Our Dossier is in Ethiopia!!!

Celebrating D.T.E.

To celebrate we decided to go out to eat. I wanted to go and eat Ethiopian food but the closest Ethiopian restaurant is in NYC and another is about 35 minutes south in NJ. Matt got home about 7 p.m. and I didn't want to make him turn around and head back into the city and it was getting late so we didn't want to trek south to the other Ethiopian restaurant in NJ. So, we did what was practical, grabbed one of the restaurant gift certificates we won a few weeks ago and went here. I know, I know, what were we thinking? Well, we had a $50 gift certificate to use and Chloe loves pasta, so why not we thought. I had eaten there before and it wasn't bad--should have driven for the Ethiopian food.

We got seated right away, someone took our drink order, our drinks came and then we were forgotten about---for 25 minutes. Apparently the two waitresses disagreed on which one should wait on our table. So, they decided neither of them should. Matt got it sorted out and we eventually did get to order and eat, not without some other complications. Needless to say, it wasn't a great meal out and we won't be returning. Not the celebration we wanted.

One of the exciting things about Ethiopian adoption is that you get to track your dossier to Ethiopia. We didn't get to do this with our two China dossiers---you get to wait and wonder until about 1-2 months later when you get a notice that you're dossier reached China and was logged in. Our Ethiopian dossier is different and I woke this morning to check-in and see how its progressing on its journey to Africa.

IT'S IN NEW YORK CITY.

All this work, the paperchasing, the worrying, the double-checking and triple-checking to have our dossier go to Oregon then to Washington D.C. then back to Oregon then on to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to have it sitting 20 miles from my home in NYC. Too funny.

So, I'll keep checking in on it I am sure. And, yes, I signed up for the delivery alert, but yes, I am still checking in on it.

Our Dossier is on its way to Ethiopia!!!!

I was seriously going from every Ethiopian adoption blog I knew calculating how long it averages to get your documents authenticated in D.C. when an email popped up from our agency----

"Dear Matthew and Shannon:
Your Dossier was sent to Ethiopia today!"

I was so happy to see that email. I was struck with emotion and became tearful to see the words that our dossier is on its way to Ethiopia. This is our third "dossier to..." in international adoption and the relief, joy and excitement is always there each time.

Onesies

Its been a two weeks and one day since our dossier arrived at our agency. No word on its current whereabouts. I assume it is still being authenticated.

In honor of finishing our dossier I purchased these onesies for Oliver from a merchant on Et*sy and they arrived today. I think they are so cute.

Why Did You Opt for an International Adoption?

I ♥ NPR

I found this interview on NPR. It is a discussion of why people choose to adopt internationally.

In our adoption news, no word yet on the status of our dossier. I am hoping/praying that it is sent this week to Ethiopia.

One Week Down

Its been a week and a day since our agency received our dossier. It should be getting authenticated in D.C. now.

We won't be officially "waiting" for our referral until it arrives in Ethiopia.

Complete and Utter Panic...

but it's a-ok now. For about 30 minutes this afternoon my heart was racing as I was trying to figure out what happened to our homestudy, what happened to our release and why our homestudy agency is so confused and why our adoption agency and homestudy agency are having some problems communicating. This is how it went down:

I'm at swimming lessons with Chloe when my cell phone rings. It's our homestudy agency. I pick up the phone--they have a problem. Our adoption agency has called them and want to know when they sent the draft copy of our homestudy for approval, because they don't have a copy of it on record. The lady on the phone then tells me she can't send them a copy because that's not our placing/adoption agency that they have on file--they have Great Wall. So, she refused to send them the homestudy. After talking to her for about 5 minutes, I am so confused. Why does our adoption agency need our homestudy draft, they have our dossier? And, why does our homestudy agency have no record of them as our placing agency? I hang up with her telling her I would call our adoption agency and get back to her in a little while.

So, I'm totally confused. I'm standing by a swimming pool trying to figure out--

a) why our adoption agency needs a draft of our homestudy when they have our completed dossiers with the approved homestudy in the dossier

b) why our homestudy agency thinks we are completing an Ethiopian adoption with Great Wall (our agency for our China adoptions and with whom they would never have had any communication yet b/c our dossiers for our China adoption was written by a social worker with Great Wall in 2006 when we still lived in Texas)

c) what the heck is going on?

So, I try not to panic and remain calm while I get Chloe showered and dressed. We make it home where I call our Ethiopian adoption agency to get the low-down on what they called our homestudy agency for exactly. It seems they have to report reviews of all homestudies for Hague compliance and they somehow didn't have the original email with our homestudy draft. They were calling to get it resent so they could have it on record. I then called our homestudy agency (here in NJ) to clear things up. They apparently had misfiled our paperwork and only had that we were waiting for our referral from China with Great Wall and would have to do a new homestudy for China. Apparently they realized they had misfiled something after they got off the phone with me, dug around and found all the correct documentation.

In the end it was much ado about nothing but it did send me into a complete panic until I could clear things up. Apparently, having clients who are in the process of two international adoptions at the same time is very confusing to our homestudy agency. Luckily, they figured it out and all is back on track--WHEW!