On Aug. 12 Bruce and I went to the USCIS (Immigration office) to be fingerprinted. Now we wait for a form called 171-H. A letter from Homeland Security informed us the wait time for that form is taking about 9 weeks from the date we were fingerprinted. That would put us at around mid-October. I am being optimistic and hoping it comes any day........I run out to the mailbox everyday hoping it's there. My neighbors will think I am a crazy woman when that form arrives because when it finally does arrive, I will probably be standing out there jumping and screaming with joy. That's all we need in order to send our paperwork to Ethiopia.
Today we went to a seminar in Arlington, VA called "Ethiostork". It's designed to educate us about Ethiopia and the adoption process. The great thing about it was that the woman who spoke was also the Coordinator of Ethiopia adoptions for our agency (America World). So she will be very involved with our referral. She was born in Ethiopia and has lived here for 17 years. Her mother runs an orphanage in Ethiopia which is connected with our agency.....so it was cool to meet her and be able to ask her questions. The photo is of us with Duni today at the seminar. We also were able to meet about 5 other families who live in the area and are adopting from Ethiopia. The kids were troopers and sat through the presentation and then we all ate a traditional Ethiopian meal.....our first introduction to their food. We had mixed reactions from the kids, but they did try everything. We asked them what they liked about the seminar and Claire said jokingly "I liked the Ethiopian Coke" which was actually just regular Coke!!! We did learn some interesting stuff about Ethiopian holidays, their government, how to incorporate foods & traditions into our lives so that our child will grow up with a sense of pride about where she was born.
