DOSSIER ARRIVES IN ADDIS!

Thanks so much for your prayers over the past week as we watched our dossier progress around the world! We got a little nervous when it sat in Dubai for the whole weekend, but were relieved to “see” it get an early flight out of Dubai on Monday. It arrived in Addis later Monday afternoon and was delivered late that same day to CWA’s offices.

Please pray that the translation of our dossier into Amharic goes very quickly and that our request for a court date would be processed quickly. We’re praying for a June court date (please Lord!) which means that if we “pass” the first court date (another prayer request!) that we could possibly be picking up our kids in August (and July would be even better!).

We love you all and are so grateful for your prayers and for your financial support which has brought us this far toward the finish line.

DOSSIER!

So our dossier shipped to Ethiopia on Wednesday! So far its track has been seen making the “villes” tour: Hendersonville, NC; Asheville, NC; Greenville, SC; Louisville, KY, and finally Philly, PA where it was last scanned on Thursday AM at 8:35 for departure...to where, we have no idea...stay close for more riveting details of the Hopkins’ Dossier Journey Across the Ocean!

Thanks for praying that thing to Addis safely!

We Pray for the Children

We pray for the children who put chocolate fingers everywhere,
who like to be tickled, who stomp in puddles and ruin their new pants,
who sneak Popsicles before supper, who erase holes in math workbooks,
who can never find their shoes.

And we pray for those who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
who’ve never squeaked across the floor in new sneakers, who never had crayons to count,
who are born in places we wouldn’t be caught dead, who never go to the circus,
who live in an X-rated world.

We pray for children who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
who sleep with the dog and bury goldfish, who give hugs in a hurry and forget their lunch money,
who cover themselves with Band-Aids and sing off-key,
who squeeze toothpaste all over the sink, who slurp their soup.

And we pray for those who never get dessert, who watch their parents watch them die,
who have no safe blanket to drag behind, who can’t find any bread to steal,
who don’t have any rooms to clean up, whose pictures aren’t on anybody’s dresser,
whose monsters are real.

We pray for children who spend all their allowance before Tuesday,
who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food,
who like ghost stories, who shove dirty clothes under the bed, who never rinse out the tub,
who get visits from the tooth fairy, who don't like to be kissed in front of the school,
who squirm in church and scream in the phone, whose tears we sometimes laugh at and whose smiles can make us cry.

And we pray for those whose nightmares come in the daytime,
who will eat anything, who aren't spoiled by anybody,
who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,
who live and move, but have no being.

We pray for children who want to be carried, and for those who must.
For those we never give up on, and for those who never get a chance.
For those we smother with our love,
and for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer.

~ by Ina J. Hughes

DOSSIER!

Danna got a call this morning (Tuesday) from CWA (from one of the Ethiopian women who works on the CWA Team in North Carolina) telling her that our dossier would ship out to Addis on Wednesday AM!

Please “pray” that dossier over there, would you?

Thanks so much for your prayers and partnership on this fantastic journey. We’re so grateful for you.

DOSSIER!

The Assistant Stork (asststork.com), Laura, sent us these photos of our FULLY AUTHENTICATED dossier on Friday! The “United States of America” pages were authenticated with Hillary Rodham Clinton’s signature and then the Ethiopian Embassy Staff authenticated the back of those pages.

Laura promptly FedExed our dossier to Christian World Adoption’s offices in North Carolina where they are scheduled to be delivered on Monday!

Shortly thereafter, our paperwork should ship to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to be translated and then make their way to the court. Please keep praying with us for a June court date and that we would “pass” that court date the very first time.

Thanks so much for walking along with us...we love you all.

Dossier!

On Tuesday we received the final piece needed for our dossier and promptly FedExed it off to Laura (asststork.com) who will be taking it to the State Department and to the Embassy of Ethiopia for us. Go Laura!

FedEx tells us that it was delivered to Laura’s doorstep on Wednesday AM. Please pray that all goes very smoothly in Washington and that we can get it over to Ethiopia ASAP and get a court date before the Court recess in August/September. We’re specifically praying for a June court date and that we would “pass” court the first time.

Thanks so much for being with us on this journey!

I-171H

We were thrilled to receive word from USCIS on Saturday that our I-600A has been processed and approved. That means our fingerprints were cleared and our request for the kids’ visas have been sent on the the National Visa Processing Center!

CWA tells us that our approval is some kind of record—the average time is 90 days—ours took just 5!

Thanks so much for praying!

Documents Approved!

These were some VERY welcome words from Michael, our Case Manager from Christian World Adoption this morning (Friday, April 3rd):

Hello, Brian and Danna,

Things have settled down a bit here, and I got a chance to review and recombine your documents. I will send you the final Obligation document today, and send it by quick UPS so that you can get started ASAP. Thank you for sending the missing documents; I have copied all those and inserted them in your dossier copies, which I will hand off for processing now.

Have you arranged with a courier service for the Washington segment?

That means that (perhaps) by Monday, we could have the final piece of our dossier from CWA so that we could overnight it on Monday to the Assistant Stork in Washington for her to carry to the State Department and to the Embassy of Ethiopia!

Oh yeah, I learned today from Laura (the Assistant Stork) that no matter what class of FedEx service you select, it all makes it to her at 11am. Here’s how she said it:

First Overnight get delivered around 11AM. Priority Overnight gets delivered around 11AM. Standard Overnight gets here around 11AM. So don't waste your money.

Interesting...I think we’ll be selecting “Standard Overnight”, huh?

Photography by Leslie McDaniel

This week has been a blur of finishing our dossier (the official packet of information that actually goes to Ethiopia and becomes the “picture” of the Hopkins family that the Ethiopian government uses as the basis of their decision about letting us adopt these three kids). Monday was spent in Helena dropping off our I600A (Petition for Advance Processing of an Orphan) and being fingerprinted for our FBI background check. We also had our cover letter and power of attorney authenticated by the ever-gracious Della at the Secretary of State’s office.

Now, we wait for our case worker at Christian World Adoption to finish “proofing” our dossier. Once he completes that process, he will send us the final piece of the dossier—which then means we will send it on to a courier in Washington, DC (www.asststork.com) who will hand carry it to the US State Department for authentication and then onto the Embassy of Ethiopia for one final authentication (it ought to be truly authentic with all that authentication going on ;-).

Our courier will then FedEx the freshly authenticated dossier to Christian World Adoption in North Carolina where they will lovingly package it for shipment to Ethiopia.

Would you please pray with us that we can get this dossier wrapped up and sent off very soon? We’re trying to race against the clock to beat the Ethiopian Court’s recess so that we could possibly bring the kids home this summer.

Thanks so much for your prayer and support in these days. We deeply appreciate every one of you.