Delivered

Our "Dossier" was delivered in Addis Ababa, ET today at 3:10 pm local time. Next comes translation and a 9-11 month wait for "the phone call." Time to start cleaning and organizing this house. Gotta make room for two more people! And if you know me, you know it will take me about that long to get everything situated "just right." I don't like to be in a hurry! Now if I can just manage not to "freak out" about how the kids are doing while we are waiting to meet them, you will all be amazed. And I will too. Read: WARNING...I'll probably freak out a lot.

The Paper Trail...

View Larger Map
Our package arrived in Dubai, AE 6:17 pm local time today. It's getting closer!

Ah, Paris...

... our beloved Dossier arrived for it's layover in Paris, France at 9:18 am today. How great is that!

In Transit

Our Dossier that we put so much love into is on it's way. It has been notarized, certified and authenticated. Those wonderful FedEx people are taking it to our agency's office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It spend yesterday in Herndon, VA and today in Newark, NJ. We will keep you posted on it's whereabouts as I am sure you are dying to know! Perhaps it's flying over the Atlantic as I type this. That thought just thrills me.

State Certification Happiness

Ben is hoping to get "The Dossier" State Certified tomorrow. "What does this mean?," one may ask. This means... the paperwork is done. Those words are music to my ears, and my soul and my brain and my life. This seriously the most relaxed I've felt in months.

Scrambling to get it together...

Our USCIS papers arrived this Saturday after only 4 weeks of waiting! This is two months earlier that I had anticipated. Yea! for the U.S. Government...they are so on top of things! But this means we need to scramble to get our last few papers in order.

Please pray for our redone medicals to be filled out quickly and for all of our notarizations and certification to be done correctly. Also pray that the certification office worker would be satisfied with all of our notaries' methods of notarizing. Also pray that our social worker will have the time to look over our paperwork, as she has an immense case load and is having a hard time keeping up with all the adoptive families' questions and paper checks.

I'm really starting to get excited, it's like everything is happening at once. We are so close to being "paper pregnant" as they say in adoption circles. Does that mean it's OK to eat ice cream by the half gallon with a large spoon now?...maybe next week after the papers are done. You should really come over and help me eat it lest I start looking pregnant- and not just the paper kind.

Happy New Year!

A sincere thank you to each one of you who has responded to the letter we sent out this month. We have been blown away the the generosity of our dear friends and family. Because of you we have reached the 40% mark of what is needed to cover the expenses of the adoption process. We are almost half way there!

Who knows...maybe 2009 will be the year that in which we will have the pleasure of meeting our children.

Happy New Year and God Bless!