12 days until we fly to Ethiopia

Some of you may say, 'Oh come on. Not another countdown.' I'm sorry, but counting down the days is fulfilling on my end as it helps me keep focus on what we need to get done, and how long we have to do it, as well as relish in the fact that it's only 'blank' number of days until we get to travel to meet our son.

Adoptive families go from one countdown, or wait, to the next and it feels good to have an actual number of days instead of the number of days we've been hoping for the next step of the process.

We have a dozen days left (2 more Mondays. 1 more payroll. 1 more Sunday at church) and it feels really good tonight as Luke and Anna have adjusted to their school schedule and are tucked into bed and sleeping. They are both loving their new school and teachers which makes it easier for us to travel to Ethiopia and not worry as much about if they're doing okay.

We received our 'Ethiopian Embassy Packet' from our agency and I have to say it was the most daunting packet I've seen yet. Probably because of the number of forms we need to complete and take with us. If the shear number of blanks that need to be completed doesn't scare a person, the fact that I can't even guess at some of the answers has me reeling. There's the I-600 Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative, I-864A Affidavit of Support and DS-230 Application for Immigrant Visa and Alien Reistration. I then needed to printed off a copy of our last three year's taxes, earning statements for past three years and then copied our passports and my Naturalization Certificate showing that I am English no more and legally an American.

We're going through training with our agency director this Wednesday and will cover any questions we might have at that time. I'm guessing I'll still have a couple of blanks left that need some clarification. All of this and I used to work for a government agency. You'd think I'd be able to fill these forms out in my sleep. Anna came home with an IR-3 status because we had visited once before our trip to finalize the adoption. Joseph will be issued an IR-4 status since this trip will be our first time meeting him and I believe that might be why we have a few more governmental forms to fill out. It doesn't matter; we'll fill out as many forms as needed to get him home.