You know those dreams where you are trying to run as fast as you can but are moving in slow motion?  That’s how I have felt the last few months.  We are slowly progressing though.  Yesterday Nate and I had a conference call with a representative from AGCI.  She reviewed the contracts we need to sign and talked about the process from now on.  The call took about 45 minutes.  Today Nate and I took the documents (over 100 pages total) to be notarized.   It took longer than we expected but the notary was very patient and excited for us to be adopting.

So what now?  I will mail out the documents tomorrow.  AGCI will then send us a binder with pre-adoption information and the DOSSIER.  I have been anxious to get my hands on that for a long time.  The average amount of time for people to complete the dossier is 2-3 months.  After the dossier is submitted to Ethiopia, we will go on the wait list and should expect to wait 3-6 months until we receive a referral (where we are matched with a child).  It will then take another 2-4 months for the government to ensure that the child is an orphan and to process the adoption.  After that, we will travel to Ethiopia to pick up our baby.  If you haven’t done the math, we have 7 – 13 months to go.  Hopefully it will feel like I’m moving faster soon!