Home Study -- Check!

We completed our home study yesterday! It was great. The worst part was the preparations - cleaning. But, even that wasn't so bad. :) Our social worker did get to meet our kids briefly - and even that didn't make her change her mind! :) Just kidding. It feels great to have that step done. It is a big step forward.

So - what's next? Next, we complete our dossier. The dossier is a mass quantity of paper work you complete and have notarized or state certified. For most people, it takes around 3 months or so to complete the dossier. Part of the dossier includes getting our passport ready and then getting fingerprinted by the FBI and approval from the USCIS. This big stack of paperwork will be another HUGE step in the process. Once it is completed and checked over in the states, it goes to Ethiopia and then begins the waiting period. This is the time we get to wait for a referral - a picture and a little medical information about our child. Once we get the referral, it will be time to make our two trips to Ethiopia. So, that means, for the next period of time, we need to keep saving and earning money toward our travel expenses.

We do get monthly updates from our agency. The Ethiopia adoption program has become so popular and successful lately, that the wait time from the time you turn in your dossier until  the time you can expect a referral has increased to about a year (it was about 4 months just a few months ago). So, that has us a little 'down' because of the longer than anticipated wait time, but that's ok. It will just be longer that we have to save money up and more time to find a van, etc. It will be great. Also, with some new changes, we will be able to not just visit the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa. We will also get to spend a bit more time in our child's home town area. This will make the first trip a bit longer, but worth it! I can't wait to see my child's home land and take some good videos and pictures of it for him/her in the future.

Anyway, that is the latest on the adoption front.

For sad news, my grandmother passed away last night. She passed away two days before the two year anniversary of my dad's (her son's) death. She will be buried one day before we buried my dad two years ago.  It is very sad and she will be missed, but thankfully she had a full happy life.