Ethiopia Adoption: Part 1

Disclaimer: I have no idea what I'm talking about.

This is going to be as simple a breakdown of the Ethiopian adoption process as I can manage. As we reach each milestone in the process, I will post more about the steps taken and explain them in more detail. But for now, here is a general outline of what we expect to happen in the next year or so.

Obviously, we had to start by choosing an agency. I think that this is very, very important to the process, and I think it deserves a post all on its own. But for now, I'll just share some of the reasons we chose our agency. They have the proper licensing, and after doing a lot of research, we trust that they are doing all they can to be certain that this adoption is giving us a child who truly needs it. They only have programs for China and Ethiopia, and have been established for over 15 years. We believe that because of this, they are very good at what they do in these two areas. They are based in Utah, which means it's a lot quicker to mail things, and they are the ones who can facilitate our homestudy. They respond very quickly to any questions we have, and are very patient with us. They obviously love what they are doing. These are a few of the reasons, and perhaps when I have time, I'll talk more about the licensing part of it, and the story of how we found them.

The next step is applying. For this particular agency, we had to fill out a lot of paperwork, mainly contracts, breakdowns of costs, basic information about us, and things of that sort. We filled all this out, signed and notarized them, and mailed them in with a check for the application fee. If you want to know how much we are paying, feel free to e-mail me or message me on facebook. I don't feel comfortable sharing that information online. But let's just say, we're on a very tight budget. ;-)

After we received the e-mail saying that we were officially accepted into the Ethiopia program, they sent us...surprise, surprise! More paperwork! This is what will initiate the next part of this process: the homestudy. The homestudy is basically our lives on paper. It is very intensive, and will most likely take anywhere from 2 - 6 months to complete. This first packet of paperwork was more contracts to sign, and background checks on us, and the homestudy fee to begin the homestudy. We sent that one in yesterday. I think that as soon as our background checks are cleared, we will be assigned a social worker, who will be making three visits with us. One of these visits must be at our home, so they can see our floor plan, and make sure that it is safe for a child. The other visits are to get to know us better, and they really want to know us! Some of the questions they have on the questionnaire we have to fill out are rather personal, but it is in the best interest of both us and our future child. The social worker will determine whether we are capable parents that can provide a loving, stable home, and they will also help us figure out what needs in a child we can and cannot handle as a family.

About a week before the homestudy is finalized, we need to start compiling our dossier. The dossier (pronounced "doss-ee-ae") is a collection of documents that we send to Ethiopia (and maybe the US government as well, I'm not sure) as part of our petition to adopt. It is HUGE. Some of the documents that will most likely be required are things like financial information, a physician's statement that we are healthy and fit to be parents, marriage and birth certificates, the completed homestudy, and the list goes on and on. If I understand correctly, many of these documents must be notarized, certified, apostilled, and authenticated. Which, to my understanding, means checked, double checked, triple checked, and quadruple checked.

This part of the process I am not quite certain of yet, so I may be wrong. But I believe after the homestudy is finalized and our dossier is compiled and quadruple checked, we send the entire dossier to the Ethiopian government, and then the waiting begins. This is the point at which many adoptive families rejoice and can say, "We are DTE!" (Dossier to Ethiopia). Unfortunately, this can also be one of the tougher parts. We will be waiting for the agency to give us a referral, which means that they have found a child for us. It will probably take anywhere from 12 to 18 months for us to get a referral for a child. It is a very long wait. The good thing is, this will give us time to save money and fundraise, because a lot of money will be due by the time we finally get that referral!

The referral is one of the most anticipated and celebrated milestones an adoptive family can have in this process. (Though possibly scary, too!) Once we get "the call", the agency will e-mail us pictures of the referred child, and any medical history and other information they have on him or her. We will have a certain amount of time to accept or reject it. Once we accept our referral, I believe more paperwork has to be done on the end of the Ethiopian court. Again, I'm not sure of the whole process, but I believe that we will be assigned a court date, and when we get that we will have permission to travel to Ethiopia for about a week. This will be a week of court appointments, probably more paperwork, and what I've seen other adoptive parents affectionately refer to as, "Meetcha Day." We will finally get to meet our child, and spend time with him/her. The agency we are using has a guest house that is right across the street from at least one of the orphanages; it looks like they take care to make sure we get to spend as much time as possible with our little one.

Here comes probably one of, if not the toughest part. Once we spend a week with our child, we have to leave them behind. It makes me sad just thinking about it, and we don't even know who it is yet! But we have to go back to the States, and wait for the government to process the rest of the paperwork that will make our child officially ours. I think this can take anywhere from 4 - 6 months. In the meantime, we will be paying for our little one to stay in a foster care home instead of the orphanage as we wait to bring them home. Finally, when all of the paperwork is processed, visa paperwork done, we will travel there again to bring our little one home.

So there it is, in a nutshell. (Yes, that was a nutshell. Pretty crazy, huh?) And that was just Part 1! A lot more happens after we bring our child home. But that will be saved for Part 2. Aren't you excited now? If you aren't sleeping?

Anyway, I will be posting updates in detail as we hit each major milestone. We would so appreciate it if you could commit to pray for us during all this. We are so excited, but we have a very long journey ahead.

My Boys

We went out the other day for a photo shoot since SOMEONE wasn't able to make it to us, and we were trying to drown our sorrows by doing everything we were planning on doing...without them. I guess that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but there it is. Anyway, I was kind of stupid and was so focused on composition that I completely forgot to check settings except for exposure...and ended up getting home to realize my ISO was up WAY too high. Also, I didn't get many shots either, because it was pretty chilly and we were all cold, (notice Scott's clenched fists?) so we lasted maybe 15 minutes. So, there was only one that turned out well. But I got one decent shot at least!

Baby Animal Days!

In the future, this could possibly turn out to be a family tradition for the duration of our time here. Micah and I drove an hour out to a very beautiful countryside yesterday, to a huge farm-like area that held "Baby Animal Days." It was SO great. For not very much at all, we were able to go on a little train ride, pet numerous animals, enjoy gorgeous natural surroundings, and several other events. We had a lot of fun. Micah definitely enjoyed it! 

Our view as we came in...

Micah really enjoyed the train. :)

Animals!

"Tows!!!"

He likes pretty much anything that looks like a wheel or a ball.

We even enjoyed a free wagon ride!

This was an event that rather shocked me. They let little kids sign up to put a helmet on, and RIDE a SHEEP for as long as they could hold on as the sheep barreled furiously across the corral. Whoever held on the longest won. It was insane and hilarious and I want to see it again.

This was where we hung out for a while and ate lunch. For some reason, people hardly ever walked by this area. But it was beautiful and peaceful and quiet, perfect.

 We had a wonderful time, looking forward to doing it again next year!

Toddler kisses...they're the best!

Last Time

In the wake of another CME (Coronal Mass Ejection), and several e-mails warning us that the Aurora is going to be very active, I've found myself missing Alaska again. It's kind of hard to see so many pictures posted, and be able to join the action no longer. I miss the exciting nights of checking various sites for Aurora forecasts, of driving out into the dark night with a dear friend, and the thrill of seeing that first green glimmer of the lights, even though I'd seen them many times before.

But I am so grateful for the memories made, and that I DID have the opportunity, several times to experience the ethereal beauty of the Northern Lights. There was one last picture I took, of the very last display we saw, that I have not shared yet. It seems a good time now to share it. It was the brightest, most incredible display we'd seen yet. We were even able to see pinks and reds with our naked eyes, which is a rare occurrence, and there were several branches of it that twisted and swirled very quickly as we watched. Unfortunately, they did not last long, and began to dissipate soon after we got to the top of the summit where we wanted to view them. And the wind was terribly, bone-chillingly cold and very strong, making it very difficult to get any decent photos. Still, at least I ended up with this one.

I am grateful to have been witness to such a beautiful display of God's glory in His creation.

Swing, swing, swiiiiiiing!

It got to 70 degrees yesterday. What else do you do with a gorgeous, sunny, spring day than have Daddy build a swing for his boy?

A Little Hike

The weather has been beautiful, so we decided to go on a little hike the other day. And I got some pictures. I was trying to do a "golden hour" shoot with my boys, but I have cheap lenses and they didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped. I'm rather disappointed. Still, I wanted to share the best ones. 

 Scott's face kept being weird. Because, well, Micah.

It was so beautiful. Someday, I'm going to get an awesome lens. And then I'll get to take awesome pictures.