Never would have thought.

Two short weeks ago we were not even thinking that adopting from Ethiopia would ever be a possibility for us again. And now here we are today - our completed dossier mailed in to our agency!

I rushed and rushed and rushed to get all those papers together as quickly as possible. Who ever knew just how picky you have to be when preparing paperwork for international use. No corrections, no white out, no scratch out, no staple marks, all dates and names matching perfectly including initials, etc. etc. etc.

I ended up have to redo several papers because people in doctors offices or banks simply refused to follow instructions. I had a goal to have it all notarized and county certified in order to be able to drive it all to Columbus last Friday to be state sealed and that way Abe and I could make a weekend of it and celebrate my birthday! With each paper I had to redo I got more and more agitated that people apparently could not listen when I told them how important it would be for the papers to be perfectly accurate. Even the Hamilton County clerk messed up one of the certifications!! It was a constant reminder over these weeks that everyone is human and that this adoption truly is a work of God in our lives. It has required the participation of so many different people over the past couple of years and it will require even more to come. I am so thankful for all the people who helped us do (and redo) this paperwork over the past week and a half. I can't begin to thank you enough for the role you are playing in our family and the life of our child.

So, It got accomplished! We went to the Secretary of State's office on Friday and got everything state sealed!

here we are waiting for our papers

all sealed!

Yesterday I went and made 3 photocopies of the entire dossier. Because I could not remove any staples I had to hand collate the entire thing and it took me about 2 hours at Staples. People kept staring at my with my giant pile of papers wondering what the heck I was doing. I am so thankful that my mom volunteered to watch Z cause I know there is no way we would have made it through!

this is about 3/4 of the way through copying

all collated and ready to mail!

Took it to Fed-ex and mailed it to the agency! The Fed-ex guy says it will arrive today. I sure hope he's right. I can't wait to get all the authentication in DC done and for us to officially be on the waiting list and have a DTE (Dossier-to-Ethiopia) date! 

I'll update you again when that happens! 

And Z turns two in a week! His party is this Saturday!

Getting the Dossier Done

We've been running around crazy since we got the news that we'd be rejoining the Ethiopia adoption program trying to get our dossier together quickly! We've been waiting a year and a half now to be officially "waiting" and I can't wait to finally actually be there!

For those of you who don't know what a dossier (doss-ee-ay) is, it's a giant stack of official papers telling the Ethiopian government all about our family and our motivation to adopt an Ethiopian child. It all has to be notarized perfectly, county certified and state sealed. Then all 30ish pages have to be copied four times and mailed to our agency. Our agency will then mail them to Washington D.C. and have them authenticated again and then they will finally be on their way to Ethiopia!

Once they arrive in Ethiopia we will be considered "DTE" (Dossier to Ethiopia) and will be officially waiting for a referral!

The only things we are still waiting on for our dossier are our employment verification letters and two reference letters from friends. Once we have those we'll finish the county certification and then hopefully on Friday we'll drive to Columbus and have everything state sealed! That means it could very well be in the mail by next Monday!

Once we are DTE we'll be waiting 6-12 or more months for a referral. A long wait, but well worth it.

In the middle of all of this paperwork gathering I decided to go to IKEA to get these adorable dolls I'd be eyeing for a few weeks wishing only I'd had a reason to buy them! I got one for Zeke and one to give to our future child when we pick him/her up in Ethiopia! I also got a book called "Seeds of Love" to read with Zeke over our wait. The book is great, it talks all about mommy and daddy going on a trip on an airplane to pick up a little sister. Such a cute book.

And that's our update! Sure I'll have lots more to say after our trip to Columbus!

Been Gone Too Long

Things have been so incredibly busy this summer I just haven't had time to update this. With ministry being so full of mission groups and VBS and camps this summer we've barely had time to slow down and breathe. My grandparents have also just recently moved into a nursing facility and the transition has been difficult on them and on our family. The facility is about 45 minutes north of where we live and it's taken a lot of time to be there with them and to try and reassure them that we aren't abandoning them to someone else's care.

In the middle of all of that is just the everyday's of parenting Ezekiel. And boy is he growing. He's gotten so huge and talking up a storm! He's got an amazing imagination and tonight we even played "drive-thru" and he pulled his alphabet train up to the back of the chair, looked through the opening and said "order chicken", "thank you!", "ok, see ya!" Got back on his train and drove off! He's learning the sounds of his letters and singing songs and talking in full 5 word sentences! This afternoon we took Tay out for his 17th birthday and it made me realize that it won't feel like that long and it'll be Zeke's 17th birthday. It's incredible how fast time flies when you are enjoying life so much.

In adoption news, we've completed our third week of foster care pre-service training with SAFY of Ohio. We're really excited to attempt to adopt through the foster care system. We know it might be a long and difficult process, but we will be giving much needed help to families and children and we're really looking forward to getting licensed and getting our first placement. Our hope will be to eventually adopt, but we know that God has the plan in place and it'll all be in His timing. Please be praying for us as we complete the process and get licensed that I'd be patient with the process. Doing yet another set of training and a whole new home study is a bit frustrating to me. Seems like there has to be light at the end of the tunnel somewhere!