Another Baby Step

We got the official email today from our placement agency that they have received all the necessary preliminary paperwork, and therefore our file has officially been transferred over to our Ethiopian specialist! Now she is waiting for the draft of our home study. Every step is a good one!
Caia informed me tonight that I will be the baby's mommy until she gets a little older, then SHE is going to be the baby's mommy. She is so excited! She insists that it is HER baby that we are adopting. She is such a little mother! She is already making plans of how she's going to help feed her, and push her in the stroller, and which stuffed animals she's going to give her, and on and on.

Home Study Completed!! (at least our part)

We completed our Home Study interview today...just one month to the day after we applied to our agency (they usually say it takes 3-4 months!) We had an excellent social worker named Sandi Bornman who we met with. She was great. The kids also got to be part of the interview, too. So, she'll complete her writeup and then email it to our agency for their approval over the next week or two. Once it's been approved, then it gets sent off to USCIS (Immigration) for their approval. So...over the next few weeks we'll be turning our attention to applying for grants and compiling our documents for our dossier (the paperwork that gets sent to the Ethiopian government). We are looking forward to the fundraiser on September 8th too. Everything keeps moving forward!!

Thanks for your prayers and support!

FUNDRAISER ON SEPTEMBER 8th

There are some great people from our church (Karen, Heidi, Donna, Darice & Stacey) who are throwing a fundraiser for the adoption on September 8th. The event will be a Baked Ziti Dinner. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children and it will be held at Mountville Mennonite Church, Mountville, PA. There also will be a raffle and silent auction. We are so thankful for these folks and all the work they are putting into helping us make this dream a reality. If you would like to join us for dinner on this evening, please drop us an email at onelessorphan@gmail.com and we can see that you get tickets.

Everything Keeps Moving Forward!

It's been an exciting week around here. We were able to get our Home Study paperwork completed early in the week (30+ documents mailed Aug. 1) and now meet with our Social Worker on Monday, August 13th for our Home Study interview. If all goes well, our homestudy should be written and ready for submission to our agency and immigration by the 21st or so. We also received a super fast response from Immigration (less than a week) and now we need to report to have our finger prints taken. We have to wait until Jerry's SS card arrives (he lost his...another story in and of itself) and then that will be taken care of. We also started applying for some grants and began our education requirements. It's been a busy week, but a good one, as we keep doing whatever we can on this end to get our paperwork submitted.