Movin' Right Along

The medical forms are complete. The local police clearance has been turned in. One of three references has finished. We are down to needing 2 more references to finish (they just got the paperwork so I will give them some time!) and our clearance letters from Department of Justice, local sheriffs office, and FBI. ALL OF MY PAPERWORK is in. So here comes the hard part - not being in control of what is left and maintaining patience. We have our second homestudy appointment tomorrow and our third on the 16th.

We are starting to prepare for the home visit. Yesterday we bought a fire extinguisher, cupboard laches, outlet plug thingys, and foam bumpers for our sharp cornered coffee table. I wanted to show the social worker we are preparing even though it may be a year before there is a crawling baby in the house! To help pass the time I am thinking about doing a whole lot of unnecessary things like re-paint a living room wall a DIFFERENT shade of blue, paint the bathroom, put in closet organizers, and maybe start transforming the guest room into a nursery. I know the social worker won't care what color my walls are but this judgement is good motivation to get lingering projects done pre-baby.

And maybe we will plant some flowers in the flower pots that have been empty for 2 years, and finish tacking down the baseboard behind the t.v., and ...

Ethiopian Food, Anyone?

So, we had our first experience with Ethiopian food. Well, it was my first experience. Come to find out Brian had it before while living in DC but he was holding out on me and didn't tell me he had ever had it until we were eating. Maybe because he knows his wife very well :). There is a surprisingly large Ethiopian community in San Diego. There are three Ethiopian restaurants, I think a community center (although I am having trouble finding information on it), and lots of churches. I would like to try out one of the evangelical Christian Ethiopian churches sometime (even though we have a different home church). So I loved the art work in the restaurant, the service was very friendly, but the food was a little rough. I'm really not that picky of an eater, but there are two things I really don't like: meat on the bone and spicy. Well, our food had both. We went on a night when there was a buffet and only a buffet. Some of the dishes weren't warm so that could have been part of the problem. The injera was okay and I loved all the varieties of veggies. Everything was a mushy consistency which surprised me. The flavors were unlike anything I have ever tried and I genuinely enjoyed the flavors but my mouth was on FIRE!!! The tej (honey wine) I had did help a little. Although I wouldn't say I enjoyed my meal, I look forward to eating Ethiopian food again and embracing more of this cultural aspect of our child's birth country - but I can't promise the Ethiopian food won't be followed up with a McDonald's drive though. P.S. Brian loved the food and I'm pretty sure his fingers (I did a no no and used a plastic fork) still smell like Ethiopian food. We need an Ethiopian to show us how to scoop using the injera without making a mess of ourselves.

Paperwork Update

We can see the end of the pile! For our AGCI paperwork we still need police clearances and reference letters. Our references are working on their letters and I am hoping we can make a trip to our local police station with our notary tomorrow.

For our Adoption Alliance paperwork we are waiting on the reference letters and the results of our criminal background checks from the FBI and DOJ. We are told the FBI clearance could take a month but are really crossing our fingers to get it by the end of March. We need to go to the Dr.'s again today to show her the results of our TB test and then she can send in the medical report. I can't believe this but everything else is done!!

We got our third and final home study appointment scheduled. It is March 16th! I told our social worker we were really hoping to have a completed home study by the end of the month. She said a lot will depend on how quickly the clearances come back but she doesn't see why the end of the month wouldn't work since we are getting our paperwork in so quickly!!

1 of 3 down!

We had our first appointment (of three) with our homestudy agency and social worker yesterday. It went really well. We got a large checklist of documents to gather, and signed a bunch there in the office. Our next appointment is March 5th (less than a week!) and we need to turn in the majoirty of the paperwork then. Since I was a little pushy about getting the appointments on the books we are going to be in a bit of a paperwork crunch time over the next couple of days. Still, I would rather have a couple of jam-packed paperwork days than be waiting a month for our next appointment :). I am expecting an e-mail from my social worker before Wednesday's appointment with some possibilities for scheduling the final appointment. We have our medical check-ups today and will finish our taxes and autobiographies tonight. After that the next big piece of paperwork is the police clearance/fingerprints. Hopefully we will get a fingerprint appointment scheduled sometime in the next couple days. The title of "PAPERCHASING" for this stage in our adoption is so appropriate!

Dr.'s Appointments, CHECK

Well I guess technically we can't cross it off the list yet, but they are scheduled. Normally it takes me about 3 months to get an appointment with my Dr. and Brian doesn't really have one so I was worried about getting both of us on her books. I called today and they are squeezing us in Friday afternoon!! So, we will get the forms in Thursday's meeting and go with our notary to the Dr.'s on Friday. It can't get any faster than that! MORE PROGRESS!!

Lots of Certificates

We just ordered 2 copies of each of our birth certificates. Both our homestudy and adoption agency will be needing copies. Brian will be running another after work errand to the county clerks office to pick up a couple copies of our marriage certificate. We get to cross a couple more things off the list!

Congratulations!

Congratulations Ted & Tracie on the newest addition to their family. Brian and I have loved reading their blog the past few days as we are learning so much about Ethiopia and what our trip may be like!