Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork...

We thought we would just post a quick update on paperwork. Reporting on all of the things we are getting done is somewhat satisfying and reminds us that there is progress to be found amidst the appointments, phone calls, personal favors and forms. Well, we are getting down to the bitter end on the paperwork for our Gladney application, and we hope to FedEx it off in the near future. The only items remaining for this are our medical reports and photos of ourselves, our house, family and a family event. We also aren't doing too badly on our dossier paperwork. We have our notarized letters of employment, of our proof of insurance, of our good standing status with our bank accounts, and of our statement for intention to adopt. We await the arrival of our notarized letters that will prove we have life insurance and the notarized medical reports that prove we are alive and well. We got word that our passports are on their way and we should have them by Dec. 24th. My passport photo is awful (at least Mark looks human in his) and worth posting when I get the chance. We were able to get our fingerprints done Wednesday evening at the State Police barracks for our FBI clearances and FedExed them on Thursday. We also sent away for our police and child abuse clearances. Our I-600A form (Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition) is in process and for it, we've been assigned a fingerprinting appointment at the USCIS office in Philadelphia on January 2nd. Slowly but surely we're getting there!

Now for the educational piece of this post.  Here is a picture of a portion of the Blue Nile that is called Tisisat Falls.  These falls are found in Northeast Ethiopia... 

Speaking of the holidays, here is a list of the public holidays in Ethiopia for 2008, as well as some information regarding their use of the Julian calendar...

2008

7 Jan Ethiopian Christmas.

19 Jan** Timket (Epiphany). 

2 Mar Victory of Adowa.

20 Mar Mawlid al-Nabi (Birth of the Prophet).

Apr/May* Ethiopian Good Friday.

Apr/May* Ethiopian Easter.

1 May Labour Day.

5 May Patriots Victory Day.

28 May Downfall of the Dergue.

11 Sep** Ethiopian New Year (Entutatash).

27 Sep** Finding of the True Cross (Meskel). 

2 Oct Eid al-Fitr (End of Ramadan). 

9 Dec Eid-al Adha (Arafat).

* Date to be confirmed.

Note

(a) ** Indicates Coptic holidays. (b) Ethiopia uses the Julian calendar, which is divided into 12 months of 30 days each, and a 13th month of five or six days at the end of the year; hence the date for Christmas. The Ethiopian year commences on 11 September and is eight years behind the Gregorian calendar from January to September and seven years behind between 11 September and 8 January. (c) Muslim festivals are timed according to local sightings of various phases of the moon and the dates given above are approximations. During the lunar month of Ramadan that precedes Eid al-Fitr, Muslims fast during the day and feast at night and normal business patterns may be interrupted. Some disruption may continue into Eid al-Fitr itself. Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha may last anything from two to 10 days, depending on the region.

This Is How It Works

Many of you already know that Mark and I plan to adopt our first child internationally. What some of you may not know is that we've finalized our decision to adopt from Ethiopia! We are filled with emotions that are typical of expecting parents, and we feel extremely fortunate to have our family and friends to share this with. As our heading mentions, we've set up this blog so that family and friends can check in from time to time for updates. We'll update it occasionally in the beginning (I mean, how much can one really say about paperwork), and hope to use it daily while traveling.
Speaking of process, this is how, in a nutshell, it works. We've decided to use Gladney Center for Adoption (www.adoptionsbygladney.com) which is based in Texas. After sending in our information sheet, we completed our phone orientation with Gladney on November 16th. When we knew we wanted to move forward with this program, we submitted the application for the application. We are now working on THE eight page application and hope to have it and all supporting documents and photos sent back to Gladney sometime next week. At some point our homestudy will be completed and we (hopefully) will be Gladney approved. Additionally, our clearances will clear, our passports will pass, our fingerprints will not throw up any red flags, our I600A will be approved, and our dossier will be completed. The dossier, by the way, is a bunch of very important paperwork that establishes the fact that we are medically, mentally, physically, and financially capable of parenting a child. It must be notarized, certified, and sent to Ethiopia for review and approval. After we've endured several periods of time during which there is nothing for us to do but wait and all of these paperwork stars finally align, we will be matched with our child. We will then travel to Ethiopia to pick our child up, returning home after about one week. In total, we are being told the whole process should take about 9 months. This isn't written in stone by any means, and there will likely be unexpected bumps and glitches along the way, but we're ready for the ride!

We leave you with a photo that is entitled, "Typical Ethiopian Coffee Land". We imagine we'll be drinking a lot of this while we're there.


Thanks for checking in, and we hope you'll stop back again.