Our Ethiopian Blessings: Care packages!!!

Monday, July 26, 2010

Care packages!!!

Our first carepackages to our kids will be in thier little hands very soon!!! While we sleep tonight over in Ethiopia another traveling family will meet our children and deliver them our presents!!! They will get to be my hands and feet, they will hold them and take pictures and show them thier very first picture of thier new family!!!!! I will get to see new pictures of my kids too! Next week our 2nd presents will be on thier way to my children with another traveling family, we are so blessed to have such an amazing support group with our extended adoption family! I could'nt survive this journey without you all!!!

1 comment:

DebbJuly 26, 2010 at 8:15 PM
YAY! How fun are these packages! Your kids will love them! So very happy for you that you get to have others' bring care packages over for you ~ excited for you to get more pics! Smile, my friend! You are blessed!
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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!