Adoption update - July 2012

We have been very productive this past month in regards to adoption stuff.  I haven't written an update in awhile, but now is a good time since we actually have some progress to write about!

• All our education requirements are completed. For now. We completed a 20-chapter workbook and 7 online classes!!  We have a few adoption books we want to read, but those are totally by choice and on our own time.  We have a 2-day training to attend in October, but we are done with all the training we HAD to complete to move forward at this point.  The education was actually really good.  Chris and I both talked about how we really went into this adoption with some very wrong and naive perceptions and our eyes have definitely been opened to the challenges and issues we might face as adoptive parents.  We are so excited for the challenges, as well as the rewards that come with international adoptive parenting.
• We sent in for our passports since they had both expired and have already them back!  Yay for fast government service!!
• We have chosen a name!!!  We aren't going to share though till we get the referral, so you have about 2 more years to wait!  We have really specific criteria for the name and honestly I didn't think we'd find a name that met all of them.  We wanted a name that ended in "n", like all our other children's names, we wanted a name with African origins and we wanted a name that meant something pertaining to the adoption.  I was just kind of searching around on the internet one night and came across one that fit all 3 of our criteria.  And Chris and I both like it!  It's like a miracle!
• God has provided all the funds we need to get on the wait list!  God is so, so good!  We will have more money due at the time of our referral, but we have time to fundraise and apply for grants between now and then.
• Our homestudy interviews are all complete and we have read through and signed our homestudy.  Two more agencies have to give their approval and then it will be officially finalized!
• When our home study is officially final and approved, that same day, we will send in our application to USCIS.  This is the packet to goes to the US government for immigration purposes.  We have to be approved to bring home a child from another country.

The next, and final, thing to complete before we are on the waiting list for a referral is the dossier.  I have to admit, at first it was totally overwhelming and a little stressful, but as we have worked through the steps, it has not been nearly as bad as I thought.  We have to get a few letters of recommendation, more background checks, more medical clearance and then a few photos and stuff.  We can send in our dossier as soon as we hear back from USCIS that our immigration paperwork has been approved!

We are really hoping to get on the waiting list sometime in September.  From the most recent figures we have seen, the average wait time from getting on the list to receiving a referral is 20 months.  If we were to get on the wait list by September, that would put our referral in Spring 2014 (granted the time line stays the same) and hopefully we will actually have our daughter home by Christmas 2014.

Now that we are getting things done and getting so close to being on the wait list, it is really becoming more real to me.  I know it's still a long way off, but I ache for the day I get to hold our Ethiopian daughter and bring her home.