Waitlist!!!

We are officially on the waitlist!!! Our dossier is flying to Washington, D.C. today and then it will be on its way to Ethiopa (or E-see-oh-pee-a as our 2-year-old likes to say).

The average wait for a referral right now is 4-6 months for a child over 13 months (we are requesting a child of either gender between the ages of 0-18 months, or siblings between the ages of 0-5 years). So, hopefully sometime early this fall we will get to see a picture of our child(ren).

We are so excited to have gotten past the paperwork stage, but I must admit I am not looking forward to the wait. Over the next few days I will definitely be working on a list of projects to keep my mind occupied.

Quote of the Day: After texting my dad a picture of our e-mail that said "waitlist," he called me and said, "The picture was kind of fuzzy, was that your ultrasound photo?"

Yes it was, Dad, yes it was!

I heart our postman!

Because he just delivered our I-171H USCIS approval!

Oddly this feels very similar to the day I found out I was pregnant with Lilli.

Looks like my Monday will be filled with government offices for authentications, an afternoon with my scanner, and hopefully a trip to Fed-Ex before they close!

Woohoo! Waitlist here we come!

Just a quick note...

to say we are Gladney approved! Yea!

Just one pesky CIS approval away from being on the waitlist!

Eager

Just a quick note to say that I am on pins and needles waiting to hear that we are Gladney approved. All our documents are in as far as I know, and I was hoping we would hear before the week ended that we were approved, but it looks like that will not be the case. I know in the scheme of things, this doesn't mean much, but I will take all the good news I can get, no matter how small it may be!

We've finished all our dossier paperwork, we are just waiting for our CIS approval to come through. We did get a request for more information from them this week, so I sent that back, and am hoping that means we will hear something soon.

I have to share a cute story with you all. Early this morning, Lilli crawled in to bed with us, after a few minutes she said, "I want my brother or sister." We told her we would have to wait a little while longer. She responded with, "I want my brother or sister, right NOW!"

It was so cute! We are really starting to talk to her about this and try to explain to her what a brother/sister is, and how that means she will have to share her stuff and her Mommy and Daddy.

Well I guess that's all I have today, back to the unpatiently waiting I go!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Well, as I'm sure most of you know by now, we got news today that we will now have to travel to Ethiopia twice. The first time to be there on our court date and the second time 3-6 weeks later to pick up our kid(s) to bring them home.

I have very mixed emotions about this. I am excited about getting to meet our child(ren) earlier than expected, and about getting to see Ethiopia twice. I am really not worried about the money. I know God will provide the extra $5000 or so that it will take for a second trip.

However, what I am really struggling with is having to leave Lilli at home twice in about two months. I know she will be fine and she has great grandparents and other family members that will dote on her and spoil her rotten, but I am going to miss her. I am also struggling with how difficult it will be to leave our child(ren) for 3-6 weeks. I am sure that saying that goodbye will be one of the hardest things I will ever do. How do you explain to your child you've only known for 5 days that you're leaving them?

So anyway, I know everything will be fine and work out, but for now I am still processing....

Wow

Apparently, I just needed to complain about the FBI clearances. 

Late yesterday afternoon I received a phone call from FedEx that someone needed to be home this morning to sign for a package. I thought maybe, just maybe, it's our clearances. 

Turns out it was! They came this morning, hallelujah!

One more item marked off the list....

One less item on the checklist

My heart is racing. I am excited and nervous all at the same time. 

I just mailed off the entire Gladney application packet with a check for the first portion of the Gladney program fee and the homestudy review fee. 

Whew! I am glad to see that stack of paperwork go. 

I also managed to get rid of another stack of paperwork on Monday. We had our first homestudy visit, and I turned in all of our paperwork for that with the exception of this year's tax return. Luckily the last form we needed to do our taxes came yesterday, so I will complete that this weekend and give our caseworker a copy on Monday at our next homestudy visit.

The dossier is coming along nicely, I think we have collected everything we can, we are just waiting on our FBI clearances, our homestudy to be completed, and our I-600A. (But these are also the steps that can take weeks to months to complete.) 

And I got bad news about our FBI clearances this week. Usually they take 4 to 6 weeks to receive, but it is currently taking them 10 weeks to process, so we've got at least three more weeks to wait. Maybe that will turn out best though as they should come the same week our homestudy is complete.

Things are moving right along. I am not eager to enter the waiting phase, but I am eager to have all the paperwork finished!