Dec. 15, 2006 - Meeting with Lyla B. (Provincial Social Worker) to fill out offical application to begin international adoption #2.
Dec. 18, 2006 - Meeting with Lyla B. Take 2! Our SW was not there on Friday when we went in for our appointment! So we are trying for today again.... Yeah Success!! Filled out the application - still undecided as to weather this will be for 1 or 2 - put sibs in the application - as it will be easier to go from 2 to 1 than from 1 to 2 in terms of approval etc. When we decide at a later date.
Jan. 5, 2007 - Happy Birthday to me! :) First meeting with Sheri (our SW) to start our Home Study for adoption #2! Doing this visit in conjunction with our 3rd Post Placement report visit. (This is also the last PP report that requires a social worker, all annual reports from here on in we do ourselves).
Jan. 23, 2007 Medical forms for Home Study completed.
Jan. 26, 2007 - Our 2nd meeting with Sheri. This time we traveled to Regina to her office for separate interviews. I went first, it was very relaxed and casual. Bill and I had filled out our personal history forms. Basically a booklet of questions about us, our lives, and our belief systems. Very similar to what we filled out the first time around with Social Services, however, this was much more organized. Anyway, back to the meeting- Sheri basically read through my personal history form and would occassionally aske me questions regarding what I wrote (or forgot to write...I had one question that I had started to answer and forgot to go back and just had half a sentence there.) We took about an hour, but a lot of that seemed just like visiting. Afterwards, it was Bill's turn - she only took about 30 mins as her and I had covered off some areas already.
I was very surprized to learn at the end of the meeting we were done! No more sessions, just had to wait for her to get info from our references and write up the homestudy! Sherri knows us well, as she has been doing our PP reports for Mekonnen and Tenaye over the past year - nonetheless it was a nice suprize that the whole process was that quick and painless!!
Jan. 29, 2007 - Go to police station to pick up Criminal Check papers (again!!) We must be the most checked family in Moose Jaw. Had it done twice for the first adoption, I had to have it done to work in Gems at Church (just in the fall) and now again for this adoption!
Feb. 5, 2007 - Received Criminal record checks back! Faxed Criminal records, medical reports, and guardianship letter to Sherri. (Our end of the paperwork for the homestudy is complete!)
Feb. 17, 2007 Letters from references due into Sherri by today.
Feb. 27, 2007 Homestudy is complete! Sherri is sending off to Lyla today. Now we wait for Lyla to read it. We will have to sign it and then it is done!! I am hoping that Lyla will also get the letter of approval from the province for us while she has our homestudy. The last piece of the paperwork puzzel is a few more documents for our dossier that I am waiting to arrive from Cafac - hopefully this week...once those are done and the homestudy is signed, then we are back to waiting once again! (Although this time I am much busier and am hoping that will make the waiting less noticable :) )
Mar. 5, 2007 2nd set of medicals for forms for Dossier. Still have to get blood work and Mantu tests completed to include with the medicals. Should take about a week to get there results of these tests.
Mar. 6, 2007 Mantu tests done. We have to go back on Thursday to get the results. We both managed to get our blood work done today - should be about a week for the results. I should be able to get the rest of the dossier together by then.
Mar. 17, 2007 Headed to Regina today to sign off on our homestudy! Sherri did a great job. There was only 1 mistake...She had Barry's name as Barney! And there was one grammatical error that Bill noticed, of course. :) Sherri was able to quickly correct those errors and get the home study sent off to Lyla this weekend!! Yeah!! I have the remaining documents for our Dossier ready to go and will drop them off to Lyla on Monday! Then it's all out of our hands and we are back to waiting!! It will take about 2 months until our dossier gets to Ethiopia - but everything on our end is done.
Mar. 20, 2007 Finally got the last piece for the Dossier, Bill's letter from his employer - so tomorrow I can drop of the dossier documents to Lyla, then hopefully by the end of this week - early next week the entire Dossier will be off to Cafac!
Mar. 21, 2007 Dossier is out of my hands! Dropped it off to Lyla today, had a short visit with her - she indicated that she has our provincial letter of approval all ready - just waiting for it to be signed by the powers that be! Hopefully this will happen by the end of the week and our Dossier will be off to Cafac! Lyla will courior it - she said she would send me the tracking number so I will be able to see it go....I am a bit nervous about it getting lost as Mekonnen and Tenayes birth certificates are in there....getting replacements is not impossible..but would be a long process. Stage 1 of waiting begins...Getting the Dossier to Ethiopia...this should take about 2 months. Stage 2 of waiting will be waiting for the referral, and stage 3 of waiting will be waiting to travel. One step at a time.
Mar. 28, 2007 Dossier arrived at CAFAC today! :)
Mar. 29, 2007 There is a question about the electronic signature on my letter of employment - so Randy will be courioring an original copy to the Cafac office today for me.
Apr. 17, 2007 Dossier is Notorized and Cafac sent it off to Foreign Affairs for Legalization. This takes about 2 weeks. Then it goes off to the Ethiopian Embassy in Ottawa for Legalization. Once that is done it's off to Ethiopia!
May. 18, 2007 Received a package from Cafac in the mail today. In it was a note telling us that our Dossier was on it's way to Ethiopia!! I checked with the Fedex Tracking number and it was in Frankfurt Germany, waiting to go to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The projected delivery date is May 21, 2007. I'll keep watching all weekend and see where it goes.
May. 21, 2007 Our Dossier arrives in Ethiopia. It is being held at the Fedex office until Haregewain can pick it up.
June 5, 2007 Haregewain picks up our dossier!!! Yeah!! We are now officially waiting for a referral - once again!
Sept. 10, 2007 Wow! These last three months have sure flown by! We had a fun summer camping and hanging out with the kids - but now that we are back in a routine at home - we are all getting very excited to find out who the newest members of our family are going to be! Roberta (from Cafac) called me today and inconversation mentioned that 'they' (meaning Cafac and Haregewain) had been talking about us...that only means they are in the process of activly finding a match for us...won't be long now!!!
Dec. 5, 2007 Received the following email from Deb at the Cafac office....
Thanks so much for meeting us at A&W on the highway Monday!
It was good to see you – and what a great idea the calendar has turned out to be!Congratulations to you for doing such a great job.
I spoke to H on the phone yesterday. We have been made aware that there is something for your family- but it is waiting on DR’s signature and a couple other items to be finished before it can leave.
Just thought that might give you some cheer … I have no idea when the package will come from Ethiopia though. So it may be several/many weeks before we hear anything more.
Dec. 14, 200710:15 am...Phone rings...It's Lyla from social services...she has our referral!!! YEAH!! 2 girls 4 years old and 4 months old! I am so excited I make sure we can come in immediately to see it...well 30 mins...I guess that is pretty immediate seeing as how I have to phone and pull Bill out of School! 11:00 am - we meet with Lyla in her office and see your beautiful faces for the very first time....Miheret (almost 4) and Mitike....we are speachless and sooo happy! So much for work today! I spend the rest of the day telling our immediate family and close friends...by 9:30 pm I am exhausted and in bed.
Dec. 16, 2007Still walking on cloud 9! We can't wait to hold you and bring you home, but we know you are being loved and well cared for in the foster home - so that makes us happy as we prepared our home for your arrival!
Here is the reaction of Mekonnen and Tenaye after learning about their new sisters.
Mekonnen
He has been super excited from the start - and on Friday when we showed him the referral of his new sisters - he screamed with delight! I thought he might be a little disappointed that there wasn't a boy - but when we asked him this he said No..and replied that he was just sooo happy there was a baby! He is great with kids and babies and I know he will be a great big brother to his 3 sisters! (Funny thing, is Bill has 4 sisters and he is the only boy..so like father - like son )
I wasn't too sure about how much Tenaye was understanding all along - but earlier in the day before we showed her the referral pics of her new sisters - I had asked her if she wanted a sister - she said "Mommy I want 2 sisters"... WHen we showed her the pics and introduced her to her new sisters - she sat starting at the pics for the longest time then looked at me and asked "Mommy, they sleep at my house?" She has not put the pictures since recieving them and loves to tell people about her new sisters. Then last night dug one of her old soothers out and wanted to take it to bed...she has not had one since she was 18 months old! She took it to bed..but just held it ..didn't put in her mouth.
This morning I found her with it at the breakfast table...I started to take it and put it away and she said "No Mommy, I need it". When I asked her why she needed it she said "It's for TK (Mitike) - she is just a baby!" So apparently she is holding onto it to give it to Mitike when she comes home
Feb. 7, 2008 We learned today that our first (and hopefully only) court date will happen on Feb. 28th! Once the court hearing is successful, this will mean that we are the legal parents to Miheret and Mitike.
Feb. 28, 2008 Court date was SUCCESSFUL!! Yeah! Now they can get the girls Birth Certificates and Passports. As well we are waiting for Nairobi to send the medical forms. The medical forms are key - once they arrive it is generally only 4-5 weeks until you travel! So..come on Medicals!
Mar. 10, 2008 BO Number arrived! This isn't a hudge deal but signifies that Nairobi is somewhere in the process of processing the medical forms that need to be sent to Ethiopia. One more step in the process.
Mar. 14, 2008 Just got the BEST email from Cafac. Medical forms have arrived and are completed...we are looking a travelling to Ethiopia sometime the end of April!!! No specific date yet - but we will find that out in a few weeks probably. Anyway - I have sooo much to do yet and the End of April will be here before we know it!
Mar. 19, 2008 Offical travel notice from Cafac arrived today - with dates!! We leave April 24th and arrive home May 6th. We are probably going to look at leaving a day or 2 early so we can make a trip to Nazret to try to locate and Aunt of Mekonnen and Tenayes. So excited! Looks like we are in a big group - 10 families!! Will be different than our last trip, which was only 3 families - but just as wonderful I am sure.
Mar. 29, 2008 Detailed flight itineray arrived from Deddy today. Tickets are not completly confirmed and booked yet -but he does have them on hold. Once the final confirmation from Nairobi arrives that they will be issuing the Visa -then Deddy will go ahead and complete the confirmation and purchase the seats! SOOOO exciting...all the final details are falling into place!
Apr. 1, 2008 Received the list of contact information for the 10 families in our travel group. It will be nice to get to know them. We made some life long friends on our last trip, hoping to make some good friends on this trip as well. It will be great for the kids to have those connections to their friends from the foster home. We are the only SK family in the group, there is 1 ON family, 1 AB Family, 3 BC families, and 4 MB families.
Apr. 2, 2008 Ok so today was a tad bit stressful! Received a cc on a letter to our SW that the Letter of No Objection (LONO)that they were supposed to issue, never got issued. Nairobi won't issue the kids visas without this letter. I was instantly concerned that our travel date would be pushed back because of this. After talking with Deb at Cafac, she indicated that if our SW could get the LONO to them by the end of the week - then we wouldn't be delayed at all. So on the phone I got to talk to Lyla. Anyway, to make a long story short - Lyla was able to get the letter written up, it was to be signed at the end of the day by whomever needed to sign it - and tomorrow morning she indicated it would be both faxed and couriored to both Cafac and Nairobi. So feeling a bit better about it now - will be able to relax completely tomorrow when I get confirmation that it has been sent.
I really can't complain though - as this is really the only bump in the road we have had...so if it can get resolved tomorrow..then all is good.
