I'm sorry,...what did you just say?...

So now we have our DTE (Dossier to Ethiopia) date. This date determines your place in line along with all other waiting families from America World. We received our DTE date as 2/6/09. It's from this date that we will now wait aproximately 9 months to receive our referral. Which seems like an eternity but all we can do is wait. I forgot to mention an important part of our journey along the way. One Sunday morning after we had told all the kids at the church about the adoption, some of them wanted to discuss names. They were very helpful and suggested things like Mario, Banana, Luigi...and so on. One of the girls decided that she was going to start calling the baby Yoshi, stating that it was easier to say that than say him/her all the time (since we don't know for sure the sex of the baby). That seemed funny at first, but it has stuck. So much so that whenever anyone refers to the baby, that's what they say. Prompting a lot of people to say..."I'm sorry, did you just call your baby Yoshi?"...

Police Reports, Immigration and Chasing, Oh My!...

So we entered our "paper chase" phase. Wow, it took awhile but over the next several months we were able to collect a LOT of paper. Which included: an application letter to the Ministry of Women's and Children's Affairs in Ethiopia, original birth certificates, marriage certificate, physicals from our Doctor, proof of life and medical ins., proof of employment, our Home Study, 3 letters of reference, USCIS (Immigration) approval, and a few more things. All in all, it took about 4 months to collect and 2 trips to Indianapolis to get everything certified by the state of Indiana. In January 2009 we sent it all to America World to be authenticated in Washington D.C. And then we waited to hear...

The Home Study Process...

Meanwhile, we had picked an agency to complete our Home Study, which basically entails a social worker coming to the house and interviewing John and I. While we were in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for the Junior high kids mission trip, I was on the phone with Jan from Gateway Woods...a lot. I set up our Home Study in August when we returned home from the trip. Everything went fine with the interview process and Jan assured us that there wouldn't be a reason at that point in the process that we wouldn't be able to receive a child. So we made the decision to start spreading the news...

San Antonio, Milwaukee, and somewhere in between: adoption...

In June of 2008 John and I officially decided it was time! We researched adoption agencies and picked America World. The most important factor was that they were a Christian agency, but when I called for some information, I knew they were the ones we would trust this journey to. I like to say that we picked Ethiopia because Ethiopia picked us. There are many qualifications that each country states that adoptive parents must meet. We met all of the criteria for Ethiopia and were excited when we decided on the country. We applied to America World in June and waited to hear something. We got the call we had been accepted in July while we were in San Antonio, Texas for the International Youth Convention of the Church of God with all of our senior high kids. Since John and I had decided not to tell anyone of our plan to adopt, we celebrated quietly by enjoying breakfast together in the hotel one morning before all the kids got up. The rest of the trip I spent slipping out to make phone calls here and there to continue the process, hoping no one noticed I was on the phone quite a lot...

Let's go back a few years...

Our journey to Yoshi started several years ago when I (Nicole) first brought up the idea of adoption to John. We weren't planning on starting our family for several more years so it was a short conversation, but it got us talking. Over the next couple years we discussed it more and more. Each conversation becoming more detailed...when, where, how, what:). It became increasingly more important to me to adopt first, knowing that we would never have the money to do it after having children naturally, and also so our Yoshi would know he/she was picked FIRST. Our conversations didn't become actual action until later...

So it began...

This is an account of the journey that we both started on several years ago toward baby Yoshi. We are keeping this blog to keep you all informed as to how this journey began, what has taken place, and where we are on the journey. It has had it's ups and downs to this point and we are sure that it will have more. We know that in the end, it will be worth it all. Thanks for coming along on this journey with us!