PROGRESS!!!!!!

We hope you all had a wonderful weekend! 

We wanted to take the time and update you all on what's been going on with the adoption and the strides we've made these past few weeks!!!!!!  We also wanted to thank you all for the support you're showing us!  We hope this blog is informative and debunks a lot of myths about adoption!  If anything else, we hope it opens your eyes to adoptive families and they journey they took to achieve that!

For starters, our security clearances from every state we have lived in were finally completed on July 3rd!  This was a huge step as it was a timely process and frustrating!  The Army is great for a lot of things, but not for making you live in 8 different states in 12 years!  Luckily, our research and perseverance paid off!  In the end, we were able to have almost every state expedite our request to submit our clearances.  And no, we don't have any criminal activity in any of the states we've lived in!  This was such a huge step that Ron and I joked that Aidan was born in Ethiopia that day!!!!!

After our security clearances were in, our HomeStudy was completed by our Social Worker, Thea.  She then sent the HomeStudy to her agency for a board review.  After the board members reviewed and edited our HomeStudy, it was complete!  Thea notarized the HomeStudy and sent it to us.

We were then able to send the completed HomeStudy to USCIS (United States Customs and Immigration Services).  This completed our I-600A petition to adopt an orphan from a non-Hague country.  We received an e-mail today from our case worker/official saying our packet was complete and is being submitted for review!  Our fingers are crossed this clears in the next few weeks!

The USCIS was able to schedule our FBI fingerprints for August 9.  We'll be travelling to Seattle to the USCIS office to have these done.  Once these are cleared, our USCIS section should be done pending our application is approved at this time as well!

Then, everything will be sent to the State Department, then to the Ethiopian Embassy for final approval.  Once that is done, everything will be translated to Amharic.  Finally, it will be sent to Ethiopia!

We met with Adoption Avenues Agency's director yesterday.  The agency is located in Portland, so Ron and I took a day trip down there.  We met with the director for 1.5 hours and learned a lot!

First, we handed Radu our completed Dossier!  I have never been so proud of an application packet in my life!  Ron and I joked that the packet (45 forms) was my pregnant belly!  Radu said it all looked great and we're good to go!  Then Radu asked,

"How soon can you travel to Ethiopia?
We replied, "As soon as possible.  We really are flexible."
Radu said, "We have lots of children.  6 orphanages of children.  We have lots of babies.  What do you want?"
When we explained that we wanted to adopt a healthy baby boy ages 0-2, Radu said, "How old?  1 month?  2 month?  3 month?  You say."
Ron and I said as young as possible.  We had a brief discussion that many diseases aren't detectable at this age, but then again, many diseases aren't detectable at 6 months, or even 12 months of age.  So we're sticking with "as young as possible."  This way, we can get our son out of the orphanage setting sooner, and get him on good nutrition and health care as soon as possible!
Then Radu told us that the Ethiopian courts close from mid-August to mid-October for vacation.  Our packet will be received in Ethiopia around Sepetember 15.  We should receive a referral for our child between September 15 and October 1!!!!  Our court date will be scheduled once the courts re-open. 
Radu said, "You will have court date before end of this year!"

So if all goes well, Ron and I will know what Aidan looks like by October 1.  And we'll be in Ethiopia sometime in December to meet Aidan and to legally adopt him in Ethiopian courts.  If we can, we'll try to be in Ethiopia for Christmas to spend Aidan's first Christmas together, as a family!  HOW AMAZING IS THAT?!?!?!??!

We're trying not to have too many expectations as we know there's a lot that needs to happen between now and then.  But we're hopeful and we're going to keep on doing what we've been doing- working hard and following through!

We learned a lot yesterday...
1.  Once we pass Ethiopian court, Aidan is ours.  There is nothing that can take him away from us unless the Ethiopian Supreme Court reverts our adoption.  So may be parents by January 1!
2.  Once we pass court, Aidan is ours.  However, he can't enter the US.  That's why we have to wait for the Embassy to approve his visa, which could take about 5 weeks.
3.  We could stay in Ethiopia the whole time and care for Aidan.  But once we remove him from the Foster Care/Home, we can't really send him back.  Doing so, we'll disrupt his entire schedule and the system at the home.  As such, many families say good-bye to their kiddos for about 5 weeks and travel back to the US.  Once the Visa is cleared to bring them home, they travel back to Ethiopia to pick them up.  This is probably what we'll do, except our US will be Thailand.
4.  Ethiopian babies are tough (or orphan babies in general are tough).  They've gone through a lot and know how to soothe themselves/deal with the harshness of life (dirty diapers, not much attention) at a young age. 
5.  The babies are fed a banana pudding for their meals in foster homes.  This is a high calorie food to help them.  About 1-2 weeks before they're brought back to the US, the foster home begins feeding them formula to get the babies accustomed to their new food.

6.  WE'RE LUCKY!  Right now, the majority of agencies working in Ethiopia quote adoptive families 2-3 years from start to finish.  We worked our butts off to get the paperwork trail and HomeStudy completed in 3 months (takes most families 5-8 months).  Adoption Avenues has a strong relationship in Ethiopia and as such, they have a lot of orphanages they work with.  I think we definitely did our research and it's paying off!

So our fingers are crossed the next 5 months run smoothly!  We need the US government and Ethiopian governments to finally approve us for adoption and for us to be matched with our son!!!!  We're trying to keep our expectations low, but our hopes are high!!!!  :)