Exciting Week with Adoptions

Some of my blog friends have gotten some exciting news over the last few days. I don't know if any of my readers ever check the blogs that I have posted along the right hand side of my blog page, but there is some exciting news from Bianca Adventures and Grace and Haven. Also, Love Ya More Than Cookies is awaiting some good news as well. If you have time, please check out these blogs.

Now onto what's happening with us . . . . .

If you've been reading my blog over the last few weeks you are all aware that we received some scary news when the company my husband works for announced they were cutting 5,000 positions. As a result of this news we decided to end our Ethiopia adoption and to look into other possibilities for adopting #2. We felt that the foster-to-adopt program would be a good option for us, but as I continued to research this program I was feeling less and less comfortable with the program. Dave and I discussed my findings and both decided this really wasn't the direction we wanted to go.

I then received an email from another adoptive mom who suggested we consider adopting either an AA or bi-racial infant domestically. As I looked into these programs I discovered that there are agencies who have developed programs specifically looking for adoptive families for AA and bi-racial infants because "they are more difficult to place." This was difficult to hear and both Dave and I were sadden to know that the color of a little baby's skin would be cause enough for a family to say "no." I started requesting information from some agencies so we could gather information in an effort to determine if this was a possibility for us.

During this same time Dave received some positive news regarding the security of his job and we were feeling more comfortable about our financial future.

The information I requested regarding AA and bi-racial adoptions started to arrive, so Dave and I began to discuss our options at this point. We were very intrigued and seriously considering that this may be the road to our next child, but there were still a couple problems. The money we would put toward a domestic AA or bi-racial adoption would be the same amount it would cost us to complete our Ethiopia adoption. The second problem was the fact that our hearts were still pulled toward Ethiopia. So after much discussion and the comfort we were feeling that Dave would be keeping his job, we decided to continue our adoption from Ethiopia.

Lili's adoption was certainly a roller coaster ride of emotions and we anticipated that this adoption would be as well. What we didn't anticipate was that the ride would be so intense this early in the game.

So, here is where we are right now . . . .

- Our home study is complete and being approved by our social worker's supervisor. We anticipate having it back sometime within the next week.
- Our dossier documents have all been collected and we will get everything notarized Thursday or Friday of this week.

Here is the remainder of the process and an approximate timeline . . . .

- Once our home study has been approved, our social worker will send us our copy and a copy will go to USCIS. (1 week)
- When we receive our 171H (approval to adopt a child from Ethiopia) from USCIS, I will take all the documents to the Secretary of State's office for notary authentication. (4 weeks)
- Several copies of our dossier will need to be made and then everything is sent off to our agency. (2 days - I'll work very quickly at this point)
- The agency completes some additional paperwork and then sends everything to the Ethiopian consulate for authentication. All the paperwork is translated and sent to Ethiopia. (4 weeks)
- Once the Ethiopian authorities receive our paperwork, we will officially be on the wait list for an infant girl. (5-6 months)
- We receive our referral, complete the necessary paperwork and send it off to the agency accepting our referral. (4 days)
- The wait begins again as we go through the Ethiopian courts to have our adoption finalized in Ethiopia. (2-4 months)
- Our case is complete and we get ready to travel (2-3 months)
- Our baby girl comes home!!!!! (1 week)

As you can see, we still have a long way to go. We don't anticipate getting our referral until sometime in the Fall or Winter of 2009 and will most likely travel sometime Spring of 2010. The bottom line is that the process of completing an adoption from Ethiopia is getting longer all the time, but we are feeling much more confident now that one day we'll bring little Naomi home to her forever family. Let's just hope the rest of our journey has less pot holes and speed bumps.