My Family, My Journey: September 2008

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Check, Check, Check!

Home Visit, check! Physician's reports, check! Reference letters, check! Employment letters, proof of insurance, fingerprinting appointments, check, check, check! I can hardly believe it but we can count the remaining to-do's on one hand and all we have to do (all we can do) is wait for them to happen. This includes our Home Study report (probably completed by mid to late October), Gladney Approval (this can happen after our home study is completed), CIS Approval Letter (the picture below is of us holding our fingerprint appointment dates, which we received in the mail on Friday), and for our FBI Clearance Letter. I am unsure how long we will need to wait for these two government documents but I don't think too long.

The best part of our week was the Gladney Ethiopian Families dinner in Chinatown on Thursday. There were about 150 people in attendance including Gladney employees and lots of local (CT and NYC) families who are either in the process of or who already have adopted from Ethiopia. It was so wonderful to meet the Ethiopian children, from 6 mos old to teenagers, and I know I might be biased but I think these children are SO beautiful! We were also able to connect with several families who live out near us in CT and we are organizing a pumpkin carving party and a dinner at a local Ethiopian restaurant. Everyone was so warm and seemed so down to earth and we are really looking forward to getting to know them better. We are the only childless couple in the bunch so I expect these events will give us a little preview of how our lives are about to change!

The best part of our weekend was an exploration of a couple local baby stores. We know it's still early but with all the paperwork done it is so much fun, and, ok, a bit overwhelming, to start thinking about all the stuff we need to get! Mark was particularly enamored with the strollers, which I attribute to the fact that they are vehicles of sorts and so many of them come with cool sporty wheels and bright high tech fabrics! Right now our favorite one is this cool orange all terrain contraption!

Or perhaps we will need this one!

And here is the happy expectant couple holding a letter from CIS. Who ever thought someone could get this happy about an appointment to have their fingerprints taken!

Monday, September 15, 2008

A Light at the End of the Tunnel

While we were on vacation our Gladney Application and Dossier Manual arrived, both of which sent us to whole new levels of paperwork madness last week! The good news is that here we are at the start of a new week, a little sleep deprived, but with a clear view of the light at the end of the paperwork tunnel. Yeah! We have a few odds and ends left to complete but the bulk of what we have to do is DONE! Now begins the waiting….and just the first level of waiting…but hey, no one gets to decide they want to be parents and have a baby home overnight, and that's probably a good thing too. Now is the time to feather our nest and acquire all that baby stuff we are going to need! For those curious about the details, here's where we are with everything:

Waiting for our completed home study – we had to postpone our home visit last week because I had a work conflict but the home visit is going to happen this coming friday and our final interview is 9/25. Then we wait for our social worker to complete the report, which I think takes a few weeks or so.
Waiting for Physician’s Report of good health – we had our physicals and fortunately we are both in good health. Now our doctor needs to complete the reports (poor guy, there are three for each of us so it’s no minor task). I am bringing a notary public to his office on Friday so hopefully all six reports will be done by then.
Waiting for Personal References - thanks to you wonderful people who are doing this for us! See below for a picture of Amy holding her reference form package!
Waiting for notarized letter from our insurance company stating that the child will be insured as soon as he or she is in our custody.
Waiting for notarized letter of employment from my company (Mark already got his!).
Waiting for appointments to get our fingerprints taken.
Waiting for Gladney approval and CIS approval (neither of which will happen until all of the above happen)

When all these things are done we will officially be on the Gladney wait list!!! From what I can tell the referrals are coming about 4 or 5 months after people get on the list. Fingers crossed that those wait times don’t change before it’s our turn!

Our other news is that we made a decision on age, gender and number of children. We are requesting an infant of either gender age 0 - 12 mos (likely the child will be 6 - 12 mos when we bring him or her home). We are also open to adopting an infant 0-12 mos plus a sibling 0-36 mos, although we have stated that we do not wish to significantly extend our wait time waiting for a sibling. We could have been more specific but we like leaving a little bit up to chance. Either a boy or a girl is going to look adorable in this little red sox hat (the filthy, ripped and faded hat on the right is Mark's, of course, and it will be kept far away from Baby Newcombe for obvious health reasons!).

Amy holding her reference letter package!

Timeline

*PAPER CHASE/5.5 MNTHS*
6-27-08: Register for orientation with local agency
7-16-08: Attend orientation with local agency
8-19-08: Decide to adopt from Ethiopia through Gladney. Best decisions ever!
8-28-08: Attend orientation with Gladney
8-28-08: 1st Home Study interview
9-25-08: Home study interviews completed & all Gladney paper work submitted
9-30-08: CIS fingerprints
10-2-08: FBI clearance
11-12-08: Home Study report completed
11-25-08: Gladney approval
12-4-08: CIS approval
*WAIT FOR REFERRAL/13 MNTHS*
12-11-08: Wait list!!!!!!!
4-21-09: Increased our age preference hoping to speed things up (HA!)
8-29-09: Heidi's medicals updated
9-15-09: Mark's medicals updated
9-20-09: Travel Immunizatons
11-10-09: Sent in request for CIS fingerprint updates
11-11-09: Gladney calls to review our age preference
11-17-09: Gladney calls again and tells us about twin boys who *might* become available. We agree to increasing our age preference in order to pursue these boys.
11-21-09: Receive CIS fingerprint appointment
12-16-09: Have CIS fingerprints taken
1-4-10: Referral!!!!!!! 28 month old twin boys!!!!!
*WAIT TO PASS COURT/4 MNTHS*
1-19-10: Start home study update
2-18-10: CIS fingerprints cleared
3-4-10: Home study update completed/sent CIS extension request
3-30-10: File submitted to courts!
3-31-10: Received court date!
4-22-10: Received CIS approval extension
4-23-10: 1st court date
4-28-10: 2nd court date
5-05-10: 3rd court date
05-06-10: 4th and final court date! We're a family!
5-12-10: Receive travel dates!
5-18-10: Travel!
6-1-10: Home as a family of SEVEN (four humans, three puppy dogs!)

Fun Facts About Ethiopia

•Ethiopia has been around for a very long time. The country's Rift Valley is known as the cradle of humanity - fossils of the oldest known upright hominid (4-million years old) were found here in 2005, surpassing the famous 3.5-million-year-old 'Lucy', which was discovered in the same region back in 1974.

•A thousand years before Christ, the Queen of Sheba, we are told, traveled to Jerusalem where she met King Solomon, married him, and had a son, Menelik. When Menelik reached maturity, it is said he left Jerusalem and took with him the Ark of the Covenant, containing the original 10 commandments, back to Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Christian Orthodox Church says it still has the ark in its possession. No one else makes such a claim...

•Ethiopia's official religion is the 1700 year old Ethiopian Christian Orthodox Church. The Jews of Ethiopia, Beta Israel, are said to have been there for 3000 years. And its Muslim adherents have practiced Islam for 1300 years. Ethiopia is split religiously, with official statistics of 35% to 40% Ethiopian Orthodox primarily in the north, and 45% to 50% Muslim, primarily in the South.

•Ethiopia is the only country in Africa never to be under colonial rule, other than a brief occupation by Italy during WWII. You can visit many restaurants in Ethiopia today due to the influence of Italy during the occupation.

•Traditional Ethiopian food consists of various vegetable or meat dishes, usually a wat or thick stew, served atop injera, which is a large crepe-like sourdough flatbread made from fermented teff flour. One does not eat with utensils, but instead uses a piece of the injera (always with the right hand) to scoop up the sauces.

•The Ethiopian calendar is very similar to the Egyptian Coptic calendar – each have 13 months, 12 with 30 days each and the 13th month at the end of the year with 5 or 6 days, depending on whether it is a leap year. The year starts on September 11th (12th in a leap year). The Ethiopian calendar is 7 years behind the Gregorian calendar, so Ethiopia recently celebrated their millennium on September 12, 2007.

•Coffee can be traced back to the 9th Century where it is believed a shepherd discovered coffee beans in the highlands of Ethiopia, namely the Kaffa region. The Ethiopian people are very proud of their coffee and they show this in their well known coffee ceremonies. The Coffee Ceremony is a very important part of socializing in Ethiopia and to be invited to a coffee ceremony is always considered a sign of respect and friendship.

•There are multiple tribes with different subcultures and over 80 languages in Ethiopia. The Amharic language is a Semitic language spoken in North Central Ethiopia and is the official working language for Ethiopia.

•Family in Ethiopia includes immediate and extended relatives, neighbors, and friends. Faith and family are the foundation of the Ethiopian culture. Ethiopians are very respectful and loving. The elderly are considered very knowledgeable and as a very important part of the family structure. Children are usually raised in a large community that includes extended family and neighbors, and siblings are expected to help take care of each other.