No More Documents!!

After 4-months & 2 days, a total of 287 hours of work & two road trips....we have completed all 87 pages of our dossier!! We just sent them all to Washington, DC for the U.S. Department of State & Ethiopian Embassy to authenticate. We're using a courier service in DC to hand deliver them to the right offices, and the service said we can expect to have them returned in approximately one week. After we get them back from DC, we'll officially submit them to our agency and then THE WAIT BEGINS!!

Terri

As you know, we had to recreate a few documents and send them to the Indiana Secretary of State for authentication. The last time we completed this step it took one week and one day. I Fed-Exed the new documents to Indy last Tuesday (June 1st), so (being the schedule driven, obsessive person that I am) I expected to get them back this past Wednesday. Well....no documents. My wonderful, level-headed, problem-solving husband decided that he would call the office this afternoon to check on the status.

At this time, I would like to introduce you to Terri. I have no idea what her last name is, what her title is, how long she's worked for the Sec. of State, but I do know that she absolutely went above and beyond to help us.

Terri is the woman that Mike spoke with at the Secretary of State's office who had the unfortunate job of informing us that they had no record of receiving our documents last Tuesday. That's right...you didn't misread that. Terri said that they didn't get our documents, and that's when I went into panic mode.

Again, my level-headed, problem-solving husband calmly called Fed-Ex who gave him the name of the individual who signed for our documents, and Mike called Terri back. Not only did Terri find this person and retrieve our documents, but she expedited them through the authentication process and shipped them out within an hour.

I know it probably sounds like she was just doing her job, but it was late on a Friday afternoon and she could have easily put this off until next week. Instead, Terri dropped everything, pulled some strings, and worked this all out for us so that we would have our documents first thing Monday morning. She was our angel today, so say an extra prayer of blessing for Ms. Terri!

Roller Coaster

Its been a little over a week since my last post, and there's been a lot of adoption activity going on (hence the reason for little time to post). After getting our USCIS approval, the only thing left to do was get a document authenticated by the Secretary of State in Michigan, and then our dossier was ready to send to Washington D.C.. We made the decision to drive to Lansing, Michigan to get it done as quickly as possible. So, after more than (14) hours of drive time, our documents were COMPLETE!

We sent them to our agency for one final review on Tuesday, and just heard back from them last night. The good news is that all of our documents are perfect! However, there's been a little set-back. There has been a staffing change in Ethiopia. The in-country director for our agency retired this week, and his name is on one of our documents. So, we have to recreate a document with the new director's name, resend it to the Indiana Secretary of State for authentication and then we'll be ready to send our complete dossier to U.S. Department of State & the Ethiopian Embassy for final authentication. Its definitely disappointing since we were SO CLOSE, but better that this happened now than after we sent everything to Ethiopia.

We're learning that International Adoption is like a roller-coaster --- full of ups and downs, twists and turns, moments that you just want to throw your hands up and scream (sometimes from fear and others from excitement), and we know that there's most likely another loop right around the corner.....but we also know that this ride will be completely worth it in the end!

APPROVED!!

I don't have a lot of time to post, but had some GREAT news that I couldn't wait to share. Mike and I came home quickly on our lunch hour today to get a book I left home, and on our doorstep was a FedEx envelope....its our USCIS approval!!! We just got fingerprinted last week (much earlier than expected) and we assumed we would hear back in a month. Obviously, we are THRILLED to get our approval much earlier than expected and so excited to have this important document in our hands. We have two more documents left to complete and then our paperwork is off to Ethiopia. Thanks for all of your prayers!

Why?

"Why Ethiopia?" This is a question we've already answered a hundred times, and I fully expect to answer it at least a hundred more in my lifetime. My short answer to that question is...because we have room in our hearts and our home for a child, and God has a child in Ethiopia He has planned for our family. We're just being obedient, and He's reconfirmed at every step that we're walking on this road together.

STARTLING STATISTICS ABOUT ETHIOPIA
* One out of every 20 children born alive die in their first month of life

* One out of ten die before reaching their first birthday

* One out of six die before reaching their fifth birthday

* There are 4.6 million orphans in Ethiopia

* The median age in Ethiopia is 18

* 1.5 million people in Ethiopia are infected with AIDS

* Per capita, Ethiopia receives less aid than any country in Africa

Fingerprints

Today was fingerprint day!! We got up super early, made the 2-hour trip to Louisville, got a little lost downtown, walked five blocks to the USCIS office, waited, filled out forms, waited a little more, and then in five minutes the whole thing was over and we were on the way home! This may sound like it was a big hassle, but it was absolutely wonderful!!! Every little thing we do puts us one step closer to getting our little guy or gal home, and we're so excited to have this step finished so we can move on the the next!

Mother's Day

Happy belated Mother's Day! Obviously from my last post, this whole mother's day experience has been a little emotional for me, but my wonderful husband managed to make it a great day. Anyone who knows Mike well, knows that he absolutely can not keep a secret...especially when it comes to gifts. He gets too excited about what he's bought that he ends up giving it to me weeks in advance. Well, this time, he completely surprised me with my first mother's day gift. He gave me a silver necklace in the shape of Ethiopia with the word "Enat" engraved on the back (Ahmeric for mom). LOVE IT!! I guess this means the pressure's on for father's day :-)