15 Pages

15 pages…Have you ever wondered how many pages it would take to describe your life to someone else? Well, apparently it only takes 15 pages to describe Jay and I according to our social worker, which means, the homestudy is complete! Of course the 15 page document was only a brief description of who we are, but this document will serve to educate the Ethiopian government about two adoption hopefuls, and once it is translated and approved, our son is that much closer to coming home. With the finalization of the homestudy, we can send in our U.S. immigration application, the I-600 form, and hopefully, get officially placed on the wait list within the next few weeks.  All of the “Great Paper chase” work is almost complete. That doesn’t mean we wont have to update many of these same forms along the way, but it is so wonderful to have everything gathered, notarized, and copied. I remember at the start of all of this, I was SO overwhelmed at the shear number of documents that we needed to gather. However, this process has really prepared us for the future. I do not credit Jay or I as the most patient people, and yet, God is using this time to make us just that. We have learned (particularly I) to give responsibility to others, and trust them in helping to make this dream a reality. We have learned how amazing our friends and family are, and how many supporters we truly have.  This child, though most likely not even born yet, has an abundance of people thinking, praying, and preparing for him already. Jay and I went to several weddings recently, and were truly touched at how many people asked how the process was going and how many say they follow the blog in hopes we have good news soon. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you! Below are some fun we had Tyler and Allison's recent nuptials. 

Ok, so that’s about it with the update. Hopefully we will have a wait list number to count down soon. So, time to educate the masses (including us) on Ethiopia. So here is another fun fact: Ethiopia only has 1 television station. It is a government-owned television channel and is the only one because the government has largely banned private media. The channel is called ETV and has several programming options including news, sports, music, and even reality television. In fact, and im sure Jay loves this, they even have ‘Ethiopian Idol’ which has very similar content to ‘American Idol’. ETV transmits programs on 4 satellite stations, and they even have a facebook page! 

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.