Monday, February 11, 2008

Our dossier is off!


Our dossier is finally finished! We received back all of our certifications on Thursday, made copies of everything (which took about an hour) and sent the whole things off today. This is what happens next:

Before America World can submit a family’s dossier to the Ethiopian government’s Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs, it must be sent through a careful process of certification and authentication in order for it to be used as a legal framework for adoption. Certification and authentication is a three-step procedure in which dossier documents visit their respective Secretaries of State, the U.S. Department of State, and Ethiopia’s Embassy in Washington, D.C. Family Coordinators will assist families through this process as well. The authentication process concludes the paper chase, and America World delivers the finished dossier to the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs. Once the dossier is in Ethiopia, it is translated, processed and examined by the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs. Our staff works with government officials and orphanages as a match is made between prospective parents and a child. Prospective parents typically wait 3-7 months before receiving a referral of a child from Ethiopia.

We don't really doing anything else, except pray and wait and go on about our life (like Chris working on his last paper and his thesis). Our agency does most everything else, until we receive a referral.

10 comments:

Rebecca Caldwell said...

Great News Guys! We be praying your dossier has a safe journey!

Nini said...

Praise God! I am so pleased and excited for you guys. I can only relate on a very minute level, as I went through the immigration process with Markus. That was a lot of paperwork - NOTHING compared to what you two have been working through.

I will continue to pray for both of you, for you new little baby, and for the goverment officials dealing with all of your papers. Praying that God grants you favor and SPEED! SOOOO excited for you!

Rob and Candy said...

Oh my gosh! that's such exciting news!!
candy (awaa)

tisha said...

Yea! Congratulations, that's a big step closer to your baby!
Tisha (awaa yg)

Karen said...

Wuhoo! Congrats, guys!! :)
*karen (awaa yg)

faithsalutes said...

Sweet man, sweet.

Erin said...

What a fabulous photo, with all your documents! The paperwork (most of it...) is behind you. Great!!!!

Mrs. Schwager said...

i am so excited!!!!

Anonymous said...

congrats friends!!! soon you'll have that baby in your arms! it's the best thing EVER!!!!

Carpenters said...

I'm a little late in adding my congratulations, but I wanted to let you know that I'm excited for and praying for you in the wait. I remember being so relieved when our dossier was finally off and out of our hands, knowing that I had done my part. It's a beautiful thing!

With Love,
Penelope