Accepted!!

I received a call this afternoon from the Director of the Ethiopia Program at Children’s Hope International.  Our application to adopt from Ethiopia was approved, and she was calling to apprise us of the next steps.  Early next week we will reportedly be assigned a “personal adoption consultant” to assist us through the rest of the process (and from the sounds of “the rest of the process” we’re going to make sure she earns her keep).  Next, we’ll begin gathering and assembling documents for our dossier, to eventually be submitted to Ethiopia.  What, you ask, is a dossier?  According to Wikipedia, a dossier is typically a briefing paper based on an individual of interest in police or intelligence circles.  (Yes, I feel a little bad about using Wikipedia, seeing as they exposed all those classified national documents, but they’re just so darn convenient when it comes to definitions J). 

Seriously though, this adoption dossier is a monster…it’s designed to give the Ethiopian government a clear picture of us as a prospective adoptive family.  It will contain our homestudy, birth certificates/marriage license, statements from our financial institutions, letters from our physicians, letters from law enforcement, reference letters from friends, approval letter from US Citizenship and Immigration Services, and a myriad of other forms and files.  Then, the whole deal has to be certified and authenticated at the state and federal level, before going to Ethiopia to be reviewed and approved over there.  Wheww!  Let the paper chase commence!!

Sarah