Almost 2 months....

Time flies when you are waiting (please read with sarcasm)  :)

It has almost been 2 months since we mailed in our dossier.

What goes into an Ethiopian dossier you ask?

Well, here's the run down of what we needed:

Letter to the Board of Orphanages

Family Registration Form

Financial Information

Letter from Financial Establishment

State Criminal Clearance (one for each parent)

Two (2) Letters of Reference

Letter from Employer (for each parent)

Medical Forms  (for each parent)

Marriage Certificate

Birth Certificates (for everyone in your household)

Introduction Letter to Ethiopian Government

Home Study Report*

Home Study License

Post Placement Agreement (obligation of Home Study Agency)

Deed of Trust or Lease for Residence

Power of Attorney

USCIS Approval (I-171H)**

Two (2) Passport Photos for Each Parent

Family Photos

Ethiopian Program List

Passport Copy

*The homestudy report is a 10 to 14 (ish) page report that takes multiple meetings (4, normally about 2 hours apiece) with a social worker and filling out of a crazy amount of forms (letters of reference from friends, pastor & parents, letters from each of our children's teachers, doctor reports for us and all the kids, background searches, autobiographies from both Jason & I, personality & background information for each of our kids, work information, financial information, guardianship information, etc.) We started our homestudy in September and got our finished report in early December.

**The I-171H is pre-approval from the US gov. to bring an orphan into the country. To apply for this it requires the homestudy report (mentioned above), birth certificates for everyone in the family & a marriage certificate. After sending in the required information you receive a fingerprint appointment (normally takes 2 weeks or so to get the appointment, and then the appointment is scheduled about 2 weeks after you get your notice of said appointment). THEN after being fingerprinted it can take 2 to 6 weeks to get your I-171H form, also dubbed the "Golden Ticket". This process can take 6 weeks to 3 months just by itself.

Each of the dossier items must be notarized and then each of the dossier items must be certified by the Secretary of State to ensure that everything with the notary is correct. 

We then 2 complete copies of the original dossier have to be made. One is kept with us and the other copy is mailed out with the original to the Adoption Agency. It was a super huge celebration on January 14th when we had finished and got the dossier sent off!

Here is a picture of our original completed dossier the night before we sent it off

 

This is why it has been a rough adjustment for me at times these past two months.....being completely at the waiting phase of our adoption journey. Just feels like there is nothing to do, especially after spending over 4 months working tirelessly on paperwork with a single goal in mind of getting the dossier complete - which don't get me wrong - I enjoyed. It is just strange to not have anything actively to do. Very strange.

One thing did become very clear to me during the paperwork process.....

 You can't accidentally adopt!