Our Land of Hope - Ethiopia: Snow? In SOUTH Texas?

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Snow? In SOUTH Texas?

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This past Wednesday snow fell in Texas! I really don't like Christmas time in Texas b/c it is really hard for me to get in the spirit of things. Back home we always had snow sometime around Christmas, but Texas' weather is usually pretty warm and it feels like fall rather than winter. This year I got what I wanted, a white Christmas!

1 comment:

Jen said...: a white Christmas and Baby boy! Hope you are doing well.; December 13, 2008 at 3:15 PM

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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