Nearing paperwork completion

Sorry it has been awhile, life has kinda gotten in the way lately, but we are back in full swing getting all of our documents ready for our dossier submission (hopefully within the next month to a month and a half). We met our social worker on Tuesday (who is writing up our homestudy) and spent a little over three hours discussing our life and showing her our home. While she had a lot of questions for us, she was also very helpful in telling us what we can expect from here on out. I think we can officially say we are done with notarizations...(someone knock on wood quick!). We almost have all of our documents for the dossier collected, signed, and ready for delivery. All we need for completion is the written up homestudy, and the clear from immigration form with fingerprints. Basically everything is on hold until the homestudy is complete. Then we can file an application (known as the I-600) from immigration for permission to adopt. Once they receive the application, they send us a date and time to go get yet another set of fingerprints taken. Once we get those complete, we have the green light for dossier submission to AGCI and once cleared from them, onto Ethiopia. Then the waiting game. We are projected to wait 18-30 months following dossier submission, so once again, this is a looonnnnggg process, but an exciting one. 

So, what are we doing in the mean time? Well, God is truly gracing us with an abundance of outreach from other adoptive parents. I have been following quite a few blogs and have gotten in touch with some of the mommies to talk about their experiences. There is a lot of learning to do to prepare us for our little one's arrival. In addition, I have found a small group at a local church for women in all stages of the adoption. This is a pretty cool group and, as this is a very long, exciting, nerve racking, and sometimes emotionally draining experience, this group is there to meet twice a month to learn and (at times i think) vent about the process. They read a lot of adoption materials and discuss, all while applying a biblical base to the adoption journey.  

I did want to touch on a subject that is pretty important, and while I posted it on facebook and sent out some emails, I also wanted to discuss it on the blog. The adoption tax credit is a tax credit that helps to offset qualified adoption expenses, making adoption possible for a lot of families that struggle financially with or after adoption. As with all things that have a good and helpful purpose, Congress is hoping to drop the tax credit substantially, and only make it available to people adopting special needs children ( and when i say substantially, i mean by more than half). There is a petition going around to be signed, but it would also help if people wrote letters to their representative telling them that funding that helps orphans find homes should NEVER be cut. Please pass this along to others and ask for help  in getting the tax credit prolonged. Here is the site to sign the petition http://www.change.org/petitions/make-adoption-costs-fully-refundable-in-the-2012-2013-tax-years 

Finally, as some of my posts may be a bit (boring) long winded regarding paperwork and tax credits...I decided that I would devote some space to honoring Ethiopia and educating people about our child's home country. So, in a segment I like to call Ethiopian Education (said in a newscasters tone) Im going to find some interesting and fun facts about Ethiopia and share them on the blog...here is the first...(drum role please)

Did you know that Ethiopia is the birth place of coffee? Well it is! The birthplace of coffee is actually the Kaffa region in Ethiopia, hence the name similarities Kaffa=coffee. According to legend, the 9th century goatherder Kaldi discovered the coffee plant in Ethiopia after witnessing its energizing effects on his flocks.  Coffee is critical to the Ethiopian economy with nearly 25% of the population depending directly or indirectly on it for its livelihood. Ethiopians also preform coffee ceremonies in their homes, and it is considered rude if, when visiting, you decline coffee from your host.

 

 

Ain't no mountain high.....

This picture could not describe our feelings more accurately these past few weeks! We received two large binders full of paperwork, and our adoption education booklet about two weeks ago. These documents will serve to help prepare us for our home study as well as to begin the compilation of our dossier. I cannot even begin to describe the amount of documents that are required for adopting an international child! Here is a brief glimpse into what we are talking about: Notarized employment verifications, proof of health, life, and auto insurance, financial statements, FBI, state, and local background checks, child abuse screens, notarized medical clearances, fire safety inspections, home safety audits, veterinarian letter of clearance, 8 references, notarized guardianship documents, and various copies of marriage and birth certificates, social security cards, drivers licenses, tax documents, and on and on and on.  I have to admit that the hardest part is the notarization! While most banks will provide this service free of charge, there are several documents that require us to hire a traveling notary to follow us to doctors appointments and the like, and because the process is so long, the notaries expiration date that we use can not expire for 24 months.  I have only two notaries who fulfill this part and they aren’t travelers! I keep telling all the people who are helping us compile all of our documents that we will bring our baby around to show them why all this hard work was needed and worth every minute. I have to say that if anyone in the Columbus area is considering international adoption, please let me know and I will go get my notary to help your process go more smoothly! 

While all the paperwork is daunting and seemingly never ending, we are glad that we have something to focus on, something to work towards. I know there will come a time when all we can do is wait, and I hear that is the hardest and longest part of the journey.  We do have a lot of education to complete that is necessary for our home study, and it is exciting for Jay and I to begin discussing things like where the baby will sleep when he comes home, and how we are going to incorporate his culture into our lives. In fact, we have kind of already started that part. I recently found an Ethiopian restaurant near us and we invited the family to partake in our first cultural outing experience. In the Ethiopian culture, eating with people is a pretty big deal. Everyone at the dinner shares a large plate or tray, and it is said that those who dine together this way, shall never betray each other. Everyone eats with their hands (no worries there was plenty of purell to go around) and it is a sign of affection to actually feed each other. Everyone must eat with their right hand. Ethiopian food is considered a respected gift from God and eating it with your left hand is considered disrespectful! Injera is Ethiopia's national dish. It is a spongy, tangy, kinda mushy tasting bread made from the grain teff which grows only in the highlands of Ethiopia. This is Injera. It is kinda like a thicker, spongier crepe. 

The Injera sits on a the large plate or tray and is covered with wots (or wat). Wots are the traditional stews made with various Ethiopian spices, meats, vegetables, hard boiled eggs, and legumes. While its hard to tell by the pic, the center plate, which we all shared, was pretty large...in fact it fed six of us with left overs. 

So, you get sides of injera and you simply rip off pieces and you use these to eat the different wots (or stews), with the right hand of course! 

As you can tell, fun was had by all.  Of course, some preferred the unique taste to others! I think Kurt can check it off of his "to do, and never do again" list. 

Along with the education we are completing, we have various exercises to complete. Some are quite silly, but they do encourage us to think from our baby’s perspective and we know, no matter how silly the task, there is a HUGE reward upon completion. I had to share this part on the blog; this was one of our exercises: to draw a picture of how we think our child will look. I let Jay complete this part, as he does have his dad’s genes when it comes to drawing. I left the room and when I came back, I was NOT shocked at all at what Jay pictured our child to one day look like and take an interest in.  

However, we (perhaps I a tad more than Jay) are very open to our child deciding not to follow daddy’s footsteps, and instead perhaps follow his uncles and cheer from the sidelines, or his aunt’s and become a singer. See, these exercises are already working! 

God continues to amaze us through this process though. We pray for guidance and clearance, and we are given it through the awesome case managers and social workers that are helping us get our life together in paper format.  We pray for help financially, and help comes along. He continues to shower us with stories of international adoption, and more recently, stories of couples that decided to start their family through international adoption and have biological children after. It is crazy how similar our lives seem to these other couples, and it is so reassuring to see others who have walked this path. Jay and I are honored and feel incredibly grateful for the task and responsibility of caring for one of God’s beloved children. 

"For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

             

       "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Hebrews 13:5