Happy Adoption Month!

November is National Adoption Month! We're pluggin' and chuggin' through the paper and will let you all know more when we know more! Our agency, WACAP, just made a great video that you can check out on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXmaA1hgmww

Lots of love!

Authentication in Progress!

We just received our first authenticated documents back from the Oregon Secretary of State. It only took them a few days and the docs were back in our hot little hands. We also just got news that USCIS received our I600 A and that we'll be notified of our finger printing date within the next few days. We're movin'!!

...and more paperwork!

Mama Jennie reading, signing, reading, signing...

Paperwork!

Daddy Kalan signing, signing, signing!

Processing Phase One

We have entered the first processing phase of our adoption! We just mailed in the new contracts to WACAP and are busy gathering info for the dossier. Our new addition, MonkeyBoy, is holding the paperwork before mailing. He's wearing the baby outfit Kalan gave Jennie for Mother's Day.

Homestudy Approved!

We just found out that our homestudy has been approved by WACAP and that we're officially in the Ethiopia Program! We'll spend the next few months getting new documents together and getting them notorized (and varified and notorized and varified and.....). We are right on schedule (at least for the part of the process that we can schedule) and hope to wrap up our end of the paperwork by the end of the year.

I600A

We just completed our I600A for Advanced Processing of an Orphan. We were told to read the questions, answer them using common sense, and then change them to the opposite! We're finishing the homestudy (still waiting on a few documents to come in the mail) and will then start the dossier (a group of documents that help finalize the adoption in Ethiopia). We hope to be on the wait list by the end of the year!

Homestudy Visit Complete!

We met with our social worker last week and had a wonderful visit. The dogs even behaved--thank goodness! It was great to learn more, process more, and talk, talk, talk. It seems that with each big step, the process becomes more real. We'll be wrapping up the homestudy within the next month--then onto the Dossier......Immigration here we come!

Autobiographies

The autobiographies are in! We each wrote over 10 pages and had a VERY reflective writing process. Feels great to have one more thing checked off!

WACAP Weekend

We went to our first big adoption training this weekend at WACAP (World Association for Children and Parents) and couldn't have been more pleased. We are so happy that we chose WACAP to help us bring our baby home. Most of the session focused on raising an adopted child and providing lots of cultural support for the kids. This was the beginning of our homestudy process which is the first big step! Here we go!

Meeting folks

We went to a great picnic with other families with kids from Ethiopia this weekend. It is amazing to meet folks who have been through the process and are there with their beautiful kiddos. We can't wait!