My Family, My Journey: Jumping for Joy!

Friday, November 14, 2008

Jumping for Joy!

It's done! Our home study is finally done! Wahoo wooooe!!! Yippieeeeeeee....e'hem.

Apparently our adoption agency requested a lot of changes to the original draft, which our social worker made fairly quickly, probably because I turned into a giant stalker! Then our agency had to review those changes, which took another week. Anyway, it's DONE! Our social worker mailed it off to USCIS yesterday afternoon and now we are waiting for immigration approval, which will come by way of US mail anywhere from 2 weeks to 3+ months from now. Once that's done we will take the form they send us, have it notarized and then off it will go on it's authentication journey (see "happy anniversary" posting on October 10th if you want to know what that means). So, we are one giant step closer and on the final leg of the all this paperwork madness. Apart from waiting for the USCIS approval form the only other thing we are waiting for is official approval from our adoption agency, which should come any day now that they have our home study.

What have we been doing to pass the time, you ask? How is the nursery coming along, you wonder? Well, we sort of stalled out on the nursery project, mostly because we still haven't figured out what to do with the box spring and mattress that we no longer need and have no place to store. Maybe if it stops raining this weekend I will drag it out to the street and pin a "free" sign on it! In the meantime, I am teaching myself to knit. And if you know me with a project, once I start there is just no stopping me so the nursery will have to wait for a bit longer. Here is my first project, a scarf of course...

I know, it might be a little small, even for a baby. I got kind of bored with the one stitch, one color thing so I switched to a baby hat....

And then another hat! I think it needs a blue pom-pom...

I am into the hats and can get one done in 2 or 3 evenings, but I think I need to branch out and figure out how to do a sweater or something, otherwise these kids will have 100 hats waiting for them by the time they finally get here! LOL!

Maybe I'll make something for Mark, since he's such a great husband and has been asking for one and keeps trying to wear the baby hats!

“Patience and fortitude conquer all things” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: Way to go, Heidi and Mark!! Congratulations.

Try knitting a bathrobe or something, should keep you busy for a while. A pink one...with purple dots...and a white trim or something...with pom poms. Should look lovely!

*smile*

Eric; Friday, November 14, 2008
Jebena said...: I love the blue hat with green trim. Also, you're blog has been Tagged! Welcome to the world of adoption!!!!; Friday, November 14, 2008

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.