I want to compile a list of several "Favorite" moments surrounding your adoption journey. If you don't mind send me an email or add a post listing some of your favorite moments from your adoption! It could be a "first" event, or the time you received your referral, or when you stepped into the orphanage...whatever it is...I'd like to know...and in the future I'll compile a list!
Some of mine: eating Ethiopian food, this blog, the community of adoptive parents in the blogosphere, being told of our newest nephew saying his first prayer in English, the Maru Grocery, having our dossier completed, sent, and waitlisted....just to name a few.
How about you?
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Don't blame God for creating the tiger- instead thank him for not giving it wings! Ethiopian Proverb
Blue Nile Falls
Nataga's Blog
Don't blame God for creating the tiger- instead thank him for not giving it wings! Ethiopian Proverb
Family at last!
Visitors
Time in Addis!
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Verse of the Day
Ethiopian Holidays and Festivals
Ethiopian New Year's Day, Sept. 11
Victory Day, April 6
Labor Day, May 1
Victory Day, May 28: Celebrated as a victory day for the current government and also marks the Fall of Derg.
Christian festivals include Maskal, or the Feast of the Finding of the True Cross; Christmas; Timkat or Epiphany; and Good Friday according to the Coptic calendar. Christmas in Ethiopia is primarily a religious observance.
Victory Day, April 6
Labor Day, May 1
Victory Day, May 28: Celebrated as a victory day for the current government and also marks the Fall of Derg.
Christian festivals include Maskal, or the Feast of the Finding of the True Cross; Christmas; Timkat or Epiphany; and Good Friday according to the Coptic calendar. Christmas in Ethiopia is primarily a religious observance.
Facts about children in Ethiopia
-One in six children die before their fifth birthday
-44% of the population of Ethiopia is under 15 years old
-60% of children in Ethiopia are stunted because of malnutrition
-Half the children in Ethiopia will never attend school.
88% will never attend secondary school.
-The median age in Ethiopia is 17.8 years
-44% of the population of Ethiopia is under 15 years old
-60% of children in Ethiopia are stunted because of malnutrition
-Half the children in Ethiopia will never attend school.
88% will never attend secondary school.
-The median age in Ethiopia is 17.8 years
Our Adoption Timeline
- March 26th- Officially passed court! Nataga is our son!
- March 16th- Did not pass court
- January 5, 2009- Court date of March 16th! :)
- December 4, 2008- Our referral! Can life get any better? I suggest it cannot!
- Oct. 15th-5 months of waiting for a referral. Left our "window" (the estimated 3-5 months to receive a referral)
- Sept. 17- 4 months on the waitlist to receive a referral.
- May 21- Officially placed on waitlist to receive a referral!
- May 21- Dossier goes to DC
- May 8th- CIS fingerprints arrived!!!
- April 12th- Fingerprinted!!!!
- April 11th- Recieved CIS fingerprint info
- April 8th- Homestudy sent to correct CIS office! :)
- March 4th- Homestudy sent to CIS.
- March 7th- Officially Gladney approved. Homestudy is official and should be on its way to CIS!
- March 3rd - FBI fingerprints and background check received.
- February 25th- Got to look at our homestudy.
- February-22nd- Our homestudy has been typed up and is ready to go!
- February 19th- Got our Learn Amharic CD & now David can really practice! ;)
- February 17th- Watched the last adoption video!
- February 15th- YEAH!!!! OUR BLOG MADE IT ON THE GLADNEY SITE! IT'S BEEN SOMETHING WE HAVE BEEN WANTING TO HAVE DONE! Very exciting for us!
- February 14th- Watched 4 of 5 adoption videos
- February 12th- Received the rest of our shots, ouch! Gladney received our photos and a form they were needing. As far as we know we are at a stand still b/c there is nothing WE can do at this point.
- February 8th - Someone at FBI address signed for our mailed fingerprints.
- February 7th - FedEx'd fingerprints to FBI, mailed pictures and ageement to Gladney. Ordered Hague training DVD's.
- February 6th - Had fingerprints remade and received the Yellow Fever vaccine.
- January 30th - We had our Homestudy with a Gladney representative!
- January 29th - KBS received our photographs.
- January 28th - KBS received our Health Insurance letters.
- January 25th - Had fingerprints made at our local agency.
- January 23rd- KBS received our life insurance letters! We received health insurance letters and mailed them.
- January 17th- We received our life insurance letters and mailed them to KBS. We have an official home study date!!!! January 30th! We are getting closer! KBS received our financial statement, copies of our passports, and another reference letter.
- January 12th- KBS received our "why we want to adopt" letter!
- January 9th- Gladney received 4th reference letter. Requested proof of life insurance and completed financial statement. Mailed CIS drivers license pictures! Hopefully that will be what they need.
- January 7th- Put some finishing touches on "Why we want to adopt", notarized letter, and mailed it to KBS! Got drivers license pictures notarized. We are the lucky "rare" family that gets to send in pictures of our drivers licenses to CIS.
- January 6th- Wrote "Why we want to adopt" letter for our dossier. We have worked on this letter for several days. I spent a couple of extra hours today and finished it!
- January 5th- Mailed half of the forms to Kate w/KBS!
- January 4th- Received word that we can go ahead and start our dossier! Yeah! Thanks to KBS Dossier services we send the stuff in and they do almost everything else. We have about 1/2 of our forms done and will have a lot of work to do to get the rest ready!
- January 3, 2008- Received update that our application is complete! We will get a call to schedule our homestudy in two weeks.
- December 27, 2007- Gladney recieved the 3rd reference letter! One more to go!
- December 26th - Received our corrected doctors letters, we even got them ahead of schedule!! 3rd time is a charm!
- December 22nd- David is working on getting our doctor's office to correct our letter. They are now out of town for the holidays and we will try back in January. David called Gladney and they had recieved our application but hadn't had time to review it. No word on the I-600A we mailed by Fed Ex. We are hoping it arrived safely. The place we sent it from looked a bit sketchy.
- December 20th- David picked up our doctor/health info. for our dossier. They did not do it right again. We are having to ask them to do it a 3rd time. Why not? 3rd times a charm! ;)
- December 20th- Mailed Gladney Application 1, 2, 3 (excluding pictures)
- December 20th - Mailed I-600
- December 19th - David received employment letter.
- December 17th- The first bank letter was missing a couple pieces of information so we had to ask them to re-do it. We picked up another one today! This one is right!
- December 17th - Received blood tests from our physician.
- December 13th- Picked up bank letter
- December 13th - Began Blog and Completed Part 1 of 3 on Gladney Application. Also started parts 2 & 3.
- December 12th - Official Doctor Check-up and Blood Tests Conducted
- December 7th - David Requested Employment Letter. Notification from Gladney that 2 of 4 reference letters were in.
- November 28th - Requested Last 2 of 4 Reference Letters
- November 24th - Filled out I-600A
- November 21st - Requested Reference Letters from 2 of 4 individuals.
- November 16th - Chelsea received passport
- November 13th - Marriage Certificate Issued
- November 13th - Chelsea's Birth Certificate Issued
- November 9th - Chelsea Requested and Received Employment Letter
- November 6th - David's Birth Certificate Issued
- November 3rd - Requested Marriage Certificate
- November 1st - Received Application and Welcome Packet from Gladney
- October 30th - Requested Official Birth Certificates
- September 27, 2007 - Gladney Phone Orientation
- September 19th - David Receives Passport
- September 18th - Sent in first application with Gladney
- September 18th - Chelsea Applies for Passport
- September 6th - David Applies for Passport
- September 4, 2007 - We looked at the Arrow Project (domestic adoptions) - A Great Group for those interested in domestic adoptions!
- September 3rd - We Started Looking at Ethiopia
- June 13th - Online Information Packet From Gladney
- Spring 2005 - Began Serious Consideration of Adoption
About Ethiopia
Weather in Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Blue Nile Falls
Ethiopian Adoption Blogs
- Sara & Davis' Blog!
- Adoption FBI List
- Adoption Cubed
- Little Silvestry Boy- Eric, Tara, & Malak's Blog
- Ethiopia Adoption - One Year Later (Video)
- Boyd Blog
- Coco and Kota Blog
- Are We There Yet?
- Love Will Bind Us
- Craig & Cindy
- Our daughter's out there somewhere
- Our Walk by Faith
- Better World
- A Quiver Full
- Baby Ethiopia
- Coming soon, baby makes 3
- a darling life
- Jesus lovin' momma
- The growing Ivys
- Expecting from Ethiopia
- The Place of Grace
- Eyes toward Ethiopia
- Journey to Addis Ababa
- Our Family Tapestry
- From Axum to Here
- Meet The Faulkners
- Baby Ash and Eyerus' Page
- Silas
- Anteneh's Family Blog
- Job's Daughters
- Formerly Almost Mom
- Our Ethiopian Adoption Adventure
- Baby Barto
- The New Wolfepack
- Growing Our Family
- The Kennedy Family
- A quiver full
- Our leap of faith
- Christines Journey
- An Ethiopian Adoption Blessing
- Adopting Baby A
- Ethiopia Here we come!
- A new season
- With a Joyful Heart
- They adopted from China but its a cute blog!
- A photographer from SD adopting from Ethiopia
- Our Journey Together
- All about Sam
- Expanding the Albertsons
- guzo Ethiopia
- The eyes of my eyes are opened
- Homecake
- All these reasons
- Fried Blog
- Gladney's Hennock Story
Gladney & KBS Sites
4 comments:
Oh by far, the BEST day so far was referral day....oh, I was in the clouds for weeks and weeks after that!
It is a progression....all of the best days...application in, homestudy complete, Gladney approved, CIS approval, dossier complete, referral day, court date,passing court,...then the long awaited for gotcha day! WOW!
Blessings,
Kristy
See how God is bringing glory to himself through the adoption.
Learning to depend more and more on God's provision in his life.
Praying with Steven Curtis Chapman about our family.
Seeing our children develop a heart for the people of Ethiopia.
Learning that the world is so much bigger than Indiana.
Ethiopian Food, growing teff....
Waiting to bring home our daughter.....
So far, meeting some great acquaintances through this blog community that share our situation. That was unexpected and very appreciated!
Cindy
Getting a letter from each of our teenagers. The youngest wrote "Dear My Family.... I can't believe and I ask myself, is it television show or really.... I need only your love and your coming time." Not that I've read the letters so many times I can quote them :)
Also, walking down a path daily and watching God reveal His perfect plan to us. So humbling to be a part of something so amazing!!!
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