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!
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Documents Approved!
These were some VERY welcome words from Michael, our Case Manager from Christian World Adoption this morning (Friday, April 3rd):
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?
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?
Thursday, April 2, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
More thanks to all of you who have been so incredibly generous and have gotten us this far into what we need to bring our kids home! Just $13,000 to go! God is so incredibly good and so many of you have been the instruments of His goodness.
We spent this past weekend in Spokane with our friends Tim and Kerry Davis (adopting two boys from Ethiopia) attending an “Adopting Older Kids From Ethiopia” Conference. The conference was hosted by a fantastic organization called Kingdom Kids (kingdomkidsadoption.org). We heard from adoptive parents, children who have been adopted, attachment specialists, etc. covering the gamut of “stuff” relating to adopting older children from Ethiopia. We would highly recommend this training for anyone who is considering adopting—from Ethiopia or not.
One of the highlights of the weekend was to hang out with the Gardner Family (they lead Kingdom Kids Adoption) after the training was over. They have a very special family and are intensely committed to the cause of orphans and widows around the world. Incredibly inspiring!
We spent this past weekend in Spokane with our friends Tim and Kerry Davis (adopting two boys from Ethiopia) attending an “Adopting Older Kids From Ethiopia” Conference. The conference was hosted by a fantastic organization called Kingdom Kids (kingdomkidsadoption.org). We heard from adoptive parents, children who have been adopted, attachment specialists, etc. covering the gamut of “stuff” relating to adopting older children from Ethiopia. We would highly recommend this training for anyone who is considering adopting—from Ethiopia or not.
One of the highlights of the weekend was to hang out with the Gardner Family (they lead Kingdom Kids Adoption) after the training was over. They have a very special family and are intensely committed to the cause of orphans and widows around the world. Incredibly inspiring!
Monday, March 9, 2009
UPDATE
Thanks so much to those of you who have so generously contributed to us bringing these kids home. We’re only $15,000 away from having the bill paid in full! Your generosity and partnership is nothing short of amazing—and incredibly humbling.
Many of you are asking about the timing of when the kids could be home with us...and your guess is as good as ours. What we do know is that our home study is almost completed, as is our dossier. Once all that is completed, it will be sent to Ethiopia to begin the “in country” process (court date, etc.). Though we are very hopeful for a summer 2009 trip to get the kids, the more we hear from Christian World Adoption (our adoption agency...cwa.org), the more we have a sense that the summer would be a miracle (though we’re still praying that way...and invite you to join us toward that end).
We’ll keep you posted as we know more. We love you and so appreciate your journeying with us.
Many of you are asking about the timing of when the kids could be home with us...and your guess is as good as ours. What we do know is that our home study is almost completed, as is our dossier. Once all that is completed, it will be sent to Ethiopia to begin the “in country” process (court date, etc.). Though we are very hopeful for a summer 2009 trip to get the kids, the more we hear from Christian World Adoption (our adoption agency...cwa.org), the more we have a sense that the summer would be a miracle (though we’re still praying that way...and invite you to join us toward that end).
We’ll keep you posted as we know more. We love you and so appreciate your journeying with us.
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