As we have been sharing the news of our adoption with our families, friends, and co-workers the one thing that most people are curious about is the overall process. I will admit that when we started this journey I knew very little about the overall process, but the adoption agency that we are working with is very transparent with the step-by-step, from application to bringing home our baby boy! There are three main stages which involve...
1. The Dossier
Each adoption process begins with assembling a collection of 13-15 documents called a dossier. The dossier mainly consists of a financial statement, employment verification, medical and health information, background checks, and a home study. The home study is a report submitted by a social worker, after meeting at the family’s home, outlining the family’s background and details of the household. All of these documents must go through several levels of certification so that they can ultimately be used as the legal framework for the adoption process. This stage is often referred to as the “paper chase,” and should take, on average, 3-6 months to complete. The finished dossier is forwarded to America World where our staff carefully reviews it to ensure accuracy. Once approved, the dossier is forwarded to the chosen country, and is then translated and processed.
This stage can often be the hardest for many adoptive families. Much like a physical pregnancy, there will be much waiting involved with the adoption process. Although sometimes documents need renewal and home studies need to be updated, the majority of the time is spent waiting during this stage of the process. The waiting period for a baby boy from Ethiopia is currently between 10 and 16 months.
After the submission of the dossier and the waiting period comes the referral. The referral includes the child’s basic profile, medical information, and will also include the first picture of our son! Once some additional work is completed online and the acceptance paperwork, travel arrangements will be made for the trip to bring our baby home. Ethiopia requires two trips to complete the adoption and we will be able to bring our son home after the second trip. The amount of time between the two trips varies based upon the court dates that we are given by the Ethiopian government but shouldn't be more than 6 weeks apart.
We are thankful for everyone who has prayed for us or helped to support us financially thus far. Please consider ordering a bag of free-trade organic beans from "Just Love" Coffee to help support our adoption. we are hoping to sell at least 5 additional bags this month. We tasted the coffee this weekend and you won't be sorry that you traded your usual brew for this yummy coffee!! If you would like to support us in this way, please click on the link above or use the link on our blog to order from our store. Or if you would prefer to donate rather than purchase coffee, there is a link to donate via PayPal on the main page of our blog. (If you are using a mobile version of blogger, you will need to scroll to the bottom and go to the web version of the page to see the side buttons.) I will continue to update the blog with information about the adoption process over the next week!
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