WE GOT OUR APPROVAL TODAY FOR OUR HOME STUDY FROM CITIZENS AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES!!! SUUUUUUUUUUUUUPPPPPPPPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRR!
This has been taking over two months for most people and lately some people have had to add more (no real clear reson why given to anyone) paperwork to theirs after submitting it. Ours was back in just 5 weeks!
See below for the other steps we are working on - but we are almost done with all of the paperwork.
The room is slowly coming along - pictures when closer!
Some friends have asked about throwing a babyshower and more will be coming about that. Regardless though, for anyone looking for ideas for the baby this is a link to an online wishlist http://www.thethingsiwant.com/ Chose search for someone elses list and put in Mingrone.
This has books and music on it that have been picked out because they are about Ethiopia, adoption, or will work for us as a transracial family. If anyone choses something for us off the list please feel free to listen to or read it first if you like. We're also comfortable with garage sale things and the like! Really and truely it's all GREAT!
TODAY IS SUCH A GREAT DAY!!!!!!!!!! YEA YEA YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Past the first round
Past the first round
WOW! So much has happened since the last blog and we still haven't even made this public yet!
A quick run down:
1. We applied to adopt a baby girl from Ethiopia through Children's Hope International at the end of January 2008. Our application was accepted by the agency at the end of February!
http://adopt.childrenshope.net/locations/southeast/index.php
2. We worked on and finished our home study (lots of paperwork, a few classes, plus interviews and home visit) thanks to all of our reference writers, all of those folks that provided needed paperwork, and our social worker.
3. It was submitted to Citizens and Immigration Services in June (!!!! YEA!!!)- they'll have it for a couple of months or so.
4. We are now working on our dossier (paperwork that goes to Ethiopia, our education requirements, and will be going to more classes.
The time line as we can guess it right now is this:
We'll hopefully have all of our paperwork done and submitted to our international agency representative by the end of July or the first week of August. Hopefully we won't need to fix or re-do anything at that point.
We'll get all of the paperwork that needs county level certification notarized after that.
We'll hopefully get our CIS approval for our home study by mid-August but could be as late as the end of August.
We'll take of our paperwork to get State apostilled (people use a courier too - hmmm) and then submit a hard copy to our agency representative by the end of August first week in September. Again, hopefully we won't need to fix anything.
Our agency representative gives our dossier another once over then submits it to the agencies D.C. office. They check it, get it transcribed into Amharic (the official language of Ethiopia), get it Federally certified, then send it to Addis Ababa the capitol of Ethiopia) - hopefully by mid-September at the latest but could be the end of September
Whew, THEN we WAIT.
They say its 3-9 months until you get your referral (matched with a child) but it usually doesn't go longer than 5 months. So hopefully, now, no later than mid-January. That's a big day, we learn about who our daughter might be and get her medical information and a picture of her.
At that point it will get a little wild I think.
In a two short months we will get her medical information reviewed at the adoption clinic at Vanderbilt, hopefully accept our referral, book our travel, and our adoption will be going to court in Ethiopia where our Ethiopian agency representative (will have power of attorney) and the family will go through officially making us the parents in the eyes of Ethiopia. Hopefully there won't be too many delays and our match will convert to an adoption and she will become our daughter!
We will go to Ethiopia, meet our daughter for the first time (!!!!), get her visa, take her to the doctor, have Vanderbilt help us with anything we need, learn as much as we can about her family and medical history (possibly even meet her family to learn more), and learn as much as we can about what Ethiopia is like first hand so that we can have this as a gift for her as she grows up.
THEN we come home and readopt her here as a US Citizen - we will be her parents in the eyes of the US then.
Are you worn out yet? Then we get all the joy along sleepless nights!
AND WE CAN'T WAIT!!!
Here's what our friend Rebecca said that has kept the way clear through every step.
"Any day could be her birthday." So with that in mind it could be today! YEA!
More later on the baby room PLUS ideas for books and music that will help all of us and our daughter connect with her Ethiopian heritage, being a transracial family, and parenting an adopted child. That throws over so much of what I know, what we all think we know, about taking care of kids - we all have a lot to learn - good thing she'll be there to teach us!
WOW! So much has happened since the last blog and we still haven't even made this public yet!
A quick run down:
1. We applied to adopt a baby girl from Ethiopia through Children's Hope International at the end of January 2008. Our application was accepted by the agency at the end of February!
http://adopt.childrenshope.net/locations/southeast/index.php
2. We worked on and finished our home study (lots of paperwork, a few classes, plus interviews and home visit) thanks to all of our reference writers, all of those folks that provided needed paperwork, and our social worker.
3. It was submitted to Citizens and Immigration Services in June (!!!! YEA!!!)- they'll have it for a couple of months or so.
4. We are now working on our dossier (paperwork that goes to Ethiopia, our education requirements, and will be going to more classes.
The time line as we can guess it right now is this:
We'll hopefully have all of our paperwork done and submitted to our international agency representative by the end of July or the first week of August. Hopefully we won't need to fix or re-do anything at that point.
We'll get all of the paperwork that needs county level certification notarized after that.
We'll hopefully get our CIS approval for our home study by mid-August but could be as late as the end of August.
We'll take of our paperwork to get State apostilled (people use a courier too - hmmm) and then submit a hard copy to our agency representative by the end of August first week in September. Again, hopefully we won't need to fix anything.
Our agency representative gives our dossier another once over then submits it to the agencies D.C. office. They check it, get it transcribed into Amharic (the official language of Ethiopia), get it Federally certified, then send it to Addis Ababa the capitol of Ethiopia) - hopefully by mid-September at the latest but could be the end of September
Whew, THEN we WAIT.
They say its 3-9 months until you get your referral (matched with a child) but it usually doesn't go longer than 5 months. So hopefully, now, no later than mid-January. That's a big day, we learn about who our daughter might be and get her medical information and a picture of her.
At that point it will get a little wild I think.
In a two short months we will get her medical information reviewed at the adoption clinic at Vanderbilt, hopefully accept our referral, book our travel, and our adoption will be going to court in Ethiopia where our Ethiopian agency representative (will have power of attorney) and the family will go through officially making us the parents in the eyes of Ethiopia. Hopefully there won't be too many delays and our match will convert to an adoption and she will become our daughter!
We will go to Ethiopia, meet our daughter for the first time (!!!!), get her visa, take her to the doctor, have Vanderbilt help us with anything we need, learn as much as we can about her family and medical history (possibly even meet her family to learn more), and learn as much as we can about what Ethiopia is like first hand so that we can have this as a gift for her as she grows up.
THEN we come home and readopt her here as a US Citizen - we will be her parents in the eyes of the US then.
Are you worn out yet? Then we get all the joy along sleepless nights!
AND WE CAN'T WAIT!!!
Here's what our friend Rebecca said that has kept the way clear through every step.
"Any day could be her birthday." So with that in mind it could be today! YEA!
More later on the baby room PLUS ideas for books and music that will help all of us and our daughter connect with her Ethiopian heritage, being a transracial family, and parenting an adopted child. That throws over so much of what I know, what we all think we know, about taking care of kids - we all have a lot to learn - good thing she'll be there to teach us!
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