Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for the Advance Processing of Orphan Petition

The U.S. government has determined that we "are able to furnish proper care to an orphan." After we have this final piece of paper authenticated in Texas, our dossier will make its way to the U.S. State Dept and Ethiopian Embassy. Today my mom & I took our CIS notice to the post office, so it's on the way to our dossier service (aka magic lady) who will ensure that it properly joins our other paperwork. Then we will be one step closer to the waitlist, which ultimately is one step closer to Baby Barto.

Auntie Jess

Jessica and I have been best of friends since college. Now, she lives in California, which is 1700 miles away from my current home. Luckily, our time in Michigan this summer overlapped and we spent a couple of days together. Jessica has a friend, Jenafir, whose job takes her to Ethiopia. Jenafir recently went on a trip there, and Jess asked her to bring back a little part of Ethiopia for my altar. How sweet and wonderful is that?

Reunion

Last night I saw Michaelle, my best friend from high school, for the first time in 10 years. It turns out she and her husband are also adopting from Ethiopia. My mom found this out while at the dentist office in my small hometown and immediately called Michaelle's mom. So, we began catching-up last night. It was great to actually talk (rather than read blogs obsessively) to someone going through the same process. They are about 2 months ahead of us. I'm so excited to be reunited with this amazing woman.

Knitting

Through my blog reading, I've discovered that some families are able to send things to their child after the referral is given. I thought I'd knit a blanket for Baby Barto, and hopefully we'll be able to send it to him/her while we all wait for each other. With each stitch, I am knitting tiny bits of love, hope and excitement.

Here is the blanket in its early stage. Fluffy, my model, is my childhood stuffed animal.

Relating to South Park

On the plane ride to Michigan, I was watching an episode of South Park Jose had downloaded onto my i-pod. In this episode, Cartman can't wait for the Wii to be released. He tells his little friends that he wishes he could be frozen like astronauts in science fiction movies who travel to far away planets. Then when he woke up it would be time to get the Wii, but he wouldn't feel like any time had passed.

I relate to you, Cartman. Not that I want to be frozen and miss all the wonders of life, but waiting is hard. And we're not even "officially" waiting yet.

A little closer

Yesterday we had our CIS fingerprints taken, and I mailed off the rest of our paperwork to our dossier service. Now we wait for our official approval from CIS and all the paperwork to be made official.

More fingerprints

We have received our "Orphan Petition Fingerprint Referral Notice!" We have 87 days to get our fingerprints taken. We are going at 8am Friday morning. How great that we received this before I went to Michigan for 4 weeks. Now, I need to head down to HR and plead with someone to finish my employer letter.

Baby Barto, you're getting closer to Texas everyday. I know Texas may sound like a far, strange place (we thought that too), but we promise to help the transition with lots of love and laughter.