WE ARE #10 ON BABY BOY LIST!

We received our phonecall today bright and early announcing that we are #10 on the boy list. We are super excited and finally feel like this is a reality! You spend so many hours doing paperwork without a kick in your tummy or a heart beat to hear to confirm this wonderful miracle. We will now only be hearing from our agency monthly to update us on our status. We do however get bi-weekly updates via email and should be able to guess where we stand based upon the referrals given for the last 2 weeks. We have been told to gear up for a wait time of 4-5 months for referral and 2-3 months to travel, so still a ways away...but getting closer as we speak.

Yipee! Wahoo! Yes!!! Los Angeles Immigration ROCKS!

We are super stoked! In the mail Rob found our "favorable determination letter". Immigration basically provided a statement saying that we are approved for bringing an orphan home to the US. We have faxed this letter to our agency and they will provide us with where we are on the list, as in maybe we will be # 11 on the boy list. This will mean we have 10 people ahead of us waiting to adopt a boy. Within the last two weeks they sent out 5 referrals!!! So this means, maybe our wait won't be so long. We are expecting to wait about 5 months for an infant boy referral and then we would travel to Ethiopia 3-5 months after that to pick up our little guy!!!!I will post again when I find out our exact ranking.

Thank God for Bubbles and Better Weather

So I think that moving back to California is going to cure me of the Washington weather madness? Not to be. Finally we are experiencing some decent weather (low 70's and sunny today-yahooo!!!). So we thought we would celebrate with some good old fashion bubble fun. I am a self-admitted weather wimp and I'm ok with that. The warmth shining down on my shoulders today was like manna from heaven.

I'm 2!

Kiera had a very special 2nd birthday. We love you Kiera and are so glad God gave you to us!

Dossier Goes to Washington

We got word from our adoption agency that our dossier was perfect and complete. It will be enroute to Washington DC for authentication next week and then on to Ethiopia. Little baby steps for sure!

So Fine, I'm a Big Time Fan!

MISSION COMPLETION-DOSSIER DONE!

And so it goes...another step towards baby boy. I just got back from mailing our dossier to our adoption agency. I keep expecting to feel this wave of relief and sense of completion and I guess I have it...a little. It was a huge benchmark to reach and I am acutely aware of the time and energy that went into this project. However, now it only brings more anxiety! Was everything done correctly? Will I have everything sent back to me with a big do-over stamp streaked across the pages? We were finally able to send in the dossier because our homestudy was actually complete and most importantly approved by our agency. It appears that it meets all Ethiopian guidelines for placement of a child with us. So that is definitely done and finished, that feels good. I then sent off the homestudy to immigration...a government agency...need I digress? Actually I will quickly say that all my communication with immigration so far has been really positive and timely. So I'm hoping it will continue. If we get our letter of approval from immigration we are immediately placed on the waiting list. All this time and energy and anxiety just to get on the waiting list! Geez!