Moving Along {adoption update}

Well, summer is almost over.  We had lots of fun, but when I look back over the last few months it seems like a blur of nothing but adoption paperwork!  Phone calls, meetings with our social worker, going to the bank more times than I can count to get documents notarized, signing this, signing that, scanning, emailing, etc. This is what my dining room table has looked like for the past several months- and this was after a huge chunk of paperwork had already been sent off!

 It will be MORE than worth it in the end.  Last weekend we signed the very last document and I had a sudden case of OCD while I checked and re-checked to make sure that everything was right with our giant STACK of papers. First thing Monday morning Isaac and I drove down to the "mailbox store" as we now call it, to overnight it all to our agency.  

I'm not even ashamed to admit that I had a little tear in my eye as we walked across that parking lot, holding months worth of paperwork that will eventually bring us to our new son or daughter.

So...we are officially homestudy approved and our dossier (ALL of our required documents for the adoption) is currently being authenticated in Washington D.C.  Once that process is complete in 3-4 weeks, it gets sent to ETHIOPIA!!  We will receive a tracking number and be notified as soon as it arrives in Addis Ababa.  This is a big moment in the adoption process since it will mean that we are officially submitted to Ethiopia.  After that we will be fundraising like crazy (more on that in a future post!) and waiting for the phone call of a lifetime from our agency!  This is called the referral call and is when your caseworker tells you all about your child and you cry and freak out and get to see pictures of him/her and cry and freak out some more. I can't even imagine! I am going to...cry and freak out. This will still be several months away for us so we will just use this time to prepare our family and our house for the precious little gift that God is allowing us to have as a part of our family!  
more to come soon!!