One step closer...still seems so far away

Ethiopian Adoption 2012: Checklist on the Fridge

Today I mailed our 11 pg. home study off to USCIS (immigration) which will hopefully give us some good karma for our fingerprint appointment to come in the mail.  This also marks the official end to my hunting and gathering phase!  All the official documents have been obtained and now we just need to pay someone another $400 to prove they are real...again.

21 original documents signed and notarized!

After immigration approves us to adopt an orphan (hopefully 30 days), Tor and I will drive all the paperwork to Sacramento for the great California State Seal.  Then the documents will be off to Ethiopia and we will officially become a waiting family.  Technically, they will be hand-delivered to Washington D.C. to obtain the great Federal Seal.  So...60 days from now (hopefully) we will be sitting by the phone everyday waiting for a 703 area code to tell us a baby is waiting for us bring them home.  In the meantime, I am also working on ways to fund this adoption.  I am working on various adoption grant applications, and keeping my fingers crossed that the federal adoption credit will be extended.

We are so excited, and anxious, and all of the other feelings that come up during this process.  It has also brought up a lot of sad feelings about our baby girl Cali that we lost 8 months ago.  Some days I miss her all over again as if we lost her yesterday.  I just cant believe it happened, it is almost like it happened to someone else.  If I have to find a 'silver lining' in all of it, it is that we are adopting a child that needs us from another country, forgotten by so many of us here in the comfort of our cozy homes halfway around the world.  They say things happen for a reason and I have to remind myself of that often just to make it through the day.