DTE Celebration!

Charlie and I are "doing life" with an incredible group of family and friends. We have been so blessed by their support and excitement for our adoption. I don't know that we ever could have embarked on this journey without this group behind us!

We decided to celebrate our DTE at the local Ethiopian restaurant, and were honored that so many of our friends and family joined us! Charlie and I have eaten Ethiopian cuisine several times before, but this was a first for many in our group. Although the reviews were mixed on the food, the fellowship was wonderful! We are truly blessed!

No utensils when eating Ethiopian food... just injera!

We ordered several of these meat and vegetable combination platters for everyone to share!

The proud parents-to-be!

The excited grandparents, Pops and Grammy!

Uncle Jon and Aunt Kristen... old pros at Ethiopian cuisine!

And the award for bravest eaters goes to.... Melissa and Ronnie! :)

To Ethiopia With Love

Its Official... We are DTE!!!!! We received an e-mail this morning from our Family Coordinator at America World that our dossier had been reviewed at their office, authenticated at the State Department, sent to the Ethiopia Embassy in Washington DC, and is now on its way to Ethiopia! It was mailed today via FedEx, and we even have a tracking number so we can follow its journey (which I'm sure we'll do like a million times!) to the birth country of our son! DTE really seemed impossible when we began this journey 5 and 1/2 months ago, and now here we are!!

Our DTE date, 03/26/2010, is our official place in line to be matched with our son! The current wait time for a baby boy referral is 3-6 months after DTE. Of course, I'm hoping to be closer to the 3 month side! :) It is amazing to think that we could see our son, the child God has called us to, as early as June or July!

We have been so blessed by all of the prayers and support we've gotten throughout this phase of our journey. Thank you!

Our Dossier is on its Way!!

We did it! Five and half months of paper-chasing and our dossier is finally complete! Just one day after my small rant about the frustrations of waiting, our I - 171H acceptance letter arrived in the mail! We quickly had it notarized and Charlie then took everything downtown to be state certified. Unfortunately, we met with a very unkind worker at the Secretary of State's office who made this process quite long and difficult for us. We finally got the documents certified today (two days later) and rushed over to FedEx to have them overnighted to our adoption agency. What happens next? The staff at America World will review our dossier next week and let us know if any changes need to be made. They will then have the dossier authenticated and some documents translated into Amharic before sending it to Ethiopia. At that point we will receive our DTE (Dossier To Ethiopia) date, which will be our official place in line on the list of families waiting to be matched with their child. It feels amazing to have completed all of the necessary paperwork and to move into the second phase of the adoption... waiting for "the call" that we've been matched with a child! Thank you, God for bringing us through this phase of our journey! We are truly grateful for your goodness to us.

Do-do-do-do-Dora!

All right, let's be honest... I've become a stalker! Everyday around 11:00 I begin my daily watch for the mailman. I've tuned my ears to hear just exactly when he's at our neighbor's house, so I can be ready to run! This has gone on for three loooooong weeks now. I get this rush of excitement each morning that today might just be the day that our I-171H arrives in the mail and then around noon each day as I head up the driveway, yet again empty-handed, I'm filled with a new sense of frustration, disappointment and a bit of heartbreak. This wait has been so tough. The rest of our dossier documents have come together so quickly and I'm just ready to be done. I want to send our dossier in and get our names officially on the waiting list to be matched with our child. Now.

I am comforted by the fact that each day we wait puts us on the perfect path to our son. A path that God designed for us long before we even considered taking this journey. In my mind (and please remember I'm home allllllll day long with a four and two year old) I picture this journey like an episode of Dora the Explorer. Where are we going? To our son! Where are we going? To our son! Who do we ask for help when we don't know which way to go? God! He has a perfect path for us that leads to our child and who am I to question that or to wish we were on a different path? Our path has been created for us to reach our son. Each day puts us one step closer to him.

So as I write this, we have been officially waiting for our final piece of paper for three weeks. We were told it would only take two. The wait is long and frustrating, but it is God's plan, and it is perfect.