Last leg on our home study

Thought I'd send out an update.
We are scheduled to meet our home study social worker May 2nd, for our first home visit! Ok, get cleaning... This is exciting, we are on our final leg for the home study. All 200 pieces of paper should be done for this part. Thank you to our friends who helped write our referral letters. Allan and I are fortunate to be traveling for 10 days to Italy and Greece in about 2 weeks. (Great job to my husband who "earned" the trip through business- expenses are paid. ) It will be nice to spend some time together; we hope we can celebrate the first leg of the homestudy being complete.

Everyone asks, "Whats next?" Well, another 200 pieces of paperwork! Not kidding. We then start our dossier that will be submitted to the Ethiopian courts for approval. These are all documents that need to be notarized, state certified and authenticated. Lets not forget the fingerprinting again. After the dossier is received and approved by the Ethiopian courts we will then be an official "waiting family." Whats a waiting family? We are ready to get a call at any time that we have been matched with a child in need. At that point we see pictures and medical information!

We are hoping for us that our wait time for referral will not take as long (compared to 6-15 months for infants.) Hopefully our wait will go much much quicker as there is more of a need for older children.

Allan and I have been doing online training about attachment, older child adoptions, being a transracial family, medical etc. We are almost done with the 10 hours.

In the meantime we have purchased tickets to attend "Mehaber" this summer in the cities. This is an Ethiopian event of celebrating and learning about the culture. Avah is coloring in her Ethiopian coloring book and learning there. She has already colored pictures for her sister welcoming her HOME! And the neighbor girls have also colored pictures telling her which house on the cul -de- sac they live. How cute!

Please continue to pray for our journey, we know we have our guardian angels providing us the strength and guidance.
Blessings!

Ethiopian Updates

We are aware that there has been conversations within Ethiopia between the USCIS/ State Department and MOWA (Ministry of Women's Affairs in Ethiopia) about potential delays in Ethiopian courts in approving adoptions. Yesterday, there was a stakeholder meeting and indeed they came out saying that they plan to cut approvals to 5 per day. (Currently they are doing more like 100.) What does this mean? Well it means that getting our children home could and will indeed take longer. The good news is the systems seem to be all working together and they realize the strong need for orphans in Ethiopia to be placed with forever families. Bottom line, they just cant keep up!
At this stage, this makes us a little nervous but we will keep the FAITH in continuing to find and bring our daughter HOME. In time, this indeed will all be worth it. Please pray for the orphans!

Allan and I continue to finish our home study paperwork, prepare for our home visits from our home study social worker, doctor visits today, and work on completing 10 hours of online training to prepare for her and being a new transracial family... we continue the journey.

The Beginning

We are excited to share our family news...
The Karki family is going down the faith journey to complete our family through adoption! When I repeat faith, adopting indeed requires faith.
We are in the home study process currently and have along way to go.
We have chosen to adopt our daughter from Ethiopia.
I cant imagine my life without my 3 children, I cant wait to have more love for number 4!
Wow, did we really say number 4? =)

Each and every one of us in our immediate family is excited! Adoption doesn't need to be your choice, but it indeed is one for ours. There are almost 5 million orphaned children in Ethiopia alone. We pray for your blessings and ask for your prayers as we continue our journey to find her and bring her HOME.