Grab Our Button & More

Well we are in the midst of our long holiday weekend that has been very much needed for a while and while I am enjoying every minute of it I feel like I need to be productive but can't.  We finished our pre-adoption workshop (online education) and were given our certificate of completion of 6 hours worth of pre-adoption education credit which was required before we embark on Application part 2 but due to the long holiday weekend and the extensiveness of part 2, we have to wait to receive it and most likely won;t get it until mid-next week.  The way Dillon works is the application part 2 is a lot of preparation and rehearsal for the home study and dossier which in the long run speeds up the dossier process because we will be attaining documents for it right away.  Once part 2 is completed and returned it is processed within 30 days and then begins the home study.  Because Dillon has their own home study (which was how we found out they had an Ethiopia adoption program) it makes it nice because the communication is always with the same people.  So as much as the beginning stages seem so long and intensive it makes up for it during the stages that are usually longer and intensive. 

I also asked Dillon this week about wait times for referrals after hearing from a few people that their wait times were going to most likely be around 12 mths no matter what gender or age due to the new court laws, but we have been told that it will more than likely be 7-8 mths for us since we want a child under 1 yr.  So this is a little longer than we anticipated and if all goes well and on schedule a VERY estimated time of bringing home our child could be Sept-Oct next year, Jalen will be nearly 3 yrs old, out of diapers and a bit more independent (hopefully) and we will have had more time to prepare and save so I guess I can look at the positive that way :)

So this weekend I am instead working hard on preparation of future fundraisers, organizing and planning the future organization (yes I am that person) so I don't have to worry as much when that time comes around.  I also got to meet with an awesome soon to be mom of a beautiful little girl from Ethiopia.  We talked and talked and talked, and if it wasn't getting close to dinner time, we could have talked for hours more and do plan to soon.  She also brought me a necklace she made me which I am in love with.  She is very talented and so sweet and I cannot wait for her to bring her sweet Aamina home!  She will also be coming with us to the next Queen of Sheba- Ethiopian Fellowship Group in OKC (pending she is not in  Ethiopia at that time which is a good possibility).  She also educated me on some stuff I did not know about and now feel much better prepared for all that is ahead of us.

Lastly I finally got around to making our button and figuring out how to get the grab code and such, which seemed so intimidating at first but now, nothing to it so if anyone has any questions just let me know.  Not sure if I'll keep the current design or not, I might make a few little changes but we'll see.  I'm just glad it is one more thing I can cross off my long list to do.  If you would like to add it to your blog it can be found on the right-hand near the top of this blog.  Have a great long weekend, Happy labor Day!