Step by Step...

I began this posting a few days ago as an update for where we are in our adoption process and realized that many of you probably have no clue what the process is! An international adoption is comprised of MANY steps- some big, some smaller that all lead to the final goal of bringing a waiting family together. Some of these steps can vary depending on the country one is adopting from and even somewhat based on the agency a family uses. I'm going to outline some of the steps and tell you where we are:

• Initial agency application (thankfully we were accepted :)
• In depth agency application (includes all paperwork necessary for a home study)
• Home study interviews
• Home study completed (certified to adopt from Ethiopia)
• File US immigration paperwork (including fingerprinting)
• Complete dossier for Ethiopia (this is our official file for Ethiopia)
• Send dossier to Ethiopia
• Wait for anywhere from 2-8 mos (that is going to be interesting)
• Matched with a child (this is called a referral)
• Receive court date and travel to Ethiopia for trip #1
• Come back to US without our child :( and wait for word of when our final trip will be
• Travel back to Ethiopia to bring our son home!!!

I have definitely simplified the process and have left out detailed steps, but all of that to say this is a VERY LONG process most of the time, and although we are a couple of months in, we still probably have around 10+ months to go before we are back home with our child. Currently we are working on our home study and have our home inspection on Monday (and trying not to freak out about it!) So many times we hurry up to wait while paperwork is being processed. This is a huge opportunity to develop patience- something I was already in short supply of at times :) But we can see God's hand on our family and that even in this challenging waiting period how He is working in us. We are educating ourselves, connecting with other adoptive families, and soaking in infomation like sponges hoping that we learn lots that will help us. So we are moving forward step by step...