We are on the wait list!!!!! :)

We got our numbers! :) We are number 86 for a girl and number 53 for a boy. Wow! Those are some high numbers. However, we do not need to be in the number 1 spot in order to get a referral. I figured the girl number would be high as another blog that I'm following recently got on the wait list at 76. I can't put my feelings into words right now so I won't try. Of course we are excited to actually be "expecting" (minus the throwing up) without an actual due date. There is some relief to actually being at this point. Our agency told us that the current wait time is 9-12 months until referral. Part of me thinks that isn't bad and part of me thinks that is still so far considering we have travel time, courts, etc...after the referral. All in God's time. All in God's time. There have been so many things happening in regards to adding on to our house that my brain is swimming. So much to sort out. For now, we need time to soak in the fact that we have cleared a huge hurdle. Praise God!! Everyone has a fun way to post their numbers. I was drawing a blank, but did manage to come up with something.

Construction

Major construction has begun on the new addition to our house. It feels good to be getting it started. We have a friend who is a carpenter helping Jason out with things. What a great resource!! We appreciate all of his help. Any place we can save some money is good. Thanks, Mark!

One more paper needs to make it to our agency. We are hoping tomorrow is our day for the wait list. :)

Changes to fingerprinting appointment

We heard back from the SF office regarding our fingerprinting appointment. Jason was scheduled for 8am and mine was scheduled for 2pm. I sent them a letter requesting for our times to be closer together. We are both now at 2pm. :) That will make things so much easier. Now I can schedule our shots. It is nice when things all come together and work out.

Always something to do and something to think about

So we got our fingerprint appointment. I was thrilled to find out #1 it was so soon #2 that it was before we started school. I didn't look at Jason's letter right away. Silly me assumed that we'd be scheduled for the same time. I guess I should have learned by now that things in the adoption world don't always make sense. Jason's appointment is at 8 am and mine is at 2 pm. I could handle an hour or two apart, but 6 hours?! I tried to call the office and of course there isn't anyone there that deals with the scheduling. So, I wrote a letter requesting that we get our times closer. Who knows if it will work, but it is worth a try. I just hope and pray that they don't change our appointments to a different day. If we can't change the times, leave the day. We will see what we find out. I've been in contact back and forth with our agency making sure they get the proper revisions for our Dossier. One paper we need to fix. Both of our references have something to fix. Our case worker that did our Home Study has something to fix. What a mess! It could be much worse as the things that need to be fixed are very minor. The biggest problem is with my name. Some things are Angela and some things are Angie. I never gave ANY thought to it. They are confident that as long as our Home Study, our letter that we had to write to the Ethiopian government, and our 2 reference letters say Angela (Angie) on them that we will be okay.

Since we have our appointment for our fingerprints, I'm trying to get things lined up to get our travel shots. This has required lots of phone calls too. We want to only make one trip to SF and not two. It will work out. :) Just so many things to check on and people to check with.

Our case worker has sent her revisions in. Jason is gone so our letter can't be notarized and put in the mail until tomorrow. One reference letter was fixed and resubmitted only for them to find more wrong with it. :( It will all come together when it is supposed to.

Fingerprinting appointment!

Yes you read that right. We need yet ANOTHER set of fingerprints taken. This time it is for immigration stuff. We don't quite understand why we need so many. We just do what we are told to do. We have to have SD clearance and FBI clearance for our Home Study to be completed. Yet--we can't do our immigration fingerprints until they have a copy of our Home Study. Government....you figure it out. :) I sent in our Home Study to USCIS on July 8th. They already mailed our appointment date to us. Our appointment is scheduled for August 9 at 2:00 pm in Sioux Falls. I will be checking with a travel clinic to make sure we are still able to get our shots while we are down there. We are so thankful this appointment came so fast and we won't have to take a day off of work to be able to go.

Wait list possibilities

I have thought more and I think that we won't get on the wait list until the week after next. I'm totally fine with that. Whatever happens, happens. It is hard for me to comprehend that FINALLY we have this step within reach. It is exciting to think that our child might actually be born now or real close. :) I just got an update from our agency the other day. Just to give people an idea of how many people are in front of us, the current status is 75 families waiting for a referral of a girl and 46 families are waiting for a referral of a boy. A person doesn't have to be #1 to get a referral. When a child comes into the orphanage, they look at who is #1 on the list. Let's say the child that came into the orphange is a 4 year old girl. The person on the list at #1 might want a baby, so they go on to the next person on the list. The next person on the list might want a boy, so they go to the next person, etc...So--we will see.

A dose of reality

We have the honor to be babysitting our 11 month old God daughter. Her parents are out of town and the grandmas were busy. :) She came on Thursday night and will be here until Monday. What a dose of reality as to how our lives will be when our new one joins us. I've had many thoughts and feelings in the first few days of having an extra child in our house. The first night she got here about 8pm. She wasn't here too super long before it was bed time. I wasn't sure how to handle the situation. I didn't want to "abandon" her in new and scary surroundings yet I didn't want her to be spoiled rotten. It made me think ahead to how things could be when our new one comes here. It will be similiar, but on a more extreme level. I ended up sitting in the same room as her until she went to sleep. She attached to me quickly. It took a bit of time for her to attach to the girls and to Jason. It was nice to feel needed/wanted, but I also didn't want to have to sit and hold her the whole time she was here. This experience has been great for all of us as it gives us a sneak peak as to how things will be. It has SHOWN me things that we have read about. For the first time, I'm apprehensive about the coming home part. Maybe b/c we are a bit closer to it actually happening. Maybe the fact that it is really happening is hard for me to believe. Do I regret the choice we made to adopt? No way!!!! We know there are going to be many challenges along the way. We still are reassured that this is God's plan and that He will provide. With my personality being what it is, it is amazing I've made it this far without freaking out a bit. :)

This week is not our week

We received our phone call from our agency concerning our Dossier. We have some minor changes to make. I guess I didn't know what to expect. They are looking at every angle so that we can get approval from the Ethiopian government. I'd rather them be safe than sorry. Our reference letters need to have a few things changed. The letter we had to write to the Ethiopian government needs to have a few things changed. We need to get a copy of the license and agency number of Catholic Family Services that did our Home Study. All items can be sent directly to AGCI. As soon as these revisions get to them, they will look at things again and we don't have to wait until Friday (which is the day they review Dossiers) Well--one of our references is out of town for quite some time so it will be at least next week before we get on that wait list.

Stay tuned....

Our Dossier will be reviewed tomorrow. (Friday) They will look over all of the papers we sent and make sure everything is in order. Many, many times (more often than not) people have one document or another to fix and resubmit. We are hoping that isn't the case, but we are ready for it if that is what happens. Right now, I'm feeling very confident that it IS all in God's hands. That doesn't mean that I'm not ready to be on the waiting list. :) Hoping for good news tomorrow. What is meant to be will be. Stay tuned....

Safely in the hands of AGCI

I got an email from AGCI stating that our Dossier was safely in their hands and would be reviewed on Friday. It is nice to know that it didn't get lost in the mail.

Happy Day!!!

Happy Birthday to me!! (Yes it really is my b-day) I went to the mail and guess what was there? Our Home Study! Oh happy day!!!! I wasn't expecting that at all. Everything is ready to go for sending in our Dossier. I made copies of our Home Study. Now to mail it all yet TODAY!!! :) Next Friday it will be reviewed by AGCI. There is the chance that some documents might have to be redone. Hopefully that is not the case. Time will tell. Wait list here we come!!! :) Current wait time is 9-12 months for a referral. What a huge relief to know that most of OUR work is done.

Good news!!!

We went on a small family vacation to The Black Hills. We have never taken a family vacation. While we were gone, our cement for our addition was poured. Yippee!!! :) Also--when we came back, our fingerprint results were sitting in our mailbox. Yippee again!!! :) Apparently, we needed to go on vacation. HA! We were only gone for a few days. Today I sent our fingerprint results to our case worker in Aberdeen. Since she is on maternity leave, she doesn't check her email as often as normal. Hopefully soon she will check it and know there is a package soon to be waiting for her. She will need to add the date that we received the fingerprint results into our Home Study. Then she can sign our Home Study, notarize it, and send us our copies. We can then submit our Dossier to AGCI. After AGCI gets all of these documents, they will review everything on Friday of the week that it was received. They will tell us what changes need to be made, etc..Then we get put on the waiting list!!! We are getting closer! It has been 5 months since we began this journey. Some days it feels like we have been at this forever and other times it seems as if it was just yesterday. It is great to write you with good news. We are making progress. HOPEFULLY....we should be on the wait list by the end of the month for sure.