The Anchor Leg of the Paperwork Chase

When we met our adoption consultant and handed over our paperwork last Monday, she went over everything again while we sat there (this was the umpteenth time our papers had been reviewed, so we weren’t too worried).  And, she doubled checked that she had received everything else she needed for our file.  She had.

Although it’s out of our hands now, our paperwork has a couple final destinations to visit.  The adoption agency sends dossiers to their courier in Washington, D. C. every Thursday.  The courier takes our dossier around to the US Department of State and the Ethiopian Embassy (so that’s where our paperwork has been these past two days).  Usually the courier sends the documents back to the adoption agency the next week (which would be this coming week, for us).  This is all well ahead of that drop-dead date of 07/23/11 when a letter from one of our medical doctors will “expire” due to an outdated notary stamp.  Wheww!!

And at that point, after these last two offices have signed off on our stuff, we are considered by our agency as a “waiting family” for a child from Ethiopia.  Right now, there are about 40 families in front of us (though not all of those families are waiting for the same children…some want older children, some want younger, some are seeking sibling sets, etc).  When we go on the list this week, we will be told our exact position in the queue and we will be able to mentally “track” our progress as we read of families receiving referrals in the weekly updates that we get from our agency.  Yeah!!

We’ll let you know what we hear.

Sarah