Timing/Schedule

Frequently we are asked when we think we might be traveling to Ethiopia to meet and adopt our child. The short answer is, “hopefully this summer.” I have detailed the Ethiopian adoption schedule below so you can see what we have done and what still needs to be completed. One benefit of adopting from Ethiopia is that the process is extremely fast and moves quite smoothly (from everything we’ve heard). So, here’s the possible schedule/process below:

December 2004: turned in application to Children’s Home Society and Family Services

January 20 and 21: attended a two day Pre-Adoption Class (PAC) to help teach us about adoption issues, the process and get to know others who are adopting through CHS.

End of January: write essays about ourselves, our background, parenting strategy, cultural awareness, etc. WE JUST FINISHED this homework and I will be turning our essays in on Monday (February 7th)

February: complete and turn in United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (US-CIS) paperwork. This is previously known as INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service). I should be able to gather and turn this paperwork in on Monday (February 7th) as well.

February/March: Meet with the social worker assigned to us 2 or 3 times. This is oftentimes known as the Homestudy, but now is more commonly called the Adoption Study. CHS focuses on educating parents and in the Adoption Study we are not being “judged” but they are instead looking for areas where we may need additional training or education.

March/April: Social Worker writes up our summary and we assemble dossier to submit to the Ethiopian government.

April/May: Referral of child made, referral reviewed/accepted, dossier submitted to Ethiopia, dossier accepted

June: After referral is made and accepted and dossier is submitted and accepted, travel can take place four to six weeks later!!!

Of course, we know that these are OUR plans and schedule but that God may have us on a different schedule. Regardless, we know that God already has chosen the child (or children) that we are going to have the privilege to parent. This gives us great comfort when thinking about the future.

One additional note:
The courts in Ethiopia close the month of August and the first three weeks of September so while we would ideally like to travel in June we are praying that we would be able to complete our travel sometime before the month of August.