Welcome To Our Adoption Blog!

This blog is dedicated to the adoption of our child from Ethiopia. The Lord has burdened our hearts for the orphan for a few years now and we are excited to finally begin the adoption process. We know it is going to be a long, crazy, joyful and sometimes frustrating journey. We pray that this blog will raise awareness about international adoption and be a tool to educate those who are considering the adoption process. On that note, we will be posting the many details involved in the journey to our child.We hope that the more information people have about the adoption process the less intimidating and scary it is. We also hope our child will someday be able to look back on this and see how they were loved and wanted by us from day 1.

So here we go...

Our first step in the process was to fill out an initial application with Gladney over the internet. Judy then contacted us to schedule a phone orientation a few weeks later. The phone orientation consisted of going through the highlights of a 55 page orientation manual. From there we sent off a request for the official Gladney application. We are awaiting its arrival this week. We also sent our I-600A (Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition) to the USCIS office in San Antonio. This required copies of our passports and marriage license, as well as a few other things. We are also proud holders of a fedex account which Gladney recommends for all the paperwork.

Once we receive our Gladney app. we'll work on 4 reference letters, blood tests, physicals and some other things I'm not sure of. We'll have a homestudy as well. When the homestudy is complete it's sent to USCIS. At this point we will receive a fingerprint appointment. All the while we'll be working on our foreign dossier which requires many notarized official documents. The whole "paperchase" can take up to 4-6 months.

So, that's where we are as of today. Above is a picture of our first set of official adoption documents.