Dossier COMPLETE!!!

We are having a big celebration here--we received our final piece of documentation today in the mail to complete our portion of the dossier. The dossier (French for "file") is what goes to the Ethiopian government.

Without getting too far ahead of ourselves, here's an outline of where we go from here:

1. Tomorrow make copies of our dossier and mail to IAN (our adoption agency)
2. Wait for CBI/FBI/etc background checks to be sent to IAN (expected very soon)
3. Once background checks are complete, our homestudy can be completed (hopefully in the next couple of weeks)
4. Homestudy is added to the dossier and sent to Ethiopia. At this point we're officially on the wait list for our daughter!! Woo-hoo!!
5. Complete USCIS paperwork, fingerprints, etc while waiting
6. Wait some more (hopefully not more than 8 months, which is the longest anyone has waited with our agency to date--but, you never know with international adoption!)
7. Get a referral (a picture and info on our daughter!)
8. Travel for court appearance in Ethiopia (about 2 months after referral)
9. Travel to Ethiopia to bring our daughter home (about 2 months after court)

Stay tuned--we'll post when we officially go on the wait list!!

A very happy Kirsta & Michael