Fingerprints! CHECK!

Fingerprint appointment done! Another huge step to check off on the road to bring ivey home. We went to Atlanta on a very whirlwind trip. Very quick - no time to see friends - just fingerprints and Ikea, Lunch & Trader Joes in under 3 hours! Corey worked the night before so he hadn't slept yet - so he was up for almost 24 hours straight! BOO! But he was a champ. The fingerprinting place was very surreal. Just a strange place all together - they treated us like criminals - no purses, bags, cell phones and honestly they just weren't that nice. So very glad that is over - and PRAY we don't have to do those again!
"the application support center" - still have no real idea what else is done here....

a quick stop at trader joes - oh how I wish we had one of these in our town!

lunch at the yummy zocalo

a quick run through IKEA - honestly the BUSIEST I have ever seen it! Glad we got out of there as fast as we did.

Back home and I thought this saying was perfect for the day....
Let's remember why we go together so well :)

We are so lucky to have each other on this journey!

Next step - finish dossier and get it turned in!

Dream a pretty dream

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had the realization that Ivey could already be born......

puts everything into perspective.....

makes us dream a little bigger....

won't you all dream with us?

Getting a few steps closer to bringing Ivey home

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Here's what we have been up too since my last post:

We are a few steps closer to Ivey!!

Our home study was officially approved!

We sent off our immigration papers!

We got our fingerprint appointments 12/28/2011

So now to work on our dossier:

Dossier: When used in the context of adoption, this term refers to a set of appropriately authenticated and translated legal documents which are used in international adoption cases to process the adoption of a child in its own country by the adoptive parents, or for the adoptive parents to obtain the legal custody or guardianship of the child in the foreign court, so the child can be brought by the adoptive parents to the United States for adoption.

a little explanation of our next process:

After our fingerprints are completed we will receive a document stating that we are approved to bring a child back into the country. That document is part of our dossier. While we wait we will continue gathering all of our dossier documents and once we have that approval letter from USCIS we can submit our dossier. It can take 6 weeks or so after fingerprinting for us to receive the approval letter. So here's praying this next step goes quickly, that we get all our dossier paperwork together in a timely fashion and our fingerprints are accepted. Once the dossier is submitted and translated for Ethiopia we wait for our referral (the time right now is 8-14 months). So we have a ways to go, but we are getting closer and closer.

We appreciate EACH of you for all your support, prayers, hugs, love, donations and thoughts.

We couldn't do this without each of you.

with lots of love,

Tobi, Corey