Hi everyone,

not too much to report, just still waiting for Zadie.

We learned today that avg wait for placement has broken through the 8 month mark, we're now at 7.5 months avg wait. We're 5 months on the waiting list as of today, so we are closer and getting closer each day. Since receiving approval and getting on the wait list, we've remained patient and we've taken our time with the Gladney training and also reading/educating ourselves more on Ethiopian culture, adoptions and the challenges our little girl will face. This has helped immensely with the 'waiting', in fact, 5 months hasn't been that bad for us. I feel that once we have placement though, that's when the waiting will really be difficult!

We're still preparing for little Zadie though. We started a registry and we're still working on her room. Once we have it baby Zadie ready, we'll post pictures.

With any luck, we'll have some good news sooner rather than later!

Cheers!

Charlie

Zadie's room updates

No new news on the placement front (none expected), but we have started slowly working on Zadie's room.

We traded a queen bed for a smaller twin with Leanne's sister. This will save space in the room for a crib and all of the other necessities. We also purchased our first sheet set and quilt for Zadie. It's a very girly quilt with an outdoor safari/African/animal theme with lots of pinks and purples. We hope to settle on a crib and the layout of the room soon. The wall color is almost completely settled upon. I think we will go with the same light brown we have in our bedroom. That'll contrast nicely with the pink/purples and the Tiffany Blue items in the room.

We have also started on our Hague training from Gladney. We have completed the Ethiopian specific presentations but haven't started on the test(s). We hope to watch a few additional ones this coming weekend. It's a lot to take in, understand and digest; so we are taking our time to understand all of the information fully, afterall, we have a lot of time to wait!

Dossier is on the way, we are on the Wait List!

24 June, 2009 - The day we got placed on the official waitlist!

Our dossier left Kate's possession last night and Gladney was notified. It should take about a week in DC and then another week in transit to Addis Ababa! This is such a wonderful day, time to do a little mild celebration!

Just to summarize, we are on the waitlist for a 0-12 month female and the latest approximation of average time is 9 months to wait for placement.

It's only a matter of time now!

Our First Baby Gift!!

The lady who is other director at the school where I work got us a Coach diaper bag (I knew Zadie would be a stylish baby girl) full of goodies like books, cuddle toys and a blanket.  I will treasure this gift!  It's our first and the gifts are so sweet!

This isn't the exact bag, but close!  Thanks, Aelisch!  We love it!

Also, we call our daughter Zadie now because we love that name, and it is from Sadie, which means princess.  We may meet her and love her Ethiopian name or look at her and know her name should be Sarah, but calling her Zadie now makes everything a little more tangible.  We can say things like "Which car seat do you like for Zadie?" or "We can just store that in Zadie's room for now". 

CIS Approval for REAL!!!!!!

So after the debacle that was the incorrect I-797C, in only 2 days the CIS office in Durham, NC has already sent to us an updated I-797C!!! We are so excited! The only remaining step is to get a photocopy notarized and authenticated as an original copy and FedEx it to Kate! Our dossier is practically complete, we should be wait-listed in no time at all!

More updates coming soon! Watch this space!

CIS Approval: Almost

Well, we did get CIS approval on Friday, which was so exciting, BUT the paperwork was incorrect. Kate from KBS and Jessica at Gladney jumped right on the case. By Tuesday morning, Jessica had confirmation from CIS that the mistake would be corrected this week. So we are now waiting again. Thanks to Jessica at Gladney and Kate from KBS this wait will be much shorter.

Both of these ladies wasted no time getting answers for us. We are so thankful.

So, here goes a little more time to wait... until the real waiting begins!!!!

CIS APPROVAL!

Leanne just called after work. We got the coveted CIS letter in the mailbox!

We are communicating with KBS and Gladney now so we can proceed!

Cheers! This is a very good day and a great way to start the weekend!

Still waiting...

Just a quick update from us. We're still waiting for approval from USCIS. We are told anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks and we are roughly 2 weeks into the wait. To maintain our sanity, we are expecting 8 weeks and if it takes less, then great!

Last week we got some really sweet shirts from cafepress.com that are Ethiopian adoption related. Leanne got 3 cool shirts stating things like 'expecting from Ethiopia', 'Adoptive mommy' and 'Somewhere in Ethiopia, my heart beats'. I got a very nice shirt for myself that shows the country of Ethiopia and the text inside reads 'A little girl from Ethiopia will change our lives forever'. It's a bit of a loaded statement I suppose, but I love it and I wear it with pride!

Thats the update from me for now. More soon as we know it!

CIS

Well,

The surprise of the CIS fingerprinting cards showed on saturday, but of course we didn't check the mail until sunday. Monday morning at 8:15am, Leanne got her fingerprints taken for the I600A. I showed up about 15 minutes later to have mine taken as well.

It was a really good experience. To be a government office, everyone there was really nice, helpful and willing to go out of their way for you. I was in and out in about 15 minutes, try that at the DMV!

So now the real waiting begins. We must await CIS approval and once approved, a few more steps on our Dossier. Then we can officially be on the wait list for our little girl.

Stay tuned...

Well a lot has happened since our last posting. We've been unable to keep up with the pace of these events on the blog, so I will attempt to summarize some of this now.

Our home study has been completed and now we have been approved by our adoption agency, The Gladney Center for Adoption as of 13 May, 2009. We are completely excited in every way about this event. We feel like all of the difficult work we have spent sourcing documents and having numerous (read, everything) notarized is finally gaining us some traction in this adoption process.

This paperwork process for CIS, Gladney, FBI and Kate at KBS Dossiers has taken us from start to almost finish just under 3 months. Susanne Smith at Gladney has been great to work with. She has now passed us over to Jessica, our in country case worker. Thank you Susanne for answering all of our redundant and tedious emails with the swiftness and understanding that you have.

Yesterday's mail brought us fingerprint requests from CIS, so we will be having these taken ASAP, since technically we are largely waiting on CIS before we can be placed 'on the list'.

Just to close for now, I cannot stress the importance in employing a Dossier service. The paperwork we have already delivered and checked/re-checked was tedious enough, I cannot begin to comprehend the stress that would be involved if we had to do the same level on our own for the Dossier. Kate at KBS has been absolutely outstanding in her timeliness in email responses, her quick turnaround of documents and overall support. She has this process mastered and I cannot imagine going through this phase of our adoption process without her assistance. Leanne and I are really glad that we engaged with her back in March.

Stay tuned, more to come!

Here is Daisy and your mom!  We can't wait to meet you!!!!

Drowning in Paperwork

Let's see... We sent our I 600 A form to the wrong office.  It was returned.  It seems that there a new Homeland Security office in our county.  This was a little bit of a disappointment.  We felt like we were pushed back a couple of weeks.

And who knew that getting a few papers notarized would be such a disaster!??!  We hired a notary to take to the doctor's office for our physicals, but we couldn't use her on that day because our blood tests were not back.  Luckily our doctor was very understanding.  He says that he will take care of it. 

I do think that we are coming to the end of the paperwork.  We hired the dossier service, so we hope that this service will simplify the next few weeks.  I think there are a handful of papers to collect, but we can at least see the light at the end of the tunnel.

  Zadie, meet your parents!  We already love you!

We have so much to discover about Ethiopia!

Here we go...

It all seems so surreal.  There is a little person who hasn't even been born yet who will change our family forever.  We are working so diligently - day by day - to bring her here.  

The paperwork work seems so daunting.  The mound seems to grow everyday.  I am so thankful for Charlie - his cool demeanor and his attention to details.  He keeps me focused and calm.   He will make a wonderful father.

I am so looking forward to meeting Zadie.  I know she will be exactly what our little family needs!