Adopting from Ethiopia

Ron and I are about 1/4 of the way through the adoption process for Ethiopia and are swimming in paperwork!  Although there is a lot of work, it has been fun and very educational for us.  Everyday, we know we are one step closer to being matched with our little boy!

I thought I would share the program for adopting from Ethiopia.

1.  Decide on a country.  DONE

2.  Find an adoption agency.  DONE

3.  Begin working on a homestudy with a social worker.  DONE

4.  Have social worker complete HomeStudy.  This takes 2-3 months to do as there is so much paperwork and clearances required!  By far, this has been our favorite part of the journey though!  Almost done.

To complete the HomeStudy, here is a taste of what is required:

      - 2-6, 2-3 hour long meetings with a social worker to discuss adoption, our lives, and our parenting

      -Written autobiographies

      -Background checks from every state we have lived in...EVER

      -Fingerprint clearances

      -Financial letters, employment letters, bank letters

      -Contracts

      -Letters of Recommendation

      -Marriage/birth certificates

      -Home inspection

      -10 hours of adoption classes

      -AND MUCH MORE....

Once our HomeStudy is finalized, these are our next steps:

1.  Send in I-600A (adopting an unidentified child immigration form) to USCIS (US immigration)

             Original marriage certificate, birth certificates and cover letter

2.  Send in completed HomeStudy report to USCIS

3.  Have I-600A form processed and submitted for fingerprint requests

4.  Complete FBI fingerprints for background check

5.  Have I-600A form finalized once HomeStudy approved and fingerprints cleared!

All this will take another 1- 2 months!

Meanwhile, we're working on our Dossier, the packet of letters/documents that will be sent to the Ethiopian government.  These include

-Marriage Certificate              -Cover Letter                            -Letter to the orphanage

-Birth Certificates                   -Financial statements                 -Letter from bank

-Family photos                       -Copies of deeds of houses       -Letters of recommendation

-Completed HomeStudy         -USCIS approval form             -Family questionaire

-Power of Attorney                -Release statements                  -Travel documents

AND MUCH, MUCH MORE!

ALL of these need to be notarized and we need 2-3 original copies of each!  Have I mentioned we've been busy?!?!?  To be honest, even though this feels like a part-time job for both of us, we have learned so much about adopting and each other!  It has been wonderful and everyday, even though there is always more to do, we are more excited and even more prepared to be adoptive parents!

Once our Dossier is complete, it is translated to Amharic, the national language in Ethiopia.  This takes about 3-4 weeks.  From there, we write a very large check to our adoption agency and have our Dossier sent to Ethiopia.  The Ethiopian government then will analyze our Dossier and hopefully approve our request for a 0-1 year old boy!  This also takes about 3-4 weeks.  One our Dossier is accepted, we are placed on "The List" and we wait...

We wait until the adoption agency and Ethiopian government find a little boy eligible to be adopted!  Hopefully this is done between 1-8 weeks!  Once he is found, we are matched with his picture and whatever information is available!  We then write another check and accept our referral.

Once we are matched, we will wait for a court date to be established in Ethiopia.  This is about 2-8 weeks from our referral.  When we receive our court date, we will make plans to travel to Ethiopia to meet our son for the first time and petition his adoption in court.  We then leave Ethiopia and wait...

Once we're cleared in court, our case goes to the US Embassy in Adidas Abba.  They review our packet, court case and our son's history.  Once they clear him as an orphan and accept the court case, they process a US immigration visa for him.  This takes about 2-8 weeks.  We then are allowed to travel back to Ethiopia and pick our little guy up for good!  However, we'll be anxious to return to Ethiopia with our family when he's older to show him his heritage and the amazing country he was born in!

What a ride it has been so far and we're only getting started!!!!!!

The good news- as daunting as this is, IT IS DOABLE, FUN and EASY with such an amazing support system, adoption agency and social worker!!!!