Our Ethiopian Blessings: FINGERPRINTS!!!!!!!

Saturday, December 19, 2009

FINGERPRINTS!!!!!!!

SOOO excited! We got the letter today! And the best part is NO APPOINTMENT NEEDED!!! We can go anytime during buisness hours!!!! So guess where we will be Monday?!?! I am shaking!!! I know its only fingerprints but...my adoption friends understand!! Thank you Lord!!!

So for those of you who don't understand my excitement...7 months of paperwork all for one last form....which will come after we get fingerprinted! Then we mail all our paperwork to our adoption agency who then forwards it to Ethiopia! Then we officially get on the waiting list!!!

So the next prayer is that our fingerprints pass and our 171H form comes quickly!! DTE in January? Hey I can pray for miracles right?!

2 comments:

KariJanuary 5, 2010 at 6:12 PM
WHOOOOHOOOO you are almost DTE!!! Believe me- I know how wonderful those fingerprints are!!! Hurry and go get them done!! Lets keep in touch- please feel free to add my crazy blog on your roll or my new button. I sure love our adoption bloggy land!!
Congrats!!
Kari
BTW- I LOVE your header photo of the hands around a globe. Did you take that photo. WOW!
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pmallecaJanuary 6, 2010 at 8:11 AM
Kari, No I didnt take the picture..I found it on line:) You are already on my blog roll and I added your button!
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Why Ethiopia?

We are sure many are not only questioning why more children but why Ethiopia. This is a journey that we have not come upon lightly but through much thought and prayer. Adoption had been on our hearts for years before we (or the Lord) decided the time was right. After attending a AWAA adoption seminar we felt led to go to Ethiopia. There are many other countries but we felt strongly this is where our children are! Yes children..we are praying for siblings!

Here are some other reasons Why Ethiopia:

1 in 10 children die before thier 1st birthday

1 in 6 children die before their 5th birthday

60% of children are stunted by malnutrition

The doctor to child ratio is 1 to 24,000

Half of the children will never attend school

Life expectancy is 45 yrs of age

There are roughly 4.8 million orphans

The Many Steps To Our Adoption

Our Adoption Process will take us any where from 12-18mths from start to finish, These are all the steps we have to follow to meet our children:

*Apply with America World Adoption Agency *Receive approval of application

*Send in signed paperwork, including agency agreement and releases (6/17/09)

*Complete home study (includes a series of home visits and interviews with a social worker to discuss our backgrounds, marriage, financial situation, reason for adopting, etc.)

*File with U.S. CIS (Citizen Immigration Services) for our child’s visa to enter the United States.

*Get fingerprinted by the FBI

*Assemble our dossier (an extensive set of documents required by the Ethiopian government for our adoption). The following items must be included in our dossier:

*America World sends our dossier to Ethiopia for translation into Amharic

*Dossier presented to the Ministry of Women and Childrens affairs(MOWA)in Ethiopia for approvel includes:

Application letter

Certified copies of our birth certificates

Certified copies or our marriage certificate

Medical letters from our doctors following physical examinations

Proof of medical and life insurance

Personal financial information (tax documents, etc.)

Employment verification letters

Three letters of reference

Police reports

Power of attorney

US passports

Photos of our family and our home

171-H approval (after our application is approved by USCIS)

Have all dossier documents notarized, certified, and authenticated

*Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWA) in Ethiopia for approval

**REFERRAL DAY – MOWA sends a child’s picture and medical report to us

We have the opportunity to accept or reject (which we don’t anticipate doing!) our referral

After accepting our referral, the court process takes place in Ethiopia to grant us official guardianship of our child

Approximately 8-10 weeks after accepting our referral, we will travel to Ethiopia to attend court for our children.

We will then travel home without our childrfen and wait approx. another 4-8 weeks to travel again.

On this trip we will:

Obtain a visa for our children and complete a few other paperwork items

Fly home with our children!