Go Ethiopia!

Good luck to Ethiopia's Robel Teklemariam, the one and only Ethiopian in the Vancouver Winter Olympics.  He is competing as a cross-country skier - yep, no snow in Ethiopia but he practices just outside the capital on roller skis.

Our Dossier was Sent to Ethiopia!

We just found out today that our dossier (all our paperwork) was sent to Ethiopia on Friday!  I was off on my timeline but I'm so glad I was wrong (for once).  Our "wait time" now starts............they estimate about 12-15 months for a referral and then 2-4 months before traveling to Ethiopia.  Everyone seems to think it will be a shorter time than that so we're praying that you're right!  We are so excited.

Thank the Lord!

Okay, for some reason our template got erased but now we're back in business.  This just made my day.  I thought I was going to have to start over!  We just met another couple last night who are adopting from Ethiopia, talked to a girl whose sister works there and know someone who is there right now!  The world is getting smaller and smaller.  Our friend, Jill, who is there right now, may possibly meet our child (ren).  They go to our church and her daughter is in Kendal's preschool class.   I know the Lord is watching over her while she's there to educate and be with the orphans in Ethiopia.  We will be there soon!

Does anyone know how to fix our blog??

I'm not sure what is going on with our blog.  It was working perfectly then all of a sudden the background is gone and the links and posts don't work.  Does anyone know why??  Help please!  :)

Dossier is IN!

Kreg and I got our fingerprints in the mail on Wednesday (early!!) so Friday I got them notarized, went to the Secretary of State and got 28 state seals put on our paperwork, went to kinkos to make four copies of our whole dossier and then over to corporate office to hand deliver everything. Our dossier is DONE!! This will be sent to the Ethiopian embassy then back to corporate and then to ETHIOPIA! It will take a few months but it's so relieving to have this paperwork done. Ahhh......

Great News!

I copy and pasted this memo from Bethany Christian Services about another adoption agency becoming available in Ethiopia. This will hopefully make our "wait time" shorter! How awesome is this!?!?

As we start the New Year, the Ethiopia team would like to acknowledge the Lord’s blessing during the past year. We would like to let you know that the Ethiopia program has expanded through our partnership with local agencies in Ethiopia.

The Ethiopia Country Director, Ato Mekonnen, signed an agreement with a reputable orphanage in November 2009. The orphanage is called Help for the Needy. Help for the Needy Development Association has branch offices throughout Ethiopia.

Fingerprint Appt Tomorrow!

Well, the Department of Homeland Security is our new best friend. They rescheduled our fingerprint appointment just one week from the last one we had to reschedule. It's tomorrow! I met with Belinda at Bethany yesterday and went over our dossier. Just two very minor adjustments and it is good to go! Here is the next few steps of our process:
Fingerprint appointment: tomorrow - takes about 1 to 2 months to get back results
Once we get the results we take our dossier (with this paper in it) to the Secretary of State's office in GR to get state sealed.
We then make four copies of this whole packet.
We take these copies to the Bethany corporate office in GR as well (these three steps can be done in same day).
They look over our papers (takes about two weeks) and send them to the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington D.C. (takes about 2 months).
The Ethiopian Embassy then sends them back to the Bethany corporate office in GR.
They then send everything to ETHIOPIA!! This then starts our wait time (which takes about 12-15 months for a referral).
We're getting closer even though it seems so far away. It is well worth the wait.