The Process

I had a request from a dear friend to explain the process of adopting from Ethiopia, as every country is different. I will try to be complete, yet not too complex.

1. Application: First, you apply to the agency (All God's Children, Inc. in our case). The application is fairly comprehensive, including financial information, medical information, etc. Once your application is accepted, you are sent contracts to sign with the agency, and get a phone orientation. Then your home study packet and dossier packet are mailed to you.

2. Home Study: This includes personal profiles (51 pages of autobiographical questions), references from people who know both of us (6 total), criminal background checks (including getting fingerprinted downtown), child abuse registry clearances, medical evaluations, income tax returns, letters of employment, birth certificates, and completion of adoption classes. We have 4 separate encounters with a social worker including interviews and a safety audit.

3. Dossier: This is the paperwork that actually gets sent to Ethiopia. This includes a police clearance, a letter from the department of Homeland Security allowing us to bring the child home, birth/marriage certificates, employment verification, a financial statement, letters of recommendation, pictures of our family, the final report from our home study, and some other paperwork. In general, it takes about 4 months to complete this.

4. The dossier then gets sent to the Washington D. C. consulate for authentication, which takes 1-2 weeks.

5. The dossier has to be translated into Amharic, which takes 2-3 weeks

6. We then wait for our referral of our child, which takes 2-6 months, depending on how many infant boys are available and how many people in line ahead of us want an infant boy.

7. 3-5 months between referral and travel (although we know one family that only had 1-2 months)

8. Travel to Ethiopia to get our son!!!! We only travel once, and we will be there 5-7 business days. Matt and I are hoping to make a side trip somewhere in Europe on our way for 2-3 days.

So that's the process. We are on number 3. We plan to get all paperwork we have control over done in the next couple of weeks. Wish us luch!