Washington D.C. here we come!

We are happy to announce that our Adoption Dossier arrived in St. Louis, Missouri on Tuesday (9/16) and was sent to Washington D.C. today! Thanks to Raylene’s meticulous organization there were no problems with the papers and also thanks to Children’s Hope International agency staff for reviewing the papers so quickly. While in St. Louis, the Dossier was “bundled” so it can be considered one document (instead of 24 separate documents). The next step is the Adoption Dossier goes to the Department of State in Washington D.C. for authentication. It will then be walked over by the courier to the Ethiopia Embassy for a second authentication. We are looking at about 2 to 2 1/2 weeks for these final processes to happen. Then it will be official, we will be a Waiting Family!

Thanks to everyone who has been so supportive and helpful throughout this entire process! We are still looking at an average 6 to 10 months before we receive our referral and then 2 to 3 months before we travel to Ethiopia. But at this point most of the preliminary red tape is over (until we actually get “the call”). Oh wait, I almost forgot the post adoption paperwork, too, but lets not talk about that right now.