I was on the porch sorting and organizing the goods for our rummage sale and Lexi was helping. She kept asking to keep things and I told her that we needed all this stuff to stay on the porch, it was going to help us bring our baby from Ethiopia home. Here’s how the rest of the conversation went:

Lexi: We bring the adopted baby home?

Me: Yep. We are going to bring the baby home. Do you want a new brother or sister to come to our house?

Lexi: Yeah.

Me: Do you want them to come to our house and stay forever?

Lexi: Yeah. The baby from Ethiopia come to our house.

Me: Okay. (at this point I was done and getting ready to go in the house. Lexi was staring intently at the front door). Are you coming with me?

Lexi: (still staring at the door) No. I waiting for the baby from Ethiopia.

(hmmm….how do explain a several month wait to a 2 year old?)

I know it sounds cheesy but a group of people adopting from Ethiopia got together and created a Secret Pals group. Basically, everyone gets a name and for the next 6 months or so, you send a small gift to your secret pal. I got my gift in the mail yesterday. And my secret pal rocks! They sent me a tote bag with my name stitched on it. Kinda fun getting a present when it’s not Christmas or your birthday.

I’ve been connecting with other people who are adopting from Ethiopia on an adoption forum (and most are from a Wisconsin and Minnesota and going through Children’s Home Society like us). It’s been nice to talk to people that are at the same phase in the process as us and understand what we are going through.

A couple years ago, someone on the forum created a list of waiting parents. It includes information on when the dossier was approved, what age/gender, if you’re waiting for a sibling group, how long you’ve been waiting, etc. They keep track of who was added to the waiting list when and then have created a best guess list of what number waiting parents are in line to get a referral for their child(ren). There are about 100 people on the list. When Kevin and I were added to the list we were at #80 now we are up to #72. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a good feeling to see our names move up a few notches every week or so.

There’s been a little bit of a dry spell in referrals lately. But the people who have traveled in the last 1-2 weeks have commented on some major blackout spells in Ethiopia (they’re telling current travelers to pack flashlights) which means no information is leaving Ethiopia, meaning even if they have a stack of referrals, they can’t get word to the US. However, today, there were 3 people on the forum who got referrals. Things are looking up.

We want our referral before June 15. After that Children’s Home Society stops referring children so that people with a referral can get a court date (which allows you to bring your baby out of Ethiopia) before the courts close in early August. The courts don’t re-open until October which means referrals don’t start up again until September.

If you haven’t heard the news the rummage sale will be April 26-27. The doors open at 7:00 a.m. We have a ton of stuff. Over 20 families have donated and most have donated carloads of rummagables. If you are curious here’s a sample list of the for sale item:

Toys, toys, and more toys

Books, CD’s, Movies.

Hooked on Phonics (the old school one)

The entire King James Bible on cassette

Clothes from infants - adult

Kitchen stuff (including 2 full sets of dishes)

household stuff

furniture - patio furniture, recliners, dining room table, lamps, etc.

and that’s just what I can think of right now.

So, come and check it out - also we’re looking for people to come and just hang out with us for a few hours while the sale is on. Let us know.

We got our CIS approval in the mail today. It’s the letter for the Citizenship and Immigration Services stating that we are allowed to bring a kid back into the country. According to the government “it has been determined that [we] are able to furnish proper care to an orphan or orphans” (let’s hope for orphans).

Aside from getting an actual child referral this is the last official piece of paper work we needed to get.

Now it’s back to more waiting.

These don’t support our adoption but they are cute bears that support another adoption. A woman in the process of adopting from El Salvador is making and selling these. Personally, I think they would make great gifts for a family in the process of adopting.

Exciting news - we are officially on the waiting list for a child referral. Our case worker just e-mailed to say that the time period right now is about 6-9 months for a child 0-12 months old and less for one up to 18 mo. So, now all that is left to do is wait.

Well, we mailed everything today. We sent in the paper work to apply for the baby’s visa. We sent in our completed dossier. We sent in about 10 different checks and money orders (because no, you don’t just write one big check - you write one big check and 9 other little checks, all made out to different government offices.) So, now we are on to the hardest part. We wait. We wait for the dossier to be approved, we wait for a child referral and we wait to travel to bring our baby home.

Pray for the waiting. I’m not good at waiting.

We have 2 pieces of paper left to complete for our dossier. One is a reference letter from a friend and the other is a letter to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in Ethiopia that Kevin and I have to write, explaining our intentions to adopt an Ethiopian child. After we have those 2 documents we get everything notarized, write a huge check and send it in. Honestly, we should be done in the next week. My goal is to have it sent off before Christmas vacation starts (in 9 days).

Oh and here’s a cool twist in our adoption journey. I recently found a friend from college on facebook who is wanting to adopt a boy, from Ethiopia. She and her husband have just started the process but it’s nice to know that I am already friends with someone who will have a family that looks like ours.

We now have all of our birth certificates, marriage certificates, letters of employment, health records & our home study. I heard from the people writing our letters and they are on their way. We just need a few more pieces of paper and our dossier is ready to go. We are trying to get all of that done this week.