As of yesterday, one month has passed since we officially sent our dossier off to Ethiopia. (February 2nd was our DTE (Dossier To Ethiopia) date). In the international adoption journey, receiving your DTE date is kind of a big deal. It signifies the beginning of the BIG WAIT--the wait for an actual referral--and the end of the "paper pregnancy".
Most of you know that we extended our deadline for finishing our dossier several times last fall due to unforeseen snags with paperwork. At the end of January of this year we were finally able to "push it out"! I was quite nervous and a little jittery when I took all of the documents to UPS to send to our adoption agency. My mind immediately wondered if our precious paperwork could get lost in the mail, dropped in a puddle, accidentally shredded by a dog. I was bummed that the lady at the counter couldn't put extra insurance on it! Little did she realize how long and arduously we had worked to put together the thin stack of papers inside the envelope.
But thank goodness for tracking! Our agency contact let us know that the dossier had arrived safely, and that it was slated to go through two thorough inspections before being cleared to go off to Ethiopia. I waited anxiously that week for news that it had cleared its embassy trip to DC and passed the scrutiny of the Ethiopia team. Then, at the end of that week, we received these words in our inbox:
"Welcome to the Waiting Stage of your adoption from Ethiopia! You have successfully completed the paper chasing process, and your dossier will be sent to Ethiopia via FedEx later today."
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! It was finally finished!!
I curiously checked the journey of our envelope, remembering all of its contents--passports, birth and marriage certificates, medical, financial, and all manner of other documents, as well as photo pages of us and our families--and was amazed to see that "we" traveled from Chicago, to Virginia, to Tennessee, to Paris, to Dubai, to Ethiopia. No wonder we felt zonked at the end of that week!
I am also pleased to share that when we mailed our dossier to the agency, we mailed the second "installment" of our international program fee. This $7,700 would have been impossible to manage without the generous contributions of our friends and family (who provided over $3,000 of it!). Thanks so much, guys.
And so, now what?--you may be thinking. "What is the latest and greatest in adoption news these days," a friend asked me at church this morning.
Well, now...we wait :) When we sent our dossier off, our agency contact told us that the current wait times were--10-16 months for a boy under 2, and 11-18 months for a girl under 2. We have since learned from other adoptive families and our agency that the trend is toward the longer part of those wait times. In actuality, these days folks are receiving referrals for either gender at about 14-18 months from DTE. So, if you do the math, that puts us at somewhere between April and August of 2013.
So, we've still got a while :) Which is good, because there is a lot to do. And, we need to work on preparing for referral and travel costs. Once we receive our referral, we'll have to pay our 3rd program installment fee. Then, we have to travel to Ethiopia...twice. So, we'll have to plan for airfare expenses (twice), in-country travel (twice), and visas for the both of us, as well as airfare and visa for the munchkin on the 2nd trip home. This is where the bulk of our expenses will be--probably close to $20,000.
I gave myself a month off of adoption-related items after the dossier was complete, just because I needed the relief and rest of not having to work on it. But probably in the next month (or maybe after Easter), I will get to the task of applying for international adoption grants and planning other ways to fundraise.
If you are still interested in making a contribution toward our travel expenses, we won't turn it down! The donate link on the right is still active (via Paypal), personal checks rock, and I can also get you a tax-deductible form to donate through our adoption agency if you message me.
In the meantime, we are so thankful to be in this new phase of the journey. Many folks that adopted remarked to us that this is a harder phase, since you don't have any control (you're just waiting and there isn't paperwork to keep you busy). Perhaps it will get harder when the months start flying, but right now, it feels good not to experience the dread of filling out something incorrectly (multiple times!), having to coordinate schedules with P in order to visit notaries together, or having to juggle work and trips downtown to get things stamped, certified, approved. Now there is time to prepare, but it isn't rushed. I don't like to be rushed :)
