One thing I forgot...

This is a pretty common question and I know that some people are uncomfortable asking. We have not tried to have any kids of our own. So as far as I know everything is in working order. Adoption is just something that we wanted to do. There are 5 million orphans in Ethiopia alone! That's it for today. =)

Answer a few questions...

This should cover some of the basics, but let me know if you have any other questions.

- We are at the very begin of the process. We have started the homestudy process and are waiting for the background check to come back. Hopefully we pass. =) Then we have a few home visits... Hopefully we pass that as well. The social worker doing the homestudy basically holds the fate of this in her hands. They can decide on a whim whether or not we make fit parents, based on any criteria they see fit. During this we all take our pre-adoption education, I believe that is 10 hours and we can do some of it on line.

- We have also sent in the first part of our application, with the first part of the fee, to the agency. We went with Wide Horizons for Children. http://www.whfc.org/ I researched a lot of agencies, and for a lot of reasons chose this one. I had the best feeling about them and unlike a lot of the agencies out there they do not work on a sliding scale. I just didn't think that system was fair. And I chose this one BEFORE I knew that Angelina Jolie used them. I swear. We are working on the second half of the application to them, which includes medical statements from the doctor, saying that we are healthy.

- We also have to start on the dossier now. That is what officially goes to the Ethiopian government, once the homestudy and USCIS (immigration approval) information is done. That is when we are actually put on the list to wait for a referral.

- When I say that we are at the very beginning I mean it. We are looking at about 18 months before we bring home a child. Originally we had planned to have a child escorted home. Ethiopia is one of the few countries that allows this. But now, I think that we have reconsidered, and at least I will be traveling over there. Ethiopia has a lot of interesting sites, and I would like to see where he is coming from and also meet any of his family that is possible.

- Yes, I said he. We are requesting a boy. No I have not hit my head recently. And we are also requesting an infant which is anything 0-12 months at the time of referral. This is also why it will take so long. As with any country, it takes longer for infants.

- The children are tested for AIDS, when they come into the care of the state and before leaving the country. They are also tested for Hepatitis and syphilis I believe.

That should answer most of the questions I've gotten so far, but if you have any others, just let me know!!

Okay, I can't believe that I am doing this but I'm beginning to understand why so many people who are adopting blog. It really is the easiest way to let everyone know what is going on.

First of all, I don't mind answering questions about this at all, I really don't, but there is a lot of basic stuff that I seem to be repeating to everyone over and over again, so I thought this would be the best way to get all of that out of the way.

So don't make fun of me and if anyone has any questions, please let me know, and if you have any suggestions on how to make this at least mildly interesting, let me know.

I am also going to include links here of blogs that I have been reading, if anyone is interested in taking a look at them. Either to learn more about the process or just to see how stinking cute their kids are!!!

A by product of doing this is Cory said that he can log on at work and keep up on what is going on with his life!!!!