This week is not our week

We received our phone call from our agency concerning our Dossier. We have some minor changes to make. I guess I didn't know what to expect. They are looking at every angle so that we can get approval from the Ethiopian government. I'd rather them be safe than sorry. Our reference letters need to have a few things changed. The letter we had to write to the Ethiopian government needs to have a few things changed. We need to get a copy of the license and agency number of Catholic Family Services that did our Home Study. All items can be sent directly to AGCI. As soon as these revisions get to them, they will look at things again and we don't have to wait until Friday (which is the day they review Dossiers) Well--one of our references is out of town for quite some time so it will be at least next week before we get on that wait list.

Stay tuned....

Our Dossier will be reviewed tomorrow. (Friday) They will look over all of the papers we sent and make sure everything is in order. Many, many times (more often than not) people have one document or another to fix and resubmit. We are hoping that isn't the case, but we are ready for it if that is what happens. Right now, I'm feeling very confident that it IS all in God's hands. That doesn't mean that I'm not ready to be on the waiting list. :) Hoping for good news tomorrow. What is meant to be will be. Stay tuned....

Safely in the hands of AGCI

I got an email from AGCI stating that our Dossier was safely in their hands and would be reviewed on Friday. It is nice to know that it didn't get lost in the mail.

Happy Day!!!

Happy Birthday to me!! (Yes it really is my b-day) I went to the mail and guess what was there? Our Home Study! Oh happy day!!!! I wasn't expecting that at all. Everything is ready to go for sending in our Dossier. I made copies of our Home Study. Now to mail it all yet TODAY!!! :) Next Friday it will be reviewed by AGCI. There is the chance that some documents might have to be redone. Hopefully that is not the case. Time will tell. Wait list here we come!!! :) Current wait time is 9-12 months for a referral. What a huge relief to know that most of OUR work is done.

Good news!!!

We went on a small family vacation to The Black Hills. We have never taken a family vacation. While we were gone, our cement for our addition was poured. Yippee!!! :) Also--when we came back, our fingerprint results were sitting in our mailbox. Yippee again!!! :) Apparently, we needed to go on vacation. HA! We were only gone for a few days. Today I sent our fingerprint results to our case worker in Aberdeen. Since she is on maternity leave, she doesn't check her email as often as normal. Hopefully soon she will check it and know there is a package soon to be waiting for her. She will need to add the date that we received the fingerprint results into our Home Study. Then she can sign our Home Study, notarize it, and send us our copies. We can then submit our Dossier to AGCI. After AGCI gets all of these documents, they will review everything on Friday of the week that it was received. They will tell us what changes need to be made, etc..Then we get put on the waiting list!!! We are getting closer! It has been 5 months since we began this journey. Some days it feels like we have been at this forever and other times it seems as if it was just yesterday. It is great to write you with good news. We are making progress. HOPEFULLY....we should be on the wait list by the end of the month for sure.

Sad story

This whole journey has been filled with many ups and downs. The littlest things can make or break our days. I've done so well with being patient up until this point. Now, I struggle. I know patience is the lesson that is being taught here. I called to see if I could check on the status of our fingerprints. When we sent these in, our agency had told us that adoption takes priority. The other couple working with our case worker got theirs back in 6 weeks. I thought it had been 7 weeks, but it WILL be 7 the beginning of next week. We have been hopefully checking the mail day after day thinking it could be any day. Well--the news I got today on the phone was VERY disappointing. She said they don't even get put into the system until 10 weeks into the process. Sad! Here we have been waiting for them to come in the mail and we have 3 more weeks before we will even be in the system. What a blow!! It is disheartening. I know that everything happens for a reason. I know that all of this is part of God's plan. However...it still makes me sad. I thought we were so close to being able to get on the wait list. Instead...we wait longer. The process of international adoption is either paperwork or waiting. I know in the end it will be well worth it. Now it just seems so far away.

Ho-hum

It has been 7 weeks now since we sent in our fingerprints. Turn around time is 6-13 weeks. I don't really know how to feel about this. One minute I am calm and think it is all part of "the plan." The next minute I am frustrated b/c we are SOOOO ready. I know PATIENCE!!! I do know that it is all happening like it is supposed to. I've been so good at being patient. Now I'm getting a little antsy as we just want to take the next step. We are so close yet so far away. We have everything ready to send in our Dossier. All we need is our fingerprint results to be added to our Home Study so our HS can be added to our dossier. So things in the adoption world are.....wait, wait, and wait some more.