First major milestone

After much cajoling, calling, complaining and general carrying-on, it looks like the dossier is complete and ready to go to the state for authentication and then off to Washington DC. Well, kind of... Since our fingerprints had to be redone due to our homestudy agency going kaput, a new agency will be taking over the file. However, since the prints can take as long as a month, we are going to submit the homestudy on the old agency's letterhead since the Ethiopian government really doesn't care. But we'll send to the Feds under the new agency's letterhead since the US government will care. This might pose some problems down the road but I figure we can deal with that then.

So what does all this mean? It means I have a pretty good chance of hand carrying the dossier with me to Ethiopia and handing it personally to the agency director who will be there at the same time. This then officially puts us on the waiting list for a referral of a child. While I suppose there is always a chance we could get a child referred while I am there, it is more likely to happen a month or two down the line depending on how picky/specific we are regarding the age range and sex. But come Matt's birthday, we very well might have a little addition to our family. That would be crazy!

It's just a good thing we don't know the age and sex as I'd be all over Craigslist trying to pick up bargains on toys, clothing, furniture...you name it, we need it all.