Dossier - Check!

Our Ethiopian Dossier is finished.  AAI makes it VERY easy, and with a little help from our friends and family in the states the paper chase took almost no time at all.  Everything is in the mail and should be in Washington in a week or two.  For the moment, it feels great to be finished with signature collecting.  I will say that dossier #3 did not produce the same amount of drama and crisis that dossier #1 created.  It was more along the lines of GITRDONE.

With the race to the paper finish line crossed, we can now begin the prepare for a new family member stage.  Oh how I LOVE this stage.   The best part is the opening of our hearts to another child, sister, brother, friend, son, daughter.   It is just fun to dream and long and wait for the one that is to come.  This stage was HARD with Noah but now we have learned to treasure it.  Bring on the wait!!!

So who are we waiting for?  We decided to switch agencies from CHSFS and AAI after many months of research and soul searching.  What a big decision.  So far we are happy with AAI and glad to be where we are.  AAI serves a different kind of children.  We think this is the way things should be more often. Back to who we are waiting for...we are waiting for a child or siblings ages 0 to 7 years old.  We are open to either a boy or a girl or both.  With both our children we knew their gender before we knew them.  It's been fun to not know and just wait and dream about both possibilities.

Waiting might be the wrong word to use because there really is no wait for us.  This whole thing has happened so fast.  We are certain that the bump in the road is just around the corner but so far no bumps.  Brian and I are like minded in our decisions.  Paper work, money, health care are all coming together.    So awesome to feel so together as we move forward.  I'm glad that adding children to our family looks so different each time.  I checked the CHSFS waiting children list for months until our home study was complete and then emailed Peg the same day for more information about Noah. 20 minutes later we had our referral.  With Myra the wait was long, ever changing and hard on my spirit.  So many time lines, check lists and unmet expectations (all created by me). But we needed that time to get our relationship with Christ, marriage, family, jobs in a better place.  Myra came home at the best time.  This time I'm letting go of the time lines, checklist and expectations, and having so much more fun.  Umut is the waiting name we've given this child (Noah's was Enoc, Myra's was Baby O).  Umut is Turkish for Hope.  Our child, Umut, is on AAI's waiting list waiting to belong to someone, some place, some how. We just can't wait to meet!