Fingerprinting is Done!

Today is not only the first day of spring, but today is also the day that John & I went to get our fingerprints taken at U.S. C.I.S. Our appointment was at 2:00 and we actually got there around 1:15. Even though we were WAY early, I didn't think they would be able to fingerprint us so quickly, but they did! Everything went so smoothly, and by 2:00, we were walking out the front door. The fingerprint results will be sent directly to the U.S Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The U.S. CIS then sends us a letter called a Favorable Determination Letter (FDL) stating that we have been approved to adopt a child from Ethiopia. This means that the U.S. and Ethiopia recognize us and approve us to be adoptive parents.

However, everything has an expiration date and the FDL is no different. It is only good for 15 months. At that point, the letter will expire and we will have to go through the process of getting our fingerprints taken again. This is highly likely as we know already that we will be on the waitlist for about 2 years.

But for now, we're excited. Gorgeous day. Fiingerprints done. We are on our way!

Waitlist....we've arrived!

Our adoption agency received our dossier on the morning of Friday, March 16th. Our case manager looked over everything and found one document that needed to be corrected before we could be added to the waitlist.

Saturday afternoon, after Eva was picked up by her Godparents, our first order of business was to get our newly corrected document signed, notarized and shipped out via FedEx! AGCI got the package first thing this morning (their time) and by the afternoon (our time) we had our waitlist number.

You ready????????????

Our new waitlist number for Baby "B" is.......................

We are excited about this number. We really did think it was going to be higher, and are looking forward to every month when, hopefully, that number will go down. So get ready, it's gonna be a bumpy ride J

Just a bit of Adoption information

**This is a very long post and was written mainly for my family & friends who

aren't familiar with the adoption process**

I've been wanting to write this blog post for a while now, but not quite sure how to go about it. Even though this is our 2nd adoption, I'm realizing that this process is not that well known. I find that when I tell people that we're collecting documents for our homestudy and dossier, they don't really know what that means in the totality of it all. So I wanted to break down the "not knowing" part of the adoption process.

Understand that this information pertains to our particular adoption agency and our particular program, Ethiopia. I do not speak for any other agency or program, domestic or international. I just have knowledge on what we specifically went through.

The very first thing we did was to fill out a mini application, concerning what country we were interested in, gender, age, etc. Even though we had just completed an adoption with the country of Ethiopia, we still had to be sure that we fulfilled their specific age, health requirements.

Once that portion was approved, our contracts were sent. They were signed and notarized as well as some other complimentary paperwork. During that same time, we also had to complete some online adoption education courses. 

After officially being in contract again, we received our Home Study & Dossier Binders. This was the beginning of the collection of documents. The very first thing in this binder was an ODJFS (Ohio Dept. Job & Family Services) application. This was so the state of Ohio would recognize us as adoptive parents.

While that was being processed we had our federal and state criminal checks done. Then we sent out our reference forms to various family and friends for them to fill out and return directly to the adoption agency. There were a total of 8 forms that were sent out and 7 were returned. Thank God we only needed 6 :-)

We also had to complete our personal profiles....... pages of information about ourselves, our family, our marriage. Very in depth. Those were the 4 main things that were completed with extreme time sensitivity.

Here is a list of all the other documents that we had to collect:
- Safety audit                                            - Fire inspection
- Adult & child medical (physical) forms       - Financial worksheet
- Bank letter statement                              - Proof of life, auto, & health insurance
- Employment & income verfication            - Vet letter concerning our dogs
- Photos of our family                                - John's military paperwork
- Eva's finalization adoption paperwork
- Photocopies of: birth & marriage certificates (divorce decree), tax returns, drivers licenses, ss cards
- Additional adoption forms and policy statements

All of these documents had to be turned in, some notarized, and approved before a social worker could even make an appointment to visit our home. That's why when the home study visit gets scheduled, it's a big deal. A corner has been turned :-)

As soon as we received our home study report, we were able to send in our application to the U.S CIS (Citizenship & Immigration Services). This application packet included a cover letter, the formal application (I-600A), photocopies of our birth, marriage certificates (divorce decree), home study report and letter to Homeland security.

Once that was mailed out, we had to wait for verification of receipt and then notification of our fingerprint appointment. The catch this time around was that we were not allowed to send in our dossier until we received our fingerprint appointment notification.

This time around I also worked on collecting documents for the dossier at the same time that I was collecting documents for the home study. The home study report is included in the dossier. The dossier is kind of like a portfolio that is sent to the Ethiopian government that is used to process and approve our adoption. And because it's sent to Ethiopia, the dossier is translated once it's been approved.

Included in our dossier was:
- Our home study report                                - Original birth certificates
- Original marriage certificate                        - Local criminal checks*
- Employment verification letters*                  - Letters of Recommendation*
- Power of attorney*                                      - Photocopies of current passport photos*
- Application letter to Ethiopian goverment*    - Photos of our family & home
- Financial statement*                                    - New passport photos
- Post-Adoption Commitment letter*               - Medical forms *
- Copy of USCIS fingerprint appointment*

*All of these documents have to be signed & notarized.

Once all the required documents are obtained, we will send them to our adoption agency's headquarters. Then everything will be looked over. If anything is wrong, it will have to be corrected. Once the dossier is approved, we will officially be on the waitlist.

As I mentioned earlier, the waitlist this time is going to be extremely long, roughly 2 years. We knew that going in and are at peace with that. We know that it just gives us more time to spend and love on Eva.

I find that the majority of questions that we field are if we know our child, seen a picture of her, if we get to choose her, etc. The important thing to remember about the waitlist portion of our adoption is that as long as we are on the waitlist, we know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about our child. In fact, our child might not even be born yet, which is highly likely as well. We will not know anything about our specific daughter until we are called with a REFERRAL. In order for that happen, we have to get all the way to being #1 on the waitlist.

When we do receive our referral, we do NOT get to choose our child from a bunch of pictures, like in a line up. Our adoption agency takes a lot of time in thought and prayer to make sure that every child is placed into the best family for that particular child. All of our information and paperwork is taken into very careful consideration before we are called with a referral.

We are very excited about this next adoption. Eva is already learning that she's going to be a big sister. We pray for our unknown Ethiopian daughter everyday. We are so appreciative of your kind thoughts and prayers during this whole process. Thank you so much for all of your love and support.

Dossier is on its way!

Today has been both an extremely frustrating and absolutely exhilirating day!


It started at 7:30 this morning. I called our doctor's office this morning to find out if I could take our medical forms in to be signed by our doctor and notarized by their in-house notary. Many of you probably remember my frustration that I've had with this form from reading my previous BLOG POST. An appointment time was set for later on in the afternoon and I was ecstatic. But as quickly as I became excited, it quickly faded. All of a sudden the form in question became the focus of the conversation: What kind of form is it? What does it say? What is the doctor signing his name to?


The medical form basically states that we do not suffer from pulmonary TB or any other (mental) disease or infection that would prevent us from raising a child.


I was immediately questioned as to when we had our last TB test, who performed it, etc. I was then transferred to another nurse in the office and had to leave a voicemail for her explaining the whole situation. Frustrated and annoyed does not even begin to explain how I was feeling. John was already at work, so I called him up ranting and raving in anger. Thank God for him because he was able to calm me down and get that vein to stop popping out of my forehead.

I decided that the answer to my rage was to do some retail therapy. I am not a person who usually solves my problems that way, but today was an absolute exception! I got Eva and myself ready and off to shopping we went J

We had a really fun time together buying birthday and baby shower gifts. Coincidentally (NOT) we started heading for home at around the same time that we were supposed to be at the doctor's office. Earlier in the afternoon, I had actually told the receptionist not to expect  me because I had not heard from the nurse yet. We were on the road for about 10 minutes when the nurse from the doctor's office called. She apologized profusely for all the confusion and said that the doctor could sign the forms.....and he could do it "Now", so off we went to the doctor's office.

We got there a little after 2 o'clock and just 10 minutes later I had the "magical" medical forms in hand!

This was the ABSOLUTE last form that was needed to send out our dossier. I immediately went home and made the necessary copies for the dossier.

When we got to the FedEx store, a little after 4 o'clock, the sign on the door said that the last FedEx pickup was at 4:00! Oh no!! As I'm explaning this all to Eva, the guy at the store says that the sign is just a suggestion, that the truck had not showed up yet for the last pickup. Praise God....I can breathe again J

By 4:25 pm, the package was sealed up and headed for Portland, Oregon. I was able to get a picture with Eva & me holding the precious dossier right before it got put on the FedEx truck. You see, as we were getting our picture taken, the Last FedEx truck of the day arrived.

So unbelievably excited! Only God could make a day that Satan tried to crush and turn it into something entirely amazing. Now all we have to do is wait for it be approved and get our waitlist number J

ONE year home!

Today marks 1 year that Eva has been home with us. What an awesome and blessed year it's been. I don't even want to think about what would have happened to this beautiful little girl if her Birthmother had not loved her enough to give her an opportunity at a better life. Thank you God for bringing this miracle into our lives. My precious cupcake.





         

                                                                     

Activities! Activities!

Those who really know me know that winter is my least favorite season. When I was working outside of the home, it took everything in me to get out of that warm bed and get ready for work. Now that I am a stay-at-home mom, it's still hard to get out of that cozy warm bed. And I still don't want to leave the house. Last year was perfect because I spent the winter indoors, cocooning with Eva. However, this year is not the case. While I'm a homebody and have no problem staying indoors all day everyday, I know that Eva needs to get out, socialize and have some fun! So I purposely planned activites during this winter season to force myself to get out of the house and let Eva have some fun.

Sunday starts off with church. While John and I go to the main service in the sanctuary, Eva spends those 2 hours in the nursery playing the whole time and getting loved on. She usually plays so hard that by the time she wakes up from her nap, she's mellowed out for the rest of the day.

Mondays, Eva is a Bear Cub. We go to a 30-minute tumbling class. She gets to run around, climb, roll around, jump on a trampline and lots of other physical stuff. We do stretches at the beginning of class. Even though it's only 30 minutes, Eva uses her time to the fullest. She definitely knows how to play hard! 

On Tuesday, we go to an activity called Explorer Tots. She gets to color, paint, play with blocks or playdough, play in home living, read books or play instruments. Towards the end of the activity, there is circle time with movement and singing. She has such a good time there. And because it's in the evening, it's just what she needs to tire her out and give her a good night's sleep. 

Eva is all about her music on Wednesday when we go to Music Fun. This is also 30 minutes. She got to sing songs, play with instruments, and dance around. It was only 3 sessions and it wasn't quite what I thought it would be, so I may try to find her something that's a bit longer. 

Thursdays if we don't make it to the Library, I try to take her to the Bounce House. 

      

On Fridays, Eva gets to tumble again. We go to my favorite Dance studio and she gets to run around, tumble, climb, and jump around for a whole hour. We do story time and circle time here also. By the time we're finished with Toddler Time, Eva is falling asleep on the way home. 

       

It's swimming time on Saturdays. Eva and I went to swim class last summer and she loved it a lot. I didn't realize how much she missed it until we were in Florida over Christmas break and everyday she asked to go swimming in my parents' pool. I decided to get her back into it because she missed it and because I didn't want to keep her away from it long enough for her to build up a fear or insecurity about it. She still thinks she can swim without me holding on to her. She also likes getting dunked a lot more and likes jumping off the side to me in the water. Still no fear in the water. That's exactly what I wanted!

If we don't have errands to run after swim class, I like to take Eva to the Library for story time. At this point, we've only gone one time, but she enjoyed it so much that I want to try to take her every week, if possible. After they do story time in one room, everyone goes to another room where they have fun activities for the kids to do.

 

Saturdays are also for playdates with my mom friends who work outside the home during the week. I love spending one-on-one time with my friends, catching up, hanging out. Eva does so much stuff during the week with groups of kids, it's nice to have that time where she's just with one friend.