Still Getting it Together

As expected, the process of gathering the dossier has slowed to a treacle. Our homestudy is still not complete as we await the second round of reference while gathering the third set of references (which will actually go in our dossier). Our adoption agency needed its own set of references, our homestudy agency needed their own references and we have to gather our own references for our dossier to send to Ethiopia. I wish I had been knowledgable of how many references were needed so I could gather them from our friends and neighbors all in one fail swoop. Instead, I have had to return to our friends 3 times requesting references and asking them to get multiple copies notarized.

When we completed our two China dossiers, our adoption agency got our references. They didn't even go in the dossier. Its interesting to see the differences. China's medical forms were extremely specific while Ethiopia's only really requires a notarized letter from the GP stating you are healthy.

Once the new year has passed, I will be kicking the paperchase back into high gear. I'm setting the deadline to have the homestudy in our hands by mid-January.

The Dossier

I sat down this morning to work on the dossier. I do it in fits and starts as time allows. The time it takes to put together the Ethiopia dossier in contrast to the China dossier is less. The only trouble we are really having this time around is with the home study. We are not accustomed to working with a home study agency and an adoption agency. The past two times we have done this our home study was done by our adoption agency. It’s so much easier that way. This time around we have had to get so many separate documents for our home study agency. Our poor friends and neighbors have written references and had them notarized three times now…once for our adoption agency, once for our home study agency and now for our dossier.

The other hold up we have had is in our physicals. We had two different forms, once again one for our home study and one for the dossier. Matt and I go to different GPs but both have been booked solid. Getting in for physicals and some blood work required by our home study agency has taken awhile. I had my physical and blood work last week and got my letter from my GP on Monday. Matt goes in another week and a half to his GP. Once his physical and paperwork is complete then our social worker should release the draft copy of our homestudy for our adoption agency to approve.

Other than that it has been so far so good. Here’s what required and where we are so far.

Document Checklist for Ethiopia Dossier:

· Letter to the Board of Toukoul
· Family Registration Form
· Financial Information
· Letter from Bank {DONE}
· Criminal Clearance {GOT TWO COPIES—NEED TO RETURN FOR ONE MORE COPY}
· Two Letters of Reference
· Letter from Employer {DONE}
· Medical Form {SHANNON’S DONE/NEED MATT’S}
· Marriage Certificate {DONE}
· Birth Certificates {DONE}
· Introduction Letter {DONE}
· Home Study Report {HOME VISITS DONE—WAITING FOR DRAFT COPIES}
· Obligation of Home Study Agency
· Deed of Home
· Power of Attorney {DONE}
· USCIS Approval I-171h
· Passport Photos
· Family Pictures
· Adoption Education Certificates

Ooops

I knew when I commented in the previous post that things are going eerily smooth that I would have jinxed myself. On September 29, we mailed in our signed and notarized contracts along with our 1st payment. Once this is received, you are an official client of our agency and then receive your dossier guide.

I have so been waiting for the dossier guide.

So, yesterday when I went to the mailbox, there was a big envelope from our agency. I was so thrilled. I ripped it open hoping to discover our dossier guide. Imagine my great dissappointment as I saw our contract and check returned inside. WHAT?!

We missed initialing on one page. We overlooked it. Our notary even overlooked it when she double-checked that we initialed and signed everywhere. Last night we initialed the page and this morning I re-sent the signed and initialed contracts back to the agency along with our check.

Next week, I will begin checking the mailbox every day for our dossier guide!!

In the meantime, we are finishing gathering all of our needed documents to complete our homestudy.

Into the Thick of It

In a few days I will post our adoption timeline/process. We have completed our interview with the agency, received our contract and are in the paperchase. So far we have had two homestudy interviews and we have our 3rd and final interview next week. We have to get our physicals (including Chloe) and our homestudy agency needs our three references returned and our homestudy will be ready to go. At our final interview next week we get to read a preliminary draft of our homestudy.

In the meantime, I have been gathering some of the documents needed for the adoption (like birth certificates, etc.). Since this is our third time gathering items for a dossier I began collecting everything about a month ago. Once we also see our draft homestudy next week I will begin gathering the paperwork and documentation necessary to file our 1-600a.

So far, gathering everything for the dossier has been eerily smooth, including our homestudy. Lets hope it continues that way.

Welcome to our Journey to Oliver

You have found the link from our Family United blog and discovered that we have come to the decision to do a concurrent adoption from Ethiopia. Really, it makes me laugh and snort when I say "concurrent" because with the current status of China adoption there really is nothing concurrent about it. We hope to have our Ethiopia adoption completed next year and will still probably have another year to wait for Emma Claire. (Yes, we are still going to complete our adoption for Emma Claire.)

To cover all the bases so to speak, below are some generally asked questions about this decision:

What brought you to this decision to adopt from Ethiopia and China at the same time? (The long version)
We have both always agreed that we wanted 3 children. Ideally we wanted 2 girls and a boy. We were bestowed the wonderful gift of Chloe from China in 2005 and knew we would return to China for a sister for Chloe, Emma Claire. We began that process in 2006 and were LID 10-16-06.

After we had Chloe and were waiting for Emma Claire, I knew I didn't need to give birth to mother a child and to love a child as my own. It was at this time we began discussing adopting from Africa or to do a domestic adoption of a bi-racial child and said that we would do so after Emma Claire came home.

After our dossier was sent to China, things really began to slow down. We were first told to expect a referral/travel around the Olympics, then we began to think we would get a referral when Chloe was in kindergarten. Now, we have no idea and our best guess is within the next 2-4 years we will get our referral for Emma Claire. Knowing this reality, and knowing that we aren’t getting any younger we felt we couldn’t just put everything on hold until after Emma Claire’s arrival. We want our children to be able to share their childhood together, not be so far apart in age that they have no common interests.

With that in mind we began exploring our options and decided to pursue a concurrent/interim adoption, thereby making Emma Claire the 3rd child, the youngest.

Do both your agencies know you are doing this? Does it jeopardize your China adoption?
Yes, both our agencies know about the other. When we began looking at agencies, my first statement was that we were LID 10-16-06 for a China adoption and could we do a concurrent adoption. It seems that more and more agencies are allowing concurrent adoptions. I came across 2 agencies opposed to it. Of all the agencies I spoke to who allowed concurrent adoptions, all of them told me that the timeline was very do-able and we would be home with our son well within the one-year timeframe China likes. Of course, our China adoption agency told us that we had to have Oliver home for one year before our China adoption could be completed as per CCAA guidelines.

Why Ethiopia and not domestic?
Our first thought was a domestic adoption and domestic agencies are the first ones we called to research African-American adoption and bi-racial adoption. However, we have had a failed domestic adoption in the past and are wary of the process. We also took into consideration that we have Chloe and more than likely we were told some travel would be necessary for an extended period, because in all likelihood we would be adopting from another state. We discussed and compared our domestic and international options and decided to adopt from Africa. The two deciding factors were -
· Every 15 seconds a child is orphaned in Africa and there are millions of children in need of a family. There are few options for these children and the governments in many countries in Africa cannot assist these children.
· Having been through the international process before, and having one child from China, we knew the process, knew it worked and felt more at ease in the international program
That was our process. It was what felt right to us.

Once we decided to adopt internationally, we looked at Haiti, Ghana, Ethiopia, Burundi & Rwanda. We spoke to various agencies about each program. Researched each on the internet and read family blogs of people who adopted from each country. In the end, we felt the Ethiopia process fit us best.

How did you find your agency?
Over a year ago I began researching Ethiopian adoptions. There were fewer agencies then and two agencies stuck out in my mind, mainly because they had been doing Ethiopian adoptions the longest. When we began researching an agencies in earnest my process was this-
1. I went to the U.S. State Department website and pulled up the list of Hague accredited agencies. I then went to each and every one of the agencies and made notes on which agencies had programs in Africa. I did not research agencies that had temporary accreditation. **Just as a note of information: Ethiopia is a Hague nation, meaning you HAVE to use a Hague accredited agency to adopt from Ethiopia. I was amazed in doing a general search for Ethiopian adoption agencies that there are agencies saying they have Ethiopian adoption programs but are NOT Hague accredited agencies.**
2. Once I had the list, I researched the countries and then called or contacted the agencies for more information on their international programs in Africa. I made a point at this time to ask if the agency allowed concurrent adoptions to eliminate those who did not.
3. Once we received more information from the agency, we sat down, reviewed the materials, research the agencies in the Adopt Africa and Ethiopia Adoption Agency Review Yahoo! Groups.
4. In the end, we chose one of the two agencies I had first noted in my agency research on Ethiopia over a year ago. We chose Dove in the end. We connected with them more, they were open about the process and informative and they have been doing the process since 1992. Many of the agencies we spoke to have just started their Ethiopian adoption program.

How long will the adoption process take?
Just like with any adoption process one cannot say how long it will take. The current timelines are this—
Time to Complete Dossier ---- 4 months on average
After dossier is complete, time to referral ---- 3-9 months
After referral, time to court ratification ---- 2-3 months
After court is finalized time to travel ---- 4-6 weeks
ESTIMATED WAIT TIME (start to finish) ---- 10-17.5 months

Just like with all our other adoption journeys we will be keeping this blog as a record of this process.