First Payment and Agency Contract Mailed

Sorry it has been a while since our last update but as you may know the process of adoption is that things happen and then you wait. More stuff happens and then you wait. More stuff; more waiting. Since our last post we have been waiting. This time we have been waiting for Dottie to get paid. The school district up here in North Carolina pays their teachers on the last day of the month. It makes for a nice paycheck but you have to wait an entire month between checks. Anyway, being as it is that we are paying for this adoption primarily through her paycheck we had to wait. Well, we now have it so we mailed off our first payment to the agency and our contract. As soon as they receive it they will have our family coordinator contact us and then all the real fun begins. So, now we wait.

We have been approved!!!

Well, AWAA said they would contact us within 10 days after receiving our application to let us know if we had been approved and 10 very long days later - we got the call! We are officially adopting. In "paper pregnancy" terms I guess this is the equivalent to having your home pregnancy test come back positive. Now, the real paper work begins...anyone know where I put my birth certificate?

Oh yea, I guess I should tell you that AWAA probably thinks I'm a bit nuts. You see Dottie had just walked out the door when the phone rang. When I saw on the caller id that it was American World I naturally got a little excited. I answered the phone and the lady on the other end said, "You've been approved..." That is when I interrupted her and said, "Great! Hold on. My wife is leaving. I have to stop her!" I then ran out the front door and stopped Dottie just in time to tell her the good news. I definitely think the lady was a little taken back with my enthusiasm but how many times does a guy get to celebrate being approved to adopt a couple of children from Ethiopia.

We heard from one agency...

Well, we are still waiting to hear from the adoption agency but we did hear today from the U.S. government. Dottie received her passport. Estimating by other people's time lines we weren't expecting it until October. Go figure that the government would surprise us and be timely. Is that one of the signs of the apocalypse?

We heard from the agency but...

Well, this morning the phone rang. The caller ID said that it was American World (the adoption agency we applied with). We answered the phone with great excitement. Hopefully this was the call to tell us that we had been approved. Unfortunately, they were only calling to clarify something on our application. So, it is back to waiting. By the way, did I mention that I hate waiting!

We applied!

Well, Dottie's first paycheck came through and that means today we officially start the adoption process. I just sent in our online adoption application. Now we get to experience another period (in a series of many) of waiting. I hate waiting.