Progress Report

I have not updated in so long, because we are having major computer problems at home. However, a lot has happened since I posted last.

We received our notarized copies of the homestudy Tuesday, July 28th, and I had it, along with our I-600a, in the mail to The Department of Homeland Security that afternoon. Again, this is our application to bring an orphan to the United States. On Thursday, August 6th, I received a letter back requesting more information, so I have spent the weekend gathering the items they requested, and will put it back into the mail tomorrow. Hopefully we will have a fingerprint appointment soon. Again, this process usually takes approximately 6 weeks and then we will finally be put on the waiting list.

I also spoke with our adoption coordinator, Allison, and she asked up to raise our age from 0-12 months to 0-18 months. She said that we do not have to accept a child this old, but that in the event that the paperwork gets caught up in court while our child turns one, it will save us time amending the documents. Does that make sense? In other words, if our child turns one, before we are able to process the adoption, we will have to go back and change a lot of paperwork, thus prolonging the adoption even furthur. So, this is just a precautionary step to save us time, in the event that we needed it in the future. With that being said, we could end up with an older child than we first expected. Robbie is excited, because he would prefer an older child, but I am hoping for as young as possible. Either way, we are just praying for the right child for our family, regardless of age.

Allison also said that there are only 4 families on the little boy waiting list right now. So, at this point the wait may not be as long as we had originally expected!! I do not think there really is any rhyme or reason to how the referrals come. I believe there were two little boy referrals in June and one in July, so that could mean two to three months waiting, as opposed to the original five to six I was anticipating.

On the other hand, I also learned that the courts in Ethiopia are closing August 21 until late September for the rainy season. This happens every year, so it is really no surprise, and hopefully this will not affect us too much, since we are not on the waiting list yet. However, I think that this will mean two things. One, that there will not be any referrals during that time, thus the wait list will not change; and two, we may not be able to actually get on the wait list until the courts open back up. I had hoped to be on the wait list by mid September, but since there has been a hiccup with the I-600a, I anticipate that that will push us back on time anyhow.

So, what does all of this mean? It means that things change daily, and it is so difficult to predict anything. I am just trying to keep an open mind about everything, and trying not to get my hopes up about anything, but if I was going to get my hopes up and predict, I would guess that maybe we will be traveling closer to the beginning of the year, as opposed to early Summer. : )

I will post again, as soon as we receive new information. Thanks for checking back.