Hello Everyone!!
Nic and I wanted to update everyone on where we are in our adoption process. :) As far as our home study, we are currently waiting for our social worker to contact us to schedule a Saturday to spend with our family. From what we have been told from St Elizabeth Coleman, the social worker will come spend an entire day with us. She will interview Nic and I individually and as a couple. She will also try talking to both Jaxon and Evelynn. She will watch us interact as a family and observe how we respond to one another and she will also go through the house and check for obvious hazards and point out changes we need to make. Honestly, at this point, I am not really nervous about the home study; I believe it will be a very positive experience. Once the home study begins, we will owe the standard fee of $1500 + mileage for the social worker to come out to our house. The amazing part of that fee is the fact that we raised $1750 with our garage sale fundraiser, so the cost of our home study will be covered. Just another amazing experience for our family that shows that God will provide. We will update everyone once we hear from our social worker.
As far as our dossier (the paperwork that is complied and sent out to Ethiopia) - despite a few things we are almost complete. It is truly amazing how everything has come together with minimal issues. I remember thinking "wow there is so much we have to do" and here we are just a few short months later almost done. Really the only things that we need to focus on at this point is getting our reference letters and completing our home study. Once our home study is complete there are several other things we will need to work on before we can officially send out dossier to Ethiopia. Some of these things include sending out the I600A paperwork to get preapproval for citizenship for Amira, getting our fingerprints done, final background check by the FBI and state certifying all our paperwork just to mention a few but these steps can't be completed until our home study is done.
We are excited to be moving along so smoothly and quickly. Our goal is and has been to be able to submit our paperwork and financial requirements by December 1st. Once Ethiopia receives our paperwork, we may not be matched with a child for a while. The estimated time frame can range from 12-30 months. Even though we are excited and anxious to meet our little girl, we know that it will all happen in God's timing. I will have a firm grasp on patience by the time Amira is in our arms.
Even though our paperwork is complete and we are just waiting for the next step to happen doesn't mean we haven't been busy with other adoption stuff. Yesterday we had our second dine to donate, this time at Applebee's. We are excited to hear the results. Thank you to everyone who was able to eat on our behalf!! :) Speaking of dine to donate, I spoke to Bob Evan's today and they informed me a check has been shipped to our house. Once we have the official number, I will be sure to post it on here; the same with Applebee's.
Another thing that I have been busy with is making Amira her baby book. Obviously a traditional baby book from Babies R Us is not going to work for her childhood, so I have been working on a scrapbook to document the process of her adoption. This will include how we began the process, letters and pictures of her immediate family, and fundraising events. In addition with showing her how she became a part of our family, I also want to show her the life she lived before she came to America. Our home study agency emphasized how important it is for us to be able to show her where she came from. Therefore, when we go Ethiopia I plan on taking our camera so we can take pictures of everything. I look forward to working on this exciting but yet emotional project and I hope that one day she will cherish it.
We want to continue to thank everyone for your support and prayers as we continue along in our mission of bringing our little girl home. Thank you!!
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