After mailing off our USCIS I-600A (Application for advance processing of orphan petition if you're not 'hip' on the adoption lingo...) we are done with the majority of our paperwork. There will be a few more things to send in at the request of the federal government, and maybe a few papers and things to exchange with our agency in Texas, but for the most part ladies & gentlemen.... This process is out of our hands!!
I have been researching several different organizations that give adoption scholarships and adoption grants, and I think now that our home study is complete I will apply for a few of them. As I have said before (and will say many more times on this journey) I fully believe in my heart that this adoption is God's plan for our family. It doesn't mean that we have everything figured out, that we will be perfect parents, or that it will even go seamlessly and beautifully.
Our social worker at the agency in Texas has been great about communicating with us and updating us on the process. Right now, it sounds like once our "Dossier" is translated and sent to Ethiopia, the wait time to get our referral is about 9 months on average. (Our dossier is currently being translated right now.) I have to laugh when I tell people that and they say "but that is SO long to wait!" because to us, it seems SO close. We 'waited' for Madigan for 2 years. We've been holding this adoption in our hearts for years, and actively 'working' on it for 6 months. So if we have a referral in hand a year from now, it actually feels quick to us!
In June (for Father's Day!) we joined The Mocha Club. The premise is for $7 a month (the cost of giving up 2 coffee's a month) you can donate to humanitarian efforts in Africa. Our team (Bring Home Hille, naturally!) has dedicated our donation to building clean water wells in Ethiopia. If you're interested in joining our team & donating to the great causes as well, you can check out this link { http://themochaclub.org/joinme/BringHomeHille } or leave your e-mail and I can send you an invite.
You can also go to themochaclub.org to read up on all their work and their mission.
Blessings!
