Long Overdue Update

I have been really remiss in keeping up with this blog. So, here's a quick update on where we are in the process to adopt our second child. Whew! A lot has happened, but then again very little has happened. As I previously wrote about, we were notified that the child we were considering for adoption had family come forward who wanted to raise him. Praise God! This was amazing news for him- actually it proved to be good news for both of us as there are currently several complications arising with adoptions from the DRC. So, after much diliberation and prayer we decided to switch adoption agencies. We are now back with Holt International whom we used for Aidan's adoption. We are also really excited to be in the Ethiopian program- Aidan's brother or sister will be Ethiopian too! Our homestudy was approved in September. We paid all of our initial agency fees and have mailed in the I600A Immigration form (request for permission to bring an orphan from another country into the United States). Next, we await news of our appointment to get fingerprinted. From there, we await approval (171H) and then we can mail our dossier to Holt. From there Holt will proofread it and then forward it to Ethiopia for approval. After that, we wait for a referral. At this time, we've been told that more than likely that won't happen for another year. We will still travel to Ethiopia twice (once for court and then for the Embassy appointment and to bring our child home). So all in all, the process will probably take between a year and a half and two years. Oh, we also found out that we're number 41 on the wait list for a referral. This may change a bit once we have our dossier in. Well, basically that brings us up to date on where we're at. On the fundraising front, we haven't really done much since the zumbathon in June. I've been busy with school, work, and also with filling out grant paperwork for the adoption. There will be more fundraising events (and merchandise to sell) within the next few months though. :)