What a Week!!!

This is the week that I've been waiting on for at least the last three years-  the first week of the last year that ECP is growing into a full-fledged middle school. I couldn't have dreamed up a better week if I had tried. Getting to be part of a team of AHmazing and joyful first-year and veteran teachers (for added fun, Jimmy and I are on the same teaching team this year) and receiving notice that our dossier is under one last staff review with an estimated date of 9/7 to be sent off to Ethiopia are just two outstanding memories of this monumental week.

Looking ahead, the next BIG week at ECP will be the week when we end our offical middle school journey with the class of 2017 (Garbs, can you believe we've been with these kiddos since fifth grade and they're leaving?!!?!?) and send them all off to high school.... the next BIG step of our adoption journey should be when we recieve our call from the 703 area code to let us know that they have a referral for us.... still, waiting patiently and enjoying both of these journey; we couldn't feel any more hopeful and excited about the year ahead.

 Here's hoping your week was as eventful as ours :)

Celebrate the Waiting

Hi all!
Since our last post, we have been practicing the fine art of waiting with purpose. You know where you do stuff to make the waiting seem worthwhile. Like getting a great bed for a kiddo who you've never seen or building the world's greatest picture book library for kiddos who may or may not love the same kinds of books you do.

Today, though, we get to celebrate! We just received notice that our I-600 thingy-thing was accepted so we now have a very plain piece of paper that says that we are approved for visas to bring home up to two kiddos. We couldn't be more excited! (Well, we could - like when we our actual referral or when we get to bring home our kiddos. But, for now....) And what other way would paperchasing-parents-to-be celebrate except by going to see our notary? Yes, we have our own personal notaries - that's right, not one, but two. One that travels and one that makes us go to his office. At the end of this process, I think we will have made a thousand new friends. The best part of getting to visit our notary today is that I think we might be officially done with paperchasing! Later this week we'll send everything off to AWAA, wait for their official review of our documents, wait for them to do their stuff, and then get put on an officail list of waiters.

Thank you all for continuing to check on us and our process. And thank you for the support and love that you continue to show as you shop through our Amazon link. We can't wait to bring our kiddos home and let them meet the wonderful community that has supported them for so long.

Love,
Jimmy and Celeste

Biometrics

We just received notification that we have our biometrics appointment next Friday. The timing is perfect since that's the last day of work for this school year and we can scoot out early! This is part of the requirements for the adoption visa. So, I guess that means our paperwork is being processed and we should be ready to submit our dossier soon.

Happy almost-summer vacation!
Jimmy and Celeste

Visa Application Submitted

We may be the slowest people on the planet when it comes to getting all of our paperwork completed and submitted. Needless to say, we finally were able to send our I600A application to USCIS. We're expecting a 10-12 week wait before we get approval for our visa. At that point, we should be ready to send off our dossier to Ethiopia!  Most people get a super-cute picture of themselves with the Fed Ex person  when they submit this application, but we're just not that cool. Instead, we've got a picture of ourselves at Kinko's. You can sort of see our Fed Ex person behind us. Does that count? If successful parenting is contingent on taking the right pictures, we are so in trouble!

Finalized Home Study

On Friday, we FINALLY received our for real final home study! There were more bumps in the road than we expected with getting all of that paperwork wrapped up. Anyone starting the paperchase should be warned that this can be a full-time endeavor.

Anyway, we are now ready to submit the paperwork to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) requesting an advanced approval to adopt and bring home our kiddo or kiddos, as the case may be :) After submitting this, we'll wait approximatley another 10-14 weeks, before being able to send off our dossier to Ethiopia. At that point, we will officially be on our agency's waiting list and be eligible to accept a referral!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!