5 For Hope

Referral Day!

On August 28, 2008, I posted my very first, floundering post on this blog.  I had only begun seriously considering international adoption and I'm not even certain I'd broached the subject in a serious way with my husband at that time.

Today, just a little over a year later, we received our official referral for our daughter, M3.  I now know her last name and what her birthday is supposed to be (I say 'supposed' to be because you just never know!) as well as the region of the country in which she was born.

I found out nothing new or surprising--which, in many ways is great.  So many things I don't know, though.  I know she must be generally healthy, though, as her medical file is small and not very current.  This means she has not been ill, sickly or showing any symptoms of something that would concern her caregivers.  This also means her vital statistics are nearly a year old, though.

I plan to call the international adoption clinic at a nearby Children's Hospital tomorrow and ask them their opinion on our file (especially as to whether we should request and updated medical exam).  I will have them look things over and receive information as to what they find important, etc.

I have sent my husband no less than a 1/2 dozen e-mail today...none of which he has read yet.  It's nearly 6 a.m. there which means he's likely working.  He'll need to rest before logging on and reading his accumulated e-mail.

So many emotions!

So thankful we have reached this point and yet, bittersweet that we aren't able to lie awake tonight, staring at the ceiling and talking about all the things we have to do before our new daughter comes home, all our hopes for her, our anxieties about the huge trip and our excitement over the entire day.

Yea for Referral Day!

On the Way!

In the Army, they have lots of fun words and phrases that they shout at any given time in response to certain stimuli.

Say something they agree with, like, love, etc. and you can expect to hear a resounding, "HOOAH!"  In fact, "HOOAH" can be the response anytime they wish to convey something other than NO.  It's a very versatile expression.

I also hear a lot of "Roger!" around the house.  Now, I "hear" it from my husband in e-mail, but occasionally M2 will show her understanding of something Mommy has said by replying, "Roger!" 

When you hear the phrase, "On the way!", you know something is coming.  It's similar to "FORE!" in golf.

Our adoption agency contacted us yesterday to let us know our referral is among those in a packet "on the way" from Ethiopia.  The agency has been told that the referrals in the packet have been corrected and are ready to be officially made available to families for acceptance.  We are cautiously optimistic that once our caseworker at the agency lays eyes on them, that she will deem the packets corrected and able to be officially referred.

The agency expects to receive the package either Monday or Tuesday.

Until then, we'll keep our eyes on the skies and pray that our referral is indeed ready to go.  We offer the same prayer for our friend, Amy and her family who are also waiting for word.

Tripping at the Finish Line

This week we received news that our referral paperwork for M3 had been delivered to our adoption agency.  Unfortunately, the paperwork arrived with errors in the format and information to the point that the agency cannot refer M3 to us using the paperwork in its current form.

The good news?  The paperwork has been seen by our caseworker and evaluated for completeness and accuracy.  The errors have been identified.  The staff in Ethiopia responsible for the paperwork has been notified.  They have been instructed to make the paperwork a priority.

The bad news?  We don't know when the file will be in its correct form and when we will receive our official referral.  Until we receive our official referral, our paperwork waits on someone's desk to be submitted to court.

I have made friends with a small group of fellow adoptive moms in various stages of this journey.  We are all adopting through the same program with the same agency.  Some of the moms are newly home with their children.  Two moms are in Ethiopia right now.  Another waits for her upcoming court date and another is in my same boat--referral paperwork in need of correction.

Although an official court closure has not been confirmed to our agency, we know that one of our friends has been given a court date in early October for what would seem to be after a usual closure for the rainy season.  My artificial deadline of "by the end of the year" for this process coming to fruition seems less likely with each passing day, but I'm not giving up hope yet.

Please pray that the staff works diligently and quickly to fix our files.  I will be working on being patient and remembering that the staff deals with life and death struggles every day and paperwork may not be handled as it quickly as it would if it had landed on my desk.

That's our update for now.

We Have Arrived

According to FedEx, the package containing our dossier arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at a little past three in the afternoon Ethiopia time.  Our paperwork traveled through France and Dubai to reach its destination--two places I have never been in person!  Lucky paperwork!

It's my understanding that the translating of our paperwork will begin.  Once we have a referral (yes, I'm still impatiently waiting), our final piece of paperwork--the child acceptance form--will be added to our file and it can be submitted to court for a court date.

We've been very excited so far and although the waiting continues, we feel like we're a step closer.

Leavin' On A Jet Plane...

Our paperwork is leaving, that is.

When last we blogged, I was preparing to send my dossier paperwork to Virginia to the Assistant Stork to have their capable owners take it to D.C. to visit very important folks.  This is what it looked like before I corralled it into a mailing envelope.

All spread out & I still managed to have a snafu and sent the wrong Power of Attorney form.  I remedied that with a quick trip to FedEx and an overnight mailer.  Is it any wonder I may have picked the identical (albeit incorrect) piece of paperwork from this line-up?

Once again, some office supplies helped cull the disorganization and crazy piles of paper.  Nothing like a folder, a binder clip and some envelopes to put a person's paperwork at ease.

All this slid easily into a UPS mailer for its trip to Virginia.  I remember the feeling of not wanting to hand it over...at all.

I'm sure the UPS counter person thought I'd lost my marbles.

Fast forward to today and I've found out some exciting news!  Soon, very soon I hope, it will be ME heading to Ethiopia.  But, for now, I'm very excited to report that our dossier arrived at our adoption agency this afternoon after visiting the Department of State and the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Now that it has made its rounds in the D.C. circuit, the dossier is ready to travel to Ethiopia!

It will be headed to our daughter's home country tomorrow!

My girls are over the moon.  I e-mailed my husband, but it may take him a couple days to see the news. 

The girls had baked brownies tonight. 

They surprised me by icing them, slicing one from the pan, placing a  huge "3" candle in the center and sharing it with me.  They brought it into the living room, candle lit, and said, "Three kids!"  They were very excited and we all blew the candle out together and then shared the brownie together.

M1 and M2 did a great job making these brownies all on their own.  Here's to hoping they have an additional pair of little hands to help them with our traditional gingerbread house this year!

Safe travels, dossier!  Land safely in Ethiopia and get to work!