Allison and I have been talking, and we've decided to start blogging about our latest adventure of adopting a child from Ethiopia!
To bring everybody up to speed, our adoption basically is a 3 phase process:
Phase 1: Review and Approval by the Adoption Agency
Phase 2: Review and Approval by US Immigration
Phase 3: Review and Approval by the Government of Ethiopia + Waiting Period
Earlier this summer, we completed Phase I of the adoption, and we have already submitted our paperwork to US Immigration. We are told that US Immigration has up to 3 months to approve our paperwork, so we are expecting to hear back from them by the end of November 2010.
Meanwhile, we are preparing our paperwork to submit to Ethiopia for phase 3. I never fathomed all of the paperwork that would be needed for an adoption! Everything from medical histories, drug screening, personal references, notarized bank statements, tax records, professional references, home evaluation, criminal history, work history, family history, and the list goes on and on! So in preparation for phase 3, we are getting the final documents pulled together so that they are all ready by the end of November.
Another step in preparation for phase 3 is visiting the US Immigration office in Milwaukee to be fingerprinted, which is scheduled for the first week of October. I never thought fingerprinting would be exciting, but we are excited because it is another important step that we get to take before bringing our new baby boy or girl home! While we are down in Milwaukee, we'll likely go to an Ethiopian restaurant to celebrate and try some new cuisine.
So this is where we are at. Everybody asks about a timeline, which at this time is largely unknown - which can be frustrating to these two engineers! Essentially, we are anticipating taking our two trips to Ethiopia next summer. We have to go once for court, and then again a second time a couple weeks later to bring our baby home. Chances are it will be longer, but probably not any faster.
If you could please keep us, our future child, and his or her birth mom in your prayers, we would greatly appreciate it. Please pray for our patience and wisdom and we continue on this exciting journey.
-Joe & Allison
That's so exciting! I've heard from a few friends that the process is long and hard, but they were overjoyed at the end. Your family, and family-to-be, is in our thoughts and hearts. Praying for strength, wisdom, and patience to be sent your way <3 You will be an amazing family, I can't think of two better people to become parents.
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