Quick update

1 Police Plaza seemed to go just fine this morning, as long as they follow our directions and remember the "live signature" part we should have our letters on December 7th...and...drumroll please...we have our in-person homestudy scheduled!!!!! for December 6th!!!!!! So, if Ababa's passport and medical are taken care of by then, I think we might make our goal of Dossier in Ethiopia by Christmas!!!!! (The big variable in that is the NYS approval of our homestudy, but I am choosing to be happy and not think about that today:-)

Showers of Blessings

Wow, just wow! This whole adoption process is full of things we can't control and are challenging to deal with.  Since Friday, we've had several more big breakthroughs.  I'm sure that in time the other shoe will fall and we'll be stuck waiting for something crucial again (ahem, possibly our home study:-) but for now, we are enjoying being so grateful for the shower of blessing we just experienced!

Sunday we had two friends offer to help with our travel expenses--one friend offered financial assistance and the other (an on-again/off-again flight attendant at the mercy of the fickle airline industry) offered buddy passes provided they are working then. Wow! We are just speechless and so grateful!!!

Speaking of friends, we got two of our three reference letters (actually 5 of 6 b/c we are just waiting for 1 home study letter) best....self....esteem....boost....ever! I think every year from now on I am going to ask my friends to write a reference letter for me:-) Seriously, it's pretty incredible that we have such awesome friends and that they think (or at least write:-) such amazing things about us:-)

This morning, our homestudy agency emailed me back:-)!!!!!  It seems two things converged to slow up our case-1. they misunderstood some language in our placement agency's agreement and 2. someone was out of the office for almost a week but didn't have their "out of office" on...I am pretty sure now that things are moving forward and everyone is clear that this is a priority for us to get done and sent to Washington before Christmas if at all possible.  We still haven't heard from our social worker, but the Executive Director said the social worker should be in touch tomorrow and gave us her email--so if necessary we can start e-stalking:-)

Then tonight both my passport and Ababa's 2007 tax return arrived in the mail:-) (Plus some awesome Ethiopian-themed Christmas presents for family and friends:-)

AND, when I opened my email I found out that our placement agency is now going to be working with two more orphanages (both of which have been vetted by the Ethiopian government and our agency). So, they are expecting referrals will pick up!!!  As important as it feels to us to know that we may become parents sooner, it's really fantastic b/c it means more kids who are in need of families will get them! YAY!!!

So...if our escrow check and Ababa's passport arrive this week and if we can set up our in-person meeting with our social worker before Thursday, we will be truly be filled and overflowing with Thanksgiving!!! (I mean we will be anyway, but really, how amazing would that be:-)

Tomorrow morning we are trucking down to 1 Police Plaza to get our "Good Conduct Certificates with Live Signature" sounds exciting, right?  They'll take 10 business days to process, so we want to get that moving ASAP.  Ababa is still working on his chest x-ray/medical report, it's looking like this will happen the first week of December.

Stay-tuned:-)

Friday Update #5

Friday Update #5, some good...some bad...some...just bureaucracy....I think...

We got a huge chunk of papers done this week and only have a few left that require more effort than just going to the notary BUT we're now getting really concerned about the fact that we have not yet gotten to speak to our social worker directly to discuss or schedule our in-person meeting.  Our placement agency is also getting concerned with the delay.  I left a message and sent an email today to the home study agency to request a phone call ASAP to discuss the delay and the best path forward, but I have not heard anything back yet (I also called several times throughout the day and no one picked up.  Usually they are really prompt, so I am hoping that they are at a conference today or something, but I am definitely getting nervous about this! :-(

On to brighter news, here's the updates on last week's list:

• Get the third reference letter for the dossier notarized-I believe all dossier letters are now notarized and should be in our possession by Sunday! We are waiting on 1 homestudy reference letter (yes Pastor R, this means you:-)
• Organize all paperwork to see what else needs to be done/printed and notarized-DONE:-)
• My PA child abuse clearance arrived today (yay!) I need to forward it unopened to our home study agency for them to review, also mail them our home study reference letters-SENDING ON MONDAY PROVIDED THEY CALL ME BACK
• Get that darn criminal clearance notarized paper at our local precinct-Um yeah, turns out we're going to have to take a notary with us to 1 POLICE PLAZA, WHAT?!?!?!?! 
• (M'kay for those of you not in NYC, here's  1 Police Plaza, looks like a barrel of laughs and a paragon of efficiency, right?!?!?)-
• Mail our last non-notarized home study form (if possible, I think we have to wait so that the financial information matches our dossier financial information which includes the bank letters)-SENDING IN THE PACKAGE ON MONDAY PROVIDED THEY CALL ME BACK!
• Figure out if Ababa's unemployment letter will work for our dossier-PRETTY SURE IT WILL:-)
• Continue to push for our in-person homestudy meeting-APPARENTLY WE NEED TO PUSH HARDER!
• Ababa has to get his medical forms done tomorrow-STILL WORKING ON THIS
• Follow-up/track:
• Passport applications-IN PROCESS, they cashed my check.  Ababa's isn't in the online system yet, but we did expedited for his, so it should be here around the same time as mine :-)
• bank letters-DONE:-)!!!!!!! YAY!!!!
• notarized employment letter-Pretty sure this is all set, if not then Ababa can get it quickly
• BONUS-We also started our mandatory training:-) Cultural Sensitivity training-DONE:-)

List for this week:

• PUSH FOR IN-PERSON HOMESTUDY!!! This will entail a 3-5 hour interview at our house, the social worker writing the homestudy, our placement agency editing the draft, the social worker making edits, and then...the final version gets sent to NY State for approval which can take a few weeks...see why we're getting concerned?!?!?!?!?!?!
• Confirm Ababa's unemployment letter is all set
• Re-do our sworn statements of no criminal activity b/c we each need one, not one together like we did.
• Get Ababa's medicals done!  It's tricky coordinating the chest xray, Dr's schedule, and notary...
• Get letters from references and mail as part of package to home study agency (provided they call me back on Monday and everything is kosher!)
• Do the USIC training (4 hours) and 6 hours of additional training, we need to hear from our home study social worker if NYS has any requirements about what we should do...are you seeing a theme here? :-(
• Other than that, we wait for our last clearances and passport to come in and get ready for Thanksgiving:-)

Another great break:-)

We got two bank letters today, so we now have all three!!!!!!!  Tomorrow we will check with our agency to make sure that they are all suitable, but they seem to meet the requirements.

Full update to come on Friday, but we're happy that we have made some big progress on The Paper Chase this week!

Finally, we caught a break:-)

Yay! I yesterday I emailed our homestudy agency all the extra papers they needed...and...we finally caught a break.  Today I found out that one of my coworkers is a notary and will notarize our paperwork for free and in a really convenient time and place (at work)!  Yay!

You'll get the official Friday update on Friday, but suffice it to say that we're moving forward, trucking through the paperwork.  Ababa still has to get his chest x-ray and his notarized medical form, and we are still working on the notarized form from the police precinct, but the rest of our notarized paperwork should be ready to go by Friday!

Pray that our passports, remaining clearances, and last bank letter arrive soon, b/c that's all we're waiting on (of course besides the in-person meeting with our social worker...sigh...hopefully we can schedule that soon):-)

More paper...

We just got an email from our home study agency that they need some other documents.  I am pretty sure we sent them in the very beginning of this process, so I just need to dig out our copies and scan/email or re-mail, but urgh! it's really not so fun.  We are determined to get through everything we possibly can before Thanksgiving, so here goes nothing...:-)

TB tests

Yay! I got my PPD test checked today and...wait for it...yep, I definitely do not have TB:-) (Shocker I know:-)

I officially have my dossier and homestudy medical reports done, although I must say (and my Dr. agrees with me!) is a rectal exam truly necessary to determine if I am healthy enough to parent a child?!?!?! I thought the bonus of our "pregnancy" with this child was that it was all on paper and involved no invasive medical procedures....

Ababa's medical paperwork, um, yeah, not so much.  We both forgot that he had a positive PPD a few years ago when he was volunteering at the hospital and he had to take the pills and get a chest xray (he was likely just exposed as a child, but they had to be super sure since he was volunteering)...anyway, he can't have any more PPD tests now.  Apparently, once you have a positive PPD test and do the therapy you can only get chest xrays to determine your TB status.  So...he has to go to the hospital on Monday (they were only open until noon today and his Dr's appointment didn't get done until noon) and get a chest xray, then set-up another time to take the traveling notary to the Dr's office and get his paperwork done...Argh!  Hopefully we can get it all done this week, but his Dr might only be in the office on Monday and it takes a day to get the results of the chest xray...So, we'll slog through the rest of our list for the week and just try to get his medical paperwork done as soon as possible.

Friday Update #4

Friday Update #4 (short b/c I have homework to plough through:-)

Progress on last week's list:

• Continue working on the bank letters--it took several phone calls, but all have been requested, cross your fingers that these each arrive soon!
• Have mtg with my CFO--Done.  We have the insurance info we need and as soon as I get the notary thing figured out she'll print and sign the employment letter.
• Ababa now has to get a letter from the Unemployment office for our dossier which he then has to sign and notarize the same day it is issued...we have a letter we think will work. If not, then he'll go to the unemployment office.
• Figure out how to get the notarized proof of no criminal activity form--Ababa is still working on this...
• Submit our final two notarized homestudy forms and push to schedule the in person meeting--done and we're pushing:-)
• Edit dossier documents--done
• Have our Dr's appts and get the homestudy and dossier forms we need completed (and notarized in the case of the one for our dossier)--mine is done provided I pass my TB check tomorrow (the "bump" is still flat so I should be fine:-)
• Saturday we'll hopefully be getting our reference letters from our references.  We need to figure out the best way to get their letters notarized--two are arriving this Sunday already notarized.  The third we are figuring out a time to get notarized this coming week.
• Ababa has to re-send his passport application--Done

List for this week:

• Get the third reference letter for the dossier notarized
• Organize all paperwork to see what else needs to be done/printed and notarized
• My PA child abuse clearance arrived today (yay!) I need to forward it unopened to our home study agency for them to review, also mail them our home study reference letters
• Get that darn criminal clearance notarized paper at our local precinct
• Mail our last non-notarized home study form (if possible, I think we have to wait so that the financial information matches our dossier financial information which includes the bank letters)
• Figure out if Ababa's unemployment letter will work for our dossier
• Continue to push for our in-person homestudy meeting
• Ababa has to get his medical forms done tomorrow
• Follow-up/track:
• Passport applications
• bank letters
• notarized employment letter

Life with Ababa:-)

Today was quite the day...

Ababa drove me to my Dr's appt this morning (yay, one notarized doctor letter down, one to go!)

He drove me back to work after my appointment and right after he dropped me off, while he was waiting to turn right, the person behind him decided to try and drive around him, shorted the turn, and tore off most of the front end of our car AND KEPT DRIVING.  Ababa got the driver's license plate and called 911.  The police took a full report and should have an accident report number for us tomorrow, so hopefully we'll be able to resolve this, but definitely not an ideal morning:-(

On a brighter note, here are some pics of our beautiful new glass tile backsplash 100% hand done by Ababa.  The tile is a mix of clear glass, textured glass, frosted glass, marble, and granite.  It's called Jeffrey Court Silver Tradition Mini Brick from Home Depot.  It's beautiful and Ababa did an amazing job!!!

Friday Update #3

Hey y'all, TGIF!!!!!!
So glad that it is Friday....and today was relatively calm at work so I was able to catch up on some work stuff that's been looming over my head.  Ababa's period of unemployment before stating school is well underway and it's resulting in us finishing our kitchen renovation that was started a year and a half ago:-) YAY!  He's doing the glass tile backsplash as I type this and next week we're hoping to make progress on the two big remaining items--fixing the floor in the corner (we need to find matching tile still though:-( and skim coating the wall! He certainly isn't bored:-)


As far as The Paper Chase, here's our update.

Progress on our list from last week:

• I applied for my passport.  Ababa accidentally applied for a passport card, so he needs to reapply:-(
• Still working on the bank letters.  These are definitely the biggest pain in the rear so far!
• I emailed my CFO for a mtg next week
• We're still working on the criminal clearance thing
• Our homestudy stuff is pretty much all done except for our in-person interview and our Sworn Statement of Criminal History and our Duty to Fully Disclose Form (both will be notarized tomorrow) and our medical forms which will be completed this week at our Drs appointments.
• BONUS--I typed drafts of our dossier documents!

Our list for this week (it's a doozy!):

• Continue working on the bank letters
• Have mtg with my CFO
• Ababa now has to get a letter from the Unemployment office for our dossier which he then has to sign and notarize the same day it is issued...
• Figure out how to get the notarized proof of no criminal activity form 
• Submit our final two notarized homestudy forms and push to schedule the in person meeting
• Edit dossier documents
• Have our Dr's appts and get the homestudy and dossier forms we need completed (and notarized in the case of the one for our dossier)
• Saturday we'll hopefully be getting our reference letters from our references.  We need to figure out the best way to get their letters notarized
• Ababa has to re-send his passport application