Last Monday I got everything in our dossier paperwork stamped up and officiated at the county and state level and then rushed to the post office and overnighted it to St. Louis where our caseworker for this part of our process is located. She looked everthing over one last time and said it was all good!!! SO our dossier was ready in time to send in at the end of the week with a package to DC! It will be about two weeks before it is sent to on Ethiopia. We can't wait for word that its there! Once it's there they will put us in line to match us with the child there who will become our daughter. Wow.
Then we'll be just waiting and from what I hear...you know how that song goes...it's the hardest part. The wait has increased since we started our adoption. Now, from the time they get our dossier, it is a minimum of six months for a referral. They say the window is about 6 to 10 months now. We had been hoping to fall in to the average of 5 months before so we'll have to learn a level of patience that we don't have. I'm looking at it as good preparation for being a parent.
We've been working on the house a lot over the summer, especialy as I haven't been able to get much filler work during that time before the school year starts. I guess we've been nesting because it's gone from tackling the kitchen ceiling (boy did Mark and Brian sweat up a storm with that became a monster of a project)to sanding oil painted walls, trim, cabinets, then it was on to our hardwood floors (yes I did! and refinished them too!), and when it cools off we'll sandblast the front porch! I've learned a little mudding and have been applying that around the house and then of course, sanding it! All of this work and sanding in order to repaint and refinsh before our family grows, when we expect that we'll have neither the energy or time! It's AMAZING how galvinizing knowing we're going to be parent's is.
The school year is about to start and I'm getting ready for that at as a teacher and a substitute again this year. I am looking forwrd to seeing my students again and am enjoying putting their curriculum together for the year. Mark is busy at work facing what many of us realize is the growing work load that a slowing economy has generated in a lot of people's jobs while companies try to keep costs way down and profits up. We both feel fortunate to have jobs that are at all in our fields and provide us with healthcare etc.
As we go into the fall we are going to keep working on the house and plan to get more involved in the adoptive community, especially the Ethiopian adoptive communities, here and across the country. We are also going to find out more about the Ethiopian community here in Nashville. We are going to need to get involved with our neighborhood association and help with improving our local schools too. The latter may be a little further out though. We have a whole other checklist of things going in order to be ready for our referral and travel to do first. It never ends! And that is, as we steadily not only know in our heads but feel the understanding of in our hearts, our role as parents.
