Elynne home.

Before we began this process I looked at so many blogs about adoption. These adopting moms had such a strong faith and eloquent way of expressing things. Unfortunately that is not me, the eloquence at least. I am by no means a writer or blogger. I just want to put our story out there so that others can hopefully find it helpful and family and friends can keep up with our journey if they want. My favorite part of the blogs I looked at was the timeline. It gave me a little bit of an estimate on what to expect, and how long the process might be. I've kept track of every date so far and have listed most of them on the home page.

I'll fill you in on where we are now. We've completed our home study visits and our home study has been written by our social worker. Our agency is based a couple states away, so we had to find a more local Hague certified agency to use for our home study, even though Ethiopia is not a Hague country. The closest I could find that I liked (based on phone calls and emails with the case workers) was also in another state, but they had a social worker in town that contracted with them for home studies. They were licensed in Virginia and the social worker being local eliminated any extra money we would have to pay for travel time. We are extremely pleased with our placing agency, but one thing I might do different is choose one that is in our state. We have missed out on the get-togethers and bonding with the other families adopting through the agency because they are about 8 hours away. Once we are finished with the "paperchase", I hope we can get in touch with some local families who have adopted or are in the process of adopting.

Anyway, our home study has been sent to the home study agency for review based on Virginia requirements, and it will then be sent to our placing agency for Ethiopia requirements. In the meantime we are filling out the I600-A application that will be sent with our completed/notarized home study to the US government. They will send us a date and time when we are to be in Charlotte, NC for our fingerprints to be done (we've already done one set locally, but this is the BIG ONE). When our I600-A is accepted and we are given approval to adopt and bring a child into the US, we will submit our dossier to Ethiopia with our home study and a whole bunch of official original documents like birth certificates and marriage licenses. We're taking each step at a time, so I'm really not sure of everything that lies ahead, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Oh yeah, one more thing. Since we passed our home study and have told people we're adopting a little girl from Ethiopia who will be named Elynne, we've been asked a lot of questions about her. The truth is we know nothing about her except that she will be female and under age two. That's what we've asked for in our home study. She may or may not be born yet. It makes it kind of hard when we're praying for her with the boys at night because we don't know if she's in her mom's tummy, with her biological family, or in the orphanage. All we know is that at the time we receive our referral, probably 12-14 months from now, she will be under two years of age. It's very odd to think of your child out there somewhere, but not know where or under what circumstances. We pray for her and her biological family and the caregivers that are caring or will care for her. And we ask you to pray for her as well.

PS - I'll try to do shorter posts from now on, just playing catch up now that the site is up and running!

August 23, 2012

We have begun!

We sent our application to the adoption agency this weekend, and it looks like they have accepted us into their Ethiopia program. At least it seems that way with all the emails and documents we've received.

It's all so exciting. After 19 months of talking and praying about it, and going around the world about 4 times, we have decided on a country and agency. We're hoping to adopt a little girl between 2 and 4 years old. Her name will be Elynne, after her grandmothers. The boys have been calling her by name for probably a year now. They talk about her and say they miss her. We do miss her, but we haven't even met her. She's already a part of our family!besent our application to the adoption agency this weekend, and it looks like they have accepted us into their Ethiopia program. At least it seems that way with all the emails and documents we've rece