The Dossier is in the Mail!!!

I'm so THRILLED  to report that we mailed our Dossier today! The letter from South Carolina that we were waiting on came in on Tuesday. We had a small delay with Thanksgiving mail but 6 months of paperwork is on it's way to All God's Children. It will hopefully be approved by Friday and we will get our waiting list number. Once we are on the waiting list we expect a 10-12 month or so wait for our referral. Then we will see our sweet baby's picture and proceed with more paperwork to bring her home. This is such a huge milestone for us and we are beyond EXCITED! The lady at the UPS store didn't even look at me strange when I asked her to take a picture of me with the box.

Lovingly,
Leigh Anne

An update and Ethiopian food!

I'm so disappointed to report that we are at a standstill with our paperwork. We have been ready and waiting for almost a month now and we are still waiting. We turned in our home study and it has been approved but we were waiting on two pieces of paperwork before we can move to our dossier. (the FBI fingerprint document and a letter from South Carolina). The FBI letter was the one that we were worried would take a long time to receive. Two weeks ago we received the FBI letter. Our wonderful case worker said that she was expecting the letter from South Carolina any day now. I was so excited, I immediately called Stuart at work and I called my sister, "the letter is here!" Did I mention that was 2 weeks ago? We have emailed and called and we're still waiting. For those of you who are new to the adoption world, you have to have a letter from each state (that you lived in for more than 6 weeks) that states that you didn't commit a crime against a child while living there. (Stuart went to Clemson Univ.) Now as soon as the letter arrives I will fedex it immediately to AGCI then send in our Dossier paperwork and once approved we're ON THE WAITING LIST! Our wait will be anywhere from 10-18 months so getting on the list as quickly as we can is very important to us.
I know that I sound really frustrated and I am but I do remind myself everyday that this is ALL God's timing. Thanks for letting me vent! :)

I also wanted to share some pictures of us going to GOJO Ethiopian Restaurant for dinner. The kiddos were very excited! We all loved the enjera (which is a spongy type of bread). We also had some rice and lamb stew, and beef tibs. I'm sure that I broke all the rules when I asked for a fork but the kiddos loved using their fingers. It was a great experience! If you like spicy food definitely give it a try. I was really proud of the kids for trying everything but they did leave the restaurant a little hungry so we went through the Wendy's drive-thru on our way home. :)

That's all for now! I'll post again when "THE LETTER" arrives.
Lovingly,
Leigh Anne