No spoilers in the title. You must read to find out the BIG NEWS!!

Friday was a HUGE day for Tam and I to say the least. As you may already know, we have spent the past several months writing and gathering a ton of information about ourselves and our lives from birth to present. All of this information eventually comes together to create our official dossier. This is the set of documents that will eventually be sent to Ethiopia as an initial representation of ourselves to the Ethiopian government. To give you an idea of what this entails, here is a high level list of the requirements.

- Notarized and State Certified Power of Attorney Form
- Notarized Power of Attorney Form
- Statement of Reason to Adopt (Application Letter)
- Photocopy of US Passport w/Notary Sheet for father
- Photocopy of US Passport w/Notary Sheet for mother
- Official passport photos (2 photos per parent)
- Photographs of the family
- Photographs of the family’s home
- Home Study of family with Copies of Social Worker & Agency License
- Letter(s) of Employment for father
- Letter(s) of Employment for mother
- Financial Statement
- Birth Certificate for father
- Birth Certificate for mother
- Certificate of Marriage
- Medical Letter for father
- Medical Letter for mother
- Police Clearance for father
- Police Clearance for mother
- Two Letters of Reference
- Obligation of Post Placement Reports
- 2 Complete Copies of Dossier

Well, Tam and I are glad to say that our dossier is now COMPLETE!

On Friday we finally received the official notarized originals of our completed Home Study in the mail! For those that missed this, our home study was when our social worker (Jennifer O'Leary of Family to Family Adoptions --- we highly recommend her) came to our house to interview us and make sure that we could provide a loving home to a child from Ethiopia. Well, this was the final piece we had been waiting on. With this in our hands, we were able to package it up with the rest of our information and forms in order to create our dossier.

What's the next step? Right now our dossier is on its way to All God's Children in Portland, Oregon. They will review the information we have submitted and if they find any corrections that need to be made, we will have to fix those. Once our dossier is deemed correct and complete by All God's Children, we will then be in a position to be put on the waiting list. As we did not specify a preference for a boy or girl, we will be placed on both lists. At this point, the wait is likely to be around 18 months or a little longer.

While the process of getting to this point has required a lot of prayer and at times been very frustrating, it is a process that has helped us grow as Christ followers, as husband and wife, and as future parents. We are so very glad that we decided to follow the path God has set before us and with this huge step behind us we are now expectantly looking forward to seeing the beautiful face of the child God has already selected for us, even though that child has not yet been born.

At FedEx mailing our dossier