News about the Ethiopian Courts

This is info we got from our agency's blog.

On August 28, 2009, the courts in Ethiopia closed for recess. They were initially scheduled to re-open on September 28, 2009. However, after a two-week delay, the courts are finally set to re-open on October 12, 2009.

Sigh . . Yeah, so we still wait. Once the courts open up again Dossiers will start to move. We have no idea what the status of ours is right now. We like hearing about all the families we've traveled to pick up their children and just assume that means we are getting closer. Please continue to pray for us that we will be faithfully patient and trust in the Lord's timing. Thanks!

Good news!

Our dossier was mailed to Ethiopia yesterday! This is it! woohoo!

6 weeks

We sent our dossier off to the Bethany Iowa branch 6 weeks ago. A couple days ago they informed us that it was sent to WA DC for authentication. There was a couple things that had to be re-done due to things changing on the agency's end but most of this time we've spent waiting and wondering what the status of our dossier is. So, after all this time it's still not in Ethiopia. There's nothing we can do but patience is wearing thin.

The last we heard 55 couples working with BCS were waiting for children from Ethiopia. Today we received an email that was good to hear.

What a month June has been! 13 (16 children) families will have or already had court dates. We're thankful for a smooth court process this month for so many families. Three families are already home, and five more are due to travel. With successful court dates, additional travel dates should be coming.

Families waiting the longest had their dossiers sent in July 2008, with these families having a preference for younger, female children.

Dossier is on the move!

We set our dossier off to the Bethany office in Iowa. Bonnie reviewed it and we did it correctly, Praise the Lord!
This is an email we received from her today

Hi Dave and Kami
Awesome job on the dossier! It was mailed 2nd Day UPS to National yesterday.
Your dossier will be reviewed by Jane at Bethany National, then sent to Washington DC for authentication at the Ethiopian Consulate, then back to Bethany National - and then off to Ethiopia. Then you wait for your referral. I will also continue to send you information on children who are waiting for a family because they are older or have special needs. If you have interest in adopting any of these children, just let me know.

I guess I thought after Bonnie reveiwed it it would just be sent to Ethiopia but apparently there are a few more steps. But that's ok. I am thrilled we did it all right and that we don't have to fix anything. So, our dossier is out of our hands and is on the move which is so exciting.

I will let you know once we hear that it's headed to Ethiopia.

We got our USCIS approval!

Life has been a little crazy so this post is very late. We got the letter on the 4th of April which was 8 weeks after mailing in the application. We were thrilled. The thing is, we didn't think we wouldn't get approval cause it's pretty for sure but it was just having to wait for 8 weeks that was tough.

Now what? - you might ask

We mailed our dossier to the Secretary of States office in Denver. They are putting a state seal on everything and will be mailing it back. They say it's about a 72 hour turn over so we're expecting it in the mail any day.

Once we get it back we'll make 4 copies of everything then we'll mail it onto our agency. They will add our home study report and mail if off to Ethiopia. This is the most exciting thing thus far! Then we wait.

So, very soon we'll be done with all we can do. Praise the Lord.

Small update

We are still waiting on the approval from USCIS. Bonnie mailed in our application a lot later then we thought she would so we're right at 4 weeks. They say it's typically 6 to 8 weeks so we continue to wait.

We have almost everything done for our dossier. I am trying to get a letter from our family doctor stating that Dave and I are healthy but they're dragging their feet. I'm also working on taking pictures of our house and "family life." Once we get it all together we have to go get everything noterized and state sealed.

We're so close. I am getting so excited to think that we will be in the next and last stage of all this. One day we'll get the call, "We have a baby for you!" YEA!

Moving onto a new set of paperwork

So, we are finally officially DONE with our home study. We can now apply for grants which I started working on today.

We sent our US Citizen Immigration Services paperwork on and that typically take 8 weeks to come back with approval. While we wait on that we start working on the dossier which is a massive stack of papers we have to get signed and most of them need to be notarized and get a state seal. These 8 weeks will pass quickly and I want to have the dossier totally done.

If all goes well the dossier should be off to Ethiopia by March. Then we wait . . .and wait. . .and wait. Only God knows how long. One day we will get a call saying there is a baby waiting for us!

one thing left to get done. . .

So our home study is done. . .except . . . we have to read a book and write a little paper on it. I ordered it online because the local libraries didn't have it. So, we're waiting for it to arrive and then we'll try to sail through it and hopefully get it done before the end of the month. Then we have a couple months of waiting on the USCIS stuff before the dossier (tons of paperwork) is sent to Ethiopia. We're getting so close to being done. Phew!