First we want to thank you for your overwhelming support! Our friends and family exceeded all expectations thus far in the process! We are thrilled to be starting our family and are so glad so many of you are thrilled for us- it means a lot!
So since our last post we have completed our home study and submitted it, along with several other documents to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. The home study consisted of obtaining a lot of documents (birth certificates, marriage certificate, criminal background checks, personal references, etc.) and four visits with our assigned social worker. We basically met with her and discussed our upbringing, our families, our relationship and our vision for our new family. Most of the meetings were the two of us and her but Mike and I each also had to go one on one with her as well. Only one of the visits was actually in our home. We were lucky enough that our social worker has been in our shoes, she adopted from China, so she insisted that we not freak out about her coming to our home! She said "please don't go nuts cleaning for me- it's not worth it!" The point of the home study is for her to asses our ability to raise a child, but also to get us thinking about a lot of things that we honestly hadn't yet. We had to talk about our ideas of child-rearing, discipline and even appoint caregivers in the event that Mike and I die. It's definitely odd to talk about all of these things when you don't even have a child yet, but I am glad we did, and that we "passed" with flying colors! The classes that we've told you about were also required by the home study, as is some reading. The book we chose to meet this requirement is "Parenting with Love and Logic" which I am partially through, and I have to say it is a VERY interesting read for any parent, caregiver or teacher. I know I will be keeping it nearby for the next 18 years or so!
Once our social worker finished analyzing us and writing out the home study documents, we received several notarized copies. One of these, along with a few other documents, needed to be sent to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office. Essentially, we need to petition the U.S. government for permission to adopt an orphan internationally. We are pleased to report that the USCIS office has informed us that they are in receipt of our application, now we just need to wait for USCIS approval. We are told this can take 6-8 weeks. In the meantime, we will be obtaining a few more letters of recommendation, yet another criminal background check (we've already received federal and state clearances, oddly enough we now need to get our local township's) and getting a lot of documents notarized. This "paper chase" as it's called in the adoption world is certainly not for the lazy! Once we receive USCIS approval, we will send it, along with all those notarized documents and certifcates and another copy of our home study (this bundle of paperwork and information is called a dossier), to our agency. They will approve it, then we will have it translated and sent to Ethiopia. Once our dossier is accepted in-country we will be officially waiting! We are told to expect to wait between two and four months from that point to be matched with a child (referral).
We did take a few days off of paperwork for the holidays and were so happy to have a wonderful, family-filled Christmas- most likely our last as a family of two and two canines!
We extended our holiday celebrations into this past weekend, marking the day Ethiopians celebrate Christmas (Genna or Ganna, I have seen both), January 7th. It is a day full of family and church services that go on throughout the night. The men and boys also spend the day playing a game similar to hockey called genna. Mike and I actually celebrated with Red Velvet pancakes while watching White Christmas.
So now as the tree is put away, the lights are down and the house is back to "normal" we are beginning to prepare for a our new "normal' with a little one! We have some ideas of what we want the nursery to look like. We've picked out a crib and a few other items and we just need to get busy putting it all together. We're so excited!
