Final Homestudy Meeting

In the picture above you can see the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa (pronounced Ah-dees, ah-bah-bah ...) This is where we will be traveling to via an 18hour flight. The CHS orphange is located in the center of the city.

We met with our social worker on Friday, Dec. 2nd from 9:00 -11:20am. The meeting went really well and we spent more time talking about our pasts, our families, and the realities of adoption. Laura, our social worker, was very complimentary and said she was very impressed with us - apparently we put on a pretty good front! The information that she gathered about us will go in the official "homestudy" document that will be sent to the Ethiopian goverment for review. I mentioned to Laura that we needed new dossier forms because Scott's name was spell wrong on the first set. Laura said that we need to speak with Jackie (she is the person at the agency that handles all of the dossier forms) and kind of left it at that. We thought maybe we could pick up the corrected form since we were at the agency but no luck. I will keep emailing Jackie until I get them - I know how to be persistent. I am guessing that Jackie was out of the office for the week.

Anyway, Laura said that we did not have to arrange a third meeting - so we are official done with the homestudy meetings.

What's Next?

1) complete dossier and return it to CHS within 2 weeks. Once it is reviewed and accepted by CHS we will be on the official waiting list along with ~ 400 other families yikes!)

2) Complete USCIS Packet (US approval forms to bring immigrant into the US) in February - forms are only good for one year so we will have to fill them out again if the process takes longer than a year.

3) Attend classes. Transracial parenting class (Jan. 31st - St. Paul)

Before I Join Your Family (April 25th)

4) READ, READ, READ - Our social worker is requiring us to read 4 books, but recommends that we read as much as we can to prepare for our new blended family.

5) Wait . . .

I just want to take a moment to sincerely thank all of our friends and family that have helped us on our journey so far. They have helped us with getting documents, making photo copies, getting books, watching Bailey, letting us stay in their homes, and much, much more. Thank you so much - you all are awesome!