Sisters waiting for their brother

Here is a photo too cute to not post! Just a couple updates. ... we got our paperwork in the mail from the U.S. citizenship and Immigration Services today. This is a good thing. They determined that Jeffrey and I are able to furnish proper care to an orphan or orphans. They are advancing our application, and it has been forwarded to the national visa center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Just a couple more things have been completed for our Dossier. We will mail it off on Friday. I have completed the DVD series, and Jeffrey is completing his part tonight. The last portion of the test is hand graded so we will receive our results in a week. The wait for our referral begins once our dossier is approved by our agency and it is shipped off to Ethiopia.

Jaymie

Jaymie wanted a pic of her on here, so here is the princess with my sisters goat "TEX"

making a list and checking it twice

Dossier Cover Documant (check)
Notarized adoption homestudy (check)
Notarized police clearance (check)
Notarized medical statements from both our drs. (check)
Notarized bank statement (check)
Notarized employment letters (check)
Family letter to Ethiopian Government (check)
1 notarized ref. letter (check)
Notarized power of attorney letter (check)
I-600Petition to classify orphan as immediate relative (check)
Post placement agreement(check)
8 passport photos of both Jeffrey and I (check)
Fees and costs disclosure (check)
Statement of understanding(check)

Our only items not completed is the notarized copies of our birth and marriage certificates. That should be done on Monday! We also need one more letter of rec. that should be done by this weekend.

So, as you can see, our dossier should be completed soon and signed, sealed and delivered! You have to be a fairly organized person to keep all this in order, Thanks goodness so far I have been able to stay on top of it all....

How will he adjust to the Wisconsin winters?

Jaymie asked me the other day if it snowed in Africa......"ummmmm no honey" I said. "Well will our brother know what snow is, cause we sure have a lot of it in WI?" I told her he won't know what snow is most likely, but he will surely learn quickly if we have a winter like this one. Then she proceeds to say......I think he might want to stay in Africa, we just had too much snow this winter! So I thought I'd post a pic of Jacklyn and her friend in the snow. We will include one like this in the scrapbook we are creating to send to him once we get a referral :)

Because they waited

Because they waited is a DVD series that is part of the requirement of our international agency. Jeffrey and I need to have 18 hours of education before our dossier will be sent to Ethiopia. We started the dvd's last weekend and then took tests on line. We are 100% for the first 2. Only 2 more to go. The information contained is pretty informative, so I'm glad they require it. I'm also listening to a great book on CD in the car while I go to work and back. It is called there is no me without you. So far it is really, really good. It is about an Ethiopian woman who took in over 60 orphans........ Now I'm a fan of listening to books on CD's. My letter from my Dr. and 1 letter of rec. have been dropped off to check off the list. My hubby comes home today and he has a nice stack of papers on his desk with sticky notes all over them on where he needs to take them. There is an Online friend of mine who is in Ethiopia right now picking up her kids. It is interesting to see how they are attatching and reacting to certain things. It brings tears to my eyes every time I read her emails. Happy tears! Well, thats the latest.

It Arrived!!!!!!

Wow! We've completed fingerprinting, passports photos, and now the dossier paperwork arrived in the mail today. That really makes it feel official. The cover letter stated they are ready to proceed with the next steps of our adoption. Yikes! We have to have the documents pretty much prepared exactly how they want them with a lot of them notarized. Of course Jeffrey would be leaving for AZ on Sunday for a work /golf/look at investment properties trip. Not good timing dear... So, I'm on my own for starting the gathering of documents worded in specific ways. I already have a lot of them in hand. Im giving myself 2 weeks (since Jeffrey is gone otherwise it would be 1). Jacklyn, Jaymie and I found some adorable shirts on line that said "My Brother is waiting for me in Ethiopia" I'm thinking that will be a good purchase! They think so too!

Checking off the list

Well, we were down at the office of homeland security today and all went well. Now our fingerprints are being sent off to the FBI to check for any criminal activity in our past I guess. Jeffrey was able to have his middle digit printed with no problem. It showed up a little shorter than the rest on the 4 finger print, but I thought it looked adorable. He's unique! The fingerprinting is quite high tech these days as it is all done on the computer. I was expecting to walk out with ink all over my fingers, but not the case! We also got our lovely passport pictures taken at the Waukesha AAA. Saved some $$ there by being AAA members. Jeffrey's stitches from his surgery last FRI show up on that picture. For those of you who don't know he had a spot of skin cancer above his left eye. 99% cure rate so it was the good kind to have if you have it. I'm just getting my passport just in case I go. Jeffrey said he is going to knock me out with some good drugs to get on the plane. My girlfriend June may be joining us on our trip to Ethiopia, so that would be helpful. She is in the airforce reserves so she can keep telling me over and over again how safe planes are.....

After our fingerprinting Jeffrey took me to have lunch at an Ethiopian Restaurant downtown. If you have never had Ethiopian food before it is quite different. They did have a nice selection for vegetarians, so I was happy to see that. So... they serve it to you on the round Ingerra(not sure of the spelling) bread. It is like a spongey tortilla and they plop your order (kind of like a stew) on the bread and then next to it are these little rolls of Ingerra bread that you unroll and use as scoops to pick up the stew like item you ordered. I like the idea of no silverware. Less dishes! So our little guy is going to have to be patient with me and the creation of this bread. So, that was our morning /afternoon and our update for the latest! Thanks for checking our blog and for all of you who have expressed so much support on this journey! I'm currently reading Toddler Adoption and am learning a lot. Until next time!

fingerprinting

We got our fingerprinting appointment earlier than expected. Jeffrey and I are getting our fingerprints done on April 8th. I hope we don't have any problems with Jeffreys top half of the tip of his middle finger missing. We also just got a huge packet of reading materials in the mail from our international agency. Our dosssier paperwork should be here in 2 weeks and I should be able to have that completed in a few days as I have been given a heads up from many people on what I will need. I'm thankful Jeffrey has a Notary Public at his office. It makes it a lot easier for us to have her be there to notarize our paperwork. Another step in this adoption process will be completed. It feels good to check them off one at a time as we move forward.