#13 Preparing to GO (but not for adoption)

First, a few updates on where we are with the adoption.  We have completed all paperwork for our dossier (application to Ethiopia to adopt Our Girl).  There are two remaining pieces of paperwork outstanding that keep us from being “paperwork ready”.  The first is our home study.  It is completed, actually, but sitting in the inbox of the director of the home study agency who is off today.  We are praying (FERVENTLY) that the director will approve the home study on Monday early in the day (more on why later). 

Once the home study is in our hands we need 3 copies of it.  One copy stays in our records (along with a copy of all the other paperwork).  One copy, along with the original gets mailed (along with a $3475 check) to our agency.  The final copy gets sent to USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services).  Why you ask?  Well, in order to bring in a child from another country you need immigration approval.  So, basically it works like this.  We mail in a form (I600A) along with copies of our birth certificates, marriage license and home study and a check for $890.  They send us back a time and date to show up for fingerprinting (downtown I think, at least it was downtown Cleveland when we adopted Eli).  We go to that appointment for fingerprinting, then within 72 days (though the processing time now really seems to be about 2 weeks that people are actually waiting) we will receive back another form (I71H) that gets sent on to our adoption agency to place in our dossier.  Once that paper is in the dossier, the dossier is sent to Washington DC to be authenticated ($525 of the $3475).  Then it is sent back to our agency who then sends it on to Ethiopia for translation.

Now to answer the most popular question of the moment, “so when do you think you’ll bring her home?”  My honest answer is “I wish I knew.”  You see the above process described is still probably a 3 month or so process (though we ask for your prayers for speedy processing – it has gone much quicker in some cases).  But even after that paperwork has been done, we are waiting on paperwork in Ethiopia so that Our Girl is “paperwork ready.”  That timetable is even more of a mystery, even to the staff at our agency here in the US.  I can say this about timing, though.  I speculated to our case worker at our agency this week about whether she anticipates it taking a year or more before we have Our Girl home.  The reason for my question is that I don’t want to leave her there for an entire year without seeing her (like I did this past year … 13 months actually!)  So, if it will be a year I wanted to see about making a trip over around Christmas to see her.  Anyway, our case worker said she did not think it will take that long (a relief, but still it is only speculation, so no happy dance just yet).  Thus, the most concrete thing I have to go on right to answer the question “so when do you think you’ll bring her home,” is “hopefully within the next year”.

However, there is good news.  The good news is that on Monday, 6/24 I leave for Ethiopia.  The university I work at has Global Outreach (GO) trips all over the world every year.  This is the mission trip where I met Our Girl last year.  So, on Monday afternoon I will fly out to Ethiopia.  (This is why I want the homestudy done by Monday, so I can get it in the mail before I go – a peace of mind thing and also that way my husband doesn’t have to take care of it, though he will of course if they aren’t finished on Monday).  Then, THEN on THURSDAY, 6/27 I will be at the Orphanage.  We have lots of things planned, well the students do anyway.  I am traveling with 5 students (4 girls, 1 guy), all different than those who went last year).  I will do whatever they give me to do, but I will do it with HER by my side.  In less than a week I will be with Our Girl!

So, you may be thinking “how can I help?”  PRAY, PRAY, PRAY!!! Specifically pray for 1) our home study to be completed by Monday, 2) the USCIS paperwork process to move quickly, 3) Our Girl’s paperwork to process quickly, and 4) favor by the Ethiopian courts to move her case along to get her home.  Oh, and I almost forgot, 5) pray for Eli’s US passport to get her, we have had some difficulty getting it and we need it before we can take him with us to Ethiopia (we are planning to take Abi & Eli with us on the first trip to Ethiopia for court, and Abi already has a passport, but we are still waiting on Eli’s). 

Thank you for all your prayers.  I will not be able to update my blog from Ethiopia (it is dial up internet) but I will try to post a few times on Facebook if you’d like to friend request me and haven’t already.  I will post an update when I get back home (after July 4) about our trip and Our Girl, and hopefully lots of updates on paperwork J.  Blessings!