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Welcome to our Adoption Blog! If you want to know about our story and why we are adopting please go to the sidebar down below to find the archive and find our earliest posts. We also are writing as Adoption Journalists for Red Letters Campaign.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Dossier Orientation Call!


this is just the planner not a picture of our child!

That's right! Our Adoption Planner came in the mail today and we had our Dossier Orientation Call today! I am super excited because (and I say this with hesitation) it doesn't look as bad as I thought.... I mean just the word dossier gives me goose bumps because you don't exactly know what that is until they actually send you the requirements. So I am officially apart of the club. I KNOW what exactly goes in a DOSSIER! whoo hoo! ya, I know I am a nerd.

So here's a rough timeline for those who aren't adoption savvy.

Homestudy visit is complete, just waiting for our social worker to type it up. (about 3 weeks she says)

Right now I am compiling all the necessary paperwork:) I am not sure but shouldn't take me more than a couple of weeks.

This includes sending some forms and money to the U.S. Citizens and Immigrations Services and then ever so patiently wait for them to assign us a fingerprinting appointment. Then they will send us a nice letter saying that we can bring a baby to the U.S. This could take a couple of months:(

Then we submit our Dossier to Washington D.C. to be authenticated (I'm not sure exactly what that means) and translated. Then they send it to Ethiopia.

THEN we get on the waiting list for an infant girl 0-12 months. However we could possibly be on the waiting list before we get our letter back from the U.S.CIS but I'm not 100% sure.

Then we wait. How long? I think 4-6 months is what they are quoting right now but I am going to be a pessimist so I can be happy when it's sooner and say "I knew it" when it's longer:)

Then we will travel about 2-3 months after we are "referred" a child. This is the time period when you go through court and everything gets all legalized.

So in summary, I really don't know. It could be 8 months, it could be 15 months. It could be longer, you just never know with these things.

We will just have to pray and wait:) Our girl is out there and God has chosen her to be in our family so we will just try and be patient!

Thanks to everyone who is prayerfully following our journey, we appreciate it and would not be able to do this without you!

7 comments:

Chris and Jana said...

Way to go getting your homestudy done! We just received the dossier packet this week and realized that until we have the homestudy, everything else stands still! Congrats!

Anonymous said...

It's much much easier said than done, but do the best you can not to get tied up in timelines and what 'may' happen when. As someone who's process took more than double any of even the longest 'quotes' we were given (ours was over 2 years for Guatemala), it will leave you in a better place to enjoy life during the process. Avoid the trap if possible of thinking your child will be here for this or that event coming up.

Congratulations though!!! I'm praying for you and keep up regularly here. I'm so excited to see you moving along. -T

C said...

you may get on the # list before we do we are waiting for $$$ to finish our dossier :(
But on a good note yea for you guys!!!! :)

Unknown said...

Happy Paperchasing!! :)

Amber said...

Yeah, that is exciting. Let the paperchase begin!

Blog Shmog said...

whoo hoo! that's so fun that you are starting the dossier work!

C said...

We all saw the POWER in prayer and fasting when we as a blog family took a day to do this for the hold on some of the Ethiopia adoptions.. SO I feel that we as a blog family need to do this for Margot (Julies' mom) SO please join me this Friday July 25,2008 for a day of fasting and prayer for Margots healing!!!!
C
"For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers."
1 Peter 3:12