Why am I so happy?
WE GOT A BUNCH OF STUFF DONE THIS WEEK! Whooohoooo!!
Here's the list:
-Copies of both of our original Birth Certificates are on the way.
-Marriage Certificate requested and received
-PA Background check is finally in the mail to us and I should have it to the agency office on Monday!
-Our Employers are working on their notarized salary letters
-Personal letter of recommendation is notarized and in my posession. (Thanks AJ, I can always count on you to get things done speedy quick!)
-Organization reference letters for both Mark and I are in the works at church.
-Labs have been requested and are ready for us to pick up at our Dr's office on Monday.
So, a few odds and ends are left, but there is very little paperwork left for us to do that does not come from the government. Which makes me think I need to answer the question that you are probably all thinking if you are following us on this journey: "So, where do you go from here?"
Bare with me through the explanation.
Right now the PA background check is the last thing we need before our home study is done. Then, the home study will be approved by our agency. (That should take about a week from this coming Monday) After that, we will then be permitted to file our I-600A form. Shortly after that piece of paper is filed we will get fingerprinted (hopefully this will only about a week or 2). Then, we will be waiting for the I-171H form to arrive. The wait times for this document to arrive are anywhere between 2-12 weeks. There is no guarentee if you will end up on the shorter or longer end of that timeframe, so it will be a race to the mailbox for at least a little while I'm sure. So... once we receive the I-171H, that means our Dossier is ready to go to Ethiopia! There are a few very minor things we will have to do right before it gets sent off, but it will basically be ready to go once we get that form. Dossier in Ethiopia means we are on the waiting list!
So, you are probably dealing with paperwork brain mush right now after that last paragraph, so I will just sum it up like this. I think we are about 3 weeks away from fingerprinting and the start of the waiting for the I-171H form, then from there it's anyones guess as to when the I-171H will show up in our mailbox. All you really need to know is that when I do get it, we will be very close to being on the waiting list in Ethiopia. I'm hoping 2 months from today we will be very close to, or even better, on that list! Then, hopefully about 6-8 months from that time we will see our son in his referral photo for the first time! Then, hopefully, about 4 months later we will travel to Africa to pick him up! Amazing Amazing Amazing.
Yippeskippie!
Disclaimer: Jenny McCracken I love you. Do not hate me for removing you from the above photo. It was done purely as to not confuse anyone. (Or maybe I didn't want your insane hottness to distract them from the focus of the blog post :)
