Paper Chase

A big part of the adoption process is creating a dossier (dah'-see-ay). It's a collection of many papers about our family, each paper having to be notarized and then authenticated. It's been a big job collecting these papers! The most difficult one to get was a letter from our health insurance company stating that our new daughter will be covered on our policy effective when the adoption is complete. The letter had to be on their letterhead, signed and notarized. This was no small task, but I think we finally have a version that is going to work. It took no fewer than 10 phone calls, a couple emails, and three attempts at the letter itself.

The exciting news is that our home study is done and we now have all but two letters in our possession and ready to go. That means that as soon as we get our homestudy report we can send our papers to the U.S. Department of Citizenship and Immigration Services requesting permission to adopt. Once they grant permission we send their approval letter along with all our precious collected papers to the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington D.C. and then on to Ethiopia! Once our dossier get to Ethiopia, our wait for a referral is estimated to be two to four months. The "referral" is when we receive a picture and any medical and social information about the child they match to our family. Then, once we accept a referral we will travel to Ethiopia about 8 weeks later.

Despite the tediousness of the paper chase, it hasn't detracted from the excitement of the adoption! We have already started falling in love with this little girl that we know nothing about. We don't know if she's even born yet and God is already carving a place in our hearts for her!