Officially on the wait-list!

Last night i received the notice from my adoption agency that i am officially on the wait-list! Very exciting news. What does this mean? This means that my dossier (official paperwork that will be used to match me with a child and will be used in my court case to adopt the child) is complete and has been sent to the secretary of state in D.C. for final authentication. From there it is sent to ethiopia where it will be translated and the process of matching me with a referral (child, age, medical history, background history, etc.) will begin. I have not requested a specific gender, but have requested an infant 0-12 months at the time of referral, and more specifically as young an infant as possible. The wait time to receive a referral is averaging 3-5 months. Once i accept a referral, the average time until the the adoption is completed in an ethiopian court, and i travel to ethiopia to bring home my baby will be 3 months. So rough estimation (hard to do with the uncertainty of any international adoption), i will be bringing home my child in the spring of 2009. So it will be a long quiet winter, without any paperwork, just waiting—to officially "meet" my child—and begin the exciting process of bringing him/her home.

CIS Approval!

Today I broke down and called US Citizenship and Immigration Services to check the status of my adoption file. The adoption officer kindly told my impatient, anxious self, that my petition to adopt an orphan from Ethiopia had been approved! The document showing this approval (the sacred I71H) will be in todays mail—the last document I need to be placed officially on the wait list will be in my mailbox, notarized, and off for authentication by the weeks end!