Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Dossier has Landed!!

Today our dossier landed in Ethiopia!! I am really shocked that it made it there so soon! I am not sure if it has actually been "picked up" by our AWAA rep. yet, but at least it is there safely! We are so thankful! Thanks for all the prayers, and keep them coming!!

Here is the tracking info, just in case you want to see :)

Signed for by
T.ADESSE M.
Ship date
Jan 25, 2008

Delivery date
Jan 29, 2008 2:45 PM

BOLE SUB-CITY, ADDIS ABABA ET

Jan 29, 2008
2:45 PM
Delivered
BOLE SUB-CITY, ADDIS ABABA ET

12:00 AM
Int'l shipment release
ADDIS ABABA ET

Monday, January 28, 2008

Where is our Dossier today?

Today our dossier is in Frankfurt, Germany! It went from McLean, VA. to Memphis, TN. and now is resting safely in Frankfurt! This might be one of the stops where it decides to stay for a while....we hope it won't stay too long :) I am really surprised it has already made it so far! It might get their earlier than expected....yay!

Also, we found out that at least one other family's dossier went over with ours- The Hammond family! You can check out their blog by clicking on their link!

Friday, January 25, 2008

Another important number :)

Another exciting email from our family coordinator!! Here it is:


Dear Families,

Your authenticated dossier will be mailed to Ethiopia today! I will also mail your photocopies of the authentication pages today.

As you track your dossier, please keep a couple of things in mind. First of all, do not be worried if the package makes stops in European or other countries for long periods of time. This is normal, and I've seen this happen often. Also, when the FedEx office in Ethiopia receives packages for our in-country staff representative, they call him to pick up the package rather than deliver it to his office. Because the FedEx office is not in close proximity to our staff member's office, it often takes him a few days to pick up the package. If you see notes that the package has arrived in Ethiopia but not been picked up, this is why.

Congratulations on the completion of this portion of your adoption process! If you have questions or concerns during the waiting period, please do not hesitate to contact me.


Duni Zenaye
Africa Program Director


YAY!!! We are officially DTE (dossier to Ethiopia)!!

We will be sure to let you know when and where it is!! Have a great weekend!

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Some Pretty Big News!!

We received an email from our family coordinator...yes, the one we weren't expecting until tomorrow!



Our dossier will be going to Ethiopia tomorrow! Whoo hoo!! We will get the tracking number tomorrow and track that thing all the way there! And.....



Our dossier number is......drum roll, please..... #58! Yes, #58! What does this mean?

Well, a few things:



1. Overall, we are the 58th family in the AW Ethiopia program to submit their dossier to Ethiopia. However, already, 17 families have received referrals for their children, so really, we are the 41st family, overall, waiting for their referral!



2. According to our coordinator, we are looking at a time frame of 5-7 months waiting for a referral once our dossier is in Ethiopia. We do feel that it will be closer to the 7 month mark, however, just judging from the pace of the program at this time. Once a referral is received, maybe between 1-2 months before we travel. So, could we be going to Ethiopia in August? It is possible! But it may be September or October.



3. Now all we can do is wait!!!! We are done with our part until we receive the call about our son! Well, I left something out.....we can wait AND PRAY!! And we ask that all you readers out there pray as well! Pray for the Ethiopia Courts, for our adoption agency, for the families who have already been waiting for months, and for these precious children so close to God's heart! We are truly asking God for miracles for these babies and their parents!

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Friday is the Day!!

I heard from our program director today, and she told me that Friday she would be getting in touch with us about all the information regarding the next part of the process for us.....I am 99% sure that this means our dossier is going to Ethiopia Friday!!!!! (which is why she will be contacting us) We should also know our "number in line" to be matched with our son! Thanks to my fellow Yahoo Group members, we think that we have a general idea as to where we stand in line- It can get kind of confusing, as there are different lines- a line for those requesting a girl, a line for those requesting a boy, a line for those requesting more that one child, and then just the mail line for everyone! Overall, I think we are like #58 or so....but, in the boy line, we are around #12, though these are just estimates...see, I told you this was confusing!! So, we excitedly wait for Friday, when we will know all these things for sure!

Also, I forgot to mention that you can click on the Carpenter and David family links to see their experiences in Ethiopia....they are there now!!! Their pictures and stories are amazing!

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Pasta Dinner Fundraiser for Baby Caleb!


This past Friday night we had a pasta dinner fundraiser for baby Caleb! It was a great evening- not only was the food DELICIOUS, but we had a wonderful guest speaker and we were able to inform our audience about adoption and Ethiopia. This evening would not have been possible without our parents, who worked tirelessly to prepare the food, and if the church had not been willing to let us use their facility- we are very grateful!
(the kitchen was quite a mess, as you can see)

We raised right around $2000 which is a huge praise!!!! It is amazing, but we are so close to our goal! This can only be attributed to our amazing God, whose faithfulness reaches to the skies (Psalm 36:5)! When we started this process over 5 months ago, $20,000 seemed like quite an insurmountable amount of money, but I am reminded now that nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37)! May he receive all the glory for moving in the lives of others to support our journey to our son.


(Like always, I forgot take pictures while the event was actually taking place, so all I had were some pics of after it was all over.....)

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Febuary 8th...

The October 19th families found out today that their court date has been set for February 8th. Even better news is that all their required paperwork should be in place, which will allow for this to be their one and only court day, so that they won't have to have multiple court days. Pray that the next 22 days fly by for these families!

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Court Woes

The families who received referrals for their children on October 19, 2007 were suppossed to hear news regarding their court dates today. I am not sure if I have ever explained this process, so I bettter do that first! After you receive a referral, the next step is for a court date to be set so that the child can be legally yours. The AWAA representative in Ethiopia does this part of the process. For whatever reason, this group of families have yet to hear of when their court dates will be. In a previous post I had alluded to some concern with AWAA, and this was mainly what I was referring to. These families have been waiting three months, already having the precious pictures of their children in the hands and in their hearts. Today they were postponed again, being told that Thursday they might hear when their court dates will be, and the news is expected to be that they will not be immediate. What this mean, I don't know exactly, we can only pray that their court dates will be as soon as possible.

It has been said that this aspect should not affect other families receiving referrals, but this remains to be seen, as no referrals have been made since October 19, 2007.

We have only been in this process for a little over five months, but right now, I just feel like there is no end in sight for us! I didn't expect to this feel this way after such an exciting weekend, and maybe Satan is just getting to me, but it just seems like there is no movement in the program right now. I have asked the director to let us know what our place "in line" is. I think that we are in the 50's somewhere....I'll be sure to post when I find out!

Keep Praying, especially for the families who have been waiting so long to move the next part of their adoption journey. God is still a miracle worker!

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Traveling Days.....

We have had some great travels over the last couple of days! Yesterday, we went to Frankfort, Ky, to have all of our dossier documents state certified (this was after we made a trip to our local courthouse to have them certified at the county level).This was the last real step in getting all our paperwork done! Zack had never visited the capitol, so this was an extra fun trip for him. Mom came along too, which was very special. Later that night we made copies of everything.....3 copies, to be exact (this is what our agency requires).

This morning we got up and got everything organized and in the proper order....then we headed off to the post office to mail it all away!! All in all, there was over FOUR POUNDS of paperwork...yikes! So, Monday or Tuesday, our paperwork should be arriving at our agency headquarters in McLean, Va. They will spend a couple of weeks looking over it and getting everything certified in DC. Then, it is off to Ethiopia! We will be sure to let you know when it lands in Ethiopia! We will also let you know where we stand in "line". At this point, our agency has told us that referrals should still be received within six months of our dossier being delivered in Ethiopia.

It is a strange feeling to not have the paperwork in our hands anymore. We underestimated how emotional it would be We have spent the last five months carrying it around, working on it, stressing over it! To just suddenly not have it anymore is a strange feeling, but we of course are so excited to have it done and to know we are another step closer to having our son. YAY!!

Please pray for us as we enter a new time, and really a new dynamic of waiting. Also, please pray that everything will be okay with our paperwork. Though we double checked, really triple checked everything, you never know with that much paperwork!


Here I am with a delivery confirmation thingy....it will tell us when our dossier arrives at
America World!!!






Here is all that paperwork! Doesn't look like a lot here, but trust us, it is!!! Over 4 pounds!!



Zack's expression after I asked him how he felt to have our paperwork done.....that says it all!

Friday, January 4, 2008

Unexpected Praise!!!!

What a blessing we found in our mailbox yesterday!! A beautiful white envelope with a return address of USCIS!!!

IT WAS OUR 171!! The document that was suppossed to not be here until mid February or so! Needless to say, we were in shock!

So, what does this mean for us? We now have the "missing piece" to our dossier! We have just a few tiny loose ends to tie up, then (probably the first of next week) we will have all our documents certified at the county level, then take them to Frankfort to have them certified at the state level. After that, we will send it all to our agency's headquarters in Virginia. They will make sure it goes to DC for the US State Department to certify. Once all this is done, they will Fed-Ex it (sorry, dad :) to Ethiopia, and the wait begins!!! So, hopefully, by the first of February, we will officially be waiting for baby Caleb!

Thank you all for your continued prayers! They truly mean so much!

Praise God!

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

January 20th!!!

This is the date the families will be arriving in Ethiopia! This is really exciting news! Let's start praying for their safe and successful travel to their precious children now!!!