August 30, 2008

Month number 1 on the waiting list is now down!! 5-7 months to go... yee haw.

August 22, 2008

We have now officially applied for two grants. One with Gift of Adoption and one with Shaohannah's Hope. It sure would be helpful to get at least one. Every penny counts and with 3 of us flying across the world and 4 of us flying back, we need all the help we can get. Pray hard, daily and with great expectations!!!!

August 9, 2008

We received our Favorable Determination Letter today! It came very fast after being told it could take 3-4 months. I don't think this impacts where we are on the waiting list though. I have a feeling that this process is going to go faster than we originally anticipated... and I really have no problem waiting until next summer. What is God got up His sleeve this time?

August 3, 2008

As of July 30, we are officially on the waiting list for a referral. Because most people request an infant, we were bumped way up on the list. There are 40 families waiting for a referral. We are number 9!! AGCI is telling us to still expect to wait the average 6-8 months for our referral but it could be sooner. I just don't want to go before tax time. I know the Lord will provide no matter when it is though.

July 25, 2008

AGCI should be receiving our dossier today. We had been finished with it for months but were waiting for our home study to be completed. We should be on the waiting list for a referral very soon! We are anticipating traveling next summer - but we all know how God loves to surprise us!

June 30,2008

We received our fingerprint appointment today! The appt. is actually only a week away. I had sent in our application without our homestudy hoping that they would give us our appt. if we sent in our homestudy later. It worked! The letter we got said that the turn around time for our FDL is about 3 months. But once we get our homestudy in and approved we will be waiting 6-8 months for a referral (our FDL is not needed to be put on the list). We are thinking that we will travel sometime next summer. Maybe in time to sell both our houses and build a new one?

May 31, 2008

Where do I begin...we had our 1st visit for our home study today with Deb. She met with myself, Kendall and Reese. She will meet with Jeff alone next week and then us together at the same visit. Then she will write up the home study, get it notarized and the paperwork is finished!! I gave her all of our home study papers today with the exception of Jeff's medical. She will get that next week. All our paperwork is done for the dossier too. I just need to send in the I600A form so that we can get our fingerprint date and FDL (favorable determination letter). That is usually sent in with the home study but AGCI suggested submitting it without and sending a letter saying that it will follow within a few weeks. The worst they can do is say we have to wait until the home study is complete!
Onward and upward... Even though our paperwork was set back a couple weeks with the passing of Jeff's mom, it still feels like it was easy and quick. I wish Wanda would have been able to meet our little fro baby.

(I am told that a lot of the kids are in an orphanage and when our paperwork is approved in Ethiopia, Hannah's Hope staff work with the orphanages to find a child that is a good match for us. The child than comes to stay at Hannah's Hope until we come to get her!)