Here's what we have to update (the first five have to be notarized):
- Financial update
- Employment Letter
- Physical & Doctor Letters
- Police Reports
- Home Study
- I-171H (visa needed to bring Calvin to the US & fingerprints which we have already updated)
Let me explain what this means for us. A referral is when we receive a phone call from our adoption agency letting us know that they have a baby matched to us. Once we receive the email with his picture and medical history, we can say yes or no to this referral.....UMMM....we can't imagine saying no after waiting this long!! We are asking for 0-2 years, the oldest he could be when we get him would be 1 year and 11 months. Once we say yes we will then pay $8,000 (raised so far $5,700) in fees which go toward the agency and the orphanage in Ethiopia. The agency will then give us a date of our first trip to Ethiopia which we are estimating to cost $7,000.
This first trip is our court date where the judge approves us for this adoption (some families don't get approved the first time because of additional paperwork needed; we are hoping we get approved during this time!). We will get to meet him on this trip!! We will have a week in Ethiopia to do paperwork, sightseeing, and of course, getting to know Calvin. We will then have a couple of weeks after we get home before we can go and pick him up, I do believe that will be the hardest and trying wait time compared to our wait time now!
We have decided that just Caleb and I will be going on this first trip because of cost. Our second trip we will also take Charis with us so that she can meet Calvin and experience Ethiopia first hand. It will be so amazing for all FOUR (wow, just writing that brings tears to my eyes!) of us to come back as a family!
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