We are on the list!!!!

Hi there,

So our latest news is that YEA! our dossier is in Ethiopia!!!!!!!!!!

Today the local agency office for Children's Hope had a reception for Mr. Tsegay Fesseha. He is the full-time bi-lingual representative in Ethiopia for Children's Hope in Addis Ababa and at the House of Hope. Kids there call him a version of papa, as we learned from a family that is just back with their children - three beautiful siblings! He is a lovely and caring man and we enjoyed talking with him about his hopes to grow the Ethiopian adoption program to help connect more families to their children.
He also took a look at our last name and told us he had our file safe in his office at the House of Hope!!!
The reception was another great way to get together with other families that have adopted or are in the process of adopting. It's also so exciting to see the happy children (3 months to 9 years) from Ethiopia. Alongside their brothers and sisters, some of whom are also adopted, these children and the adults at this reception created a mini United Nations!

If you are curious and want more info on CHI or the House of Hope follow this link.
http://adopt.childrenshope.net/programs/ethiopia/travel/

So for all those who are wondering where we are and when we will be home with our baby girl the answer is we will get our referral sometime from February to May. We will travel and be home about two months following that. So sometime April to August we'll be home.

We have lots to do while we wait...
We have to:
1. keep working on the house so that there's less to do in the first few years
2. keep working on the babyroom
3. get our travel visas
4. figure out travel stuff - what airline/route we will use and if need be get another visa for our
baby (some countries require for a layover)
5. keep saving our pennies for the adoption (travel keeps going up up up)
6. get our travel immunizations and medicines
7. establish who our pediatrician will be and get set up to send the medical information we get at
referral to there - we have one we like that specializes in adoption
8. get medicines (ex. powdered antibiotics) and skin care items that we will need for our baby while we are there
9. get donations of medicines and care items for House of Hope
10. put together a list of what we will need for our trip like those really cool travel baby bottles with the storage tops for powdered formula
10. get on to the CHI Ethiopian group chat site and other blogs to pick up tips and keep up with
whats going on the Ethiopian adoption community
11. get all of our paperwork printed out and ready for travel
12. work on learning basic Ahmaric - language book and casset are on the way now
13. get all of our 3 month post adoption visit paperwork made/formatted and fill out as much as
possible before we are so busy with our new baby
14. same with the US adoption and citizenship paperwork that we will need to file for her when we get back
15. connect or keep connections going with the families that we have met through this process so hopefully we can develop some regular activities and events for the Ethiopian community here
in the Southeast, especially here in middle Tennessee
16. keep reading and learning about adoptive parenting, transracial parenting, and Ethiopia

This all should hopefully keep us busy enough that the time goes by with less impatience...but really, right now, after seeing all the children today we are so wishing it could be now!