Just received our NVC (national visa center) number today for our final visa application and official notice that our I-600 A has been received by the US Embassy in Addis Ababa Ethiopia.
Not much else to report other than Ainsley bought a tape measure for her sister the other day so that she can teach her how to measure stuff! Ainsley likes to measure stuff.....anything at all, she is not picky! We now have a cute storage box at home so that she can put her saved items in it for her sister.

I 600-A

Woke up this morning and opened yesterday's mail and in it was our notice of favorable determination concerning the Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition, otherwise known as the I 600-A. It has been forwarded to Addis Ababa, Ehtiopia. The next step is to file our I-600 petition which occurs when we receive our referral! Everything is done except the waiting!

Friday October 22,2010

We finally finished it! Our dossier was completed and handed into the agency on Friday afternoon. Over 30 documents to obtain and have notarized. It is such a relief to have it all done and handed in. We now have to wait 3-5 days for the agency to review it and let us know if anything needs to be changed and then it is sent off to Ethiopia. We are still waiting for our I 600-A notification and then that needs to be sent to the US Embassy in Ethiopia too
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We still don't have any news on a referral yet! Still waiting! The waiting is starting to get more and more difficult. You put on a brave face every time someone asks you if you have heard anything yet and why does it take so long? I feel like wearing a sign just so I don't have to answer the same questions over and over again. I try to remember that everyone just cares about us and wants to know what is going on. It's just hard when it is always the same news, nothing.
Ainsley is doing well and seems to handle all of this very well. Every once in a while she asks why this is taking so long! She now saves things for her sister. She saves her clothes and shoes for her sister and if we buy a book we should also buy one for her sister and put it away for her. It is amazing to watch this whole process develop through the eyes of a 5 year old. You would think that this would be a very abstract concept to her, but, she has already developed an attachment and love for someone that she hasn't met or seen yet. It is really quite fascinating to us!

Jim just returned from his mission trip to Mexico again. They did 40 clef palate surgeries in 2 days. The trip was a great success again. While he was gone we celebrated the Canadian Thanksgiving with my Mom, Dad and friends. We actually ate dinner outside on the deck, it was a fabulous day and we all ate too much. We did save some for Jim though.
Happy Halloween to everyone! Trick or Treat safe!!!

Overwhelmed

Hello to everyone! Just a quick note to update, I am hoping that venting will get me out of this funk I seem to be in.
I have been trying to start to gather all the documents for our dossier, but, everytime I look at the list I panic and have to put it away. I have gotten no where in a month. I feel totally over whelmed and I can't figure out why. I am usually so organized and on top of things. I just can't seem to get started!!!!!!
I will try again tomorrow. Wish me luck! Hope all is well with everyone. Happy start of Fall to all and hope spring gets here soon!

Dossier for Ethiopia

Ainsley started school last Tuesday and we received the email to start the dossier process! We were very excited until I read the list of stuff that we have to do and all the things that we need to have notarized. Now it feels a little overwhelming. I'm just glad that I have Ainsley safely started in school so now I can concentrate on our dossier. One step at a time!

Fingerprints done

Our fingerprints for USCIS were completed, if you can beleive it, over a month ago. I am apparently not very good at this up to date bogging thing. I kinda do a monthly blog right now. Maybe with some practice I will get better at it. We are waiting to start the next step which is all the dossier paperwork for Ethiopia. The Ethiopian courts have been closed for most of August and part of September so not much has been going on. Ainsley starts kindergarten next week so we have been keeping busy with all of that. Keep us in your thoughts!

Hi Debbie

Oops, I forgot to say hi to Debbie who faithfully checks the blog every week even when there are no new postings. HAPPY CANADA DAY EH!

Fingerprint date- finally

Well, it has been a while. Where does the time go? I have been spending most of my time outside with Ainsley and my gardens and fixing the damage that the hail did this time!
After some confusion and much investigation we have finally received our date to be fingerprinted for our Application for Advanced Processing for Orphan Petition with USCIS (US Immigration). Our date is in late July. We are very excited to again be able to do something other than just waiting! We will then soon start our dossier paperwork which is all the requirements for Ethiopia. They recently layed off 10 international adoption workers at our agency. I guess a sign of the times.
Both Jim and I watched a webinar presentation on our travel to Ethiopia. It was full of many interesting insights and topics of the Ethiopian culture. One of the things I found fascinating was that the Ethiopian clock starts at dawn which is called 12:00 and midday is referred to as 6:00. There are also three calendars still used, the Coptic which has 13 months and it is the year 2003, the Gregorian which is the same as North America, and the Julian calendar which is used by Orthodox Christians and has only 13 days difference than the Gregorian. I guess it could get kinda confusing if you are not used to it.
Ainsley is still doing well with the whole process. Every so often she asked how much longer it will be until her sister comes to live with us but she usually just tells everyone that it is going to be a while until she is here, or, as Ainsley puts it, "this is taking forever." It also takes "forever" to get to Target so it is all relative to a five year old. She really wants her sister to have a name though. I think that is the one thing that really bothers her. She wants to be able to call her sister by her name!
We are heading up to T Bay on Sunday for a week.
HAPPY CANADA DAY and Happy 4th of July to all!

Good News and some not so great news

We are back from our Easter vacation to Thunder Bay. It was sunny but cold and we have a bunch of yard work to do at home as it was very nice in Minneapolis while we were gone. We had a very nice Easter though.
Right before we left we received an email from our adoption agency with some great news and some news that has caused us some distress. Turns out that attached to the Health Care Bill that the US Gov't passed was the Adoption Tax Credit for reimbursement of adoption expenses. This tax credit was due to expire at the end of 2010 so it has now been extended to 2011 and the amount was increased. This was great news for us as the cost of adoption is now substantial.
We also found out that Ethiopian Government has just changed it's travel requirements for couples adopting children from Ethiopia. Initially, the adoption was processed and approved through the Ethiopian Court and then you travelled for one week to meet your child and bring them home. This worked great for us as we wanted to take Ainsley with us to Ethiopia. We now have to appear before the court during the intitial adoption hearing and then go home and wait for the final approval of all the paperwork. We would meet our child at that time and then leave her at the orphanage until our second trip approximately 8-12 weeks later. We are not yet sure of all of the details as to the exact time line or why this change took place. It has something to do with preventing child trafficking and protecting the children which should be their first priority.
This news came as a total shock to us and resulted in more than a few episodes of crying. I can't imagine meeting your child and having to leave them to go back home for a few months. I also don't know how we are going to handle all of this with Ainsley. She won't be able to do two trips with us due to school and the extra financial burden that this will place on us.
I have managed to reach the point of not thinking about the details as they upset me too much and just trying to have faith that everything will work out OK. This blog entry is actually much harder to do than I thought it would be! I have been avoiding doing for a couple of weeks now. I just hope that this change doesn't slow down the process at all. As it stands right now, we probably aren't looking at receiving a child referral until late next year.
Keep you fingers and toes crossed for us!

Not too much going on

It has been a while so I thought I would touch base even though there is not too much new information. We just sent in the final corrected draft of our home study to the typist. Our social worker doesn't use a computer much so everything has to be typed up the old fashioned way.
I am still trying to finish the paperwork for US Immigration as I have been bogged down by Kindergarten applications and meetings and assessments. Who knew that there was so much paperwork involved in starting school! Ainsley is still very excited about her new sister. I showed her where Ethiopia is on a map the other day. She replied that yes she knew that already and that her sister lives in Africa and can't come and live with us quite yet! The things that their little brains absorb. She coloured a picture of her sister the other day and then told us "see, her sisters skin is a different colour than ours is." They are so perceptive.
I will sign off for now. Wishing everyone a very Happy Easter. We will be in Thunder Bay for the Easter holiday.

Approval !!!!

We met with our social worker today for our final meeting of the home study. It went really well and our home study and application were approved. Today is the day that we were officially added to the list of families waiting to adopt from Ethiopia.
We now have to fill out the forms for government approval to adopt internationally and then we start the dossier. We are very excited and feel like we have now taken a monumental step forward in this journey!!!

2-23-2010

Hello again! Just finished watching the Olympics! They are presenting the gold medal to Canada for women's Ski Cross. GO CANADA. Hope they do the same in hockey!
Well, there was some question as to whether our adoption application was submitted before they changed the minimum age of a child that you can adopt. They recently changed the minimum age from one to two but we are able to adopt a one year old, so we have officially decided on a girl between the ages of one and three.
We have our next meeting with our social worker at our house on Thursday. She will meet Ainsley then and I don't know what else but I will fill you in after!

Our First Posting

We have finally started a blog to keep our families and friends up to date on our adoption process. For those of you who don't know, we are hoping to adopt a 1-4 year old little girl from Ethiopia.
So here are the details so far. In the summer of 2009 we began interviewing potential adoption agencies and after a few discouraging meetings we found the agency that seems like a perfect match. The name of the agency is Children's Home Society and Family Services.
Our application was submitted in early November and we then participated in a two day adoption preparation seminar in December.
After Christmas we then started working on our "Self Study" which is a 10-12 page essay on your childhood and life to date as well as answering questions about your marriage and spouse and what you expect out of the adoption process. Having completed that we had a three hour meeting this morning with our social worker which begins the next phase, the Home Study. The meeting went well and we really like Mary (the social worker). She is a very down to earth no nonsense kind of person and has been doing this for a very long time.
I will give you a brief synapses of what the process is after the Home Study. Once the home study is complete we will begin to prepare our dossier to the Ethiopian Court. It is at this point that we are placed on the waiting list for a child referral. That is the next step, referral. After that we submit the referral to the University of Minnesota International Adoption Clinic for evaluation and then we wait to travel to Ethiopia. This whole process can take anywhere from 1-2 years.
I will try to blog as often as I can although for parts of this process there is not a whole lot to report on.
We are all getting excited as it finally feels like we are progressing. Ainsley is very excited and she has informed us that she would like a little sister so that she can be a big sister. She has also started to inventory her toys so she can figure out what she needs to share with her new sister. She asked us the other day if her sister is living where the earth shakes and is that why her family can't look after her. It is a very strange feeling knowing that your child that will come to live with you forever is already living and breathing in another part of the world and you don't know her yet or she you.
Feel free to pass this link on to whoever I may have missed and please apologize to anyone I may have missed. We lost a lot of email addresses the multiple time that my computer had crashed.
We will keep in touch,
Bonnie, Jim and Ainsley