Next steps

I spoke with our caseworker from our adoption agency yesterday about what happens next. Here is the recap...

1. Our homstudy was sent to CIS (immigration). They will send us a letter in 4-8 weeks with an appointment for fingerprints. Then we go get our fingerprints taken and wait 4-8 weeks for the official approval from the U.S. government.

2. While we wait for CIS, our various pieces of paperwork get stamped and approved in the states in which they were notarized (CA,MN, TX, MI, FL).

3. Once we have the CIS approval and the paperwork is all back, our whole packet is sent to the Dept of State and the Ethiopian Embassy. At this point we are officially on the "waitlist" for 3 to 5 months.

4. After 3-5 months of waiting, we will receive a referral (Baby Barto). Yippee!!

5. We wait 2-3 months for a court date where Baby Barto becomes part of our family.

6. We then travel about 3 weeks after that.

This puts us in Ethiopia between Jan and May of 2009.

(The photo is of my darling Janis' daughter Audrey almost 3 years ago.)

Gladney Approved!

Our homestudy was approved by Gladney. We are one step closer to Baby Barto. I'm a little fuzzy on what exactly happens next, but I'll keep you posted.

Alison, my stepmom, made me this lovely quilt as a Mother's Day present. Baby Barto, you are sure loved!

Mother's Day

My mom sent me a Mother's Day gift for the "expecting mom." Isn't she the sweetest? Maybe next year I'll be celebrating Mother's Day as a mother. I took a picture of my altar to showcase the sweet frame my mom sent with a poem about Baby Barto.

Living It Up

As we actually move closer to becoming a family of 3, we are trying to squeeze in all things that will be hard to do with a child. We went to a Kanye West concert on a weeknight, did community service with my students today, have planned a bunch of trips for this summer and are enjoying lazy weekends. I've been think a lot lately about how our lives will change when we have a baby. I try to imagine how it will work, and it just blows my mind. I know we'll figure it out because I have lots of good role models. So, here's to sleeping in until 11 tomorrow!

Jose & Sara in 8 pages

We received a copy of our homestudy draft on Friday. Our social worker believes that we are fit to parent an Ethiopian child. Now we send it back with any changes and it becomes official. Then it gets sent off to the immigration people. We have most of our other paperwork complete. I am just waiting on proof of insurance from my school district. I think I might start becoming a pest next week. They've had a month - that seems like plenty of time.

The paper trickle

Jose's birth certificate came in the mail today. We also have recently received back our employment letters, a bank letter & doctor letters. I like checking things off my list. Jose also has written our statement of why we want to adopt an Ethiopian child (he's such a good writer). And we have mailed out our fingerprints to check that we are not on the FBI's most wanted list.

This is the part I guess I did not really anticipate taking so long, but we'll get there. At least if we're becoming parents at this time next year, I won't have to give all those dreaded state TAKS exams because I'll be on leave.

Jess and I made an altar for the baby this weekend (thanks Jess). We put candles, incense, an African children's book, some Ethiopian coffee, holy water from Fatima and hanging butterflies on it. I felt I needed a symbolic way of sending love into the universe for Baby Barto and his/her Ethiopian family and a way to feel connected to them.

Homestudy

We accomplished a big step in the adoption process by having our homestudy on Friday. A really nice social worker came and asked us all sorts of questions about our marriage, our families and ourselves. She said we "passed," so that's good. Jose managed to refrain from saying "to save our marriage" when she asked why we wanted to adopt. We'd been spending the week practicing bad answers.

Now we continue the paperwork process. When our homestudy is written. it is sent off to U.S. immigration. Then we are cleared to bring home a foreign baby and we can officially send our paperwork to Ethiopia. This step looks like it could be at least 3 to 4 months away plus the 5 to 8 months of waiting before travel.

My friend Carli (from work) and I saw the children's author Mo Willems speak today. I bought Baby Barto a book and had Mo Willems autograph it. Since we can't really buy other stuff without knowing gender and age, books seem like a fun thing to start collecting. And it helps the process feel more real - like there will actually be a child at the end of the waiting and paperwork.