For all adoptive families, the day that your paperwork ("dossier") gets to where it needs to be to begin "the wait" is one of the best feelings a person can ask for! The the completion of the dossier is your Everest...and you made it! You are officially waiting to become a family. LET THE PREGNANCY BEGIN!
For us, it is a pregnancy for a 0-48 month old daughter and sister. Make no mistake, the wait is hard. Not harder than preparing the dossier, just a different hard. The busyness is gone and that is tough!
I am pretty convinced that AAI is the greatest adoption agency around. There are many reasons that I believe this, but, one of the main reasons is the "Snapfish" account. As adoptive parents, we have the LUXURY of seeing photographs from other families on a "shared" account. We have seen photos of the buildings, those who work there and the mountains of laundry it takes to care for all of these children where our daughter and sister could possibly currently be living. That isn't the best part. These children, of all ages, run, goof around, laugh, get into trouble, play soccer, eat, sleep and annoy one another, do each others hair and we get to see it. We get to see photos of friendship and feedings and we can rest assured, these children are loved. There is no doubt in any one's mind who has seen these photographs, these homes are filled with love. Our daughter is loved.
So we wait. Some days are good, some are really hard. It's funny actually, when we are able to laugh about it. Mostly, however, we just want her to come home. It is tough because everything is so uncertain and Americans love their time lines and absolutes, we are certainly no exception.
Although you have what can only be best described as a rough estimated timeline, the honest truth is, you simply do not know the when. I have spent an embarrassing number of hours trying to figure out the hidden formula, but I have never been good at math and I haven't found the mathematical key. We have done a few things to prepare, but, we are open to a pretty large age range and although we have been told that more than likely we will be adopting a baby, there is that possibility that she will be 2- 4 years old. We don't want to lock in to a mindset, we want to be ready for her whoever she is.
Once we receive the email containing her information including; age, whatever medical history is available, motor skills development, etc. ("referral") from the agency we will have to officially accept the referral. Once the acceptance is received back to AAI, the agency will work to secure a court date for us. At court, (currently 2-4 months to court date) an attorney will represent us and depending on the completeness of our file and many other factors, some unknown, we will pass or fail. There have been many failures and frustrations. If this occurs, a new court dates will be set (currently about 1-3 months, but that too is liquid). Once we pass court, we will become her parents!! YEA! Then an Embassy date is set and travel arrangement are made. Ken and I will be traveling together to Ethiopia and the boys will be at home with my mom.
I have made a commitment to try to maintain this blog and any information that I receive I will try to put here.
Thank you for caring about our journey and we are looking anxiously forward to our next step!
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