For really real really?

Part of the fun of our Ethiopian adoption is being able to have access to information that we have not had with our China process. For instance, we got to track our dossier's journey from the states to the United Kingdom and on to Addis Ababa. We know that it arrived yesterday and is now being prepared for translation.

Also we got something yesterday that after over...let's see...two plus years of waiting we have yet to see from our China process. A travel packet. Yesterday, AB and I sat at the kitchen table for a couple of hours dissecting and voraciously devouring an inch thick packet of detailed information about the next steps of our Ethiopian adoption journey. Down to the airline we can book with that flies non-stop to Ethiopia, the forms we will fill out on the plane ride over, the places we can stay once there, the things we can expect, and the money we will need, what the sign will look like that our driver will hold up when he comes to get us at the airport. You name it, it's in there. We even got a sample copy of a referral so we would know what we were looking at when ours came and how to read it. OMG. Pinch me.

I think a couple times we just looked at each other and said "is this real?" We feel so shell shocked from a) having information at our fingertips and b) feeling as if this might actually happen, that we aren't quite sure what to do with ourselves. We're so used to just waiting and waiting, and waiting with no information - that we practically have whiplash from going the other direction.

Several people have asked us "what happens now" - and since the process is quite different from the China adoption process, we wanted to give a little run-down on what we're expecting. (Especially since we are actually in the position of knowing what happens next).

Keep in mind of course that our dossier process took six months to assemble and was harder than we anticipated. Also, even though the below seems easy as pie - it involves an intricately woven path through each step and relies heavily upon people will special knowledge of how these adoptions work. I thank God we will have an attorney in Ethiopia advocating with the courts on our behalf and that of our little man. I also thank God, we will not have to be present on the court day and that our agency arranges it as such. So keeping that in mind...

• Right now our dossier will be translated and then submitted to the board at the orphanage.
  
• After careful review and when a child closely fitting our request is available, the orphanage will then refer us our child (this can take anywhere from 8-20 weeks for the orphanage we are using - but is not set in stone and can be longer or shorter).
• We review his medical history, etc. and then accept or decline the referral (ha! as if...)
• Our documents get submitted to the court system. Once our court date is set and arrives, a judge will hear the case and will rule based on the information he or she has to determine guardianship. If all goes well, we will be granted custody of Quint and in that moment, he will become ours legally - though he will remain a warden of the orphanage until we can come and get him. This is done through the use of a power of attorney. We will not need to be present.
• Our court documents are translated and our child will receive a final medical exam - which will all go to the US Emb@ssy.
  
• We go to Ethiopia - typically a five day visit - to get Quint. We will have an Emb@ssy appointment, get a Vis@ for him, spend time at the orphanage, sightsee, shop a little, and come home!

Based on the estimated timeframe provided to us for each bullet point above (which I omitted in the interest of time), we figured that we were looking at a low end wait of June. The long end wait was November or nine months until referral and travel was complete. Either way, I was just happy to think he would be home for the holidays! But today I contacted our agency and said that I just wanted to see if our projected estimate was right - somewhere between June and November. They wrote us back to say that actually, the wait for an infant was currently between only four and six months. So in other words, between June and August. Gulp.

Pinch me. No really...

For real?

Naaaahhhh...

Really?

Get outta here...