35 months since DTE

This month our documents have been in Ethiopia for 35 months. WOW! From the time we signed on with our adoption agency we have been waiting 40 months for our daughter. Since the paper chase takes different amounts of time for different families, everyone counts from the time their dossier was sent off though. Hence, we are at 35 months, and counting. 

You might have noticed that I missed updating the blog for a couple of months. Oops! On the bright side, we are that much closer to getting our referral. 

We have worked VERY hard in the last few weeks to get a bunch of our expiring paperwork updated. We have completed our Homestudy update, and have applied for our I-171H renewal. A few new laws were passed, and we JUST BARELY squeaked our application in before they came into effect. Otherwise we would have had to have background checks for every residence we have lived at since we were 18. Between growing up overseas, going to college, being in the military etc. we have moved MANY times, and I don't even remember the address for every place we lived. Whew!
(I should add that our social worker is a rock star. WA DHS was backlogged to the point where our clearances would not have come through on time to make some of the deadlines. She took time out of her day to make sure we got our clearances on time and everything was notarized and mailed on time!)

Quite a few families in our agency have gotten referrals in the last 3 months, now that regional Ethiopian clearances are finally coming through on children's paperwork. Our agency doesn't refer a child until he or she is 'paper ready' - this means a possible longer wait on the front end, but once a referral is given, the paperwork is fairly straightforward. (I say 'fairly' here... keeping in mind that in international adoption a lot of things are unpredictable!). 

This is an exciting (and somewhat nerve-racking) time - the families who are getting referrals right now are about 4 months ahead of us in the process. This means that maybe, just MAYBE we will get our referral by the end of this year! This means that our daughter is most likely already born. Please join me in praying for her...