Proud to be an American!

This is equal parts exciting and embarrassing.  So let's just try to focus on the first, okay?

Today we went before a Judge with Isaiah, and officially became his legal parents.  In turn, Isaiah officially became an American.

I know, it sounds strange since Isaiah has been with us for four years.  Weren't we already his "parents"?  Well, yes.  According to the Ethiopian government we became Isaiah's parents when we passed court at the end of December in 2006.  And the US has recognized us as Isaiah's permanent legal guardians, but not his "parents" since some states (including Idaho) require a re-adoption process.

Why didn't we re-adopt him sooner?  Well, procrastination for one thing.  Expense for another.  Plus, in our minds, Isaiah has been nothing short of our son, so it just wasn't an urgent priority for us.

The cool thing now is that not only are we officially family, but Isaiah also got to legally change his name (to what we've always called him), plus he will get a US passport and Idaho birth certificate.  So official!

Anyway, we are very happy that the US government now recognizes us as the family that we already knew we were.*

*Well, with one exception.  Through this process we discovered that there were discrepancies in Biniam's paperwork when we adopted him.  Ethiopia said one thing, but the US says another, so it turns out that we also have to re-adopt Biniam.  And there may be some issues with that due to his age.  So we know what our next project is!

Saturday in Ethiopia

A friend of mine recently reminded me that I never finished writing about our trips to Ethiopia. I did most of the writing on my laptop in Ethiopia, but once we were home got so caught up in life that I never sat down to finish writing. So, here, almost two years later, I have finished writing about our trip to Ethiopia when we got Isaiah.

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Saturday (last full day)

Dad and Kathy decided they wanted to get an early start to Layla to spend time with the kids, so they caught a ride there ahead of us. Brian and I took a little more time getting ready, and waited for Dawit to pick us up. We had plans to head out for a trip into the countryside, including Nazret, and had hired Dawit for the day for 100 US dollars.

We stopped at Kaldi’s for coffee and pastries. We weren’t able to order our first few drink preferences as they were out of some of the ingredients, so we ended up with a plain latte or something. Had I been a fan of coffee, I’m sure it would have been amazing. We tried a couple different coffee cakes that were good, but more than we could eat.

We headed over to Layla to pick up Dad and Kathy for our trip, but they informed us they would rather take the opportunity to spend more time with the kids. So they spent the day on their own, at the orphanage, playing with the kids.

Our trip to the countryside was amazing. On the way out of town we passed the Ethiopian Air Force compound and were instructed not to get our cameras out anywhere near it. We went through a little town where the main road was closed for construction so we had to take little side streets through the town. The roads were dusty and extremely bumpy. People waved at us as we drove by. One of the common modes of transportation in the town was horse-pulled carts.

Outside of the town was the expansive countryside, much like I’d seen on TV and pictured Africa in my mind. Wide open space, large umbrella-shaped trees all alone, and grass huts. Although it wasn’t quite as primitive as you might expect; at one little cluster of huts we noticed power cords strung along.

We stopped for lunch in Nazret, which is a pretty good sized town. It is also the town Meskerem was originally from, and we drove by the hospital she was originally taken to. Dawit stopped in front of a hotel and sent Brian and I upstairs to the restaurant. We had an interesting time communicating with the wait staff, and trying to figure out what to order. I had previously decided not to order any more traditional food so I could end on my awesome experience from the night before. But I just couldn’t pass up another opportunity for Ethiopian food, so I ordered some sort of meat dish. It was dry and terrible. I’m not even sure what animal the meat was from. It must have been obvious that I didn’t like it since the manager came over and asked me if I would like to order something different. I gratefully asked for the spaghetti Bolognese “to go” so we could be on our way. Later in the car I opened my leftovers to find that something must have been lost in translation, as what I now had was Bolognese mixed in with my meat dish, all wrapped in injera.

We headed out for Sodere Hot Springs, a resort located further out in the country. A few miles before we got to the resort I noticed that we were pretty far from any towns, and the scattered huts around there really were primitive. We drove down a large, curving hill, and off in the distance I could see old women begging on the side of the road. As our car got closer they knelt down and kissed the road as we drove by, holding their hands out in desperation for a gift. Our car was going fast, and I never asked Dawit to slow down so we could help them. That is one regret I have and will never be able to forget.

Sodere is a beautiful, large resort located on natural hot springs and next to a river. There are lodging options ranging from A-frames to cabins to a hotel. There are multiple swimming pools, including gender-specific wading pools that are very hot. We walked around the grounds a little and split up to check out the wading pools. They are private with walls around them, which apparently gives people the freedom to toss their swimsuits and go au-natural. Right next to the wading pools is the muddy river where it’s common to see hippos in the morning.

There are wild monkeys all over the resort that are used to the people and fairly tame. I got some close-up photographs of one who was just staring at me until he gave me a look that made me a little nervous so I backed off. Out at the van, we were standing next to it changing the camera batteries when a monkey jumped through the open door, grabbed our leftovers, and ran off with them. I laughed hysterically, secretly thanking the monkey for taking that food off my hands.

We pulled up to our hotel that evening at the exact time Dad and Kathy were walking up. They had just finished eating at the Elephant Walk. We told them we were hungry and were heading back to Habesha’s, and they decided to head up to their room to start packing. Later that night we got all our stuff packed, and settled in for two hours of sleep before we had to head for the airport.

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Previous Posts:

Monday in Ethiopia
Tuesday in Ethiopia
Wednesday in Ethiopia
Thursday in Ethiopia (Part One)
Thursday in Ethiopia (Part Two)
Friday in Ethiopia

We're on the list!!!

I could sit here and try and think of some cute and creative way to tell this story, but I am too excited! I just got an email from AAI which said that our Dossier was assembled and shipped to Ethiopia today! We are officially on the waiting list for 1-2 children age 0-24 months!

Another praise, is that we also received our I-171H approval from the Immigration office today! That means that everything went through with our application and fingerprints last week. Praise God!!!

Now, we wait...

The Lord's Timing is Perfect Timing

Once again I am having to remind myself to surrender to God's perfect timing. He already knows the completed story of my life, and therefore He knows the perfect timing and order of things. I should be better about always trusting in God's timing without even thinking about it, but I have to admit that my "reminder" today is in response to something I just read.

The director of our adoption agency just sent out a message to all the families currently waiting for a "referral" of a baby. That would include us, although there is still a lot of paperwork to be done by the governments before we are technically even on the "waiting list". In a nutshell, the director explained that for a number of reasons, the process has greatly slowed down in recent weeks for referrals. One of the reasons is that the reagent used to test the babies for HIV has not been available for the past month, so the necessary lab work has not been able to be completed.

I have also learned that court dates (after a child has been referred) have been slowed down and delayed a lot lately too. This is partly because there are a lot more families trying to adopt from Ethiopia, so the systems are just bogged down.

Basically the message stated that while in the past it was conceivable for the process to only take a few months, waiting a year (YEAR) is probably more likely now.

I am not even sure how this makes me feel right now, as the whole thing still feels like some far-off dream. I feel a lot for the families who have already seen a picture of their child and even booked their travel dates, and then find out things have been delayed.

Now, I do have a praise report to share as well, and I hate that I have included this at the bottom of this message. Our agency director also shared in her message that they are no longer sending out Dossier packets to families wanting to adopt babies from Ethiopia until the situation settles back down. Thankfully we are not affected by that since we have just submitted our Dossier! See?! The Lord's timing is perfect. We missed that cut off by just a few weeks, and we didn't even know it.

I did it

Whew! After a comedy of errors, I finally got our I-600A form submitted at the USCIS office, and I even got my fingerprints done right away, too!

I am thoroughly worn out, and feel like I have been running all over today. After first going to the wrong building, then setting off the "beeper" at the metal detector, then waiting for my number and talking to the man in the window, I learned that I needed to have a CASHIERS CHECK to pay the $685 fee, even though the website said "check"! So, back to the car we went and up and down the street until we found a WAMU. After getting the cashiers check and going back through the metal detector (we set it off again, but the guard didn't care this time), I successfully submitted - and paid - for our application. I was told that I needed to sit down again and wait for my name to be called at the "fingerprinting" door. I was happy to be getting this done the same day so I wouldn't have to make a second trip, plus Emma was happy that she would get to play with the cool toys there a little longer. When they called my name and asked me to step behind the door, they told me Emma could come but that she needed to sit still (these people have way too much power). Of course I was horrified when Emma followed me in and I got a whiff of a very ripe diaper. And to top it off we were in very tight quarters. Oh well, perhaps the smell caused them to move a little faster. And for that I am grateful.

2nd try is a charm?

I am off to USCIS - again. Hopefully I will have more success than yeterday. Let's see here: application - check, home study - check, marriage license and birth certificates - check, money - check. I think that's everything. And hopefully I have everything signed this time, too.

Dossier is Done!

I just dropped off our completed Dossier at Fed Ex! Whew! What a relief it is to have that done. Hopefully everything is exactly as it needs to be. I triple-checked all the papers before sealing the envelope.

I also went to the USCIS office today to submit our I-600A form. Upon arriving, I realized that I haven't had Brian sign the forms yet. I was going to drive out to his work to get his signature, but then I realized that I also forgot to bring our home study, which needs to be turned in with our forms. Duh. Tomorrow...

Will there be a delay?

I excitedly read over our home study tonight, and unfortunately found a few factual errors in it. One error was that my age was listed as 28 years old, when I won't be until next month (hey, let's not rush this!). There were a couple other minor errors, but probably the biggest error was that my parents were listed as James and Hazel. Uh... who's Hazel?

I have sent an urgent email off to our social worker to see if these errors need to be corrected before I submit our packet. If they aren't a big deal, I really don't care and would rather just get this thing shipped off. However, I have heard that if there are any discrepancies between what's in the home study and what is in our other paperwork, the process could be delayed. So, I'd probably rather err on the side of caution and hold off on shipping anything for another day than be faced with a longer delay down the road. Bummer.

The Homestudy is ready!!!

I just got a call from our social worker who told me that AAI reviewed the homestudy and had no changes, so it is notarized and ready for us to pick up!! Brian will hopefully be able to pick it up on his way home tonight. Then tomorrow hopefully I will be able to drop it off at the USCIS office along with our I-600A (Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition) form and get the ball rolling on our next (and final) fingerprints. Also tomorrow, hopefully I will be able to get our completed Dossier Fed Ex'd to AAI.

Woo Hoo! The ball is rolling again!

Waiting...

Hurry up and wait. That is a concept we are becoming all-too familiar with. Rush documents around town for signatures, then patiently wait for the document to get signed and sent back. Clear our calendars to meet the social worker's schedule, then wait for her to finish her evaluation. We are told that this is the common theme among adoptions, especially international ones. There are a lot of steps to complete, and sometimes there is only one person qualified to do so.

Our home study was actually finished last week. We were "approved" to adopt up to two children, under the age of two. That's good news! The bad news is that we don't have the home study in our hands yet. Our social worker has sent the home study to our agency for review to make sure it is current with Ethiopian standards. There is only one person at our adoption agency who reviews the home study packets, and she was on vacation last week, and unfortunately has a sick daughter in the hospital this week.

So, we are just waiting to have our finalized home study in our hands. As soon as we have that our Dossier will be complete and we will Fed Ex it to the agency.

Please join us in prayer for favor and protection over all the people involved in this process.

Another family's story

I have been following the blog of a family in California who has a daughter about Emma's age, and just adopted twin baby boys from Ethiopia. They just got home less than two weeks ago, so their experiences are still fresh.

Here are links to the first three posts since arriving home with their sons, in case you're interested in reading them:

http://heldts.blogspot.com/2006/02/we-made-it.html
http://heldts.blogspot.com/2006/02/valentines-day-in-ethiopia.html
http://heldts.blogspot.com/2006/02/meeting-our-boys.html

Nothing new

Still nothing new with the adoption. We are still waiting for the home study to be completed (by the social worker), plus we need to get our passport photos taken (required as part of the Dossier). As soon as those two things are done, our Dossier will also be done, which would make us much closer to finding out who our baby is. :)

I think it's probably about time for me to get my second round of immunizations; maybe I can look into that to kill some time...

Dossier: Almost done

Wow - we are getting really close to being done with our Dossier. Today I will be picking up the notarized letters from the police department and Brian's doctor; then we will have all of the notarized documents in hand. Yesterday I sent off documents to the Washington and Idaho Secretary of State offices for authentication. As of right now there are only TWO things left to be completed as part of our Dossier: the completed homestudy (will be done some time after the 21st) and our passport photos. I will be taking our photos tonight and sending them off to be printed (we need 8 copies of each).

We are figuring about four more weeks (or less) for the Dossier to be complete and in the hands of our agency. The agency will then send the Dossier to Ethiopia, which is when the process truly "begins". I am not sure how long it will take to go through all the government channels, but I am thinking that we could possibly have a baby referral in as soon as 8 weeks. That is my prayer, at least. Please pray too!

**A little side note: at our church prayer meeting on Saturday night (we weren't there, unfortunately) our pastor's wife felt a strong burden from the Holy Spirit to pray for a couple who is adopting from a foreign country. She felt that this couple will be receiving a girl, and that her name will be "Heaven" and she will be a tremendous blessing. Our friends who were there and heard that, thought of us and told us about it on Sunday morning. Sunday evening we were at a church event and shared our situation with our pastor's wife. She asked if she could pray with us, and when she did, she told us that she was having the same "feeling" again. So, it will be interesting to see if we are the couple God has chosen to raise little Heaven.

A Slight Delay

Brian was supposed to have his individual interview today; however the social worker had to reschedule - to the 21st! Oh well, hopefully she can still work on writing up our home study since she got a lot of information from us the other day.

In the meantime we are plugging away at completing the documents for our Dossier. Last night we dropped off the sample police clearance letter at our police station, and we also faxed letters to our doctors. I know at least one of our reference letters from friends is done, so we just need the other one. Today I hope to mail off the I-600 form, which is for immigration purposes for our child.

Two down, one to go...

Yesterday I started the day with my individual home study interview at the Youth Ranch. It was just an hour-long meeting with our social worker, mostly answering questions about my family and my childhood, and my marriage. Pretty much stuff I had already written about in my autobiography. I like Jenny (our social worker) and feel like she will do a good job for us.

In the evening, Jenny came over to our house for the mandatory "home visit". Brian, Jenny and I sat down for about 90 minutes and talked about our reasons for adopting, philosophies on discipline, awareness of attachment, sociological issues, and on... Then she took a tour of our house and made sure everything was "safe" for a baby.

Jenny stated that she was very impressed with the amount of "homework" we have already done in the form of reading and preparing ourselves for the adoption. I have been reading books and articles on adoption in general, forming attachments, etc. I have also ordered a book that specifically focuses on inter-racial adoption. Brian is getting caught up and trying to read everything I have been reading. Anyway, the good news is that Jenny said she isn't going to require the fourth interview with us, since she already feels we have a good handle on things. Praise God!

Brian's personal interview is tomorrow, and then it will take Jenny about three weeks to write up and finalize our home study. She will be working directly with AAI to make sure all the content and wording is appropriate for Ethiopia. She said that sometimes there are things that come up in a home study that would be a non-issue for a US adoption, but that other countries might have issues with it. That is why she will be going back and forth with AAI to make sure everything is just right. I'm sure glad they all know what they're doing!

Chores...And a little fun

Tomorrow is my individual interview, followed by our joint in-home interview in the afternoon. I am trying not to stress about it. Really. My guess is that if you asked Brian he wouldn't agree. I do have to admit my to-do list is getting longer, not shorter, as I continually think of new chores I would like to get done.

As a fun little diversion today, I answered the doorbell to find our new suitcases on the front porch. I played with one for a little bit and was happy with the result. They have all sorts of pockets and compartments and gadgets - and are good quality, too. Brian found them on the internet. He did a good job.

Over the past weekend we were able to get a lot of organizing and purging done. A while ago we moved one of the desks out of our office to make room for the guest bed to fit in there, so we spent some time on Saturday cleaning out the drawers of that desk (it's been in our bedroom since we moved it). I also consolidated the office closet to make room for the things that are currently being stored in the closet of Emma's new room. Speaking of that, her bed was delivered over the weekend and we got it set up - it is so cute! As soon as I get a few more things on her walls and move her clothes over, we will be ready to transition her into the new room. Lucky kid basically has two rooms right now.

This Thursday my dad and Kathy are coming out for a visit. Emma is thrilled that they are bringing Sadie (the dog) with them. I am not exactly sure what we are going to do while they are here, but it will be a nice visit. At least the house will be clean...

What is a Dossier?

dos·si·er ( P ) Pronunciation Key (dos-e-a)n.
A collection of papers giving detailed information about a particular person or subject.

The Dossier is the bundle of official (mostly notarized) documents we need to compile, then send to Ethiopia in order to be matched with a child. I won't list everything required because there are over 21 components, but I will give a few samples:


- Family letter to Ethiopia governmentnt (stating our interest in adopting from their country)
- Reference letters
- I-600 Petition to classify orphan as immediate relative
- Power of attorney (for the people who will represent us in Ethiopian court)
- Notarized Police clearance letter, medical statement, bank statement, and on...

Once completed, we will have to send some documents to the WA Secretary of State for certification; some to the ID Secretary of State; and some to WA DC to the US Department of State and the Ethiopian Embassy.

My head is already swimming...

"The Packet"

I wasn't expecting anything unusual when I went to check the mail today, so I was a bit surprised to find a packet jammed in the mail box so hard I could barely get it out. With a quick glance at the return address label, I figured out the packet was from our agency, AAI! I knew the next step with our agency would be to get started on our Dossier, but I didn't think we would receive the information until AFTER our home study was complete, and the agency had reviewed it. To my utter excitement, the packet was everything we need in order to complete our Dossier! This puts us at least three weeks ahead of the schedule I figured we were on, since we can now work on these requirements concurrent with finalizing the home study.

One of our continuing prayers has been that God would move this process along quickly and that we wouldn't have to wait as long as we have been told. This is already a small answer to prayer!

Preparing for travel

Since we are kind of in a holding pattern with the actual adoption stuff, we have been focusing our efforts lately on preparing for our trip to Ethiopia. When I was at the CDC for my immunizations, the nurse also gave me information on things we will need to take with us, like bug spray and electrolyte replacements (in case we get bad diarrhea - yuck). So, last night we shopped around online and purchased bug spray for skin, and bug spray for our clothes (the bugs will actually die if they land on our treated clothes). We also purchased two HUGE suitcases. We are each allowed to take two suitcases, up to 70 pounds each on the airplane, so we wanted to be able to max them out. We are going to be bringing donations and supplies to the orphanage. Plus, we are going to do a lot of shopping in Ethiopia, so we want to have room to bring stuff back with us as well.

We are still shopping around for things like a comfy travel pillow (for each of the 30+ hour trips), money belts, and electrical converters (outlets in Ethiopia are not the same as in the US, plus they are 220v).

A Family of Three...

I am practically holding my breath with anticipation and the excitement of becoming a family of four...or five...or even six (yikes!) very soon. I am also cherishing our family moments now, as a family of three. I know that things will never be as "simple" as they are now, but our family just doesn't feel complete!

We put on our adoption form that we would consider infant twins or a sibling group with an infant and a toddler. Last night Brian and I both admitted to each other that we are secretly hoping for two. Either way, I have a feeling this won't be the last adoption we go through... :)

Here is a picture of our (small) family this past weekend up in McCall, Idaho. Looking forward to growing...!