Against a Deadline

I was reading Mary's message on the Gladney's newsletter and suddenly I became somewhat panicked about getting all our paperwork into the Ethiopian government by July 1st. This date is important if we want to get a referral and a court date before the rainy season in Addis Ababa. Apparently the court systems shut down for the months of August and September. If we do not make the deadline, we could still receive a child referral, but our babe would have to wait until October before her court date to finalize our adoption. So today was crazy. Fernando got his FBI fingerprints done in the morning and I went after work. I got our FBI packet together including the money orders and I FedExing it tomorrow. I hope it gets processed quickly! Tomorrow I hope to tie up our medical paperwork, and the copies of our passports. Then we'll only have my birth certificate, reference letters and home study write up to wait for...but those are all out of my control.

Travel Books

Yesterday we went to a travel store and bought a book on Ethiopia. I know it's wishful thinking, especially because we aren't even done collecting all our paperwork, but it is better to prepare than to be scrambling to the end. Anyway, Marina is so funny because she asks me to read from the travel book and gets excited about all the things my brother and I will be seeing in Ethiopia. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but I asked by brother to come with me to pick up our baby. Marina will most likely be in school and needs stability and continuity while we take her through the journey of big sisterhood. Oh! we finally got Fernando's employment letter, and this time, the notary got it right. I also contacted the traveling notary and I will be making arrangements with our MD to get the papers from our physicals signed and sealed.

I spoke with Heartsent today, and they said that our home study would most likely be dome by mid June (optimistically). I guess we're OK with that considering we still have to finish gathering everything.

To My Bosom Friend

From the first time I posted on this blog, I made a commitment not to post anything about our personal life that did not pertain to our adoption journey. This is because I believe that the primary role of this, on-line journal, is to help others who are either beginning this road or are in the midst of this vast ocean. However, yesterday I was talking with one of my very dearest friends and realised how absorbed I've been with this quest for our little baby. My lovely friend is so giving, and patient, and loving, and kind, and everything else you can think of. She is one of the loves of my life. She makes me laugh, and think, and inquire, and self examine, and knowing her has made me a better person. She always sees the good side of people. I say all of this because for the past two months she has read our blog, heard my adoption obsession and asked about how our journey was coming along, and gave encouragement and words of wisdom. Last night, while we were on the phone talking about each other's plans for the long week end and long summer vacations she said; "I wish you could come with us to Hawaii." So I said, "you know Hawaii has never been my number one destination." She finally said that she wished we could go because she and her long time boy are GETTING MARRIED. I am so happy for them. They love each other for ever already. Today I am only posting to say: congratulations, my little friend. I love you.

Everytime I try to get our, they pull me back in.

Let me explain: Fernando went to pick up his employment verification letter from his wonderful contact in the HR department of his school district. When I opened one of the envelopes, the letter looked great. I thought we were out of the bureaucratic mess. Well, we are not. When I turned the page to look at the notary statement, she had made a mistake and put Fernando's name as the person signing the letter instead of the director of HR. I called our contact, and was sorry to tell her that the notary had made a big mistake, and that we could not use the letters because we are not allowed to un-staple and re-stapel, hence, they had to draft brand new letters!!!!! I'm so bummed. Any way, on another front, I think our last 2 letters of recommendation should be in by the end of this week, so this takes some of the load off. On another front, we should be getting our third set of fingerprints this week to send off to the FBI. And our medical information should be in by the end of next week.

Getting Oh So Close

Today we met with Maggie for the third and last time regarding our home study. We are so happy to be done with that process, not because we don't enjoy Maggie, but because that means we are a little closer to meeting our babe. Also, Fernando's HR contact has come through! He will be able to pick up his employment letters by Monday during lunch time. I'm so happy that our patience and relentlessness paid off. Now, we're only waiting for Fernando's lab results, my birth certificate, our FBI stuff, and 2 letters of recommendation. Then we should be able to put our dossier together to get the authentication done and sent off to the Ethiopian officials. We hope to be able to get all of this done by the end of June. We began the process in early March, so we've been at this for almost 3 months now...I think we're keeping good pace.

I've been in constant negotiations with Fernando's HR people. I think I'm making some headway. I will send the woman whom I've been talking with the documents that state that I need these certified copies of the letter of employment. I will also ask Maggie from Heartsent send them a note, and perhaps Mary from Gladney can send her one about Gladney's requirement and the dossier requirement. We'll see what happens...I guess it isn't only the Mexican governmental offices who give people a difficult time over the smallest of details!
On another note, Fernando will be getting his physical done tomorrow. As soon as his results are in, I will be able to arrange the notary thing at Kaiser. We also need to get our third and last set of fingerprints for our FBI paperwork. I think I can see a little tiny light at the end of the paperwork tunnel.

About a week or two ago, I went to the human resources department at work and asked Sharron if she could write me the letter of employment necessary for our dossier, I told her we would have to go to the AAA together to get the letter notarized and she informed me that Peggy was a notary public; so there was no need to go to AAA. She had the letter ready in no time and Peggy gave me 3 notarized copies immediately. They were both fantastic and seemed to be very excited about being able to help out in this most important project.
On Friday, I called the human resources department in Fernando's work and the experience couldn't have been more opposite. I first spoke to one lady, she informed me that I needed to speak with the person in charge of writing those letters. When I spoke with her she wanted me to give her the name and address of the people who wanted the letter so that she could send them the letter...she never expressed any excitement of the prospect of our adoption. I explained to her that the letters would be sent to the adoption agencies and to the Ethiopian government. She still couldn't help me. Then she said that Fernando had to make the request in writing. So I sent her an e-mail from Fernando's account and didn't hear back from her (arrrrggg! as I write this I just remembered that I didn't specify that we needed 3 originals notarized and one plain for our records). Any way, I called her today, and she said that they don't have a notary on site-she's out on maternity leave, and that she would have to speak to her supervisor (who so happens to be the same woman I originally spoke with). I told her to leave her a message on my behalf, and that I would like to speak with the supervisor to explain to her the urgency of the matter--I never heard back!

I have decided to feature works from Ethiopian artists as openers to my little adoption trials and tribulations. I hope every one enjoys them. I haven't written in some time, but it seems that the few things that our Gladney file is still missing are beyond our control. We are only missing our notarized health checks, 2 of our reference letters, and our home study report. Oh and, how could I overlook this, my birth certificate. I hope I get that in the mail soon!
Today I was happy to see that both the Fulkners and Bottomlys met their boys. Wow, I can't even believe how fantastic it is to be able to share their experience! When I see them and their new babies, it is quite reassuring that this is an inevitable journey for our family... how could we not adopt? I was reading the Swerl Blog and it seems that they are going through a bad patch. I urge them to see the latest posts from the people I just mentioned...they will find themselves sure again.

Kaiser

Just a quick note to inform everyone how much I LOVE Kaiser. Now, I know there is a great deal of skepticism about this HMO, but for me, it has been the greatest. Throughout my pregnancy I received amazing care, and labor and delivery was fabulous. The level of care is unmatched. Today I went to my physical. I brought all my forms (Heartsent, Gladney and Dossier). I was called in immediately, my doctor thought all that was asked for was over the top, but didn't question anything. She also said I could e-mail her once my labs were in so that we could coordinate a time for the notary to come to her office (she said I don't need to make a formal appointment). Well, then she ordered ALL my labs and I was on my way. As of 10 minutes ago I have received 2 emails from Kaiser with 4 of my lab results!

Clean, clean, clean until your body can clean no more

Well, I am my mother's daughter. I remember, when I was little, my mom getting so worked up about getting the house to look just perfect before company arrive that, in my mind, she turned into a frantic cleaning machine that gave orders to us about how we had to get our rooms in just the right condition.
For the past week, I've been cleaning, de-cluttering, planting, ripping plants out, folding clothes, going to the Good Will, cleaning our home office, going through drawers, and basically becoming a cleaning machine that gives orders to others about how to get everything just in the right condition for the home visit from Maggie.
Now, I know that the point of the home visit as far as Heartsent is concerned is not to criticize or judge a person's home keeping skills but, being that I grew up around women who commented on every one's home and deconstructed every inch of their friend's decorating and cleaning skills (whether their own or their house keepers) I couldn't leave one inch of the house without at least a good wipe down.
So it took Maggie, Marina and me 5 minutes to look around our little home, including the yards! As expected Maggie didn't take a second look at the cleaning aspect of our home, but as to the quality of life we will be providing our baby girl and Marina, way to go Maggie!
After interviewing me and then Fernando (for about an hour each), Marina got her little turn and Maggie was off to her own home.
Thankfully, we went out to dinner and relaxed.